Kathleen N. Carey Law Offices: The Chandler Solo Practice That’s Been DUI-Only Since 1997

For anyone searching for a Chandler DUI defense attorney, Kathleen N. Carey Law Offices, PLC is one of the longest-tenured names in the field — a solo practice built entirely around DUI defense since 1997. This independent profile examines what that Chandler DUI defense attorney practice actually offers, checked against primary sources rather than firm marketing.

At a Glance

Origin and Founder History

Kathleen Carey’s DUI defense career started earlier than her bar license — she tried her first DUI jury trial as a law student in a public defender clinic in Tempe. After being admitted to the Arizona bar, she worked in the Mesa (SEF) office of the Maricopa County Public Defender, where she became the attorney her trial group routinely assigned to DUI and vehicular crime cases. She has been in private practice as the principal of Kathleen N. Carey Law Offices, PLC since building out her own DUI-focused firm, and has practiced DUI defense continuously since 1997.

Beyond casework, Carey has an unusually active policy and training record for a solo practitioner: she has served as the Arizona State Delegate to the National College for DUI Defense since 2012, coordinated multi-state efforts on intoxilyzer source code disclosure and testing-preservative issues years ahead of a 2019 FDA breath-testing device recall, assisted in drafting federal student-loan-forgiveness legislation for public defenders with Senator Durbin’s office, and was the first criminal defense attorney appointed by the Arizona House Speaker to the state’s Sex Offender Guidelines Committee. She also sits as a Judge Pro Tem and regularly serves as seminar faculty on DUI defense and motor vehicle law.

Practice Area Breakdown

By Carey’s own accounting, DUI and vehicular-crime defense makes up roughly 70% of her practice, with the remaining 30% split between general criminal defense (misdemeanor and felony) and a smaller tribal/state/federal affairs component. The firm handles the full range of DUI matters — misdemeanor and felony DUI, DMV administrative hearings, contested motion practice, and both jury and non-jury trials — and Carey is trained in field sobriety testing, drug recognition evaluation (DRE), and GC-MS testing methodology, all directly relevant to challenging DUI evidence.

Case Outcomes

Public sourcing did not surface an itemized table of case results with specific charge-reduction or dismissal figures from the firm’s own materials. Carey’s Avvo profile and firm site emphasize her training, policy work, and client outcomes in narrative form rather than a quantified results table. Past results do not guarantee similar outcomes in any future case; case results depend on the specific facts and circumstances of each matter.

Client Voice

“Kathleen is no money hungry attorney like 90 percent of the attorneys in Phoenix… Without her I would of been completely lost and probably in some prison in Arizona. Finding her to represent me was like finding a guardian angel.” — “Estrella,” firm-published testimonial

Carey also holds a 5.0 out of 5.0 Avvo rating across 50 client reviews, with no reported instances of misconduct on her Arizona bar record as of this profile’s research date.

Beyond the Courtroom

Carey’s community and policy involvement runs deeper than most solo-practice DUI attorneys profiled on this platform: legislative work with the Arizona Public Defender Association and Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, participation in the statewide Derendal Task Force preserving the right to jury trial (including an amicus brief filed on behalf of the Maricopa County Public Defender), and outreach visits to schools and community programs on DUI and substance-related legal education.

Recognition

Independently verified: Active Arizona bar license since 1999, no misconduct findings (confirmed via Avvo’s license-status display, which sources State Bar data); National College for DUI Defense Arizona State Delegate designation, corroborated by NCDD’s own published attorney directory.

Firm-stated: Carey does not claim AZ State Bar Board of Legal Specialization “specialist” certification, and this profile does not attribute that term to her — her credentials are professional-association and policy-role based rather than formal Bar specialist certification.

Arizona Legal Backdrop

Arizona defines standard DUI under A.R.S. § 28-1381, with “Extreme” (BAC 0.15–0.199) and “Super Extreme” (BAC 0.20+) DUI carrying enhanced mandatory minimums under A.R.S. § 28-1382. Aggravated DUI, a felony, falls under A.R.S. § 28-1383. Arizona’s implied consent statute (A.R.S. § 28-1321) triggers an automatic license suspension on test refusal, separate from the criminal case, and drivers have 15 days from arrest to request an Admin Per Se hearing under A.R.S. § 28-1385 to contest that suspension. This is general legal information, not legal advice specific to any individual’s circumstances.

Awesome Attorneys Assessment

Carey’s DUI-specific credentials are genuinely unusual for a solo practitioner: a State Delegate role with the country’s principal DUI defense professional body, hands-on breath-testing science training, and a policy record most firm profiles on this platform can’t match. The trade-off is that this is a single-attorney practice (with a small support team) rather than a multi-attorney firm, and public case-outcome data is thin on specifics — prospective clients evaluating a felony or high-stakes DUI matter should ask directly about trial record and outcomes in a consultation rather than relying on the general reputation alone.

Methodology and Sourcing

This profile draws on Kathleen N. Carey Law Offices’ own website (azduiatty.com), Carey’s Avvo attorney profile (license status, rating, and reviews), and the National College for DUI Defense’s Arizona attorney directory and delegate listing. See our other Phoenix-metro DUI defense attorney profiles for comparison, including other Chandler-area practices.

Publisher Disclosure and Independence Notice

This profile was independently researched and written by Awesome Attorneys. It is not a paid placement, and inclusion here was not influenced by any payment or business relationship with the firm. Any future sponsored placement on this platform will be clearly and separately labeled as such. This content is legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship with this firm or with Awesome Attorneys.