Robert A. Harvie Social Justice Lecture Series

Friday, February 22, 2008 at 4:00 p.m., Worthington Center

Saint Martin’s distinguished alumnus Thomas W. Hillier II, federal public defender for the Western District of Washington state, will speak on federal public defense and its relationship to the changing landscape of federal sentencing law. The event is free and open to the public.

Hillier, a graduate of Saint Martin’s (1969) and the Gonzaga University School of Law (1973), has served as the district’s federal public defender for more than 25 years. In 1982, he was appointed to the position and has been reappointed every four years since. He argued before the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 667 (1985), and has appeared before the 9th Circuit on many occasions. Hillier currently represents Ahmed Ressam, the “Millennium Bomber,” and will be appearing before the United States Supreme Court on Ressam’s behalf next month.

Active in federal defender affairs nationally, Hillier sits on the Legislative Subcommittee for Federal Defenders, the Federal Defender Training Committee, the Sentencing Guideline Committee and the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence. He is also a lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law and a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Hillier returned to Saint Martin’s in 1994 to deliver the commencement address and again in 2006 to receive a distinguished alumni award. For outstanding service in his profession, he has received the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ William O. Douglas Award, the Washington Bar Association’s Angelo Petruss Award, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington’s William O. Douglas Award, the Seattle-King County Bar Association’s Outstanding Lawyer Award and Gonzaga University’s Gonzaga Law Medal.