A Leader with Courage and Perspective
Will Knight is the son of a first-generation Latina immigrant and an American expat who met and married in Popayan, Colombia, where Will was born. From early in life, Will has known the value of a criminal justice system responsive to the needs and concerns of individual victims as well as the community at large. His family narrowly escaped with their lives after being held hostage by the lawless Colombian cartels when his biological father, who had been working with them in secret, wound up deep in their debt. Will also learned firsthand that our criminal justice policies impact not only the accused, but everyone else in their orbit, as well, when his biological father was later sentenced to a lengthy prison term in the United States. His experiences with the justice system and as an immigrant shaped his ambition to become a prosecutor.
Will attended law school at Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where he served as an Editor on the Arizona State Law Journal, published several peer-reviewed articles on the subject of prosecutorial ethics, was elected President of the Chicano/Latino Law Student Association, graduated summa cum laude at the top of his class, and was awarded the prestigious Truman Young Fellowship, making him a rising star in Maricopa’s prosecutorial community. Will began his career in private practice, learning the art of complex commercial litigation at some of the top law firms in Arizona. During that period, he also fought alongside Shawn Aiken and other advocates for equal justice to bring marriage equality to the LGBTQIA+ citizens of this state, and he worked pro bono for the Arizona Justice Project to exonerate those who had been wrongfully convicted. These experiences taught Will that the state’s justice system can work for us. Motivated to make a difference, Will left private practice to serve the public in the specialty “white collar” division of the Maricopa County Public Defender.
Will is an extremely experienced litigator who has successfully conducted dozens of civil and criminal trials in state and federal court, as a prosecutor and a defense attorney. Outside of practice, Will is committed to advancing and developing Arizona’s legal community. He teaches business law and evidence as an adjunct at his alma mater, Arizona State University, volunteers as a coach to Latino law students in moot court competitions, serves as a director of the Los Abogados Hispanic Bar Association and sits on Arizona’s Commissions on Minorities in the Judiciary and Access to Justice. Will was recently honored by the Hispanic National Bar Association as one of the country’s top Hispanic lawyers under 40.
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