Personally I think PD's get a bad rep from movies and crime shows on TV.
I used to belong to an APBA League, one of our members was a supervisor in the Cook County Public Defender's office. Nice guy, had his quirks and smoked bad cigars when we played face to face, but he knew his stuff and if I needed an attorney to defend me I'd consider him if he was in private practice.
Long ago in a galaxy not too far away, my son got into a spot of trouble. On a recommendation from a business acquaintance we hired an attorney. Walked into the office, it was the firm that handled Jeffery Dahmer and Mark Chmura's cases. The case was never prosecuted but the guy they sent us seemed nice.