Is that more of a 'big expensive city' thing or is $65k generally considered low in the US? I'm not from there so I am trying to put that into perspective
For a lawyer it doesn't matter where you are in the US that is very low. I used to make more than that doing tech support in a high cost of living area.
In general, that's probably a pretty OK income, not amazing, but probably a bit better than average depending on where you are in the country, but far from being wealthy, you're probably not struggling, but you're not above needing to worry about money sometimes either.
And since public defenders are lawyers, that's kind of a shitty income given that they had to go through law school and such.
I asume it's 65k a year? Gross or net? Not from US, just want to compare. My brother-in-law's fiance is public sector lawyer and she does barely above minimum wage here (eastern EU). She gets somewhere between 15-20k USD a year (net, after tax).
It's not terrible. I mentioned it mainly because getting through law school in the US costs about $200k. Becoming a lawyer is one of the most expensive fields to get into.