Minnesota lost 40% of its public defenders in four years to resignation

Between 2017 and 2021, nearly 40% of Minnesota's Board of Public Defense attorneys resigned. Wisconsin's Office of the State Public Defender hit a 20.4% annual turnover rate in 2022. New Hampshire lost 29 lawyers in a single fiscal year — unprecedented for its small office. The average starting salary for a public defender is around $50,400, compared to $118,660 for entry-level private defense attorneys — a gap that makes the job financially irrational for anyone carrying law school debt, which averages over $150,000. When experienced defenders leave, their caseloads get redistributed to the remaining attorneys, accelerating burnout and triggering more departures in a death spiral. New hires, even when they can be recruited, lack the trial experience and institutional knowledge to handle complex cases effectively. Defendants represented by a first-year attorney who inherited 200 cases from a departing colleague receive materially worse representation. This persists because public defender salaries are set by state legislatures that benchmark against other government employees rather than the legal market, making the pay structurally uncompetitive.