Joseph P. St. Louis

Joseph P. St. Louis is the only lawyer in Arizona certified as a Specialist in both Criminal Defense (Arizona State Bar, 2000 to present) and in DUI Defense (National College for DUI Defense, a certification recognized by the American Bar Association, 2012 to present). Mr. St. Louis is AV ® PreeminentTM Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell® and has been listed in Woodward/White's Best Lawyers in America in the DUI specialty area since 2013. He has been named to the Best Lawyers in Arizona and New Mexico by Super Lawyers magazine in the DUI specialty area since 2009 and was named one of the Best Lawyers in Tucson in the DUI specialty area by Tucson Lifestyle Magazine since 2013. Mr. St. Louis is one of eleven members of the governing board of the National College for DUI Defense, the Board of Regents. The NCDD has over 1,600 members nationwide.

Mr. St. Louis is also the past president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a statewide defense organization with over 600 members. In 2003, at the request of the then-presiding chief judge of the Pima County Justice Courts, Mr. St. Louis served as a part-time Justice of the Peace. In 2013, Mr. St. Louis was one of four lawyers who litigated a 17-day hearing in the Maricopa County Superior Court challenging the manner in which blood testing is performed in the Scottsdale City Crime Laboratory. The hearing resulted in the judge suppressing all blood evidence in 11 felony cases, after finding the results to be unreliable.

Mr. St. Louis is a sought-after lecturer and trainer at continuing legal education seminars. In both 2015 and 2019, Joe St. Louis was named as one of the top 10 highest rated lecturers at any presentation given in that calendar year by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (out of approximately 200 speakers each calendar year). Mr. St. Louis has spoken on a variety of legal topics at legal education seminars sponsored by a variety of State Bar and Defense Attorney organizations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. Mr. St. Louis is a graduate of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)’s Student Course on Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, NHTSA’s Instructor Course on Standardized Field Sobriety Testing, and the American Chemical Society's Forensic Chromatography Course.

Mr. St. Louis has defended several death penalty cases, both in state court, where he was lead counsel in Pima County’s first death penalty case tried completely to a jury (the client received a prison sentence after Mr. St. Louis convinced the jury not to impose the death penalty) and in federal court, where he was found to be qualified as “Learned Counsel,” a designation reserved for only the most qualified attorneys handling these cases. Mr. St. Louis has the unique distinction of having had two back-to-back first-degree murder cases in which the judges dismissed all murder charges during the trial.Mr. St. Louis has tried over 200 cases to juries, on both misdemeanor and felony charges, in federal court and in state courts throughout Arizona. He has also argued cases before the Arizona Court of Appeals, the Arizona Supreme Court, and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Mr. St. Louis has been the attorney coach for the Basis Oro Valley Mock Trial team, since 2012. The teams he has coached have advanced to and competed in the State championship rounds in the last two state competitions held, placing 2nd and 4th in the state.