About
Chris Kerkering is Washington licensed attorney with over twenty years of experience in criminal defense, constitutional litigation, and justice reform. He earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his B.A. from Columbia University.
Chris began his criminal defense career in Seattle as a federal public defender and later as a public defender for the City of Spokane. His practice focused on trial advocacy, constitutional motion practice, and client-centered defense in cases ranging from petty theft to serious violent felonies.
He later expanded his practice internationally, serving as Litigation Manager at Katiba Institute in Nairobi, where he managed approximately 200 active constitutional and human rights cases across the High Court, Court of Appeal, and Supreme Court of Kenya. His work included strategic litigation challenging the constitutionality of robbery-with-violence prosecutions, mandatory death penalty provisions, and statutes criminalizing consensual, same sex conduct.
Most recently, as Program Director of a public defense initiative in Kenya, he launched and led a multidisciplinary defense team serving hundreds of indigent clients in criminal courts, while also designing case-management systems to support high-quality, rights-based representation
