Rebecca L. Hudsmith

Rebecca L. Hudsmith served as Federal Public Defender for the Middle and Western Districts of Louisiana from the founding of the office in December of 1993 until her retirement in December of 2025, and return to private practice. Prior to her appointment as federal public defender, Ms. Hudsmith was engaged in the private practice of criminal defense law in Shreveport, Louisiana. She also worked as an associate at the Washington, D.C. offices of Steptoe & Johnson (1981-1983), and served as the founding director of the Loyola Death Penalty Resource Center in New Orleans, Louisiana (1988-1990).

Ms. Hudsmith is admitted to the practice of law in both Louisiana and the District of Columbia. She is a past-president of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers, and a past member of the Louisiana Public Defender Board. She is a recipient of LACDLs Justice Albert Tate, Jr. Award, Sam Dalton Capital Defense Award and Trustees of Freedom Lifetime Service Award and of the Louisiana ACLUs Ben Smith Civil Liberties Award.

Ms. Hudsmith successfully argued Trest v. Cain, a non-capital habeas case, before the United States Supreme Court. She is a 1980 graduate of the LSU Law Center, where she served as Senior Associate Editor of the Louisiana Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif. She is a former law clerk for the late U.S. Circuit Court Judge Albert Tate, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit (1980-1981).