Callie Glanton Steele has devoted her career to the defense of indigent clients for the past 33 years. Since July 25, 2022, she has been the Chief Trial Deputy for South County at the Santa Barbara County Public Defender’s Office. Prior that that position, for 30 years, she worked at the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the Central District of California. She was the Senior Litigator from September of 2015 to the present, primarily handling complex cases. Also, she was a Supervising Deputy Federal Public Defender (2002 to September of 2015) and a Deputy Federal Public Defender in the trial unit (1992 to 2002). In 2000 and 2001, she was on a temporary duty assignment in Washington, D.C., where she was Special Counsel to the United States Sentencing Commission (November of 2000 to May of 2001), and a Visiting Defender at Defender Services Division with the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (May to November of 2001), working in the Legal and Policy Division. She graduated from UCLA School of Law in 1991, and served as a judicial extern for the Honorable Terry J. Hatter, Jr., United States District Judge in the fall of 1990.

Ms. Steele is a member of the Board of Regents for the National Criminal Defense College (“NCDC”) and the chair of NCDC’s Racial Justice Committee, and a member of the Board of Directors for the California Public Defender’s Association (“CPDA”). She represents clients in complex cases and has written and argued multiple appeals before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In addition, she teaches Trial Advocacy at Loyola Law School.