Danielle Hamilton Slate Takes Lead of the Third Judicial District Public Defender Office

by Meryl Carver-Allmond, BIDS Training Director

Sitting in her Chicago apartment one New Year’s Eve in the early twenty-tens, Danielle Hamilton Slate made the decision to go to law school. While she didn’t know exactly what she would do with a law degree, she hoped it would give her a career where she could really help people but also be more intellectually stimulated than she was in her job at the time.

Early this month, Danielle took over as Chief of the historic Third Judicial Public Defender Office in Topeka, following former Chief Jessica Glendenning’s move to head the new public defender office in Lawrence. The path that brought her to that New Year’s Eve decision, and from there to where she is now, is an engaging one.

Even before law school, Danielle had a clear ethic of social service in her career choices.

“I spent some time working at Flint Hills Job Core, which was a program for 16 to 24 year-olds to get their GED and job skills training. While that was not an ideal experience as far as helping kids make structured changes and keeping them safe, I really enjoyed the relationship-building aspects of that work,” Danielle said.

From there, she worked in South Africa for an organization that did HIV and poverty elimination by targeting women’s education. “I loved the mission of that and the opportunity to work outside the United States,” she said, “And South Africa is beautiful!”

But budget cuts surrounding the Great Recession sent her home, where she continued on to work with adults with developmental disabilities. “I loved the clients I worked with there. They were fun and caring, and I still think about them often,” Danielle said. “But ultimately, I was intellectually bored.”

Cue that New Year’s Eve decision.

Once she graduated from law school, though, Danielle still wasn’t sure where she would fit. But then, while clerking for now-Chief Judge Karen Arnold-Burger of the Kansas Court of Appeals, a case came across her desk that helped guide her path.

“It was a college kid who went to a party and had sex with someone who allegedly misrepresented their age,” Danielle said. “He got an incredibly long sentence, which seemed like an injustice to me. It was very frustrating having to work on that case from the neutral perspective of the court and not being able to be an advocate for change. That was what motivated me to consider public defense.”

Having now worked for BIDS as a trial-level defender, as the Chief Public Defender of the Northeast Kansas Conflicts Office, and as a Senior Assistant Capital Defender with the Death Penalty Defense Unit, Danielle thinks of it as an ideal fit. “Public defense is that perfect intersection of social services and the law. It perfectly fits my desires that brought me to law school.”

While Danielle has enjoyed the opportunity to take deep dives into her cases as a capital defender, she credits being one of the teachers at BIDS New Attorney Training last fall with her current move to the Third. “It made me remember how much I enjoy working with other attorneys and helping them think about their cases and how to grow into the best versions of themselves. I also got to know many of the young attorneys who work at the Third. They are so dedicated and passionate, and I’m excited to get to be around that enthusiasm.”

She’s also excited to get back into the courtroom a little more. “I enjoyed the work at DPDU, but I also really enjoy the strategy and practice of being in a courtroom, and you don’t get to do that as much working on death penalty cases,” Danielle said.

While she knows there will be challenges ahead, she’s eager to build on all the good things already happening at the Third. “I’m stepping into big shoes. The women who have led the Third have done amazing work, and I hope to continue growing an office with our mission and our clients as its focus.”