Washington, DC (April 25, 2017) – The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) today announces the appointment of Bonnie Hoffman as Director of Public Defense Reform and Training. She will begin at NACDL this May. Leesburg, Virginia, Deputy Public Defender Bonnie H. Hoffman has been a member of NACDL since 1997. She has served NACDL in numerous capacities, including as Parliamentarian, and as a member of the Executive, Audit, and Budget Committees. She was the 2013 recipient of NACDL's prestigious Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award, which is given annually to the member who best exemplifies the goals and values of the Association and the legal profession. Hoffman was the first active state public defender to receive the award.
NACDL Executive Director Norman L. Reimer said: "Through her career as a dedicated public defender and a uniquely qualified and experienced leader of the bar, Bonnie Hoffman brings extraordinary skills to this critically important position. NACDL's role as a leading champion for public defense reform and commitment to provide the highest quality training and technical assistance is due in no small part to Bonnie's volunteer service to the Association. In addition to more than two decades of service as a public defender in Virginia, Bonnie has given of herself for many years, in multiple capacities, to the criminal defense bar, including extensive experience developing and executing trainings for other defenders, in Virginia, in Maryland, and across the nation. As the staff leader of NACDL's Public Defense Department, she will take those efforts to even higher levels of excellence."
Hoffman joined the Loudoun County Public Defender's Office in 1995 as an Assistant Public Defender. A 1999 recipient of the Phillip Sadler Award for Excellence in Public Defense, Hoffman went on to become Deputy Public Defender for the 20th Judicial Circuit in 2001 and serves in that role to this day.
Hoffman served as Chair of NACDL's Task Force on Federal Indigent Defense after previously chairing the Association's Public Defense Committee. She currently serves as Chair of NACDL's Corrections Committee and on the Association's Continuing Legal Education Institute, among other Association activities. Hoffman is also a member of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Virginia Women Attorneys Association.
Hoffman is actively involved in various public service projects and organizations. She is the co-founder and co-chair of Loudoun County's Beat the Odds © Scholarship Program (http://www.btoloudoun.org) which provides college scholarship funds to youth who have overcome significant obstacles and adversity and the co-founder and President of Give 10 for 10 (www.give10for10.org), a charitable organization whose mission is to assist individuals and organizations to make a difference in their communities through small, but meaningful projects and donations. She is also a pitcher in the Eastern Women's Baseball Conference, an all-women's baseball league based in the Baltimore-Washington metro area.
Hoffman received her B.A. with distinction in Political and Social Thought from the University of Virginia in 1991 and her J.D., also with distinction, from George Mason University School of Law in 1994.
Contacts
Ivan J. Dominguez, NACDL Director of Public Affairs & Communications, (202) 465-7662 or idominguez@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.