Robert McKnight
Staff Attorney, Orleans Public Defenders
Robert McKnight, a native New Orleanian, is a staff attorney at the Orleans Public Defenders office. Robert decided at age 8 that he wanted to be a lawyer and drew interest from Charles Hamilton Houston’s quote, “a lawyer is either a social engineer, or he’s a parasite on society.”
Prior to joining the Orleans Public Defenders, Robert held legal externships at the United States House of Representatives for a Louisiana Congressman, the Texas State Senate, the Louisiana State Senate and the Louisiana Attorney’s General’s office. Robert also clerked for an Orleans criminal district court judge.
Robert is a graduate of St. Augustine High School and a cum laude graduate of Southern University Law Center where he served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Race, Gender and Poverty.
During Robert’s first year with the Martinet Society, he has been extremely active and participatory in multiple committees. Most recently, Robert helped plan and execute our Second Line to the Polls event where we distributed pamphlets with information about the different candidates on the ballot and encouraged fellow New Orleanians to head to the polls and vote. Robert is a proud member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., and we are proud to honor him as our member of the month!