About Mr. Damon
Mr. Damon Chetson built a layered academic foundation before entering law. He earned a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994 and followed that with an M.A. in European History from the University of Virginia in 1996. He returned to academics more than a decade later and received his J.D. from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill in 2009.
His early legal work included a stint as a felony law clerk for the Wake County Public Defender in 2007. He then moved into federal indigent-defense panels, joining the Criminal Justice Act panel for the Eastern District of North Carolina in 2011. In 2017 he was appointed as a panel lawyer for the Office of the Capital Defender, handling cases that required representation in capital-related proceedings.
Chetson has experience across trial and appellate settings. He is admitted in North Carolina and has handled matters in the U.S. District Courts for the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina. He is also admitted in the Fourth Circuit. That mix of federal and state work has shaped a practice accustomed to different procedural rules and varying evidentiary demands.
The North Carolina State Bar recognizes him as a Board Certified Specialist in State and Federal Criminal Law. The credential signals extended experience and testing in criminal defense practice under the state bar’s certification program. Professionally he maintains memberships in organizations that reflect his casework: the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National College of DUI Defense and the Wake County Academy of Criminal Trial Lawyers, all of which he joined in 2012. He has been a member of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, the North Carolina Bar Association and the Wake County Bar Association since 2009.
He practices through The Chetson Firm, PLLC. At the firm he has served as a lawyer on a range of criminal matters, from DUI defense to serious felonies and cases that can implicate federal statutes. Courtroom experience and participation on federal and capital defense panels inform how he evaluates cases and prepares them for trial or appeal.
Clients and colleagues describe a lawyer who brings courtroom familiarity and procedural knowledge to each matter. He has worked in public defender settings and on appointed federal panels, and now manages a private practice that continues to accept complex criminal cases. He represents clients in state and federal court, including proceedings in the Fourth Circuit and the Eastern, Middle and Western Districts of North Carolina. His current practice focuses on criminal defense in state and federal courts.
