Public Defender

Every Day, Making an Impact

Alexander Weinstein (’21) followed his dream of working in public service to a position with the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office.

In the span of three days in early October, Alexander Weinstein (’21) got married, passed the bar exam, and finished training for his dream job as a full-time public defender.

Now that he’s had some time to settle into his new life, The Record caught up with him to find out more about why he pursued a public interest career and how he completed that journey.

“I can’t imagine a better job,” he says. “Every day is different. I get all kinds of interesting cases. I adore the fast pace. Every day I’m having an impact.”

Weinstein works for the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office in the small, rural city of Keene. It’s the culmination of a dream that started almost 10 years ago when he was an undergraduate student.

His first-year writing professor at Dartmouth College, a former judge and public defender, recognized a spark in Weinstein and kindled it, encouraging him to consider a public interest career path. He first explored advocacy work during an internship at the New York Civil Liberties Union in Hempstead, where he drafted “Know Your Rights” documents and gathered resources to help K-12 school officials create inclusive policies for transgender students.

After college, he worked at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) in Boston. Founded in 1978 by John Ward (’76), the organization fought to legalize same-sex marriage. Weinstein supported attorneys handling LGBTQ civil rights impact litigation and advocacy. It was thrilling to work for an organization that paved the way for Alex to exchange vows with his husband, Ben.

“I got to work among giants,” Weinstein says. He worked closely with the attorneys who brought a civil case against insurance companies that refused to cover people taking Truvada for PrEP, a drug proven to be 99 percent effective in preventing the contraction of HIV.

It was a lot of fun, and it was fascinating to see how the nonprofit developed its legal strategy to push the law forward.

But he realized he wanted to start his law career in a role that would provide a closer connection with his clients. He remembered an early experience as an undergrad intern at the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office. 

By the time he applied to BU Law, he had set his sights on becoming a public defender. He gained valuable hands-on experience through the law school’s Wrongful Convictions Practicum in 2019 and the Criminal Law Clinical Program in 2020. In the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he heeded the call for volunteers to help with compassionate release cases. Working pro bono with a private attorney, he sought an emergency release for a client about five years into a 15-year sentence for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and other charges. The judge ultimately granted the motion, although it happened a year later.

The summer after his second year of law school, Weinstein applied for an internship in the New Hampshire Public Defender’s Office. During the interview, he faced questions about handling each step of an elaborate client scenario. Thankfully, he was prepared. In the Wrongful Convictions Practicum, the class discussed ethical quandaries in criminal law.

The internship cemented his interest in representing criminal defendants who could not afford to hire a lawyer.

“It’s hard not to come away with a fire of some kind from that experience,” he says. “It’s incredibly necessary, demanding, and profoundly rewarding work.”

Weinstein saw how he could make a difference in people’s lives who were struggling—seeking justice on their behalf against a system that wasn’t designed to treat them with compassion.

His Public Interest Scholarship from BU gave him the financial ability to apply for a permanent position in the public defender’s office right after graduation. He finished a one-month training right before the bar exam results were released on Oct. 1, which also happened to be the Friday before his wedding.

He still frequently seeks guidance from his colleagues and isn’t carrying a full caseload yet. But he is grateful for the return of in-person client meetings and court hearings after the challenge of getting his initial criminal law experience during the early days of the pandemic lockdowns.

“It’s harder for judges to be reminded of our clients’ humanity when they’re a little square on a screen than when they’re a person in front of them,” he said.

He encourages law students to consider a career as a public defender, especially in New Hampshire, which is experiencing a shortage due to high caseloads.

“If you want to be a shield against the strength of the state being wielded indiscriminately, if you want to uphold the best values of the system, if you want to protect people’s humanity and actually seek justice, criminal defense is the best possible job.”