William Carlos Makler

Attorney William C. Makler has been working in both State and Federal criminal justice as a lawyer and a member of law enforcement since 1989.

He has been practicing law in California since 1996 and is licensed to practice law in all the courts of the State of California, and the Eastern and Central Federal District Courts of California.

He is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego and McGeorge (UOP) School of Law where he was awarded honors in trial advocacy. Mr. Makler has represented thousands of DUI defendants on the Central Coast and, by doing so, he has achieved mastery in every aspect of DUI defense including, but not limited to, pretrial motions, jury trials, appeals and DMV hearings (as well as writs and appeals from adverse action by the DMV).

Mr. Makler was on the faculty of the Santa Barbara & Ventura Colleges of the Law (2006-8) where he taught evidence. Prior to becoming a lawyer, Mr. Makler worked for the University of California Police as well the Palo Alto Police, the American Civil Liberties Union and Death Penalty Focus.

He worked as a courtroom litigator and research attorney for the Federal Public Defender in Sacramento and was a Felony Deputy Public Defender for both the Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz County Public Defender Offices.

Mr. Makler is an active member in good standing of the California Bar Association, the California Public Defenders Association, the Santa Barbara Bar Association, the Santa Barbara Criminal Defense Bar Association, the National College for DUI Defense, Inc., California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, California DUI Lawyers Association and he is currently the president of an organization he helped found, Santa Barbara Defenders.

Mr. Makler was recently elected president of Santa Barbara Defenders, an association of 40 local criminal defense practitioners; an organization he helped found.