William Cox

William R. “Bill” Cox received his Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Texas at Austin, and his Juris Doctor from Saint Mary’s University School of Law. He was elected to the Order of Barristers in 1995, and is a fellow of The College of the State Bar of Texas. Bill is Board Certified in Juvenile Law and Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization, and is a past Chair of the Juvenile Section of the State Bar of Texas.

He is currently the Texas Indigent Defense Commission’s Director of Public Defense Improvement, where he works closely with counties providing public defense program technical assistance, planning and support for public defender and managed assigned counsel (MAC) programs, and growing Texas community of defense attorneys.

Prior to joining TIDC, he retired from the El Paso County Public Defender’s Office after 26 years of service, where he served in positions from trial attorney, through Interim Chief Public Defender. In addition to office administration and leadership, he handled all types of criminal and juvenile law cases, including capital murder, as well as defending child abuse and neglect, failure to pay child support charges. He also worked with many of El Paso County’s adult and juvenile mental health and drug treatment court programs.

Bill has been a member of the Texas Regional Public Defender’s Office Capital Cases Advisory Board and chaired its Board of Directors. He was also an advisory panel Member of the TIDC’s Weighted Caseload Study and the Texas Smart Defense State Advisory Committee, the Texas Children’s Commission’s Task Force on Court-Appointed Legal Representation, and was a Delphi panel member for TIDC’s Juvenile Weighted Caseload Study. He is frequent speaker on Texas public defense, ethics, juvenile delinquency, and mental health/intellectual disability issues.