Washington, DC (Aug. 10, 2026) – C. Melissa "Missy" Owen was sworn in as President of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) at the Association’s annual meeting on August 8.
Owen is a founding partner of Tin Fulton Walker & Owen. Owen’s practice areas include state and federal criminal defense, with a focus on white collar matters, financial crime, sex offense prosecutions, and Title IX representation.
Owen has served NACDL in numerous capacities, currently as Co-Chair of the Women in Criminal Defense Committee and the Taskforce on the Policing and Overcriminalization of Pregnancy. She is a member of the Audit, Budget, Bylaw, Governance, Membership, and Decarceration Committees. She co-authored NACDL’s 2021 report, Abortion in America: How Legislative Overreach Is Turning Reproductive Rights Into Criminal Wrongs. She is a recipient of NACDL’s Champion of Justice Award.
Owen has also been active in numerous bar associations and community groups, including having served as a member of the Board of Governors of North Carolina Advocates for Justice, as a member of the Board of Directors for Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina, and as a member of the Ethics Committee at the North Carolina State Bar, which publishes Advisory Ethics Opinions for North Carolina attorneys. She is currently a Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, the Litigation Counsel of America, the American College of Trial Lawyers, and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.
She has been named "Super Lawyer: Criminal Defense – White Collar" since 2013, Business North Carolina’s "Legal Elite": Criminal Defense – White Collar (2014), the National Trial Lawyers Top 100 Trial Lawyers, and received the Candace Reidbord Erhenworth Award from Duquesne University School of Law.
She received her undergraduate degree from Miami University in Ohio and her J.D. from Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh.
A high-resolution picture of C. Melissa Owen is available for download here. Photo by Katie Smith
