Colorado criminal defense attorneys are decrying the new leader of the state’s and criticizing a culture shift within the agency that they believe could undermine defendants’ constitutional rights.
The mounting complaints about Joanna Landau, the agency’s new executive director, came to a head during a two-hour public meeting attended by more than 200 people late Friday afternoon, just before the start of the three-day holiday weekend.
Staff and contracted attorneys for the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel, known as ADC, said Landau has cultivated a culture of fear within the agency since she was hired in September and put such a heavy emphasis on keeping costs low that attorneys worry the office’s increasingly shoestring approach may ultimately limit their ability to mount complete defenses for their clients.
The small state agency contracts with private defense attorneys to represent indigent defendants who cannot be represented by the , typically when public defenders — the first choice for indigent defense — have a conflict of interest.
“(In) four decades of being a contract defender, the defense community has never had a more heightened level of concern about ADC leadership, nor a more widespread disillusionment about the fairness of providing effective representation to the poor than at this very moment,” James Castle, a longtime Denver defense attorney, said during Friday’s meeting, hosted by the that oversees the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel.
Landau did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
The commission hired her in September to replace longtime ADC director Lindy Frolich, who retired last year after 20 years in the job. Landau previously held a variety of positions related to indigent defense in Utah, including working as the executive director of , an organization that supports indigent defense in the state.
But that resume didn’t make for a smooth transition into the Colorado agency, current and former ADC staff members told The Denver Post.
Landau quickly implemented a strict hierarchy at the agency, requiring subordinates to work up a chain of command before contacting her — an about-face from Frolich’s collaborative approach, attorneys said. Landau also tamped down on communications between staff and contracted attorneys, limiting the support contractors were accustomed to receiving from the central state office, they said.
The 41-person state agency contracts with roughly 1,200 attorneys and support staff statewide to represent indigent defendants. Insiders were puzzled by Landau’s laser focus on tightening purse strings — there is no indication, aside from it being a lean budget year, that the agency faced any direct outside pressure to cut costs, they said.
At the core of the criticism Friday was a sense that Landau’s top-down, arms-length approach to leadership is undermining what has long been a thriving indigent defense community. Nearly two dozen speakers raised concern during the meeting, some fighting tears, with several calling for Landau to be fired.
“We have people and staff members who have been working for this agency for decades,” said Jennifer Henslee, a longtime ADC contractor. “That is something to be proud of. And she’s dismantling it. Because she is so awful as a leader. This is a disaster. Disaster.”
‘Culture of fear’
In February, Landau reprimanded a longtime ADC employee, Jonathan Rosen, when he voiced concerns about Landau’s treatment of another employee in the office. That reprimand — for insubordination — eventually led to Rosen’s departure from the office in March.
“When I confronted her about her behavior, there was no discussion about what she did and why she did it,” Rosen said. “It was just, ‘You are wrong, you shall be punished.’ I’m not saying she can’t do these things. What I am saying is she is causing a lot of damage and it is negatively impacting the people who support the clients.”
He’d been a key resource for contracted attorneys since 2013 — he was, for many, their first call when they needed advice on a tricky legal situation — and his forced departure raised alarm both inside the office and out.
Formerly robust in-office Tuesdays dwindled as other employees began to fear retaliation for crossing Landau, said a current employee who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation.
“It has been heartbreaking to see the change since Joanna took over,” she said. “There is just a culture of fear that has taken over. …No one is in the office anymore. And when they are, everyone is tiptoeing around like, ‘Are you OK? Are you OK?'”
That rigid top-down approach put off contracted attorneys, many of whom could make more money by taking private clients, but who do ADC work because they are passionate about it, attorneys said in Friday’s meeting. JB Katz, a longtime attorney contractor, resigned in May over Rosen’s ouster, she told The Post.
“ADC contractors have been a previously quiet, committed workforce who have worked and sacrificed for the good of the poor and disadvantaged for many years,” Castle said. “Director Landau’s only significant contribution during her imperious leadership over the last year has been to awaken the sleeping giant of incredible and altruistic contractors. They will no longer be silent. The clients, the workers and justice demand they speak up.”
Delayed billing, focus on costs
Landau’s perceived focus on cost-cutting drew significant criticism from contracted attorneys both during and before Friday’s meeting, with attorneys describing delayed billing and increased scrutiny of their expenses.
One attorney received pushback from ADC when the attorney requested funding for a second paralegal to help sift through thousands of pages of discovery in a murder case, Rosen said.
“I have yet to hear anybody tell me their clients have been better served by any of the changes she has made,” he said. “Representation is harder; clients are not being well-served. (Contractors are) not interested in sticking around.”
The agency’s payments to attorneys for completed work have also slowed under Landau’s tenure, taking weeks longer to be issued and causing problems for attorneys who rely on timely payments, multiple attorneys said during Friday’s meeting.
Defense attorney Amelia Power said her firm has yet to be paid for a hearing for post-conviction relief she handled in November.
“I worry this is a result of extreme examination of costs and hours that is coming from the top, specifically Joanna,” Power said.
In in January, Landau wrote that she was committed to balancing budget constraints with defendants’ constitutional rights. The agency received $83 million in funding for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, state budget records show.
“I focused on fiscal responsibility and the extreme economic stress facing Colorado, while knowing the Constitution requires the ADC to ensure Colorado’s indigent clients are represented by competent defense teams,” she wrote in the letter.
Members of the Commission for the Alternate Defense Counsel, who are appointed by the Colorado Supreme Court, agreed to consider the raised concerns after Friday’s meeting and said they planned to follow up with an announcement about next steps in the coming days.
The group had not issued such a statement by Tuesday afternoon.
