Rebecca L. Hudsmith serves as Federal Public Defender for the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana and has held that position since the founding of the office in December of 1993. Prior to her appointment as federal public defender, Ms. Hudsmith worked in private practice in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C. She served as the founding Director of the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center. Ms. Hudsmith is a past-President of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (LACDL), a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a past member of the Louisiana Public Defender Board. She is a recipient of LACDL’s Justice Albert Tate, Jr. Award and Sam Dalton Capital Defense Award, as well as the Louisiana ACLU’s Ben Smith Civil Liberties Award. She successfully argued Trest v. Cain, a non-capital habeas case, before the United States Supreme Court.