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Areas of Expertise

Trial Advocacy, Criminal Law, Mental Health Law


Biography

Annie C. Deets is a public defender in DeKalb County, Georgia, where she is part of a specialized Mental Health Division. In that role, she handles some of the most high-profile criminal cases in Atlanta. She teaches a course Mental Health Issues in the Criminal Justice System and a practicum in Criminal Competency and Responsibility. Annie also serves as an instructor for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. In 2018, she was named as part of NITA’s Next Generation Faculty Development Program. She has always had a passion and aptitude for trial advocacy and serves as a team leader for the Kessler-Eidson Program for Trial Techniques at Emory as well. She coaches the Emory Law Mock Trial Society, where she helped the team win back to back national championships in the William W. Daniel National Invitational Mock Trial Competition.  She taught trial advocacy to students from the City University of Hong Kong and members of the Chinese Judiciary as part of a partnership with the Supreme People’s Court. 

Annie graduated from Vanderbilt Law School, where her interest in representing the underdog was first stoked and developed while a student working in the Vanderbilt Legal Clinic. While at Vanderbilt, Annie was awarded the Carl J. Ruskowski Clinical Legal Education Awardawarded to the student who demonstrated excellence in practice of law and best exemplified the highest standards of the legal profession. 

Over her career, she has remained steadfast in her passion for and commitment to advocating for indigent individuals. She worked first for Georgia Legal Services Program serving the indigent populations of rural Georgia in civil matters. She went on to serve victims of domestic violence as a prosecutor in Henry County before finding her home at the Law Office of the Public Defender of DeKalb County, where she has been since 2006.  Annie fights for the rights of indigent mentally ill individuals who find themselves in the throes of the criminal justice system. Annie advocates passionately for the rights of this population, which she believes is perhaps the most vulnerable population she has had the opportunity to serve during her career.