Thomas M. Fleming Has Spent Decades Defending the Accused—and Teaching the Law Behind the Fight

Some criminal-defense lawyers build their identities around a handful of courtroom victories. Thomas M. Fleming built his across three demanding arenas: the California Supreme Court, the public defender’s trial table, and the university classroom. That combination gives his work an unusual depth. He has studied how legal rules are shaped, tested them before juries, and spent decades teaching others how law, power, and constitutional rights collide in the real world.

Fleming’s legal foundation is impressive. After graduating from Yale Law School, he served as a judicial law clerk to California Supreme Court Justice Allen E. Broussard. He then practiced with Pillsbury, Madison & Sutro before beginning the defining chapter of his courtroom career: more than 20 years as a Contra Costa County public defender.

From 1991 through 2014, Fleming represented people who could not afford private counsel, handling criminal and DUI cases and taking numerous matters before juries. Public-defense work is an unforgiving education. The calendar is relentless, the resources are limited, and every client arrives with something consequential at risk. Fleming emerged from those years with the composure of someone who has spent a substantial portion of his professional life confronting prosecutors, challenging government evidence, and making high-pressure decisions in court.

What separates Fleming even further is that his knowledge did not remain confined to the courtroom. He has taught at UC Berkeley since 1995 and is currently identified by the university as a lecturer in Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies and Ethnic Studies. His courses examine law in the Asian American community and the relationship between racism and American law. He was also appointed a UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Public Scholar and previously served as an adjunct professor of law, teaching criminal-trial skills to future prosecutors and defense attorneys. Fleming has not simply practiced criminal law; he has helped train people to understand, argue, and question it.

In 2014, he established the Law Offices of Thomas M. Fleming and brought that accumulated experience into private criminal defense. His reported outcomes demonstrate why the transition mattered. In one DUI case involving a reported .36 blood-alcohol concentration, Fleming secured a not-guilty verdict. In another matter, a healthcare professional faced felony hit-and-run allegations involving an injured pedestrian and a prosecutor seeking months in jail. Fleming persuaded the court to grant diversion and dismiss the case over the prosecution’s objection, then obtained an order sealing the arrest record.

His DUI record includes similarly significant resolutions. A case involving a reported .16 BAC was dismissed after Fleming identified a late filing and lack of proper notification and successfully challenged the procedural defect. A client arrested with a reported .103 BAC prevailed at the DMV hearing, preserved the client’s driving privileges, and ultimately had the DUI case dismissed in exchange for a speeding citation, traffic school, and limited voluntary community work. Another client accused of driving approximately 100 mph with a reported .13 BAC avoided a DUI conviction, license suspension, jail, community service, and an SR-22 requirement.

Past outcomes never guarantee future results, but these matters reveal the range of Fleming’s defense work: jury advocacy, procedural challenges, DMV litigation, negotiated resolutions, and rehabilitation-focused arguments capable of changing how a court views a client. They also show an attorney who understands that the most meaningful result is not always found in a dramatic verdict. Sometimes it is a preserved career, an unblemished license, a sealed arrest, or the opportunity to move forward without a criminal conviction.

Fleming’s professional stature has also been recognized beyond his own practice. In 2015, he was selected to The National Trial Lawyers’ Top 100 Trial Lawyers, adding formal recognition to a career already defined by public service, courtroom advocacy, and legal education.

Thomas M. Fleming offers a depth of perspective that is difficult to replicate—earned across appellate chambers, public-defense courtrooms, private practice, and decades of teaching. For someone confronting the immense power of the government, that perspective may be his most valuable credential.

That combination of experience, reputation, verified professional standing, and public credibility is why Thomas M. Fleming was included on FreddieFender.com.