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Louisville-Jefferson
County Public Defender Corporation Daniel
T. Goyette - Leo G. Smith - Peter
L. Schuler - Bruce P. Hackett Cindy
L. Downs - Sharon D. Johnson - Heidi N. Runge |
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| Daniel T. Goyette is the Chief Public Defender for Jefferson County and has served as Executive Director of the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender Corporation since 1982. A former Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney, he was a member of the original Career Criminal Bureau. Mr. Goyette is a past president of both the Louisville Bar Association and the Louisville Bar Foundation. A recipient of the American Bar Association's prestigious Dorsey Award, he is a current member of the ABA House of Delegates and a former member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility. He is also a current member of the KBA Ethics Committee and a past chair of the LBA Committee on Professional Responsibility. Since 1979, he has been a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law, receiving the Dean's Service Award in 2003. He has lectured on a variety of legal issues and topics both locally and nationally, and the Kentucky Bar Association recently presented the 2003 Justice Thomas B. Spain Award to him for outstanding service in continuing legal education. In 2007, the KBA named him the recipient of its Outstanding Lawyer Award. That same year, in its inaugural rating of Kentucky lawyers, Mr. Goyette was also recognized by SuperLawyers™ in the category of criminal defense. He is a charter member of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court and Chair of its Membership Committee. He is also the current President and a charter Board member of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a past president of the Kentucky Academy of Justice. The Department of Public Advocacy presented the Gideon Award to him in 1994 for his extraordinary commitment to equal justice and his courage in advancing the right to counsel for the poor in Kentucky. He is a 1985 graduate of Leadership Louisville and a 1995 Bingham Fellow. Among other organizations, he has chaired Citizens for Better Judges and the Center for Educational Leadership. He was one of the recent recipients of the 2003 Hall of Fame William H. Sheppard - Excellence in Community Leadership Award. Mr. Goyette is a graduate of Marquette University, the Rome (Italy) Center of Liberal Arts, and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. | |
Leo
G. Smith |
Leo G. Smith is a trial attorney who serves as Deputy Chief Public Defender with the Office of the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender. A Louisville native, he attended St. Xavier High School, graduated from the University of Louisville with high honors and a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce and, thereafter, graduated cum laude from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, where he served as Executive Editor of the Law Review. He was also a member of the Brandeis Honor Society and, upon graduation, received the Robert C. Jayes Memorial Award. For the past 21 years, he has served as a staff trial attorney and held several leadership positions with the Public Defender's Office, including Director of Training and Chief of the Adult Trial Division. He has acted as lead counsel in numerous jury trials, including several death penalty cases. In 2000, he received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Louisville's Brandeis School of Law. His work was also recognized by the Department of Public Advocacy and Kentucky Bar Association in 1999 with the presentation of its first Professionalism and Excellence Award. He has authored several articles on criminal defense practice that have been published in The Advocate, the Journal of Criminal Justice Education & Research publication of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy. Mr. Smith is a current member of the Board of Directors of the Louisville Bar Foundation. He is past chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Kentucky Bar Association, as well as a past chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Louisville Bar Association and a former member of the LBA Professional Responsibility Committee. Mr. Smith was trial counsel in the case of Griffith v. Kentucky, 107 S.Ct. 708 (1987), which decided the retroactivity question left open in the landmark case of Batson v. Kentucky. |
| Peter L. Schuler is a 1972 graduate of Vanderbilt University and a 1975 graduate of the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville. He has served as a trial attorney with the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender's Office since 1976. Since 1982, his practice has been concentrated in the area of juvenile law and mental health law. In 1983, he became the Chief of his office's Juvenile and Mental Health Division. During his career, he has served on numerous committees and with other groups having the goal of improving the quality of juvenile justice and the mental health system in Kentucky. Currently, he is a member of the Department of Juvenile Justice's Prevention Counsel, the Jefferson County Family Court Advisory Board, and the Kentucky Criminal Justice Council's Juvenile Justice Committee. He has participated in attorney training for the Kentucky Bar Association and the Department of Public Advocacy with respect to juvenile law and mental health issues. He was the 1999 recipient of the Department of Public Advocacy's In Re: Gault Award and the 2005 recipient of the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (KACDL) Juvenile Justice Award, both of which recognize excellence in advocacy in the area of juvenile law. He co-authored the chapter on "Juvenile Law and Psychiatry" in the "Handbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry" (John Wiley, 1998), Paul Adams, M.D., editor. | |
Bruce P. Hackett |
Bruce Hackett graduated from the University of Louisville in 1973 and from the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville in 1978. During law school, he worked as a law clerk for the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender. After two years as a staff attorney with the Government Law Center at the Brandeis School of Law, where he concentrated in the areas of legislative analysis, energy law, affirmative action and disabilities law, he joined the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender as an appellate attorney, serving as an Assistant Public Defender and Deputy Appellate Defender. In 1982, he accepted a commission in the Judge Advocate General Corps of the United States Navy where he first served for three years as a defense attorney, representing active duty members of the Navy and Marine Corps at courts martial and administrative discharge proceedings. He followed this service with four years as a military prosecutor and staff judge advocate. Concurrently, he served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Maryland. After seven years of active duty naval service, he returned to the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender in 1989, where he held the position of Deputy Appellate Defender. He was honorably discharged from the United States Naval Reserve in 2002, after a total of 20 years of active duty and inactive reserve service. He has served as counsel in death penalty cases at trial, on appeal, in post-conviction and in federal habeas corpus proceedings. He is currently admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Kentucky, the Supreme Court of the United States, the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and the United States District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky. |
Donald
J. Meier |
Donald J. Meier is an alumnus of the University of Louisville and a 1982 graduate of its Brandeis School of Law. He has been a trial attorney with the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender's Office since 1983, presently serving as Chief of an Adult Trial Division. Previously, Mr. Meier was a trial attorney in the Adult, Juvenile, Mental Inquest and Major Litigation Divisions, as well as serving as Chief of the Capital Trial Division. He served as an expert consultant to the Governor's Task Force on Civil Commitment & Public Notification and is the current co-chair of the Criminal Law Section of the Louisville Bar Association. He has appeared on "60 Minutes", as well as local and regional television programs, dealing with issues involving mental illness and the legal system. He was the 2001 recipient of the Professionalism and Excellence Award presented by the Department of Public Advocacy and the Kentucky Bar Association. Mr. Meier received the 2007 KACDL Frank E. Haddad, Jr. Award for exceptional professional achievement. |
Jay
Lambert |
Jay Lambert is a 1983 graduate of the University of Kentucky School of Law. He came to work for the Office of the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender upon graduation and worked in the Adult Trial and Major Litigation Divisions until 1993, when he left to establish his own firm concentrating in the areas of criminal law and civil rights. Mr. Lambert returned to the Office of the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender in 2000 as an Adult Trial Division Chief. In twenty years of practicing criminal law, Mr. Lambert has tried more than eighty jury trials in Circuit Court. He is admitted to practice in Kentucky state courts, the United States District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Kentucky and the Sixth Circuit. He has served as an instructor in criminal procedure at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville and has taught various criminal law topics and trial techniques at numerous seminars and workshops throughout Kentucky for the Department of Public Advocacy, the Louisville Bar Association, the Kentucky Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American Trial Lawyers Association. Mr. Lambert was the recipient of the 2005 Gideon Award presented by the Department of Public Advocacy. |
Patricia
L. Echsner |
Patricia L. Echsner is the Deputy Chief of the Juvenile Trial Division. She began her career at the Louisville-Jefferson County Public Defender's office in May 1991 as a law clerk after earning a BA from the University of Kentucky in 1985 and her JD from the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville in 1992. She was selected to attend the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia in 1995. She is an experienced trial attorney in the district and circuit courts, representing both juveniles and adults. In July 1998, she represented a client facing the death penalty who was acquitted of murder and robbery first degree. In February 2001, she represented a client facing the death penalty for two intentional murders who received a penalty of life without parole for twenty-five years. In June 2002, Ms. Echsner received the Department of Public Advocacy's In Re: Gault Award "for specially advancing the quality of representation of juveniles in Kentucky". She is a member of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court and the Jefferson County Juvenile Delinquency Prevention Council. Ms. Echsner assists with teaching and coordinating job shadowing for law students in the Juvenile Justice Seminar at the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. She also is invited to speak about juvenile law issues at seminars and local schools throughout the year. |
Chastity
Beyl  |
Chastity R. Beyl is a Deputy Chief in the Adult Trial Division of the Louisville Metro Public Defender's Office. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree and Honors in History from Western Kentucky University in 1998. She then attended the Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville, graduating cum laude in 2001. Since graduation, Ms. Beyl has been a trial attorney with the Adult Trial Division of the Louisville Metro Public Defender's Office, successfully handling numerous difficult felony trials. She was selected to attend the Trial Practice Institute at the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia in 2004, and is currently a member of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court. She has received several Walker Awards for excellence in advocacy and, in 2005, was named a co-recipient by the Louisville Bar Association of the Frank E. Haddad, Jr. Young Lawyer Award. Ms. Beyl also was recently featured in Louisville Magazine among the "Top Young Talent" in the Louisville legal community. |
 Cindy Downs Chief, Computer Services and Intake/Docket Control Division |
 Sharon Johnson Administrative Assistant, Office Manager |
 Heidi N. Runge Executive Secretary |
