News Release

Leesburg, VA Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Hoffman Appointed as Parliamentarian of Nation's Criminal Defense Bar

Washington, DC (July 29, 2015) – Leesburg, VA, Deputy Public Defender Bonnie H. Hoffman was appointed as Parliamentarian of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's 58th Annual Meeting in Denver, CO, on July 26. Ms. Hoffman has been a member of NACDL since 1997. 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. She is the first active state public defender to receive the award.

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.

She currently serves as Chair of NACDL's Task Force on Federal Indigent Defense after previously chairing the Association's Indigent Defense Committee and is a member of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Virginia Women Attorney's 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 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. Following their motto "It's not about how much you have, it's about what you do with it," Give 10 for 10 has supported relief efforts for victims of natural disasters, youth education and athletics programs and cancer-related charities. 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

Ezra Dunkle-Polier, NACDL Public Affairs & Communications Assistant, (202) 465-7656 or edunkle-polier@nacdl.org for more information.

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.