Lee Phillips is a leading criminal defense attorney in Flagstaff, Arizona dedicated to the aggressive representation of his clients.
Biography:
Lee was born on an Air Force base in Fairbanks, Alaska and grew up in rural Northwest Ohio. After having worked as a union organizer for Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union in Ohio and California, Lee attended law school at Ohio State University
During his second year in law school, Lee came to Arizona as a National Lawyer’s Guild Summer Intern to work with the Navajo Indians. Following graduation in 1983, Lee received a two year fellowship from Howard University to return to Arizona to continue to work with the Navajos. Lee began his legal career representing several thousand Navajo Indians in a century old land dispute between the Navajo and Hopi tribes and the United States government. During this period of time, Lee’s work was funded by grants from several private foundations including two McArthur Foundation Grants, and a fellowship from the Berkeley Law School Foundation.
From 1989 to 1991 Lee worked as a deputy public defender with the Coconino County Public Defender’s Office in Flagstaff, Arizona. During that time, Lee handled a wide variety of felony and misdemeanor cases on behalf of indigent defendants. In addition to obtaining not guilty verdicts in several first degree murder cases, Lee also successfully tried numerous felony jury trials, which involved charges ranging from armed robbery, sexual assault, child molestation, kidnapping, aggravated assault, and a variety of felony drug offenses. While at the Public Defender’s Office, Lee co-counseled State v. Bible, the first capital murder case in Arizona involving the use of DNA evidence.
In 1991, Lee left the Public Defender’s Office to open his own criminal defense practice. Lee is certified by the State Bar of Arizona as a criminal law specialist and his practice currently focuses on the defense of individuals charged with serious drug offenses. Lee continues to represent individuals charged with a variety of non-drug offenses in both state and federal courts.
In addition to his criminal practice, Lee represents individuals in both civil rights and personal injury cases. Lee successfully represented Native Americans who sued the federal government to stop federal fencing and water projects which were destroying or damaging burial areas and other sacred sites on the reservation, in Attakai v. United States. He also successfully represented thousands of Native Americans who sued the federal government to stop their forced relocation from their sacred ancestral homelands in Manybeads v. United States. The clients in Manybeads argued that forced relocation from their ancestral homelands interfered with the free exercise of their religion in violation of the First Amendment to the Constitution. After several years of litigation, Lee successfully mediated a settlement of the Manybeads case, which allowed his clients to avoid relocation and to remain on their sacred lands. This mediated settlement was approved by the United States Congress in 1996. Lee’s efforts on behalf of his Native American clients have been the subject of numerous news articles in a variety of national publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, U.S.A. Today, Newsweek and Time. Lee’s work with the Navajo Hopi Land Dispute was also the subject of the book The Wind Won’t Know Me by Emily Benedek.
In addition to Lee’s work with Native Americans, Lee has represented the inmates at the Coconino County Jail in a class action lawsuit, Davis v. Richards, which successfully challenged the conditions at the jail. The federal court ruled in the inmates’ favor and the ruling ultimately led to the construction of a new modern facility and the hiring of an inmate rights attorney to assist inmates with a variety of legal problems.
Lee continues to devote a large part of his practice to civil rights and civil liberties cases. Most recently, Lee has been the lead attorney in Arizona’s first racial profiling cases. In some of these cases Lee represents African American and Latino motorists who were stopped, searched and arrested for drug offenses while traveling on Arizona’s interstate highways. Lee also represents African American and Latino motorists, in Arnold v. Arizona Department of Public Safety, a federal civil rights lawsuit, who were stopped, detained and searched by the State Police on the interstates in Arizona and who had not committed any criminal offenses. These innocent motorists allege that they were also victims of racial profiling and are suing the Arizona State Police to stop racial profiling and to require the State Police to maintain and make public, statistical data, including the race or ethnicity of, all motorists who are stopped and/or searched on Arizona highways. The National Office of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Arizona Civil Liberties Union (AzCLU) are co-counsel with Lee in this important civil rights case.
Lee is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice (AACJ), National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), National Lawyers Guild (NLG), and the Northern Arizona Justice Project (NAJP). NAJP is one of many “Innocence Projects” around the country where volunteer lawyers, faculty and students are working to exonerate innocent persons who have been wrongfully convicted of a crime. Lee has also been an adjunct professor at Northern Arizona University where he taught criminal law and criminal procedure.
Mr. Phillips has recently received a peer review rating of AV in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, the world’s leading guide to the legal profession. AV Peer Review Rating means that the lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity. The rating is based on both an attorney’s legal ability and their ethical standards.
When Lee is not defending the constitutional, civil and legal rights of his clients, he spends his time with his wife, Holli, and their twin daughters.
Many people are innocent or have had their rights violated by law enforcement officers. The way to prove your innocence or protect your rights is by retaining a good and experienced criminal defense attorney. Lee Phillips is that type of lawyer and he will fight for your rights. Mr. Phillips has been fighting for the rights of people since 1983 when he became an attorney. He is proud to have always been a defense attorney protecting your rights. Mr. Phillips is not a former prosecutor or former law enforcement officer. He has chosen to defend the rights of individuals who have been accused of crimes or had their rights violated by the government.
Attorney Lee Phillips handles criminal cases in Flagstaff (Coconino County), Holbrook (Navajo County), Prescott (Yavapai County), Kingman (Mohave County), Phoenix (Maricopa County) in both state and federal courts.
