The Cook County Public Defender provides legal representation in the areas of felony and misdemeanor criminal, delinquency, abuse/neglect, some appeals, post-conviction and traffic (non-petty) cases throughout the Cook County

Cook County, Illinois

Cook County is a county in the U.S. state of Illinois, with its county seat in Chicago. It is the second most populous county in the United States after Los Angeles County. The county has 5,194,675 residents, which is 40.5 percent of all Illinois residents. Cook County's population is larger than...

 in Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

. Currently, the head of the Cook County Public Defender is Abishi C. Cunningham. It is the largest Public Defender

Public defender

The term public defender is primarily used to refer to a criminal defense lawyer appointed to represent people charged with a crime but who cannot afford to hire an attorney in the United States and Brazil. The term is also applied to some ombudsman offices, for example in Jamaica, and is one way...

System in the United States.

Divisions

• Capital Case Coordinator
• Child Protection
• Felony Trial
• Forensic Science
• Homicide Task Force
• Investigations
• Juvenile Justice
• Legal Resources (formerly Appeals and Post Conviction)
• Multiple Defendant Division
• Professional Development