Washington, DC (May 27, 2025) — The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) presented Charles “Tim” Laughlin with the 2025 Champion of Public Defense Award. Awarded by NACDL’s Public Defense Committee, the Champion of Public Defense Award recognizes an individual or group for exceptional efforts in making positive changes to a local, county, state, or federal public defense system and highlights efforts toward systemic advances through legislation, litigation, or other strategies.
Laughlin is the Former Executive Director of the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System (OIDS) and currently practices at Wyatt Law Office in Oklahoma City. He worked for OIDS for 28 years. Starting as an intern, he went on to serve as Executive Director from 2021 through 2024. His accomplishments in this role include successfully lobbying the Oklahoma legislature to better fund OIDS, thereby increasing the agency’s budget by over 7 million dollars in four years. He also advocated for legislation to reform the state’s criminal legal system, helping to secure the enactment of procedures to waive court costs for many indigent individuals.
Throughout his tenure as Executive Director, Laughlin expanded the agency’s reach. He opened additional satellite offices across the state, created a legal internship program, and added new positions to the office, including attorneys, support staff, a training coordinator to help provide continuing legal education throughout Oklahoma, and resource navigators. These resource navigators help clients connect with critical services such as mental health treatment and housing and job support. Through his many advocacy and resource development initiatives, he helped fight Oklahoma’s crisis of mass incarceration.
In his 28 years with OIDS, “Tim exemplified the values of public defense both inside and outside the courtroom,” said Eugene Oliver, NACDL Board Member and Public Defense Committee Co-Chair. “Tim managed the challenge of running an organization that covers 75 out of the 77 counties in Oklahoma and effected real positive change in ensuring that defendants had real alternatives to prison (including access to mental health treatment and resource navigation), that public defenders had proper resources to try their cases, and in lessening the financial burdens that those in the system faced in terms of court costs and fees. Tim worked tirelessly to ensure adequate representation across the state and was responsible for increasing access to justice in many small and remote areas of Oklahoma.”
“I am truly honored to receive the NACDL's Champion of Public Defense Award,” said Tim Laughlin. “Every day in the life of an Oklahoma indigent defender is challenging. Some days are heartbreaking. Other days are inspiring. Every day, Oklahoma's indigent defenders fight with all they have and go home knowing their clients' rights have been protected and their stories have been told with dignity. It has been the highest privilege of my professional life to do what I could to empower and support Oklahoma's wonderful indigent defenders.”
Contacts
Jessie Diamond, Deputy Director, Public Affairs and Communications, (202) 465-7647 or jdiamond@nacdl.org
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is the preeminent organization advancing the mission of the criminal defense bar to ensure justice and due process for persons accused of crime or wrongdoing. A professional bar association founded in 1958, NACDL's many thousands of direct members in 28 countries – and 90 state, provincial and local affiliate organizations totaling up to 40,000 attorneys – include private criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, military defense counsel, law professors and judges committed to preserving fairness and promoting a rational and humane criminal legal system.
