amanda.thibeault

Amanda’s interest in criminal justice was first sparked when she met Glen Edward Chapman, an former death row inmate who was finally exonerated with the help of one of Amanda’s college professors at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. After meeting Ed, Amanda vowed to fight for the little guy, the underdog, the dark horse. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Asheville with a B.A. in Psychology in December of 2009, she attended Lewis and Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. While in law school, she worked for Metropolitan Public Defender, as well as a variety of private defense attorneys. After graduating magna cum laude in May of 2013 and passing the Oregon State Bar Exam, Amanda began working with Metropolitan Public Defender from August 2013 to September 2015 as a full time trial attorney. She tried a wide variety of cases including misdemeanors, minor felonies, and major felonies. She obtained not guilty verdicts in both major felony sex crime cases that she tried, wrote a winning motion to exclude evidence in a murder case, and was one of the youngest attorneys to obtain a favorable Court of Appeals opinion in Oregon. Amanda left MPD in September of 2015 to move to San Diego, CA. In addition to her work with NAPD, she also works closely with Alex Bassos by helping to develop the capital resource section of MyGideon in order to provide better support to capital attorneys nationwide. Additionally, she contracts with a variety of private defense attorneys to provide legal research and writing support, and in the evenings, serves as an instructor to students seeking their associate’s degree in criminal justice. In her free time, Amanda can be found riding one of her road bikes, (indoor) rock climbing, searching for the perfect slice of cake, and watching her husband sing opera.