Alex Bunin was appointed in November 2010 to be the first Chief Public Defender in Harris County, Texas. Mr. Bunin is board certified in criminal law and criminal appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Previously, he was appointed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to establish Federal Public Defender offices in the Districts of Northern New York and Vermont. He was twice reappointed to additional terms. He established the federal defender organization in the Southern District of Alabama, was an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Eastern District of Texas, and was in private practice in Houston, Texas. He has tried many cases, including federal capital murder and complex white collar fraud. He was given the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Champion of Public Defense Award. He tried the first federal capital case in Vermont in over 60 years.

Mr. Bunin received his J.D. in 1985 from South Texas College of Law. He is a 1981 graduate of Bowdoin College. Mr. Bunin sits on the Editorial Board of the American Bar Association’s CRIMINAL JUSTICE Magazine and the Advisory Board of THE CHAMPION magazine. He has been an officer in national and state criminal defense organizations. He was an Adjunct Professor at Albany Law School of Union University for ten years. Mr. Bunin has authored many articles on criminal law, most recently, Public Defender Independence, 27 TEXAS JOURNAL ON CIVIL LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS 25 (Fall 2021).