The Dean's Luminaries in Law series continues with a timely and thought provoking conversation with renowned criminal justice innovator Jonathan Rapping. Rapping is the Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit public defender organization. His talk is titled "21st Century Public Defense: Stories from the Front Line of Today's Civil Rights Struggle".

In June 2025, the Washington Supreme Court issued an order adopting a set of caseload standards for public defenders, with a 10-year implementation period to begin on January 1, 2026, and a three-year progress report to be prepared by the Office of Public Defense.

At present there are four separate lawsuits addressing the adequacy of public defense in Washington. Counties have sued the state arguing that the state's failure to properly fund local jurisdictions hinders the effectiveness of the system. The ACLU of Washington has sued Yakima County for failing to timely appoint counsel. The Washington Appellate project has sued the state Office of Public Defense arguing that proposed changes to its funding structure will render it impossible for their lawyers to carry out their ethical duties to clients and vindicate their clients' constitutional rights. Seattle University School of Law's Defender Initiative addressed these workload standards in its annual conference in June.

Rapping's visit is thus extremely well-timed. Washington is going to need to be creative and dynamic if we are to develop a system of public defense that guarantees to everyone across the state the quality of representation to which they are entitled. As one of the nation's leaders in recruiting, developing, and sustaining public defenders, Rapping's message should be of great interest to students, faculty, the legal community, and, truly, anyone concerned about justice.

• Date: October 8, 2026

• Time: 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.

• Location: Student Center Room 160 (The LeRoux Conference Room)

• Free to attend and open to all; registration required

• Street parking is readily available or explore our visitor parking page for parking options

This event is a collaboration between Seattle University School of Law's Defender Clinic and Seattle University's College of Arts & Sciences. The law school's Defender Initiative is a partnering sponsor.

About Jonathan Rapping

Jonathan Rapping is a nationally renowned criminal justice innovator and the Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise, a nonprofit public defender organization whose mission is to transform the criminal justice system by building a movement of public defenders who provide equal justice for marginalized communities.

Since its inception in 2007, Gideon’s Promise has grown from a single training program for sixteen attorneys in two public defender offices in Georgia and Louisiana to a national enterprise with over 1,000 participants in 40 offices across 27 states and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization’s initial three-year program for new public defenders has expanded into the only comprehensive model that supports defenders at all levels of their careers, with programming for new lawyers, supervisors, chief defenders, trainers, law students, and the clinical instructors who teach them.

From 2022 to 2024, Rapping served as the Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise. In 2024, he stepped down as CEO to join the organization’s Board of Directors, where he continues to advance its mission and vision for justice-centered public defense reform.

Rapping is the Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Justice Certificate Program at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School (AJMLS) and visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He also serves as the Faculty Director of the Center for Criminal Justice Innovation (CCJI). Through the CCJI, Rapping and his colleagues aim to develop future lawyers with exceptional legal skills and justice-centered values, while connecting them with a robust network of mentors and professionals. Students will be guided to forge a professional identity aligned with their purpose for coming to law school.

Rapping is a frequent contributor to national conversations on criminal justice reform and has been featured by media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, HuffPost, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mother Jones, Essence, and NPR stations nationwide. He has spoken at TEDx Atlanta, regularly presents to public defender and criminal defense organizations across the country, and frequently lectures at law schools nationwide. His work with public defenders was the inspiration for the award-winning HBO documentary Gideon’s Army.

Rapping is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Grant, the American College of Trial Lawyers Emil Gumpert Award, the Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship, the Cardozo Law School Inspire Award, and the George Soros Open Society Fellowship. He and Gideon’s Promise have also received the National Alliance of Sentencing Advocates and Mitigation Specialists Sentencing Project Award, the Southern Center for Human Rights Gideon’s Promise Award, and the Emory University Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award.

He is the author of Gideon’s Promise: A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal Justice (Beacon Press, 2020), which explores a cutting-edge vision for public defenders in the effort to transform the criminal justice system.

Rapping earned his J.D. from George Washington University School of Law, his M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, and his B.A. from the University of Chicago.

About the Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series

The Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series brings to Seattle University School of Law nationally and internationally preeminent leaders from law practice, the judiciary, government, and the corporate world, to share their bold ideas about the future of law and the legal profession. 

About Seattle University School of Law's Defender Initiative

The Defender Initiative is part of the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice, whose mission is to advance justice and equality through a unified vision that combines research, advocacy, and education. The project works to effect systemic improvement in the provision of public defense services in Washington and nationally.

About the Defender Clinic

Seattle University's highly ranked Ronald A. Peterson Law Clinic provides students with the opportunity to work on real cases, helping real clients, under close faculty supervision. Students in the Defender Clinic represent both juvenile and adult clients with respect to criminal legal system involvement.