Leilani V. Lujan has been selected as the next federal public defender for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands (announcement available here).
Lujan began her four-year term Nov. 17, 2023. She is the first Indigenous Chamorro, first woman, first Pacific Islander and first LGBTQ+ individual to lead the office.
Lujan was born on Guam and raised in Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. She has nearly 30 years of practice focused on criminal law and most recently served as an assistant federal public defender and senior litigator in the Guam Federal Defender’s Office. Her commitment to indigent criminal defense began in 1994 when she joined the State of Hawaii Office of the Public Defender as a deputy public defender, where she worked in the Oahu and Maui offices.
Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands are in the Marianas archipelago in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. The Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands is headquartered in Maite, Guam.