By Dustin Slaughter
Assistant District Attorney John McNamara continues to bolster his reputation as a highly-driven and competent prosecutor after securing a nomination for ‘Prosecutor of the Year’ by the Liberty Mid-Atlantic High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) recently.
His path to prosecution began near Chicago, Illinois, where he grew up surrounded by relatives working in law enforcement. “I had a lot of aunts and uncles growing up who were in law enforcement,” McNamara said. Hearing their stories engendered his early interest in public safety work and sparked the beginning of his legal career. After earning his law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, Missouri, McNamara moved to Philadelphia and joined the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office (DAO) in September 2021, viewing prosecution as an opportunity to combine the law with public service.
McNamara has worked across several units of the DAO during his approximately five years as a prosecutor. He began in the Municipal Court Unit, an experience he described as a “trial by fire” that provided an intensive introduction to the city’s criminal justice system. He subsequently served in the Juvenile Unit, Waivers, Major Trials, and Charging, before joining the Dangerous Drug Offenders Unit (DDOU) in January 2025.
His work in DDOU can range from court appearances for preliminary hearings, trials, plea hearings, and bail motions, to advising investigators and reviewing search warrant applications. The rigors of DDOU responsibilities extend well beyond normal business hours. “You might get a call or text at night getting that warrant sent to you, saying, hey, can you look at this?” he said.
McNamara’s work in DDOU focuses on major narcotics investigations and the drug traffickers who profit from this activity. He described the unit as an important resource for investigators and law enforcement agencies working on narcotics cases throughout the city and county of Philadelphia, particularly investigations involving people moving large quantities of drugs, trafficking dangerous substances such as fentanyl, or operating drug markets that inevitably become neighborhood nuisance properties.
He believes that cooperation among law enforcement and prosecutors across southeastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and northern Delaware, is essential because the drug-trafficking problems facing their communities “don’t end at the border of any jurisdiction.”
McNamara also views his work as protecting people vulnerable to addiction from exploitation. “When you and me look at people suffering from addiction on the street, we feel sympathy for them,” he said. “But the individuals that our unit targets, what they’re seeing is profit, they’re seeing money to be made off the back of those people.” He said that confronting this cruelty is “part of what makes me proud of the work that DDOU is able to do.”
McNamara views prosecution as a position of significant public trust, requiring attorneys to balance enforcement with ethical judgment and compassion. “You’re going to be the one going to court every day, likely standing there, and fighting for justice,” he said. He also emphasized that prosecutors must represent society rather than simply their own beliefs. That responsibility can require prosecutors to be “the hammer” in some cases and “the helping hand” in others, where the challenge lies in determining which role is appropriate in any given circumstance.
Outside of the office, McNamara enjoys spending time with friends and family. And as Philadelphia celebrates the 250th anniversary of America’s founding, he has taken an interest in reading historical nonfiction.