
Please be advised that registration for all Training Division Events is limited to persons who provide services pursuant to the Federal Criminal Justice Act (CJA). For more information please read our Training Events Registration Disclaimer. Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for DSO Training Division Programs will be requested unless otherwise noted. Program Credit hours will always be subject to each state's approval and credit rounding rules. Approved programs and credit hours will be made available at the conclusion of applicable programs.
NEW For CLE information and available resources pertaining to your state, please visit the CLE Information Center.
Please read the 2023 DSO In-Person Health & Safety Protocols.
If you have any questions about registering, please emailus.
26 - 28
IN PERSON - Trial Skills Workshop: Bail Boot Camp
Three out of every four federal criminal defendants in the United States are held in pretrial detention, despite a presumption of innocence. Shocked? A high majority of the people held are of color. Outraged? One reason for this high rate of pretrial detention involves a misunderstanding and misapplication by the parties – the court, the prosecution, probation, and yes, the defense – of the Bail Reform Act (BRA). Appalled? The failure of the parties to adhere to the Bail Reform Act and the lack of zealous advocacy at the initial appearance and detention hearings have led to a crisis within the federal bail system – a crisis that has caused detrimental, and in many cases, irreversible negative consequences to the clients we represent.
The Bail Boot Camp is a skills-based workshop designed to change the system. Using a combination of lectures, demonstrations, and small group exercises, participants will learn the tools necessary to zealously defend their clients in the context of initial appearances and detention hearings.
Registration will be limited to 60 CJA Panel Attorneys, Federal Defender attorneys/staff, and other legal professionals that provide work under the Criminal Justice Act. Limited financial assistance may be available to CJA Panel Attorneys.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this workshop will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions.
2 - 4
Race in the Federal Criminal Court: Strategies in Pursuit of Justice
The history of the American criminal legal system is marked by racial inequity. Across time and space, numerous racialized groups – from the Indigenous Tribes of North America to the well-documented high rate of imprisonment among Black people to prioritizing the prosecution of Latinx people in the U.S. and along the southern border – have been a focus of attention for the nation’s courts.
The Race in the Federal Criminal Court: Strategies in Pursuit of Justice conference is an inclusive program designed to share with everyone working pursuant to the Criminal Justice Act about the many ways race impacts the administration of justice and to provide them with strategies and innovation to combat racial injustice in the criminal legal system.
Areas to be addressed include strategies on litigating race from the police encounter on the street and the Fourth Amendment, roadmap for successful Batson challenges, practical tips in defending noncitizens, and ways to decrease racial disparities in detention hearings, charging, pleas, and at sentencing. In addition, sessions devoted to teaching a trauma-informed approach to interviewing, counseling, and other aspects of defender work, exposing racial disparities in risk assessment tools, learning ways diverse teams can work cohesively and effectively, and several other sessions dealing with litigation, mitigation, and professional development will be presented in both plenary and breakout sessions. We will also hear and learn directly from those who have experienced the unnecessary cruelty of the law firsthand.
This program is open to everyone working with federal defender and CJA panel attorneys. Yes, that means both attorneys and non-attorneys, investigators, paralegals, legal assistants, and any defense professional who will find the program’s content valuable to their work.
The conference includes an optional visit to the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum.
If you have questions about the content of this workshop, please contact Akin Adepoju at Akin_Adepoju@ao.uscourts.gov.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. This program may satisfy CLE requirements in ethics, elimination of bias, inclusion and cultural competency, and professionalism.
15
Virtual Series: Evidence 2023 Part II – The Busy Lawyer’s Guide to Opinion Testimony (Lay and Expert)
Opinion testimony is often abused by the prosecution. This presentation will review the rules dealing with lay and expert witness testimony, will point out traps for the unwary and how to avoid them, and will equip counsel with defense favorable cases. The presentation will also cover “junk science” and how to try to get it excluded from trial.
Presenter
Rene Valladares is the Federal Public Defender for the District of Nevada. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Boyd School of Law, and the UNLV Criminal Justice Department. He lectures nationally on various criminal law and procedure topics including evidence and the defense of conspiracy cases. Mr. Valladares serves on the Federal Defenders' Performance Measurement Working Group. Recently, Rene Valladares wrote a Defender’s Guide to Federal Evidence: A Trial Practice Handbook for Criminal Defense Attorneys, published by NACDL.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Additional CLE information will be available after the conclusion of this program. For more information about CLE, please visit our CLE Information Center.
23 - 24
Fundamentals of Federal Criminal Defense Seminar II
This program is designed for those new to federal criminal defense practice and addresses topics such as discovery and motion practice, pleas and proffers, the Bail Reform Act, and the basics of the sentencing guidelines.
The Fundamentals of Federal Criminal Defense program is a 1 ½ day program, ending at noon on Friday, February 24, 2023. Fundamentals will occur concurrently with the Winning Strategies Seminar (a 2 1/2 day program), which runs from February 23-25, 2023, at the same hotel. Fundamentals registrants are welcome and invited to stay over and attend the Winning Strategies Seminar. Separate registration is not required; however, when you register for Fundamentals, please answer “yes” to the registration question about whether you also plan to stay and attend Winning Strategies.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this workshop will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Limited financial assistance may be available to non-federal defender registrants for travel purposes. Financial assistance applications will be available when registration opens.
23 - 25
Winning Strategies Seminar II
The Winning Strategies Seminar brings together a dynamic group of attorneys and other legal professionals to speak on a wide variety of topics, all specifically designed to keep CJA practitioners abreast of the most recent and important developments in federal criminal defense. Sessions include both large plenary lectures as well as smaller breakout sessions that meet the specific needs of the advanced practitioner and the less experienced attorney alike. The anticipated sessions will include such topics as defending drug, conspiracy and immigration cases, post-Bruen developments, implicit bias, sentencing issues, forensic issues, ethics, and more.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this workshop will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Limited financial assistance may be available to non-federal defender registrants for travel purposes. Financial assistance applications will be available when registration opens.
2 - 3
Non Capital Habeas Conference
This program will cover the broad spectrum of issues specific to habeas corpus litigation on behalf of state and federal prisoners with noncapital cases. Plenary sessions will feature both national speakers and seasoned non-capital habeas attorneys, with breakout sessions for advanced and novice habeas practitioners. Sessions will include investigating and pleading claims, and habeas case updates from the circuits. Anticipated novice track topics include: introductions to timeliness; exhaustion, and procedural default. Anticipated advanced track topics include: interplay between 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(2) and (e)(1) and real-case brainstorm session.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Additional CLE information will be available after the conclusion of this program.
9 - 11
IN-PERSON Law & Technology Series: Techniques in Electronic Case Management (TECM) Workshop
Knowing how to search, review, and analyze electronic discovery is a critical skill for federal criminal defense attorneys. In fact, the first principle of the national joint electronic discovery protocol developed by representatives of the Federal Public Defenders, CJA panel attorneys, the Defender Services Office and the Department of Justice reflects this trend in the law: “[l]awyers have a responsibility to have an adequate understanding of electronic discovery.” Office of the U.S. Courts Joint Working Grp. on Elec. Tech. in the Criminal Justice Sys., Recommendations for Electronically Stored Information (ESI) Discovery Production in Federal Criminal Cases Recommendations 2 (2012). The ABA has adopted this position. See Commentary to Model Rule of Professional Responsibility 1.1. The Law & Technology Series: Techniques in Electronic Case Management (TECM) Workshop is an attorney focused program that exposes defense counsel to legal, strategic, and technological considerations involved in cases with electronic discovery. This two-and-a-half-day program uses a combination of plenary presentations and small group, hands-on instruction.
Designed specifically for CJA panel attorneys who work on their own, most of the participants’ time will be in small groups doing hands-on, interactive exercises that demonstrate strategies for solving e-discovery challenges facing federal criminal defense practitioners. Besides gaining an understanding of the legal, practical, and technological issues involved with managing electronic discovery common in federal criminal cases, participants will learn basic and advanced features of four litigation support software programs (Adobe Acrobat Pro, dtSearch, Cellebrite Reader, and CaseMap/TimeMap suite) that they can immediately incorporate into their daily practice. Attorneys will better understand how litigation support programs work, how they can use these tools while working on their own, and how they can leverage the knowledge and skills gained from the workshop to collaborate with co-counsel, paralegals, investigators, and experts in the future.
9 - 11
IN PERSON - Grit: A Workshop To Energize, Elevate And Educate Women In Public Defense
Grit is a workshop designed by women and about women. For the first time Grit will take place in person! We will gather from March 9-11, 2023 in a very interactive format that involves live speakers, small group discussions, wellness offerings, self-assessment tools, and more.
Who may register?
We welcome all members of the legal team from federal defender offices or who are on CJA panels who seek community, growth, inspiration and time for reflection and goal setting. Our faculty is composed of legal assistants, paralegals, investigators, mitigation specialists, administrative officers, and lawyers.
Program description
Women in the indigent criminal defense field have many successes to celebrate and also face unique challenges. Participants in this small, women-focused program will find an active, collaborative, supportive community. This training will address a variety of topics as experienced by women including the journey to legal work, how to be a good mentor, improving communication in the office and in the courtroom, embracing strengths, identifying leadership goals, navigating relationships with colleagues and clients, building teams, understanding vicarious trauma, exploring work-life balance, and self-care practices and more.
Whether you are at the beginning of your work life or further along and hitting your stride, assuming leadership roles and maybe facing a roadblock, this workshop is for you. It is introspective, retrospective and prospective. By the end of this training, participants will appreciate anew how the community of women defense professionals is large and welcoming, fiercely committed to the mission and absolutely essential to the representation of indigent clients. Participants will set goals, learn strategies for handling challenges that arise, and strengthen a network of women colleagues upon whom they can depend.
If you have attended our virtual Grit, you are welcome to apply to attend the in-person Grit. Please note, however, that although we have added some new content, some speakers and presentations are the same as you will have experienced in the virtual programs.
As with all DSOTD programs, there is no registration fee, and materials will be provided free of charge.
DSO Training Division will not be requesting CLE for the Grit Workshop nor collecting state bar numbers. However, we will issue a Certificate of Attendance to all confirmed attendees post-program. We encourage you to contact your state bar directly if you wish to seek a type of CLE credit for this program. Visit our CLE Information Center for your state bar’s CLE contact details.
For questions about the substance of the workshop, please contact Lisa Lunt at Lisa_Lunt@ao.uscourts.gov for questions about registration or other logistics, please contact Daniel Calderon at Daniel_Calderon@ao.uscourts.gov.
23 - 25
IN PERSON - The Andrea Taylor Sentencing Advocacy Workshop
The Andrea Taylor Sentencing Advocacy Workshop focuses on a vital area of federal practice that has evolved since the Supreme Court declared the federal sentencing guidelines advisory and no longer mandatory. Since approximately 97% of federal criminal cases continue to the sentencing phase, participation in the Sentencing Advocacy Workshop should not be missed. The Sentencing Advocacy Workshop teaches a comprehensive approach to sentencing where participants are trained to develop persuasive, fact based, sentencing theories, and they are provided with the advocacy skills necessary to advance their theories both in writing and during sentencing hearings. Presentations and demonstrations at the workshop include client relations and interviewing for mitigation, brainstorming the facts of the case, developing persuasive theories and themes, storytelling at sentencing, persuasive writing, and persuasive presentation. The workshop consists of plenary sessions and small group breakout sessions. In the small group sessions, participants will use pending cases of their own to brainstorm facts, develop theories and themes, practice storytelling, persuasively write part of their sentencing memorandums and discuss how best to conduct sentencing hearings.
12 - 14
IN PERSON: Train the Trainers Workshop
The Train the Trainers Workshop is designed to enhance training skills and expand the pool of experienced legal professionals available to serve as faculty at local legal education programs designed for CJA Panel Attorneys and Federal Defender Employees, and national Defender Services Office Training Division (DSO-TD) events. Participants will learn, discuss, and apply principles of adult learning, effective training design, small group facilitation skills, and interactive teaching techniques and methodologies. The workshop is open to CJA Panel Attorneys, Federal Defender Employees, and others who provide services under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA). All participants must bring a laptop with PowerPoint or another presentation software on it to the workshop. Two weeks prior to the workshop, each participant must submit a proposed topic they are interested in providing training on to fellow CJA practitioners. If you have done a training on this topic before, please provide a written description and outline of that training. Those who have not done training before but are interested in doing so are highly encouraged to apply. Registration is limited to 40 people. Limited financial assistance may be available to non-federal defender registrants for travel expenses. Early registration is encouraged.
20 - 22
IN PERSON - Trial Skills Workshop / Crimes Decoded: Emerging Digital Litigation Technology Strategies
Crimes Decoded explores the intersection of digital technology and zealous advocacy in criminal cases. We aim to increase understanding and inspire CJA lawyers and Federal Public Defenders to think innovatively about how to litigate issues surrounding the digital technology that increasingly permeates their cases. We aim to build lawyers' confidence to use traditional advocacy skills with a new understanding of the potential challenges to the technology that law enforcement is using. With knowledge and skills, we can be successful in all phases of representation.
The program is a skills-based workshop. The expectation is that participants spend much of the workshop on their feet practicing their advocacy skills. Participants are divided into small groups that will practice the skills necessary to effectively exclude, explain, and/or persuade a Judge or Jury about the technology utilized. Lectures and demonstrations of these skills supplement and inform the small group workshops. The program consists of 10 plenary presentations, 5 workshop sessions, 2 demonstrations, and two optional events: (1) a "happening hour" where we invite participants to seek advice on any active cases from our experienced faculty, and an optional social gathering, and (2) a 75-minute lunch session for CJA attorneys titled "Vouch for your Voucher" which will focus on court rules for submitting expert requests to the court and best practices for submitting persuasive requests.
Because of the hands-on format of this workshop, attendance will be limited, and each participant must apply to be accepted to the program by completing the registration. Completed registration applications will be reviewed in the order they are received.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Additional CLE information will be available after the conclusion of this program.
24
Freedom Denied: Combatting Pretrial Detention
This webinar will train you to keep your clients out of jail. Professor Siegler will also share the shocking results of her national investigation of federal pretrial detention, which reveals a crisis of epic proportions, with federal judges jailing our clients in violation of federal law, jailing clients for poverty, and even locking people in jail without lawyers. You will learn how to marshal the Bail Reform Act to combat those unlawful practices, reduce racial disparities, and win your clients’ release. The presentation (90 minutes) will be followed by a Q&A session (30 minutes).
Presenter:
Alison Siegler is the Founding Director of the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic (FCJC) at the University of Chicago Law School, the first legal clinic devoted to representing indigent clients charged with federal felonies, pursuing impact litigation in federal court, and engaging in systemic reform of the federal criminal system. Professor Siegler’s clinic recently published the first comprehensive national investigation of federal pretrial detention, Freedom Denied: How the Culture of Detention Created a Federal Jailing Crisis, which finds that federal judges routinely violate the Bail Reform Act and jail clients unlawfully. Professor Siegler has testified before Congress about the need for federal bond reform. She has also trained hundreds of federal magistrate judges, AFDs, and CJA lawyers on the Bail Reform Act. Professor Siegler’s clinic previously garnered national recognition for its contributions to groundbreaking federal race discrimination litigation in the “stash house” cases in Chicago. Before founding the FCJC, Professor Siegler served as a Staff Attorney with the Federal Defender Program in Chicago, a Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic, and a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman in Chicago. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale College, earned
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) accreditation for this program will be sought in all applicable jurisdictions. Additional CLE information will be available after the conclusion of this program. For more information about CLE, please visit our CLE Information Center.
16 - 18
In-Person: Federal Defender Investigator & Paralegal Seminar
This two-and-a-half-day seminar will cover a wide range of topics specifically targeted toward investigators, paralegals, and others who contribute to defending federal criminal cases. A mix of plenary and concurrent breakout sessions will address areas such as online investigation, BOP issues, sentencing mitigation, mental health, document management and analysis, and offense-specific tips for building a powerful defense. Also, this program will include presentations on issues relevant to all members of the defense team including mitigation specialists and social workers. Finally, this training event will incorporate presentations centered on interpreters and those who perform interpreter duties in their offices or cases, as well as paralegals and investigators who work with bi-lingual clients and staff.