Organizational Landscapes of Legal Defense: Type of Counsel and Criminal Case Outcomes Across Inquisitorial and Adversarial Systems

Is state-provided legal counsel comparable to private representation? Drawing on organizational sociology and social movements theory, we argue that public defender effectiveness depends on the organizational landscape in which defense operates. Public defenders are more likely to secure favorable outcomes when they have adequate resources, when procedures strengthen defendants’ rights, and when prosecutors have flexibility in case disposition. We evaluate this argument using matching methods and case-level data from a Mexican state transitioning from an inquisitorial to an adversarial criminal justice system. We show that public defenders outperform retained counsel in preventing conviction under the adversarial system but perform worse under the inquisitorial system. Differences in convictions are concentrated in cases involving flagrante delicto detentions, a procedural area explicitly targeted by the reform. Sentencing differences are weaker and less consistent. These findings show that defense effectiveness varies across institutional contexts, contributing to comparative research on legal representation and criminal courts.