Rich Hawkes

Rich Hawkes is a trial attorney for the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association. He graduated Order of the Coif (top ten percent of his class) from the S.J. Quinney College of Law at the University of Utah in 2009. He served as Executive Text Editor on the board of the Utah Law Review, where he was also published. Following graduation, he clerked for Associate Chief Justice Matthew B. Durrant at the Utah Supreme Court. He joined the Appellate Division at the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association in 2011 before moving to the trial division later that year and has been representing indigent criminal defendants in Utah’s courts since then. He has argued appeals in the Utah Court of Appeals and the Utah Supreme Court on topics such as the rules of evidence and jury instructions. He has tried multiple misdemeanor and felony cases. Rich has served on the board of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and has presented at seminars regarding Utah’s Driving with a Measurable Controlled Substance Statute and admitting evidence in rape cases.