Donna Lee Elm
Assistant Federal Public Defender
DONNA LEE ELM is an Assistant Federal Defender in Phoenix, Arizona. She is a certified
Criminal Specialist and is capital-qualified. During law school at ASU, she clerked for District
Judge Robert Broomfield; after graduating she clerked for Superior Court Judge Ruth Hilliard and
Justice William Holohan before a brief stint in civil practice. Then she spent the next twelve years at
the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office where she reached the position of Chief Trial Deputy.
She has been employed for the last six years at the Federal Public Defender’s Office. She has served
on the Board of AACJ since the early 1990's, and has been in all the officer positions including
President of the organization. She also has served as Volunteer Bar Counsel in the 1990's and has
been a Hearing Officer for the Disciplinary Commission, overseeing attorney disciplinary cases.
She served seven years on the Maricopa County Trial Court Commission, and is presently Chair of
the State Bar’s Criminal Law Advisory Commission. She is adjunct faculty at the Sandra Day
O’Connor College of Law at ASU where she teaches trial Advocacy. Ms. Elm teaches publishes
widely, including a book on Vouching that the ABA just put on the market. She will soon leave her
Arizona practice to become the Federal Defender for the Middle District of Florida.