Joshua Deahl is an attorney in the appellate division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. In this capacity, he handles the appeals of indigent criminal defendants who have been convicted of serious offenses and frequently appears before the D.C. Court of Appeals. Prior to his work at PDS, Mr. Deahl was Counsel in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at O'Melveny & Myers here in Washington, D.C., where he briefed cases in a majority of the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals, along with various state appellate courts. After law school, Mr. Deahl served as a law clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor (Ret.) of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He recently co-authored a textbook, and practitioner's guide with Professor Richard D. Friedman, titled The Federal Rules of Evidence: Text and History (West 2015).

Mr. Deahl received his law degree, magna cum Laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review and the student commencement speaker. He received his undergraduate degrees, magna cum laude, in philosophy and political science from Arizona State University. He now resides in Northeast D.C. with his wife and two children.