Chief Judge Diane P. Wood of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit recently announced the appointment of Stephen R. Welby as Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Illinois headquartered at East St. Louis.

Welby earned his bachelor’s degree from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and his law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri where he was on the Washington University Law Review and the Jessup International Moot Court team. He was both Order of the Coif and Order of the Barristers. He is admitted to practice law in Illinois and Missouri.

He has been in private practice focusing on criminal law for the last 13 years. Prior to that he was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Welby has been a guest lecturer in ethics classes at Washington University School of Law and at the FBI Academy in Quantico. He is on the Criminal Justice Act panel of lawyers for the United States District Courts for the Southern District of Illinois and the Eastern District of Missouri. He has been on the planning committee for the Eastern Missouri Criminal Justice Act Panel Annual Training Seminar and was a past Member of the Eastern Missouri Magistrate Judge Selection Panel.

He is a member of the Illinois Bar Association, Missouri Bar Association, National Associations of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis and National Trial Lawyers. He has served as district chairperson and member of the board of directors for the Boy Scouts and was involved in starting five new Cub Scout packs in economically-challenged areas of St. Louis.