Washington, DC (Aug. 19, 2020) – Nanzella ‘Nan’ Whitfield was sworn in as Second Vice President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s annual meeting held on August 15, 2020.
Whitfield serves as one of four Managing Directors for the Committee of Public Counsel Services, Public Defender Division in Boston, MA, where she relocated last year. Whitfield previously served in the capacity of Deputy in Charge at the Inglewood Branch of the Los Angeles County Public Defender’s Office. Whitfield is a career public defender and accomplished trial lawyer. In her many decades of service at the Los Angeles Public Defender Office, Whitfield was lead trial counsel in over 150 jury trials, ranging from petty theft to capital murder, and was engaged in approximately 40 first degree murder jury trials, including 5 in which the potential penalty was death.
Serving on NACDL’s Board of Directors for many years, Whitfield is currently Chair of NACDL’s Public Defense Committee, Co-Chair of the Second Look Task Force, Stand-Alone Vice-Chair of the CLE Institute, and a member of the Sousveillance Task Force and Budget Committee. Whitfield is a frequent lecturer at criminal defense conferences and has attended and participated in numerous training and educational seminars across the country. In fact, she has presented at multiple NACDL Continuing Legal Education programs. This past year, Whitfield served as NACDL’s Secretary.
Whitfield has received numerous awards and distinctions throughout her career, including being named the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year in 2011. In 2008, she was named one of the Top 75 Female Litigators of the State of California.
She received her J.D. from Northern Illinois University College of Law and graduated with a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Contacts
Madeline Sklar, Public Affairs and Communications Associate, (202) 465-7647 or msklar@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 justice system.
