About

Top-rated criminal defense attorney David Serna, aside from garnering multiple awards in a span of 42 years, also has made significant contributions to policymaking and the education of law.

In 1985, he acquired a lifetime membership with the National Legal Committee of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

In 1994, Mr. Serna was appointed by Juan Burciaga, the former Chief Judge of the federal US District Court for the District of New Mexico, to the Criminal Justice Act Panel Committee. Until 2001, he sat in the CJA Panel after successive reappointments.

He is one of the founding members of the National College for DUI Defense Summer Programs at Harvard Law School, created in 1995. Mr. Serna was the only lawyer in New Mexico to be accepted. Included in his duties were providing Continuing Legal Education seminars and teaching lawyers and judges subjects covering DWI/DUI Drunk Driving Defense.

Also, in 1995, he became a Criminal Defense Mentor in the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association Mentor Program, where he teaches younger lawyers about emerging issues in criminal law.

From 1998 to 1999, he served as a member of the Board of Directors and was the Chair of the Criminal Law Section of the New Mexico State Bar.

Mr. Serna earned his Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, Washington in 1977