I don't know why they chose me for this article, but I am thankful for my TLC sister Joyce Collier, also 2001, and others for saying such positive things about me. I did mention in my interview how Trial Lawyers College helped bring back the joy in practicing law to me, but I guess that was edited out.  However, the support and information sharing from other lawyers, especially on our wonderful listserves, has always helped me to be a better lawyer for my clients.  And I am always afraid, and I don't take all cases.  But you all know that.  And my brother told his kids to put my picture on their refrigerators to scare the rats out of their kitchens, so you know I got toughened up at an early age.  Thanks to all my fellow Warriors, and to my clients who trust me with their stories and their lives.    

- Anna 

PHOTOGRAPHY BY LUIGI CIUFFETELLI

Criminal defense lawyer Anna Durbin takes the cases no one else will 

IN 2004, KIMBERLY YATES, WHILE SERVING AN 84-MONTH sentence from a drug conviction, was temporarily housed in the Philadelphia Federal Detention Center. She was working in the commissary when a male prison guard ordered her into the basement to attend to a chore. There was no chore. When she got down to the basement, the guard raped her. 

Afterward, despite the guard's threats to her and her family, Yates sought justice. But she faced a seemingly insurmountable wall of Byzantine federal bureaucracy, knee-jerk skepticism and scant sympathy from the powers that be.

“I went through a time where I thought it was my fault,” Yates says. “I went from being a very self-confident woman to always second-guessing myself, having low self-esteem, all these things that aren't me.” 

She called a lawyer in California who told her she should call a criminal defense attorney in Ardmore, Pa., a woman who had a way with juries and a reputation for taking on can't-win clients. “

When I called Anna, she didn't even question my story,” says Yates. “She took the case immediately.” 

ANNA DURBIN GREW UP IN SOUTHEAST WASHINGTON STATE, the daughter of a manager at Hanford nuclear plant, which had the distinction of producing the plutonium used in the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. She was the youngest of four children; both older brothers had distinguished careers in the Army, and her sister became an anesthesiologist.

“It was tough following those three in school,” Durbin says. 

Continue reading the full article about Anna: http://digital.superlawyers.com/superlawyers/penndelaware2012?folio=16#pg16