Public Defender AU
(this is incredibly self-indulgent lol)
Criminal Trial Division Supervising Attorney: Coran
Coran is the managing attorney for the Criminal Trial Division. Managing attorneys receive new cases from the court and then assign these cases to the staff attorneys under their supervision.
Coran basically has the worst job in the world LOL like everyone in the office is already incredibly overworked/burnt out and here comes Coran with more cases...
That being said, Coran is an incredible Division Head who always advocates for his staff and works incredibly hard to keep them from being over-loaded with cases. (In some PD offices it's normal for attorneys to have over 100+ cases; Coran has fought tooth and nail to make sure his attorneys only have to manage 60 to 70 cases at a time.)
There's a running joke in this AU that Coran is never around during staff meetings because he's always busy fighting judges, the legislature, and even other Division Attorneys lol.
Another running joke is that Coran is constantly hinting to Allura/Shiro/the other senior attorneys about them eventually taking over his job but they're all like HELL no (because coran's job sucks)
Senior Trial Attorneys: Allura, Shiro, Thace, Kolivan
Senior Trial Attorneys primarily handle most of the trials that happen in the office (obviously), but they're also certified to take cases heard in Superior Court (i.e., the big felony cases). Senior Attorneys are also responsible for training and managing the junior Staff Attorneys.
Kolivan is technically the most senior-Senior Attorney, but he's basically never around the office because he essentially lives at the courthouse 24/7. He first chairs (leads) most of the trials in the office, but also acts as a second chair in trials for the junior attorneys.
In addition to her duties as a Senior Attorney, Allura is also Coran's right-hand man and handles a lot of the day-to-day stuff for him in the office like leading staff meetings.
Allura and Shiro split training the junior staff attorneys. Shiro is also the supervisor for the law student intern program.
Thace (remember him lol #tbt) spends most of his time doing legal research and writing behind the scenes. However, he's also the most like Congenial White Man ever so Allura and Shiro strategically deploy him over to the courthouse whenever Kolivan pisses off a judge.
Staff Attorneys: Lance, Hunk, Keith, Kinkade, Nadia, Acxa
Lance, Hunk, and Keith are all part of the same-year cohort (meaning they were all hired at the same time and trained together). They've been working at the PD office for about two years now and are finally starting to feel like Real Lawyers.
Lance and Hunk went to law school together and are BFFs. After they started working as PDs, they obviously tried to eat lunch with each other whenever possible, and this sparked a new office tradition where anyone who's free at lunch time is welcome to come eat their lunch in the conference room with everyone. This has surprisingly done wonders for office morale.
Keith is a couple years older than Lance and Hunk (he was a non-traditional law student) so he initially felt like the odd man out, however, after going through Lawyer Boot Camp together and experiencing the Horrors that is the first-year of legal practice, the three are now trauma bonded for LIFE.
They have a group chat that is constantly blowing up with gossip because Lance and Hunk are total gossip fiends and Lance especially is the darling of the courthouse.
The current name of their group chat is 'Garrison County Public Pretenders.' At the end of each month, the person who receives the most, "Wow, you should become a real lawyer," comments from clients gets a cake.
Kinkade (it's 2026 and I still hate his first name ngl), Nadia, and Acxa are their own cohort and have been attorneys for 3-5 years now. They have more seniority than Lance/Hunk/Keith, but they don't have enough experience yet to train anyone. There's big drama with them because Ina was also in their cohort, but she switched over to the Prosecutor's Office last year (gasp!) (this is the biggest scandal the PD office has seen in recent years)
MISC:
Pidge is a second-year law student who is interning for the summer. She spends the most time with Shiro (her supervisor), but Keith has basically adopted her to work on his cases.
Romelle is a Social Worker who is embedded in the office and helps connect clients with programs, resources, etc. She's almost never in the office because she's too busy visiting clients in prison/jail or arguing with the Probation Office. When she is around for lunch she usually spends the entire time ranting about Judge Hira.
Antok and Narti (another #tbt) are the Investigators for the Office. They're rarely around because they're usually out interviewing witnesses, finding evidence, etc. Keith, Acxa, and Allura like going on field trips with them lol. Lance is categorically banned from coming with them to crime scenes.
Lotor is a prosecutor. He and Allura went to law school together. They have a very respectable and professional rivalry. (Lotor however does have crazy beef with Shiro for some reason).
Lotor is actually pretty decent for a prosecutor. He's also a law nepo baby (both Zarkon and Honerva are judges, though Zarkon is technically active retired). Everyone assumed Lotor only went to law school to become a politician, but he's actually stayed as a prosecutor for 15+ years now.
The Public Defender Office has multiple internal Divisions that are all located within the same building. Adam is a Senior Staff Attorney in the Criminal Appellate Division. Shay is a Staff Attorney in the Education Law/Juvenile Division.
Matt is the resident IT guy and he is honest to god fighting DEMONS every day. Like you would not believe the amount of cyberattacks the average public defender office experiences.
