Marcus Chesnutt is an attorney at Chesnutt & Clemmons in New Bern, with more than 46 years of practice concentrating in criminal defense, traffic matters and trial work.

Chesnutt earned his law degree from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University and began his career as senior law clerk to the chief U.S. District Court judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He served as president of the 3rd Judicial District Bar and remains active in the legal communities of District 3B.

His recognitions include Best Lawyers in America, Top 100 Lawyers in Criminal Defense by the National Trial Lawyers and Top Lawyer by Business North Carolina.

Aaron Goforth is a partner at Hatch, Little & Bunn in Raleigh, with nearly 11 years of practice concentrating in criminal defense, including DWI, drug offenses, misdemeanors, felonies, domestic violence and traffic violations.

A western North Carolina native and fluent Spanish speaker, Goforth earned a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Language and Literature summa cum laude from Gardner-Webb University — including study abroad in Costa Rica and Spain — before teaching high school Spanish and then pursuing law. He graduated magna cum laude from Campbell University School of Law in 2015, where he served as an editor of the Campbell Law Review and received the North Carolina Advocates for Justice Calhoun Advocacy Award.

He began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Wake County, prosecuting misdemeanor and traffic matters, before joining Hatch, Little & Bunn in 2016. His Spanish fluency allows the firm to serve clients in criminal defense as well as personal injury and civil matters.

Christon Halkiotis is the owner and managing attorney of The Law Office of Christon S. Halkiotis in Greensboro, with 22 years of practice concentrating in criminal defense. She is a North Carolina State Bar Board Certified Specialist in State Criminal Law and a member of the North Carolina Capital Defense roster.

Halkiotis spent more than 15 years as a prosecutor before transitioning to defense work — experience she said gives her a clear understanding of how the state makes decisions and where those decisions can go wrong. Her boutique practice focuses on serious felony matters, including potential capital cases, where she said individualized, thoughtful advocacy matters most.

She served as president of the Guilford Criminal Defense Lawyers Association in 2023 and has served on its board since 2020.

She said criminal defense requires more than legal knowledge.

“It requires judgment, discretion, and the ability to navigate high-stakes situations where the consequences are immediate and deeply personal,” she said.

James “Jayme” Jackson is an attorney at Western Wake Law Group in Raleigh, with nearly 24 years of practice concentrating in criminal defense, with a particular focus on driving while impaired cases in Wake County.

Jackson became certified in Standardized Field Sobriety Training by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in 2006 — the same certification many law enforcement officers obtain — giving him firsthand knowledge of the tests used against his clients. He serves as Pro Bono Legal Services Coordinator for the Healing Place of Wake County, providing legal services to clients working to overcome addiction, and teaches classes at NC State for Southlight’s Alcohol and Drug Diversion program.

He is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the North Carolina Advocates for Justice.

Melissa Owen is a partner at Tin Fulton Walker and Owen in Charlotte, with 27 years of practice concentrating in criminal defense, with a focus on white collar matters and sex-based offense cases.

Owen will serve as president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a role she said will allow her to work with defense lawyers across the country to better understand their needs and implement strategies to reduce inequities in the criminal legal system. Her path to criminal defense was shaped early by representing a man who had been wrongfully convicted of crimes against children and served 10 years before his exoneration — an experience that underscored for her the importance of zealous advocacy from the earliest stage of a case.

Her first federal jury trial — an immigration fraud case tried shortly after September 11 — taught her the challenges of managing juror perceptions on politically charged issues and the lasting value of civility with opposing counsel.

Sonya Pfeiffer is a partner at Pfeiffer Rudolf in Charlotte, with 19 years of practice concentrating in civil rights litigation, wrongful conviction cases and criminal defense. Before law, she spent more than a decade as a television journalist at CNN and other major outlets — experience she said informs how she litigates.

Pfeiffer began her legal career as an assistant public defender in Mecklenburg County and has built a practice spanning white collar defense, government investigations and civil rights litigation. She will soon begin her third term on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Board of Directors, where she co-chairs the Women in Criminal Defense Committee. She is a founding member of North Carolina Lawyers for the Rule of Law and a trustee of the NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice.

She co-hosts Abuse of Power, a podcast examining systemic misconduct in the criminal legal system.

Pfeiffer’s through-line has always been “accountability for the powerful institutions that shape people’s lives.”