Brian Flaherty

Brian Flaherty serves as Muth Atwood PLLC’s research and writing attorney.

For more than fifteen years Brian worked at all levels of the King County Department of Public Defense (DPD). As a staff attorney Brian represented hundreds of clients accused of offenses from simple misdemeanors to the most serious felony offenses. His aggressive motions and trial practice secured acquittals, dismissals, and other favorable outcomes in many cases including homicide, rape, felony assault, vehicular assault, DUI, drug offenses, firearm offenses, violations of no-contact orders, forgery, and motor vehicle theft. Brian then supervised a felony unit, managing an office of eight lawyers, training lawyers new to felony practice, and representing DPD in bench-bar meetings with the presiding judge and other stakeholders. Finally, Brian served in the Director’s Office as Assistant Special Counsel for Policy and Practice. That role involved direct engagement on a wide range of policy issues, from inhumane jail conditions to Covid-era court operations, to the treatment of those with severe mental illness in the criminal legal system. In that position Brian also led or assisted in the drafting of amicus briefs to the Courts of Appeal and Supreme Court on issues including the right to counsel, racially biased policing, conditions of juvenile detention, and other important constitutional issues. In addition, he led DPD’s work in post-conviction representation of individuals sentenced as young adults to extraordinarily long sentences in the 1990s and early 2000s, and has had the privilege of assisting several clients leave prison many years before their original sentences were to expire. 

Brian has a deep wealth of knowledge regarding Washington criminal law and procedure. Over the course of his career Brian regularly provided training for DPD staff on both foundational topics and emerging issues in the law. While in the Director’s Office he provided monthly caselaw updates for all DPD staff on developments in the criminal law, analyzing all published Washington appellate cases and discussing their potential application to DPD’s clients. He is particularly interested in search and seizure issues, racial disproportionality, and the culpability of young people and those with other cognitive impairments.

Brian holds an undergraduate degree in Criminal Justice from Northeastern University and attended New York University School of Law, where he was a member of the Law Review.