Federal Defender Organizations | 17,756 followers on LinkedIn. With the Criminal Justice Act of 1964, 18 U.S.C. § 3006A, and its subsequent amendment in 1970, Congress established a comprehensive system for appointing and compensating lawyers to represent financially eligible defendants in federal criminal proceedings. Today, there are 82 authorized federal defender organizations that employ more than 4,000 lawyers, investigators, paralegals, and support personnel and serve 90 of the 94 federal judicial districts.