About Gary Asteak: Mr. Asteak has been a member of the Northampton County Bar for 39
years and had been an Assistant Public Defender for over 25 years. A graduate
of Franklin and Marshall College (1971) and The Dickinson School of Law
(1974), he is the founder of Asteak Law Offices, a firm focusing on litigation
with offices in Easton and Nazareth. Past-President of the Pennsylvania
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, he has formerly served as President
of the Northampton County Bar Association, Public Defender Association of
Pennsylvania, and Lehigh Valley Legal Services. He has served as a Member of
the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission Task Force on Wrongful
Convictions and the Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission
Advisory Committee on Services to Indigent Criminal Defendants. He is a
member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Pennsylvania
Bar Association, and Fellow of Litigation Counsel of America. He currently is
on the Board of North Penn Legal Services, serves as Solicitor for five
municipalities and two regional Councils of Government, and frequently
lectures at the state and national level on litigation related topics for such
organizations as the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, Pennsylvania Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Association of Sentencing Advocates,
the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Defender Advocacy Institute at
the University of Dayton Law School, Office of Federal Defender Services, and
was the Founding Project Director and Lecturer for the Pennsylvania Public
Defender Association Annual Appellate Skills Program and Trial Skills
Programs sponsored by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and
Delinquency at Dickinson School of Law, highly regarded and innovative
programs teaching strategies and techniques for the defense bar in the 21st
Century. For many years, he has served on the Course Planning Committee of
the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Annual Criminal Law Symposium and has
served as a Member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Capital Case Standards Committee. Mr. Asteak has appeared as a legal analyst on criminal
law topics on National Public Radio, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Court TV, and on
talk radio stations throughout the country, and is named by Philadelphia
Magazine as one of Pennsylvania's "Super Lawyers" in criminal defense. He
has received Martindale-Hubbell's rating of "AV" and is listed in the Bar
Register of Preeminent Lawyers. In 2003, he was honored by the Pennsylvania
Public Defender Association with the "Gideon Award" for outstanding service as
a Public Defender. For more information see our web-site.
