Heather Pinckney is currently a partner at Harden & Pinckney, PLLC, a boutique law firm located in downtown Washington, D.C. Harden & Pinckney, PLLC, specializes in criminal defense litigation, contract, divorce, and family law. Before entering into private practice, Ms. Pinckney served as a deputy chief of the Trial Division for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). As a deputy trial chief, Heather Pinckney assisted in the management and day-to-day operations of the trial division and supervised more than 60 attorneys litigating criminal cases in the District of Columbia Superior Court. Before becoming deputy trial chief, Ms. Pinckney served for eight years as a staff attorney at PDS. She also served for four years as the chair of the DC Public Defender Service Hiring Committee. During her tenure, Ms. Pinckney represented juvenile and adult indigent clients on criminal matters ranging from misdemeanors to homicides before both the DC Superior Court and the United States Parole Commission. Her representations have included individuals charged with homicide, sex offenses, arson, firearm violations, and obstruction of justice. She has tried numerous jury trials to verdict and has represented individuals at every stage of criminal litigation, including pre-indictment, grand jury, trial, and post-trial. Ms. Pinckney is a native Washingtonian and received her B. A. from Marymount University and her J.D. from George Washington University School of Law. Ms. Pinckney is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia. Before beginning at PDS, she worked for the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She also worked for the Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and TransAfrica. She served as chair of the 2005 PDS Criminal Practice Institute Conference, acted as faculty for numerous PDS Summer Series Training Sessions, and was an active member of the PDS Forensic Practice Group, which dealt with areas involving blood spatter and DNA. Ms. Pinckney has acted as a visiting instructor with the Georgia Honors Program and with the Southern Public Defender Training Center. She has also served as a guest lecturer at Howard University School of Law, American University School of Law, the David A. Clarke School of Law (UDC), and the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop.