
Touro Law Review
Abstract
Steven B. Duke grew up in a tiny farming community in Arizona. In college, he experienced injustice during an encounter with the police and decided to attend law school. As a result of his success at the University of Arizona Law School, Duke was offered a clerkship with Justice William O. Douglas for the 1959-60 Supreme Court term. As Duke describes in this article, working for Justice Douglas was a rewarding and demanding experience. Douglas, probably the most liberal Justice ever to serve on the Supreme Court, had a dazzling intellect and wrote many books on all manner of subjects. As the Justice’s only law clerk, Duke worked long hours, assisting him on cases and with speeches, articles, and books. As Duke recounts, clerking for Douglas was thankless and stressful. Nevertheless, Duke regards this year as the most rewarding professional experience of his life. Subsequently, Duke earned an LL.M. at Yale Law School and joined the faculty, earning tenure as a tax professor. During the 1960s, he changed course, becoming a criminal defense attorney while continuing to teach at Yale Law School. As Duke describes, his summer working as a public defender in Phoenix, Arizona, was pivotal to his decision to practice and teach criminal law. Ultimately, Duke believes, the injustice concentrated in criminal law is not immutable but is subject to correction at all levels of its promulgation and administration. And as his own story set out in this article demonstrates, even a shy, nonpolitical person who is trained in criminal litigation can effect great change. Ultimately, Duke concludes, a competent, committed criminal defense lawyer is a savior of freedom.
Recommended Citation
Duke, Steven B.
(2025)
"On Becoming and Being a Criminal Defense Attorney,"
Touro Law Review: Vol. 40:
No.
2, Article 12.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.tourolaw.edu/lawreview/vol40/iss2/12
Included in
Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Litigation Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons