Council on Public Defense Equity Forum

Please join the Council on Public Defense on Wednesday, January 10 for an Equity Forum hosted by the Council’s Race Equity Subcommittee. 

The focus of this Forum will be on elevating the voices of future BIPOC legal professionals. Over the past year, the Race Equity Subcommittee has hosted several forum discussions aimed at improving recruitment and retention of BIPOC legal professionals working in indigent defense. For this, the final forum, the Subcommittee is facilitating a discussion between these legal professionals and BIPOC law students interested in this work.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

12pm-1:30pm on Zoom

Register Here

Questions: cpd@wsba.org

Defenders Rising Virtual Meet-ups

The Washington Defender Association (WDA) Defenders Rising Initiative is hosting two upcoming Public Defender Panels. These panels are virtual meet-ups offered to law students who are interested in learning about internship opportunities and life and work in public defense careers in Washington state. 

The same content will be offered on two dates/times to give students flexibility. This year the dates and times are:

Tuesday, April 18, 2023, 12:00 - 1:15 PM

Wednesday April 19, 2023, 4:00 - 5:15 PM

Bring your questions and join the Zoom! (The same link and meeting ID will be used for both sessions.)

Meeting ID: 825 6224 4244

Passcode: 133179

You will hear first-hand from public defenders from across the state of Washington as they share 

• Experiences working in public defense in different locations, 

• What they love about the work of public defense

• How different defender offices vary in size, type, and culture

• Opportunities and life outside of work in the communities where defenders live and work

Plus, you can learn about possible internship and externship opportunities along with hiring practices and tips for standing out in the application process. 

Learn more about Defenders Rising here. The goal of Defenders Rising is threefold: to cultivate the next generation of public defenders while they are still in law school; to increase diversity in the indigent defense bar; and to foster relationships between future defenders and defender offices across the state.   

Defenders Rising Event – Fall 2022 Public Defender Panels

The Washington Defender Association (WDA) Defenders Rising initiative is hosting two upcoming Public Defender Panels. These panels are *virtual* meet-ups offered to law students who are interested in learning about internship opportunities and life and work in public defense careers in Washington state.

WDA will offer the same content on these two dates AND at different times to give students flexibility:

- Wednesday November 9th from 4:00-5:00 PM 

- Tuesday November 15th from 12:00-1:00 PM

You will hear first-hand from Public Defenders from across the state as they share their experiences working in public defense, what they love about the work, how different offices vary in sizes, types and culture, learn about opportunities for life outside of work and the communities where defenders live and work. You can learn about possible internship and externship opportunities and hiring practices (and tips!).

The goal of Defenders Rising is threefold: to cultivate the next generation of public defenders while they are still in law school, to increase diversity in the indigent defense bar, and to foster relationships between future defenders and defender offices across the state. 

Zoom link for both sessions.

WACDL Paperless Trials Webinar

Paperless Trials Webinar

Start Date: 11/5/2021 8:30 AM PDT
End Date: 11/5/2021 12:00 PM PDT

This program is FREE for law students; register here 

Organization Name: Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers

Contact:

Amy Hirotaka
Email: info@wacdl.org
Phone: (206) 623-1302

Paperless Trials
Kristen Gestaut and Denice Gagner, co-chairs

Schedule:

8:30 AM	Jurybox Demo Jeff Castleton
9:00 AM	Perspective from the Bench Judge David Keenan
10:00 AM	Effective Use of OneNote and Other Tech for Presentations Susy Sobel and Sarra Marie
11:00 AM	Electronic Ethics Mo Hamoudi
Noon	End

MCLE application has been made for 2 law and legal credits and 1 ethics credit.

Public Defender Corps

Across the country, public defender offices are underfunded, understaffed and burdened with insurmountable caseloads. With too few public defenders handling too many cases, those who cannot afford representation are being denied their fundamental right to counsel.

Equal Justice Works and the Southern Public Defender Training Center have launched a new initiative to combat this growing problem. Public Defender Corps will provide intensive training and mentoring to new attorneys with the goal of supporting the public defender community and raising the standard of representation across the country.

The inaugural class of 18 Public Defender Corps members have completed training and joined public defender offices in Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee where they will receive ongoing training and mentoring.

The 2012 Public Defender Corps application is now open. Applications for the 2012 Public Defender Corps class are now being accepted. Applications must be completed and submitted online by 5 p.m. EDT, Friday, September 30, 2011.