Keir Bradford-Grey to resign as Philly’s chief public defender

Philadelphia’s chief public defender, Keir Bradford-Grey, is stepping down.

Her last day at the top post of the Defender Association of Philadelphia will be April 15, she said Thursday.

In an email sent to her staff Wednesday evening, Bradford-Grey wrote that it’s “with truly mixed emotions” that she was announcing her departure.

“This is a decision that brings me equal parts sadness, pride, excitement and gratitude,” she wrote. “As many of you know, I started my legal career as a Philly Defender, where I became immersed in the practice and philosophy of indigent defense. I left in 2007, and returned exactly eight years later, as the Chief Defender in 2015.”

Bradford-Grey, 46, started as Philadelphia’s top public defender in September 2015 after three years serving as chief defender for Montgomery County.

In her email to staff Wednesday, she wrote: “It is an understatement to say that the Defender Association is very much a part of who I am. Leaving the Defender — and all of the colleagues and friends I have come to know over the years — feels in many ways like I’m leaving my home.”

Bradford-Grey will become a partner at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads, where she will lead a team that advises businesses, educational institutions, and nonprofits, said firm chairman Richard Simins. She will also handle white-collar criminal defense cases, he said.

Paul Hetznecker, president of the board of directors of the Defender Association, thanked Bradford-Grey for her “incredible leadership” over the last 5½ years.

“Through Keir’s leadership, the Defender Association has been able to establish an unprecedented collaboration with the community, one of the keys to real criminal justice reform,” he wrote in a statement on behalf of the board. Through her “tireless effort, she was able to secure much needed financial support for the organization while simultaneously establishing greater recognition for the outstanding representation on behalf of the indigent by the Defender lawyers and staff. ... We wish her all the best.”

Hetznecker said the association will announce an interim replacement Friday and said there will be a national search for the next chief defender.

In Philadelphia, Bradford-Grey has been on the front lines of racial justice issues.

Last year, two weeks after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Bradford-Grey marched with other public defenders and racial justice supporters in Center City.

The group knelt outside the Stout Center for Criminal Justice for 8 minutes and 46 seconds, the amount of time that Police Officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck before he died. Jury selection in Chauvin’s murder trial started last week in Minneapolis.