Community Outreach
The Dallas County Public Defender’s Office partners with numerous institutions and organizations in its continuous fight to bring awareness to issues surrounding actual innocence and the need for increased funding and training in the area of criminal defense.
This pairing includes a special partnership with Southern Methodist University through their Dallas Foundation/Collins Clerkship Program, the Nancy Kennedy Public Defender Internship Program, Public Service Placements and the SMU Criminal Clinic Program.
Additionally, the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office has partnered with the North Texas Council for International Visitors and the State Department in an International Visitor Leadership Program to host judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors, legal scholars, ministry of justice officials and others who are active in judicial reform from Uzbekistan, Iraq and Vietnam. The mission of this program is to bring knowledge, reason, and compassion into world affairs and thereby increases the chance that nations will learn from one another. Legal experts from these countries meet with lawyers in the Public Defender’s Office to gain insight into the United States Judicial System and to acquaint themselves with the roles that defense attorneys, public defenders, prosecutors and judges play in our criminal justice system.
The Office is open to any and all opportunities to partner with entities in the community that offers assist to indigent clients, promotes the clients’ incorporation back into the community and reduces recidivism.
