Shanahan, Philip E.

Phil Shanahan has been a successful and aggressive criminal defense attorney since 1994. He first came to Alaska in March of 1993 during his final quarter of law school. Having grown up in the Boston area, he was impressed by both the gorgeous Alaskan scenery and the Alaskan way of life. After completing his legal internship with the IBEW, Local 1547 in Anchorage, he returned to Boston just long enough to graduate and make plans to relocate to Alaska that summer.

Upon returning to Anchorage, Mr. Shanahan worked as a contract attorney for several of Anchorage's finest criminal defense and family law attorneys. It was then that he realized that representing individuals accused of crimes was where he wanted to focus his career. For the first several years, Mr. Shanahan had a small private practice; during that time, he also continued his work as a contract attorney, learning from the best of the best. In 1998, he joined the State of Alaska Office of Public Advocacy (OPA) upon the invitation of then-Public Advocate Brant McGee. For nine years, Mr. Shanahan represented indigent people accused of wrongs by the State. Over 95% of those cases involved felony charges, including all levels of homicide, sexual assault, drug and property-related charges. He also handled both appeals and post-conviction relief matters during his time as an Assistant Public Advocate. By the time he left OPA, Mr. Shanahan had spent the last five years handling a felony caseload of upwards of 120 felonies at any given time.

In 2007, Mr. Shanahan joined a private law firm, again practicing exclusively as a criminal defense attorney. During these years, he found that defending DUI/DWI charges was an especially important part of his criminal law practice. He had success at both the administrative DMV hearing level, as well as in the criminal courts of Alaska. During his time at this firm, Mr. Shanahan also represented individuals charged in Federal Court, including those accused of white-collar and drug-related offenses.

Over his 15 plus years of practice, Mr. Shanahan has attended numerous Continuing Legal Education courses in cities like Washington, D.C., Orlando, Las Vegas, and, of course, all around Alaska. Back in 2002, he spent two intense weeks at the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, GA sharing ideas with, and learning from, the Nation's best criminal defense attorneys.

Mr. Shanahan is a1990 graduate of Stonehill College in Massachusetts, where he earned a B.A. in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude. He graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1993, and has been licensed to practice in both Federal and State courts in Alaska since 1994.