Assistant Dean Crabbe is among Nation’s Top Young Lawyers

Assistant Dean Heather Crabbe is one of just 40 young lawyers the American Bar Association recognized nationally this year for professional accomplishments. The Young Lawyers Division gave her its On the Rise−Top 40 Young Lawyers Award that recognizes achievement, innovation, and leadership. It is all for her work as assistant dean for students, as a Kentucky public defender prior to becoming an administrator, and as an entrepreneur in a virtual reality training program she is developing.

At Chase, she organizes the NKU Chase Multicultural Law Academy to introduce high school students from diverse racial and ethnic groups to possible careers in law, is a mentor to law school and undergraduate students, and has coached the Black Law Students Association’s Thurgood Marshall Mock Trial Team, among other roles.

As a public defender, she had a reputation for being a tireless defender of clients and having a willingness to make her training in death-penalty cases available for trials outside her assigned geographic area.

As an entrepreneur, she and a business partner are developing a training program to enhance relationships between law enforcement and community individuals by allowing them to experience simulated interactions from the perspective of the other person.

Assistant Dean Crabbe was graduated from Chase in 2007, and returned to the college in 2014 as an outreach officer. She became assistant dean for students in 2015.