Certified Criminal Law Specialist Michael L. Crowley has been elected 2008 president of the San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association. He takes over the leadership of the organization consisting of more than 200 public defenders and private attorneys who have devoted their careers to criminal defense.
In 2005, Crowley was honored as the Top Trial Lawyer by the San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association along with colleagues Jerry Coughlan and Michael Pancer. The three were the defense attorney’s in the City Council “Strippergate” criminal trial which ended in verdicts against City Councilmen Michael Zucchet and Ralph Inzunza. Crowley’s client, David Cowan, the former council aide to the late Councilman Charles Lewis, was acquitted.
Crowley holds B.A.s in Journalism & Political Science from the University of South Florida (1974 alum), and earned a J.D., cum laude, from California Western School of Law in 1984. A member of the California, United States District Courts and Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals bars, the 54-year-old El Cajon resident, started his legal career in 1984 as an associate in the law offices of current San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre. He has been a solo practitioner in the Law Offices of Michael L. Crowley (with offices in downtown, San Diego, and El Cajon), since 1986. In addition, he has taught Constitutional Law, Constitutional Litigation and Criminal Motions as an adjunct professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. Currently he is teaching California Evidence.
Past bar activities include: director, treasurer and secretary of CDBA; president of the Criminal Defense Lawyers Club of San Diego; co-chair of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference; chair of the Lawyer Referral and Information Service of the San Diego County Bar Association (SDCBA); co-chair of the Federal Courts Committee of SDCBA; co-editor, Bar Briefs (SDCBA); editor‑in‑chief, DICTA Magazine (SDCBA); executive editor, California Western Law Review and currently a member of the SDCBA Ethics Committee and a board member of the Private Conflicts Counsel Advisory Committee for SDCBA.
Crowley is a frequent local media commentator on legal issues.
The near 30-year-old San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association is devoted to the education of its membership in criminal defense procedures, strategies and legal research; advocacy for Constitutional rights enforcement among the courts and the general public; and, support of its membership in its day-to-day tasks of criminal defense.