Helping Other Humans: Tina Hartwell '99 works to give people a second chance

“I hope I never see you again.”

This is what Tina Hartwell ’99 often tells her clients at the end of their cases. It might be an unusual thing for an attorney to say to a client, but for Hartwell, a career public defense attorney, it represents a heartfelt hope that her clients can move beyond what are often the worst moments of their lives.

Since 2022, Hartwell has been the Oneida County Public Defender, leading a team of around 35 defense attorneys, paralegals, investigators, and staff. She has spent her entire career in the office, but when Hartwell began law school at Albany Law, she wanted to be a prosecutor.


Learning from gurus, changing her mind

Growing up in rural Chenango County, most of the adults in Hartwell’s life were farmers and factory workers. She wanted to become a lawyer since she was a teenager, in part to humanize what many in her community saw as an unattainable career. When it came time to select a school, she was interested in Albany Law because of its location in the seat of state government. Once she arrived on campus, she enjoyed learning from professors who were “gurus” in criminal and civil procedure, like Professors Peter Preiser and David Siegel. The professors wrote respected commentaries and treatises and helped shape New York practice, but Hartwell respected them for their personal approaches to their students. “They knew our names,” she recalled.

During law school, Hartwell interned in the Rensselaer County District Attorney’s Office. Gradually, though, she found herself drawn toward criminal defense, where she felt she could have the greatest impact.

Alternative justice

As the head of the public defender’s office, Hartwell fits all the pieces in the puzzle of staffing cases in a busy practice stretching across 36 town and village courts in the county. 

Hartwell’s office has played a role in creating alternative courts and representing clients there. For example, the drug court, which diverts individuals into drug treatment programs rather than incarceration, started shortly after Hartwell began working at the defender’s office. 

“I was loving it, because it was right along the lines of what I wanted to do with a holistic approach,” Hartwell said. “Like, if somebody has a problem, why are we just tossing them in jail? We’re not throwing people away. They’re human beings, so why can’t we give them another try?”

Since then, Hartwell’s office has been instrumental in developing programs specializing in mental health, domestic violence, and victims of human trafficking.

Just trying to help

Hartwell, a loyal Albany Law donor through automated recurring giving, regularly participates in career fairs and hires Albany Law students and graduates. She encourages Albany Law students to intern with her office, noting that she hopes to give them an immersive experience and a real taste of what the practice is like. “You will learn, and then you will do,” she said. 

Hartwell laughingly recounts a recent conversation with a college intern that sums up her career. “You know what you guys do is really hard?” he remarked, continuing, “Nobody likes the public defender. … Why do you do it?”

She appreciated the candor of his question and acknowledged that the job is difficult and many clients are “pretty raw with emotion” when they first encounter a public defender. “The reason why we do it is because we’re just trying to help people,” Hartwell said.

People who Hartwell hopes to never see again in her capacity as a public defender.