Public Defender Spotlight: Nathan Schenker on Leadership, Retirement, and a Four-Decade-Long Career in Public Defense

August 3, 2026 – Our Public Defender Spotlights shout out and celebrate the achievements of individual members of the PDAP community, whether past or recent. If you’d like to nominate a fellow Public Defender (attorney, social service advocate, investigator, mitigator, or support staff member) for a feature, reach out to Anna@PAPublicDefenders.com.

A career in public defense leaves a lasting impact on those who practice it – whether they’re a Public Defender for a couple years or several decades. 

Nathan Schenker first started at the Chester County Public Defender’s Office in 1986. Though he didn’t take the job expecting to stay for long, he found great purpose in his work, eventually becoming First Assistant Public Defender in 2004 and Chief Defender in 2020. August 3rd marked his last day as Chief before retiring from public defense, bringing a successful career spanning four decades to a close. 

“I said, ‘sure, I’ll take this job for a couple years,’” he told PDAP. “And 40 years later, I’m retiring from it.”

We spoke with Nathan to hear about the achievements he’s most proud of from his time leading the Chester County office, the lessons he learned on the path to leadership, and the parts of the job he will miss most as he enters retirement. In particular, he detailed the challenges of assuming his new role as Chief through early Covid and preparing for the office to reopen once Pennsylvania transitioned out of quarantine. 

“A lot of it was just management, keeping the office running during that time so that when we reopened, we didn’t have a large backlog,” he said. “It was interesting because trying to run an office with nobody there makes life kind of challenging, but I’ve always had really good attorneys and staff and everybody just stepped up as they needed [to].”

When it came to the most important takeaways he’s gathered from his public defense career, Nathan emphasized the importance of maintaining civility and following through on commitments to clients, and learning to appreciate the wins when they come.

“I think the most important thing is to embrace the mission,” he said. “I’ve always said, if I’m having a bad week, if I can get somebody out of jail on Friday, it’s been a great week.”

PDAP thanks Nathan for his years of service, leadership, and dedication to this field and wish him a happy retirement. We also congratulate Susanna DeWese, the new Chief Public Defender in Chester County, who will assume the role starting August 5th.

Check out our full interview below: