Defending Justice: A Hands-On Look at Public Interest Law with Arthur Ago '90

An Alumni-in-Residence event presented by the Loeb CenterJoin Arthur Ago ’90, former public defender and current Director of Strategic Litigation and Advocacy at the Southern Poverty Law Center, for an interactive case study workshop exploring the realities of public interest legal work. Through real-world scenarios, students will examine the complexities of criminal defense, confront ethical challenges, and gain insight into using the law as a tool for systemic change.Arthur Ago ’90 is a civil rights attorney and former public defender with 27 years of litigation and leadership experience. Currently, he is the Director of Strategic Litigation and Advocacy at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), where he guides innovative impact litigation to achieve racial justice in the South and beyond. Before joining SPLC, Arthur was at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law for four and a half years, where he was the Director of the Criminal Justice Project and managed the Byrd Center to Stop Hate. In this role, he led his team’s efforts to confront the ways in which racism and racial bias infect the criminal legal system, and to support communities and individuals targeted by hate. Arthur supervised a team of lawyers and support staff on cases and investigations that fought police misconduct and brutality, the criminalization of poverty, violations of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, and white supremacy in state and federal courts around the country. At the Lawyers’ Committee, Arthur also worked closely with the policy team on issues related to criminal justice and white supremacy and testified before the US House of Representatives.Prior to the Lawyers’ Committee, Arthur spent almost 20 years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, ultimately serving as the Chief of the Trial Division. As a public defender, he represented hundreds of indigent clients and was counsel in dozens of jury trials involving allegations of murder, attempted murder, sexual assault, and armed robbery. In his capacity as Trial Chief, Arthur supervised over 50 lawyers handling juvenile delinquency, misdemeanor, and felony caseloads.Arthur received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Amherst College, his Master of Arts in Asian American Studies from UCLA, and his Juris Doctor from The George Washington University Law School.For more information on the Loeb Center’s Alumni-in-Residence series, visit https://careers.amherst.edu/channels/alumni-in-residence/