Rich Curtner is the Federal Defender for the District of Alaska. His office is responsible for providing indigent defense services in federal court for all of Alaska. He supervises a staff of 18, including six attorneys. Curtner has been a public defender for 40 years. He started in the Franklin County Public Defender Office in Columbus, Ohio, while in law school. After ten years, he was an office supervisor and felony trial attorney, handling a number of death penalty cases through trial and appeals. In 1985, he joined the faculty at Ohio State College of Law as supervising attorney in the law school clinical programs. Curtner moved to Alaska in 1987. After spending five years at the state Public Defender Agency in Palmer, he joined the Federal Defender Office in 1992. After short stints in practice and as Training Director at the State Public Defender Office, in 1996 Curtner was appointed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals as the Federal Defender for Alaska. He has served for many years as a member of the Board of Directors of Alaskans Against the Death Penalty, and is a strong supporter of the Alaska Innocence Project. A long time handball enthusiast, he is Chairman of the Alaska Chapter of the United States Handball Association. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Anchorage International Film Festival.