Kristina Wildeveld, Esq.
Law Offices of Kristina Wildeveld & Associates
Criminal Defense, Complex, Criminal, Civil, Litigation

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Kristina Wildeveld is a Las Vegas criminal defense lawyer and founder of the Law Offices of Kristina Wildeveld & Associates. A lifelong Las Vegas resident, she graduated from Bishop Gorman High School in 1988, studied chemistry and English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and earned her J.D. from California Western School of Law in about twenty months. She was admitted to the Nevada bar in 1996 and the California bar in 2005. She speaks English, Spanish, and Italian.

She began as an extern for U.S. District Judge Philip M. Pro, then clerked for eighteen months for Eighth Judicial District Judge Terrance P. Marren in Family Court, working on domestic cases, guardianships, temporary protective orders, domestic violence, abuse and neglect, and juvenile delinquency. In 1997 she joined the new Office of the Special Public Defender under Michael Cherry, a conflict office created for capital murder cases. She spent the next eight years defending first-degree murder cases in which the death penalty was often sought. She was then the youngest death-qualified lawyer in Nevada and remains one of the few attorneys qualified under Supreme Court Rule 250 to handle capital cases in Las Vegas.

She opened her own firm in 2005 after leaving public defense. The practice represents people under investigation or prosecution in Nevada and California, including Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Reno, rural counties, and Southern California. The docket covers DUI, domestic violence, drugs, theft and fraud, internet and sex offenses, juvenile crime, white-collar and federal charges, homicide, and death-penalty defense, as well as appeals, post-conviction work, pardons, record sealing, and civil-rights claims arising from arrest or investigation. The firm practices in local, state, and federal courts, including the Nevada Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit. It reports having defended thousands of cases and obtained acquittals and dismissals ranging from misdemeanors to category A felonies.

Wildeveld’s clemency work includes a full presidential pardon in 2020 for Jon Ponder, founder of Hope for Prisoners, after she first won state clemency and then pursued a federal pardon. The firm has also been associated with wrongful-conviction compensation matters and legislation on capital punishment. Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice named her Defender of the Year in 2016. She is a graduate of the National Criminal Defense College, a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a longtime CASA board member. She has also received the Karen Winkler Award for defense advocacy.