Robert McWhirter, Esq.

About The Lecturer

Robert J. McWhirter has successfully tried over 100 criminal trials in Federal, state, and city courts.  He is a nationally and internationally sought-after speaker and author on trial advocacy (including motion practice and writing), immigration law, and the history of the Bill of Rights.  He is a frequent guest on Bloomberg News, Fox News Live, Arizona Horizon, and KJZZ as a Constitutional expert and historian.  Mr. McWhirter is a Certified Specialist in Criminal Law.  For over eight years, Mr. McWhirter’s peers have elected him to serve on the Arizona State Bar Board of Governors.

Mr. McWhirter has published extensively:

• His latest book is Fixing the Framers’ Failure: The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and America’s New Birth of Freedom (2022).
• The American Bar Association has published Mr. McWhirter’s book Bills, Quills, and Stills: The History of the Bill of Rights (2015).  
• The American Bar Association has published his books The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Immigration Law: Questions and Answers, 2nd Ed. 2006 and The Citizenship FlowChart, 2007. In the 2010 United States Supreme Court case of Padilla v. Kentucky, Justice Alito extensively quoted from his book.  
• Mr. McWhirter has served on the American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section and the Standards Committee, writing the Criminal Justice Standards.  
• Mr. McWhirter has published over 40 other articles in both English and Spanish on the history of the Bill of Rights, immigration law, and criminal practice.

Mr. McWhirter has international management experience, having worked extensively in Latin America on justice reform:

• In 2010-2011, Mr. McWhirter served in El Salvador administering an $11 million USAID project to reform the justice system, where he successfully developed and oversaw programs and trainings for the Salvadoran courts, police, and prosecutors.
• In 1989, Mr. McWhirter was a visiting professor of law at the Catholic University of Chile and the University of Chile, teaching courses in Spanish on Comparative Criminal Procedure and Free Speech Privacy, and the Internet.
• Mr. McWhirter has taught trial advocacy in Venezuela, Colombia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico, and El Salvador.
• Mr. McWhirter still travels to Latin America; most recently, he trained lawyers in Puebla, Mexico.

Since 2009, Mr. McWhirter has been named a Southwest Super Lawyer.

Mr. McWhirter is a 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law.

Mr. McWhirter is a 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient from the Barrett Honors College.

He received the Frank X. Gordon Award for Excellence in the Practice of Law, Mohave County Bar Association, in 2013 and the Saint Thomas More Award, Saint Thomas More Society, in 2010.

Mr. McWhirter has been the president of Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice.

From March 2014 until July 2016, Mr. McWhirter was the supervising criminal attorney at the ASU Alumni Law Group, a teaching law firm serving underserved clients.

Mr. McWhirter continues his private practice in criminal defense and testifies and provides expert advice on Immigration Consequences of Criminal Conviction and citizenship issues.

EDUCATION:

Juris Doctor, May 1988

• Arizona State University College of Law:
• Writing Instructor, Honors, 1987 to 1988.
• Armstrong Hall Team Member, Jenckes Cup Closing Argument Competition.
• Member, Jessup International Moot Court Team, 1987 to 1988.
• Best Oral Advocate Runner-Up, Canby Competition, Spring 1987.
• Second Place, Best Overall Advocate, Canby Competition, Spring 1987.

Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude, December 1983.

• Arizona State University:
• Honors Program, College of Liberal Arts, Arizona State University.
• Dean’s Honors List (all semesters).
• College Level Examination Program (CLEP) 29 academic hours, November 1982.
• Intensive Spanish study, Instituto de Estudios de América Latina (I.D.E.A.L.), Cuernavaca, México, January through February 1983.
• PHI BETA KAPPA, Scholarship Honorary, Beta Chapter, Arizona State University.
• OMICRON DELTA KAPPA, Leadership Honorary, Arizona State University.
• Legislative Intern, Democratic Caucus, Arizona State Senate, Spring 1983.
• Member, Arizona State University's first delegation to the 14th Annual Student Symposium sponsored by the Center for the Study of the Presidency, "The Presidency: Parties, Press, Personalities," Washington D.C., April 7-10, 1983.

Publications

Fixing the Framers’ Failure: The 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments and America’s New Birth of Freedom (2022).

Bills, Quills, and Stills: The History of the Bill of Rights (2015).

The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Immigration Law: Questions and Answers, 2nd Ed. 2006

The Citizenship FlowChart, 2007.

Criminal Justice Standards.

Education

J.D., Arizona State University College of Law

B.A., magna cum laude, Arizona State University