Josephine Pesaresi Hallam

Josephine Pesaresi Hallam is a criminal defense attorney with Hallam Law Group PLLC in Phoenix, Arizona. The State Bar of Arizona lists her membership as active. Her bar biography identifies serious felony defense as her principal focus, including murder, aggravated assault, sexual offenses, drug sales and trafficking.

Before her work at Hallam Law Group, Hallam held trial and supervisory positions with the Maricopa County Public Defender’s Office. As a trial group supervisor, she managed 15 attorneys, three investigators and two paralegals. She continued to participate in felony trials with lawyers in the group and to cover court hearings. Her earlier team-leader duties included mentoring new lawyers and serving as second chair alongside them in court. She also taught training classes for new attorneys and continuing legal education sessions at the Statewide Arizona Public Defender Association Conference.

Her public defender work began while she was a law student in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. After moving to Arizona, she spent two years as a trial attorney before leaving to raise a family. During that interval, she volunteered with the Arizona Justice Project as a supervising attorney, working with law students on post-conviction relief petitions for innocent or wrongfully convicted prisoners.

Hallam later returned to the Maricopa public defender’s office, taking first- and second-chair roles in felony trials involving charges from drug sales to murder. Her litigation work has included witness interviews, investigation and motion writing, as well as plea negotiations, jury selection and evidentiary hearings.