Washington, DC (July 14, 2025) – Todd S. Pugh was sworn in to serve as Second Vice-President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association's Annual Meeting on July 12. Mr. Pugh is the managing partner of Chicago criminal defense firm Breen & Pugh. The law firm’s practice focuses on trial and appellate defense of individuals and corporations in federal and state court. Breen & Pugh is the preeminent Chicago law firm in defending cases of alleged public corruption.
Mr. Pugh has tried hundreds of cases in defense of the accused, achieving both high- and low-profile acquittals. He has succeeded not only in the trial courts, but in the appellate courts as well. Mr. Pugh and his firm have earned outright reversals in some of Illinois’ most memorable and complicated cases. He began his career at the Palm Beach County Public Defender’s Office in their investigation and mitigation unit. There, Mr. Pugh learned that there were no "small" cases or clients. For persons accused of any crime, that predicament was the defining moment in their life and deserved his full attention. Three decades later, Mr. Pugh still brings this same approach to his practice, and he passes this along to the attorneys he employs and trains.
Mr. Pugh is an alumnus of DePaul University College of Law, where he has been an adjunct professor since 2013. He is also an alumnus of Northwestern Law School’s Bluhm Legal Clinic, where he played a supporting role in overturning wrongful convictions in two notable capital cases. It was during the trial, acquittal, and exoneration of Rolando Cruz that Mr. Pugh met his mentor and now partner Thomas Breen.
Mr. Pugh frequently lectures on trial practice, cross-examination, and forensic evidence. He has received national attention for his trial skills and is widely lauded as an expert in cases involving abusive head trauma, bloodstain pattern analysis, cause and manner of death, and ballistics. One veteran prosecutor dubbed him "the expert witness’s worst nightmare." Since 2012, Leading Lawyers has listed Thomas Breen and Todd Pugh among the ten best criminal defense lawyers in Illinois.
Mr. Pugh is a Life Member of NACDL, serving as the Co-Chair of the Fourth Amendment Advocacy Committee and as a trustee for NACDL's Foundation for Criminal Justice. He is a member of numerous committees and has served as Co-Chair of NACDL’s Race Matters Seminar since 2020.
Mr. Pugh is also a proud alumnus of Florida Atlantic University, where he received the school’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018. He is also a Fellow and member of the Board of Governors for the American Board of Criminal Lawyers. In his free time, Mr. Pugh tours globally on, and races motorcycles. In 2016, he founded www.shinysideuplaw.com to support the motorcycle road racing community.
Contacts
Jonathan Hutson, NACDL Senior Director of Public Affairs and Communications, 202-480-5343 or jhutson@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.
