Kassius O. Benson is in private practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His practice focuses on the criminal defense of individuals charged with crimes in state and federal court. Mr. Benson also litigates civil matters involving asset and property forfeitures linked to white collar and narcotics investigations.  Over the last four years, Benson has frequently lectured on matters relating to criminal law and trial practice. He is an annual faculty member at the Minnesota Public Defender Trial Advocacy Institute where he teaches trial skills to public defenders in Minnesota. In 2006, Benson was a Visiting Associate Professor for Clinics at the University of Minnesota Law School where he taught law students enrolled in the Misdemeanor Criminal Defense Clinic. He began his legal career as a public defender at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. and at the Hennepin County Public Defender’s Office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Benson is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Anna Blitz (Georgia)

Anna Blitz is a staff attorney with the Federal Defender Program, Inc. in Atlanta. Prior to this, she was an assistant public defender with the Fulton County Public Defenders Office where she handled felony cases from arraignment through trial and if necessary, through the appeals process. Blitz began a private practice in 1999 with a sole emphasis on criminal defense.  She dedicated a portion of the practice to indigent defense work. Blitz earned her bachelor’s degree and J.D. from Georgia State University.

William Boggs (Louisiana)

William Boggs is a Supervising Attorney with the Orleans Public Defenders. He attended Columbia Law School and after graduation worked as a law clerk in federal district court in Manhattan, NY. After 3 years in corporate litigation in London and New York, he wanted to represent indigent clients and joined the NY Legal Aid Society where he worked as a staff attorney in the Criminal Defense Division for 3 years before moving to Louisiana. His deep sense of justice is somewhat informed by his wrongful dismissal in 1979 from the William Southern Elementary School Safety Patrol Team for fighting. To this day, he asserts his innocence.

Stephen B. Bright (Georgia)

Stephen B. Bright is the President of the Southern Center for Human Rights, a non-profit, public interest law firm dedicated to enforcing the civil and human rights of people in the criminal justice system in the South.  The Center’s legal work includes representing prisoners in challenges to unconstitutional conditions and practices in prisons and jails; challenging systemic failures in the legal representation of poor people in the criminal courts; and representing people facing the death penalty who otherwise would have no representation.  Bright was the Director of the Center from 1982 to 2005. While leading the fight against injustices in the South, Bright has taught law courses at Yale, Harvard, Emory, Georgetown, Northeastern, and Florida State universities, and a course on international human rights law and capital punishment at the Institute on World Legal Problems in Innsbruck, Austria, conducted by St. Mary’s University School of Law.  He received the American Bar Association’s Thurgood Marshall Award, presented at the ABA Annual Meeting in 1998; the Roger Baldwin Medal of Liberty presented in 1991 by the American Civil Liberties Union; the Kutak-Dodds Prize, presented in 1992 by the National Legal Aid & Defender Association; and other awards.

Torris Butterfield (Georgia)

Torris Butterfield is a criminal defense attorney in Atlanta, GA.  He began his legal career as a public defender in the Fulton County Public Defenders Office in Atlanta, GA.  After a very successful career as a public defender, Torris opened his own practice representing people charged with all types of criminal offenses.  Torris continues to practice like a public defender, providing clients with very personal, client-centered representation.  He often provides reduced rates to clients who otherwise would not be able to retain counsel and has been known to provide pro bono service in some cases. 

Daisy Bygrave (California)

Daisy Bygrave works as a Deputy Federal Public Defender in Los Angeles, California, in the Capital Habeas Unit. As a capital habeas attorney, Bygrave represents individuals on California’s Death Row, assisting them primarily in federal court as they challenge the constitutionality of their convictions. Before moving to Los Angeles, Bygrave spent five years in the Office of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. There she practiced as a trial attorney where she represented both juvenile and adult indigent clients. Bygrave’s practice included the representation of individuals charged with misdemeanor, felony, serious felony and life offenses, and 17 of these cases Bygrave tried before a jury. Before embarking on her career as a public defender, she worked as a litigation attorney at Shaw Pittman, LLP, in Washington, D.C. Bygrave earned her JD from Harvard Law School and her bachelor’s degree from Seton Hall University.

Jason Carini (California)

Jason Carini resigned as the Chief Assistant Public Defender for the Cordele Judicial Circuit Office of the Public Defender in Cordele, GA in 2008. Between the time he joined the office in 2005 and 2008, he represented indigent clients at jury trials ranging from speeding to murder. Carini was a member of the 2005 inaugural class of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Honors Program. He earned a B.A. in Political Science and a B.A. in Philosophy from Williams, and his J.D. from Boston College.

Tucker Carrington (Mississippi)

Tucker Carrington is the Director of the Mississippi Innocence Project at the University of Mississippi School of Law. He served as E. Barret Prettyman Fellow from 1997 to 1999 and years later became a visiting professor with the Georgetown Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic and the E. Barret Prettyman Program from 2005 to 2007. He also worked as a Trial and Supervising Attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Carrington earned his JD from the University of Tennessee Law School in 1997. 

Hope Demps (Georgia)

Hope Demps is a senior staff attorney in the Rome Circuit Public Defenders Office in Rome, Georgia where she supervises and participates in trainings for  junior counsel. She has litigated over 20 felony cases for the Rome office.  Demps has also litigated cases in criminal and civil court at Demps Law Group in Atlanta, Georgia.  She is a member of the State Bar of Florida and Georgia.  She was selected for the 2005 inaugural class of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Honors Program.  Demps is also a member of the D.M.W.C. Justice Task Force.  Demps earned her B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science, magnum cum laude, at Spelman College and her J.D. from the University of Florida.

David Dunn (Georgia)

David Dunn is the Lookout Mountain Circuit Public Defender and the Circuit Public Defender representative to the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.  Prior to joining the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, he worked as an attorney in private practice,  most recently as a solo practitioner in Ringgold, GA, where he resides with the Rossville, GA firm of Gleason, Davis and Dunn.  He began his career as a Chief Assistant District Attorney for the LMJC.  Dunn earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia in 1980 and a law degree from the University of Georgia School of Law in 1983.

Todd Edelman (Washington, D.C.)

Todd E. Edelman is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he teaches in the Criminal Justice Clinic. Edelman spent eight years as a trial attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. At PDS, he served as Chief of the agency’s Serious Felony Section and as its Training Director. Edelman has also served on the faculty of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Trial Advocacy College, the AFL-CIO Lawyers’ Coordinating Committee Litigation Workshop, and the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Honors Program. From 2005 to 2008, he was counsel to the firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser P.L.L.C., focusing his practice on federal criminal litigation and complex civil litigation. Edelman is a graduate of Yale University and of the New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar.

Jodie English (Indiana)

Jodie English has been practicing law since 1979. From 1979-1981 she was a public defender in North Carolina. From 1981 – 1984 she was a Federal Defender in Maryland. At present, she is in private practice in Indianapolis focusing on major felonies and capital defense. She also serves as a Training Consultant for the Indiana Public Defender Council. English has taught criminal defense lawyers in twenty seven states and was part of a team of criminal defense lawyers that were invited to Moscow to facilitate the Russians’ transition from three judge panels to juries. English has been a faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College summer Trial Practice Institutes annually since 1981, for NCDC’s advanced programs in Cross Examination, Theories and Themes of Persuasion, Voir Dire and Closing Argument; for the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy in San Diego; for the Western Trial Advocacy Institute in Laramie, Wyoming; and capital trial advocacy programs run by NLADA, the Depaul Center for Justice in Capital Cases, the Bryan Schechmeister Death Penalty College in San Jose, California, the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice and California Public Defenders Association’s Capital Case Defense Seminar in Monterey, as well as NACDL’s Colorado Method Voir Dire Trainings in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Boulder. English has been a member of four successful capital trial teams in Indiana. She has mentored three capital post conviction teams and testified as an expert on ineffective assistance in two Indiana cases. She served on the Supreme Court Rules Committee from 1998-2006. English was a member of IPDC’s Board of Directors from 1991–1998 and was Board Chair from 1994-1996. She is the author of “Techniques for Teaching Courtroom Skills (2004),” a nationally recognized guide to aid trainers in coaching trial defenders, “Requiem,” an article on the disparate treatment of two death cases in Indiana, and “The Light Between Twilight and Dusk: Federal Criminal Law and the Volitional Insanity Defense,” 40 Hastings L.J. 1 (1988). In her spare time, English writes poetry and loves to dance.

Chris Flood (Louisiana)

Chris Flood is a career public defender and recently joined the Orleans Public Defenders in New Orleans, La. as a supervising attorney.  After graduating from NYU Law School in 2000, he spent more than five years in the Trial Division of the D.C. Public Defender Service, and for the past two years has represented clients in Manhattan federal court with the Federal Defenders of New York.  In both offices Flood worked extensively with forensic evidence, including DNA technology. 

Patrice Fulcher (Georgia)

Patrice Fulcher is an Associate Professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. She teaches Legal Research, Writing, and Advocacy, Criminal Law, and co-coaches a mock trial team. Prior to teaching, Patrice served as a criminal defense attorney specializing in indigent defense and has always been a staunch advocate for the poor and disenfranchised. Patrice has worked as a Senior Staff Attorney for the Georgia Capital Defender, successfully litigating death penalty cases; a Senior Staff Attorney for the Fulton County Public Defender, handling all major felony cases; and was the CEO of her own firm, The Fulcher Law Group, Inc., trying misdemeanor, serious felonies, and civil cases. As a Senior Staff and Supervising Attorney for the Fulton County Conflict Defender, Fulcher represented adults and juveniles charged as adults. She also fought for the rights of indigent defendants with the Georgia Indigent Defense Council and fought against deplorable jail conditions with The Southern Center for Human Rights. Additionally, Fulcher has helped to obtain habeas corpus relief for a client wrongfully convicted of murder, provided representation and research for abused and neglected children with DeKalb County Juvenile Court, and prepared memoranda on legislation concerning issues facing the nation’s aging for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. Fulcher obtained her B.A. from Howard University in 1992 and her J.D. from Emory University School of Law in 1995.

Russell Gabriel (Georgia)

Russell Gabriel has been a public defender in Georgia for seventeen years, working both with the Legal Aid and Defender Office in Athens and the Federal Defender Program in Atlanta.   As a public defender he has represented clients at trial in all manner of cases, from “Pedestrian Under the Influence” to capital murder.   He attended the National Criminal Defense College in 1990, which was the best training for criminal defense advocacy he has ever received.  Presently he is the Director of the Criminal Defense Clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law.  Students in the Clinic work directly with the lawyers in the public defender office in Athens.   In addition to supervising the Criminal Defense Clinic he also teaches Criminal Procedure and a course entitled “Race and Law.”   His J.D. is from the University of Georgia (1985) and his B.A. is from the University of Michigan (1978).

Steve Greenberg (Pennsylvania)
Steve Greenberg is a criminal defense attorney based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Greenberg graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 1991 and has practiced criminal law his entire legal career.  He has represented clients charged with an array of the most serious criminal offenses in both state and federal court.  Greenberg has served on the faculty of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Honors Program and conducted criminal defense training for International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Brandi Harden (Washington, D.C.)

Brandi Harden is currently a partner at Harden and Pinckney, PLLC.  Before going into private practice, Harden was a trial attorney and then later a supervising attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia for nine years.  Harden represented indigent clients in the D.C. Superior Court on criminal matters ranging from misdemeanors to homicides. She also defended clients at U.S. Parole Commission hearings. Harden graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Speech Communication cum laude from Howard University in 1997 and received her Juris Doctorate degree from Howard University School of Law in 2001.

Julie Kilborn (Louisiana)

Julie H. Kilborn is the Director of Training with the Louisiana Public Defender Board.  Before joining the LPDB, she practiced as a staff attorney at the Louisiana Capital Assistance Center in New Orleans where she defended indigent men and women who were charged with capital offenses.  She is a member of the Right to Counsel Committee of the Louisiana State Bar Association and has dedicated her career to the representation of poor people. Kilborn earned her B.S. in criminal justice from Louisiana College and her J.D. from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University.

Gary Kohlman (Washington, D.C.)

Gary Kohlman is a partner at the law firm of  Bredhoff & Kaiser in Washington D.C. where he maintains a nationwide practice that has led to trials in almost twenty states.  He has defended clients in a variety of high-profile cases including John Jenrette in the ABSCAM investigation, accused Chinese spy Larry Wu-tai Chin, Conley Wolfswinkle as part of the Charles Keating investigation, FBI Agent H. Edward Tickel in a variety of criminal cases including allegations stemming from the robbery of the FBI credit union,  and a family member in the Rayful Edmonds criminal conspiracy case.  Kohlman joined Bredhoff & Kaiser in 1995. His varied litigation practice at the firm has included representation of a plaintiff in the Bush/Gore post-election litigation, the successful defense of Special Prosecutor Ken Starr’s Press Secretary Charles Bakaly in a criminal contempt trial, representation of witnesses in the Monica Lewinsky investigation, representation of Oklahoma Bomber Terry Nichols in Washington, D.C. proceedings, representation of Eric Severeid’s widow in a medical malpractice case and the successful prosecution of two civil rights complaints on the behalf of estates of children who were murdered while in District of Columbia approved juvenile facilities.  Kohlman was a senior attorney at the Public Defender Service from 1973-1982.  He was the Training Director for two classes of newly hired attorneys and then was the Felony Trial Chief for four years.  Kohlman graduated magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was mentored by Professor Yale Kamisar.  Kohlman is a member of the bars in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Washington (inactive).

Christian Lamar (Georgia)

Christian Lamar is the Deputy Director for Litigation at the Georgia Capital Defender in Atlanta, Georgia.  Lamar was a Federal Defender in Maryland and before that an attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia for nine years, where his responsibilities ranged from appellate work to supervising attorneys in felony and misdemeanor cases.  Lamar is currently a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the District of Columbia Bar.  He has participated in criminal defense trainings such as the Santa Clara Bryan Schechmeister death Penalty College in Santa Clara, CA and the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, GA.  Lamar has served as a faculty member at the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a litigation instructor for the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.  He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science at LeMoyne-Owen College in 1990 and his law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1993. 

Janelle Layne (Georgia)

Janelle Layne is a staff attorney for the Atlanta Judicial Circuit Public Defenders Office, specializing in juvenile law. She is a member of the State Bar of Georgia and the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She serves on the Board for the Georgia Association of Counsel for Children and was a member of the GPDSC Honors Program’s inaugural class. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, she decided to become a public defender after a brief internship at the Kings County Public Defenders Office, where she was able to witness the disastrous effects of a lack of training and high caseloads first hand. After graduating from Spelman College and Howard University School of Law, Layne spent a brief period of time in private sector until the GPDSC began hiring for its new state-wide system. In 2004, she was hired by the Cherokee Judicial Circuit and worked there handling misdemeanor, felony and juvenile cases from the time the office opened until September of 2007, when she moved to the Atlanta office.

Sean Maher (New York)

Sean Maher is a partner in the law firm of Wahid, Vizcaino & Maher LLP.  Based in the firm’s Manhattan office, Maher specializes in federal and state criminal defense.  He currently represents Adnan Mirza, who is charged in Houston with weapons possession and conspiring to provide support to the Taliban, and Syed Fahad Hashmi, who recently was extradited from England to New York on charges on conspiring to provide material support to Al Qaeda.  Before entering private practice, he supervised the criminal defense teams of the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and was a senior felony trial attorney for the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office in Atlanta.  Maher is a co-chair of the National Security Committee of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.  Maher is a graduate of Boston University School of Law.

Penny Marshall (Delaware)

Penny Marshall is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. She practiced law initially at the Washington D.C. Public Defender Service, where she served as Deputy Trial Chief.  Marshall then moved to the federal level as an assistant federal defender in the District of Columbia. After moving on to the Delaware Federal Defender office, she ascended to the position of Chief Defender for that office until 2005. She is a former president of the National Association of Federal Defenders. Most recently, she served as co-counsel in State of Georgia v. Brian Nichols. Her experience includes teaching numerous federal and state seminars and at law schools such as Harvard Law School, her alma matter. She was the recipient of a Gideon Heroes Award by the NLADA, Delaware District Court Caleb Layton Service Award and the Delaware NAACP President’s Award.

Glenn McClister (Kentucky)

Glenn McClister received his J.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1997. He is currently a Staff Attorney with the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy’s Education Branch and has revised the Department’s new attorney training during the course of helping to create the new Kentucky Public Defender College. He has also just finished compiling the Department’s Trial Law Notebook, which was published throughout the Commonwealth. Prior to his present position, Glenn was an Assistant Public Advocate in Somerset, Kentucky for nine years, handling over 400 cases per year. Before going to law school, Glenn taught philosophy for ten years, was an actor for three years which included performing Shakespeare at the Globe Theater in London, and served for three years as an infantryman in the 101 Airborne Division. In addition to his work in Kentucky, Glenn has also trained public defenders in Georgia, Missouri and Pennsylvania as well.

James McComas (Wisconsin)

Jim McComas has 29 years of experience representing clinets in criminal cases at both the State and Federal level in trials, appeals, and post-conviction actions. Jim received his J.D. from Harvard law school in 1978. He began his legal career at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where he spent eight years. he served in that office as both the Training Director and Trial Chief. He is admitted to practice in Alaska, Wisconsin, and Washington, DC. He has designed and presented at training programs nationally. The Alaska Academy of Trial Lawyers and the Alaska Criminal Defense Bar honored Jim by naming the “Jim McComas Alaska Champion of Liberty Award” in his name. Jim was the first recipeint of that award. Jim has earned many other awards and recognitions for his work with indigent defendants.

William McGuire (South Carolina)

Bill McGuire is the Chief Attorney at the Capital Trial Division in South Carolina. Before returning to South Carolina, McGuire was a trial attorney at the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender from 2005 to 2008. After clerking for two circuit court judges in South Carolina from 1995 to 1997, he has practiced almost exclusively in the area of criminal defense beginning as an Assistant Public Defender in Charleston, South Carolina. After five years as an Assistant Public Defender, McGuire worked with Andrew Savage as an associate at Savage & Savage. McGuire has also practiced as a sole practitioner. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, 1995.

William R. Montross, Jr. (Georgia)

William R. Montross, Jr. is Senior Counsel for the Capital Litigation Unit of the Southern Center for Human Rights, working both for the reform and abolition of capital punishment, as well as representing individual clients. While practicing in the “Death Belt,” Montross has succeeded in reversing convictions and lessening sentences for death-row inmates in Alabama and Georgia.  Montross graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994. Following his two-year tenure as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, Montross served as a public defender with the Defender Association of Philadelphia and the Bronx Defenders. In 2003, he began defending those convicted of capital offenses at the Southern Center for Human Rights.  Montross has extensively published and is a national commentator on matters of criminal justice.

Mary Moriarty (Minnesota)

Mary Moriarty has been a full-time public defender in Minneapolis since graduating from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1989. During that time, she has defended adults accused of felonies and misdemeanors. She has tried numerous cases, including ten murders. She is an adjunct professor of law at the University of St. Thomas Law School, where she teaches Advanced Trial Advocacy.  She is also a faculty member at the Public Defender Trial Advocacy Program in Dayton, Ohio, and the Minnesota Trial Advocacy Institute in St. Paul, Minnesota. Morirty has taught at various trial advocacy programs throughout the country, including those in Georgia, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and West Virginia.  Mary speaks frequently on various CLE topics, including prosecutorial misconduct and latent prints.

Corinne Mull (Georgia)

Corinne Mull is a Public Defender with the Dekalb County Public Defender’s Office where she has represented indigent defendants since 1998.  Prior to joining the Dekalb County Public Defender’s Office, she worked in a private civil law practice. She has served as a speaker at a number of Georgia Association of Criminal Lawyers and Georgia Indigent Defense Council seminars.  In addition, Mull has held several board positions and has been awarded a variety of honors by both organizations. Mull earned a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1991 and a law degree from Emory University of Law in 1984.

Timothy O’Toole (Washington, D.C.)

Timothy P. O’Toole is the Chief of the Special Litigation Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, a Division devoted to the litigation of systemic criminal justice issues. Before joining PDS, O’Toole served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he represented people in death penalty proceedings in both state and federal court. Over the past 15 years, O’Toole has briefed and argued many criminal and civil cases in a variety of state and federal courts throughout the country. He has also published, presented and lectured nationwide on the topics of appellate practice, the use of expert witnesses, the litigation of eyewitness identification issues, the development of mitigation evidence in capital cases, and the suppression of exculpatory evidence and other misconduct by prosecutors. O’Toole’s published writings include the chapter on Appellate and Post-Conviction Practice in the treatise Cultural Issues In Criminal Defense, a number of articles in NACDL’s Champion magazine, and “Manson v. Brathwaite Revisited: Towards a New Rule of Decision for Due Process Challenges to Eyewitness Identification Procedures,” in the November 2006 in the Valparaiso University Law Review. He received a B.A. in Economics from the University of Virginia and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Stephanie Page (Massachusetts)

Stephanie Page is Senior Trial Counsel (one of three) with the Public Defender Division of the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services (CPCS). Upon graduating from Northeastern University School of Law in 1978, Ms. Page joined CPCS (formerly the Massachusetts Defenders Committee). She has been a member of the CPCS murder team since 1985 and was the first woman to be added to that team.  From 1988 – 1997 she served as the first CPCS Forensic Services Director. Over the years, Page has been recognized for her service to the poor and her work as a trial lawyer: Massachusetts Bar Association Defender Award (first recipient); Women’s Bar Association Lelia J. Robinson Award;  Massachusetts Lawyer’s Weekly “Women of Justice” Award. She was one of the first two public defenders in Massachusetts inducted into and is a current fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers. She was named one of the “Best of Boston” in a review of lawyers by Boston Magazine in 2002, and since 2004 has been listed as one of New England’s “Super Lawyers.” Page was the first public defender included in that list. She is a frequent coordinator, presenter, and writer for legal education programs locally and nationally. She is the editor of the award-winning Trying Drug Cases in Massachusetts (MCLE, Inc. 1992 and Supp. 1996, 1999, 2005); and is the editor and chapter author of MCLE’s Trying Sex Offense Cases in Massachusetts (MCLE, Inc. 2005, 2009) and Trying Murder and Other Homicide Cases in Massachusetts (MCLE, Inc. 2004). She has defended clients charged with everything from low level crimes to high profile cases such as United States v. Gary Sampson, a death penalty case; Commonwealth v. Neil Entwistle; and Commonwealth v. Barbara Asher, who was acquitted in the so-called “dominatrix” manslaughter case involving, among other things, a false confession.  She is proud to be a career public defender.

Jee Park (Louisiana)

Jee Park is currently a supervising attorney at the Orleans Public Defenders (OPD) in New Orleans, Louisiana. Prior to joining OPD, Park was a staff attorney at The Bronx Defenders in Bronx, New York. Park graduated from University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) in 2003. Upon graduation from law school, she was an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at the Juvenile Justice Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. As a fellow, Park instructed and supervised third year law students in their representation of indigent youths in the juvenile justice system. She also clerked for the Honorable Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Prior to attending law school, Ms. Park worked for The Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama (EJI) which represents prisoners on Alabama’s death row.

Gary Parker (Georgia)

Former Georgia State Senator, Gary Parker, served in the Senate from 1989 to 1990 and has over 20 years of litigation experience in criminal cases. Parker is also the former Deputy Director of Training and Performance Standards at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.  He was the governor of the Judicial Nominating Committee from 1991 to 1996 and has also served on the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council and the Georgia Indigent Defense Council. Parker is a recipient of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Champion of Indigent Defense Award and the Southern Center of Human Rights’ Equal Justice Award. Parker received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science from Columbus State University. He is a graduate of Howard University Law School.

David Patton (Alabama)

Prior to the fall of 2008, David Patton spent the past six years as a federal public defender in the Southern District of New York. During that time he has tried a wide variety of cases, including a three-month long capital murder trial in which the client was acquitted of all capital charges. It was the first ever acquittal of a federal capital defendant. During his last five years with the Federal Defender, he has also taught the Federal Defender Clinic at New York University School of Law as an adjunct professor. Prior to working at the Federal Defender Office, he worked as an associate at Sullivan & Cromwell on white collar criminal defense matters. He is now teaching full-time as an assistant professor of law at the University of Alabama where he also directs the Criminal Defense Clinic. He graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law where he served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review.

Heather Pinckney (Washington, D.C.)

Heather Pinckney is currently a partner at Harden and Pinckney, PLLC. Before entering into private practice, Pinckney spent nine years in the office of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia, where she served her last two years as Deputy Trial Chief of the trial division.  She represented juvenile and adult indigent clients on criminal matters ranging from misdemeanors to homicides before D.C Superior Court and the United States Parole Commission. Prior to beginning at PDS, she worked for the Educational Opportunities Section of the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. She also worked for The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless and TransAfrica. She served as chair of the 2005 Criminal Practice Institute Conference, has acted as a visiting instructor with the Georgia Honors Program, Howard University School of Law, and American Law School and currently serves as chair of the Public Defender Service Hiring Committee. She is a native Washingtonian and received her B.A. from Marymount University and her J.D. from George Washington University School of Law.

Renee Raymond (Washington, D.C.)

Renee Raymond is a trial lawyer and Training Director for the District of Columbia Public Defender Service. Raymond has represented countless indigent clients for over fifteen years at the Public Defender Service of D.C. She has also mentored, supervised, and trained many attorneys and law students during her tenure at the Public Defender Service.  Raymond has served as a faculty member for the Georgia Public Defender Service Council training program in the summer of 2005. Raymond has also served as a faculty member for National Legal Aid and Defender Association sponsored conferences on several occasions, and she has been a faculty member in Harvard Law School’s 2004, 2005, and 2007 Fall trial advocacy workshops. Just this year, Raymond in conjunction with International Bridges to Justice, had the honor of training eight Chinese attorneys from different provinces in China who are starting public defender services in those provinces. She went to Yale College where she graduated with honors in 1982.  She received her law degree from New York University Law School in 1987 where she received the Greene Award for preeminent achievement in the art of advocacy. 

Carol Richard (Mississippi)

Carol Richard is the Washington County Public Defender in Greenville, MS. She handles a full caseload of felonies ranging from less serious matters to capital murder. She has been with the Washington County Public Defender since 2000. Richard is originally from Holly Springs, MS. She went to college at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA and law school at Vanderbilt Law School in Nashville, TN. She graduated from Vanderbilt in 1996.  Richard is a member of the Mississippi State Bar as well as the Tennessee State Bar.  She is also a member of the Mississippi Public Defender Association, the Mississippi Bar Association, and the Magnolia Bar Association.

Seann Riley (New York)

Seann Riley is currently the Deputy Director at The Bronx Defenders, a provider of indigent defense services nationally recognized for its model of holistic advocacy. Riley began at The Bronx Defenders in 2004 where he represented hundreds of clients and tried dozens of misdemeanor and felony cases. Prior to becoming Deputy Director, he was a supervising attorney responsible for training and supervising new attorneys.  Before The Bronx Defenders, Riley was an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow at the Georgetown Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic. As a fellow he tried several misdemeanor and felony cases in D.C. Superior Court, as well as, supervised third year law students enrolled in the clinic. He graduated from Tulane Law School in 2002 and received an LLM in trial advocacy from Georgetown Law Center in 2006.  He is an adjunct faculty member at both Fordham and Seton Hall law schools.

Jimmonique Rodgers (Georgia)

Jimmonique Rodgers is the Director of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Counsel central Appellate Division. In this position, she serves as a central resource for public defenders and private attorneys across the state on trial and appellate issues. She represents indigent criminal defendants on direct appeal and represents the GPDSC’s interests as Amicus in direct appeals petitions for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court, and habeas application. Prior to becoming director, Rodgers served as a juvenile appeals attorney with the central Appellate Division.  Rodgers has worked in advocacy for much of her life.  After law school, she served ten years combined active and reserve duty time in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corp focusing the bulk of her time on criminal defense appeals, where she obtained the rank of major. In 2001, Rodgers took on the position of Assistant General Counsel of the national NAACP in Baltimore, Maryland.  In this capacity, she handled criminal justice, military justice and juvenile justice issues from across the nation.  Using these resources, she co-founded an after school group for at-risk girls in Columbia, Maryland.  During her tenure at the NAACP, Rodgers developed the NAACP juvenile justice pocket guide, “The 411 on the Five-O,” a training manual for NAACP units regarding the rights of youth as well as a publicly distributed brochure of which over 500,000 copies had been distributed. Rodgers has a Bachelor of Arts with honors in Political Science with a concentration in Public Administration.  She received her law degree with honors from North Carolina Central University School of Law and her Master of Arts in Criminal Justice with honors with a specialization in juvenile justice from the University of Baltimore.

Ann Roan (Colorado)

Ann Roan is a Colorado native and graduated from the University of Colorado School of Law in 1989. She joined the Colorado State Public Defender as a trial lawyer in 1990 and defended clients all over the state.  In 1998, Roan joined the Public Defender’s Appellate Division and practiced before the Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court for eight years.  In 2005, she became the State Training Director for the Colorado State Public Defender, and is currently responsible for designing, teaching and supervising training programs for a staff of nearly 500 lawyers, investigators, paralegals and administrative assistants. Roan has been an adjunct faculty member at the University of Colorado School of Law, teaching appellate advocacy and trial advocacy, and has been a guest lecturer in CU’s Sociology Department on criminal law and social justice issues.  She has taught lawyers for the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy, the National Legal Aid and Defender Association and at the Center for American and International Law in Plano, TX. Roan is a member of the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, GA.

Zack Rosenberg (Louisiana)

Zack Rosenburg has been a criminal defense attorney for the past five years. After interning for two years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, Rosenberg was chosen as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow in the Criminal Justice Clinic at the Georgetown University Law Center. In this position, Rosenberg supervised and instructed third year clinic students who represented indigent defendants in matters at the District of Columbia Superior Court.  Since 2004, he has operated his own law practice in Washington, DC and represented indigent defendants in felony, serious felony and post conviction matters.  Rosenberg moved to New Orleans in June 2006 to start the St. Bernard Project, a non-profit rebuilding organization that rebuilds homes for families devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He currently provides trial skills and case preparation training at the Office of the Public Defender in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.  Rosenberrg is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC, Maryland and California.

Joseph Ross (North Carolina)

Joseph Ross is an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of North Carolina. A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received his undergraduate degree from Greensboro College in 1987 and received a law degree from Wake Forest University School of Law in 1990. After graduating from law school, Ross worked as an Assistant Defender at the Defender Association of Philadelphia where he represented indigent clients in all aspects of representation until January 1998. While at the Defender Association he was selected to be in the Juvenile Special Defense Unit where he represented juveniles with the most serious felonies, high publicity cases and juveniles charged as adults through Pennsylvania’s Direct File Legislation. Since January 1998, he has represented adults and juveniles charged with federal criminal offenses. He also specializes in civil commitments arising from the new Adam Walsh Act. He is on the faculty of the North Carolina Defense Trial School and National Defender Training Project. Ross has completed the National Criminal Defense College.

Claudia Saari (Georgia)

Claudia Saari is Chief Assistant Public Defender with the Office of the Public Defender for the Stone Mountain Judicial Circuit. Since joining the office in 1987, Saari has tried a wide variety of cases, ranging from DUI to death penalty cases.  Her current focus is on representing clients in high profile cases, murder cases, and cases involving DNA evidence. She has had 75 homicide jury trials. Saari serves as Director of the internship program, is a member of the Executive Committee, and manages the training and supervision of all attorneys in the office. Saari received a bachelor’s degree from Brown University in 1984 and a law degree from Emory University School of Law in 1987. She is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers, and is also a Master with the Lumpkin Inns of Court.

Tim Saviello (Georgia)

Tim Saviello has been a public defender his entire career. He began in 1994 at the Fulton County, GA Public Defender’s Office defending felony cases in Superior Court. From 1997 through 2000 he worked at the Louisiana Crisis Assistance Center, under the tutelage of Clive Stafford Smith and Neal Walker, defending men and women against capital charges in Orleans Parish and across Louisiana. In 2000, Saviello moved on to the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Defender Program in Atlanta, GA, where he handled the State and Federal habeas corpus cases of men and women on Georgia’s death row. Beginning in 2002, Saviello left habeas work and returned to defending felony cases in the Northern District of Georgia.  He has taught various subjects relating to the practice of indigent criminal defendants at various training seminars, including the legendary Honors Program of the Georgia Public Defender’s Standards Counsel. 

Jeff Sherr (Kentucky)

Jeff Sherr, Manager of the Education and Strategic Planning Branch of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy has been with the DPA since 1994. Jeff is a faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College, the Missouri Trial Institutes, and the Georgia Public Defender Standard Council Honors Program. He has presented at the NLADA Annual Seminar and NLADA Train the Trainer. He is currently co-chair of the NLADA Defender Trainers’ Section. In addition to regularly training public defender litigators and trainers, Sherr has trained public defender leaders for NLADA, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. In 2006, he served on the BJA Capital Defense Training Curriculum Committee and designed and led the Train the Trainer program for the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty College.  He is the editor of the DPA’s bi-monthly journal, The Advocate, and The Small Group Coaching Handbook: Tips and Techniques for Criminal Defense Education Program. Sherr also has an extensive background in theatre having studied with the National Shakespeare Conservatory and the University of Kansas. Jeff graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Law in 1995.

Steve Singer (Louisiana)

Stephen Singer is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans, Louisiana where he supervises a criminal defense clinic handling defendants charged with felonies in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.  Currently, he and his Clinic have been loaned to the court system to lead the effort to rebuild, restructure, and reform the public defenders’ office in New Orleans, where Professor Singer is currently detailed from Loyola as Chief of Trials for the Orleans Public Defenders’ Office.  Professor Singer is a 1988 graduate of Harvard Law School.  Prior to joining the faculty at Loyola Law School, Professor Singer was an investigator, and from 1989 to 1997, an attorney at the Public Defender Service in Washington, D.C.  Professor Singer also spent about five years at the non-profit Louisiana Capital Assistance Center, representing capital defendants at the trial level throughout the State of Louisiana.  He was also on the faculty at the University of Wyoming College of Law where he was director of the criminal defense clinic and taught constitutional criminal procedure.

David Singleton (Ohio)

David Singleton is the Executive Director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a nonpartisan, nonprofit, public interest law office based in Cincinnati, OH that works statewide for progressive reform on Ohio’s justice system. Singleton is also a Visiting Professor of Law at Salmon and Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. After earning his law degree, Singleton received the Skadden Fellowship to work at the Legal Action Center for the Homeless in New York City where he practiced for three years.  Singleton was an attorney at the Public Defenders Service of Harlem for three years and then practiced with the District of Columbia Public Defenders for four years.  He earned his A.B. in Economics and Public Policy, cum laude, from Duke University in 1991 and a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1987.

Sam Starks (Georgia)

In 1994, Sam Starks became a staff attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, a position that involved handling criminal trial and appeals on behalf of poor people accused of crimes in Washington, D.C. As a public defender, Sam was invited to attend Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College on 1997, which exposed him to civil trial lawyers who were involved in representing people against insurance companies and corporations. He has been a member of the Trial Lawyers College faculty since 1998 and has taught numerous seminars throughout the country. In 1999, Sam relocated from Washington, D.C. to Atlanta, where he began a practice that focused almost exclusively on personal injury cases in the areas of medical malpractice, products liability, nursing home negligence, civil rights, as well as wrongful death claims. Since being in Atlanta, Sam has tried personal injury cases in both state and federal court and has argued cases before the court of appeals at the state and federal levels in Georgia.

Michael Starr (Washington, D.C.)

Michael Starr is counsel with Schertler & Onorato, L.L.P. in Washington, D.C. His primary area of practice is litigation with a focus on criminal defense. Before joining Schertler & Onorato, Mr. Starr spent four years at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) as a trial and appellate attorney. At PDS, he represented criminal defendants in hundreds of cases that ranged in seriousness from misdemeanor charges of theft, assault, and drug possession, to felony charges of narcotics distribution, firearms possession, robbery, sexual abuse, and homicide. Before his arrival to PDSDC, Starr spent two years as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow in the Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic. As a Prettyman Fellow, he taught biweekly classes on evidence, criminal procedure, and trial advocacy to Georgetown University Law students and supervised those students as they represented criminal defendants in misdemeanor cases in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia. Starr is a graduate of Towson State University and The George Washington University Law School. He also holds an LL.M. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Dehlia Ummuna (Massachusetts)

Dehlia Ummuna is a clinical instructor in the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School where she supervises third year law students in their representation of adult and juvenile clients in the Roxbury and Dorchester District Courts. Prior to Harvard, Ummuna was an adjunct professor at American University, Washington College of Law where she created and taught a Supervised Externship Seminar titled “The Lawyer’s Role in the Judicial Practice.” The seminar provided students with insight into the operation and scope of responsibilities assigned to lawyers on either side of the aisle and the role of the fact finder. Topics included their roles, challenges, effective advocacy, striking the balance between lawyer satisfaction and client need, popular images and misconceptions of lawyers; structuring law practice through space, time, and dress; the operation of class and race in the legal profession, especially in the criminal prosecution/defense context. Ummuna spent six years as a trial attorney for the District of Columbia Public Defender Service representing clients charged with major felonies. Ummuna is a member of the DC, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey bar associations. She earned her BA from California State University and JD from George Washington University Law School. She is the proud mother of 7 year old daughter Ifeanyi and 5 year old son Edozie.

Edward Ungvarsky (Washington, D.C.)

Edward J. Ungvarsky is the Chief of the Trial Division at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he manages all trial related matters in both the adult and juvenile courts. Over the course of his career, Mr. Ungvarsky has tried all levels of criminal cases and has developed an expertise in the litigation of DNA, eyewitness identification, false confession, pathology, and other forensic evidence. He currently focuses his casework on complex homicide and sex offense cases and maintains a strong interest in, and involvement with, juvenile justice issues. Mr. Ungvarsky has lectured and published widely on matters related to expert testimony and scientific evidence. Mr. Ungvarsky is a Vice-Chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Forensic Evidence Committee and an administrator of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association-National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Online Forensics Library. Mr. Ungvarsky practiced criminal appellate and capital post-conviction law in Arizona and New York before joining the Trial Division of PDS in 1997. Immediately after law school, Mr. Ungvarsky clerked in Montgomery, Alabama for the Honorable Frank M. Johnson, Jr., on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Mr. Ungvarsky received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Carlos Venagas (Washington, D.C.)

Carlos Vanegas is a Federal Defender for the District of Columbia assigned to represent clients charged with possessing firearms, distribution of drugs, including international trafficking, hostage taking, white collar crimes, and interstate child abuse crimes. Prior to his position in D.C., Vanegas was a Federal Defender for Maryland. Vanegas spent 7 years as a trial attorney with the District of Columbia Public Defender Service representing indigent clients facing charges from misdemeanors to murder. He was also one of the few attorneys who represented Spanish speaking clients. Vanegas earned his BA from Amherst College and his JD from Boston College Law School.

William Ward (Minnesota)

William Ward is the Chief Public Defender of the Tenth Judicial District in Minnesota. He has served in that position since January 2001. Prior to his tenure in the Tenth District he was an attorney with the Law Office of the Cook County Public Defender in Illinois. Ward practiced in Chicago as well as the 6th Municipal District as a felony trial assistant and trial supervisor. Before that he was an adjunct professor with DePaul University College of Law from 1995 – 2000. Ward was also an instructor at Hamline University Law School, Trial Advocacy 2004-2007 and an adjunct professor with William Mitchell College of Law, Trial Advocacy and Advanced Trial Advocacy 2007-2008. He currently serves on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College, Illinois Extended Trial Advocacy Program and the Minnesota Public Defender Trial Advocacy Institute as well as presenter/facilitator at numerous other programs. Ward earned his J.D. from DePaul University College of Law in 1986 and his B.A. from the University of Illinois in 1983. He is bared in Minnesota and Illinois.

Brett Willis (Georgia)

Brett Willis is an Assistant Public Defender in Hall County, Georgia. He joined the newly-created Office of the Public Defender in Hall County when the office first opened its doors in January of 2005. He is a member of the 2005 inaugural class of the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council Honors Program. He earned his J.D. from the University of Georgia (2003), magna cum laude, and he later earned his Master of Laws from New York University (2004).

Andrew Wise (Washington, D.C.)

Andrew T. Wise focuses on complex litigation in Federal and State courts with a particular emphasis on white-collar defense in both criminal and civil matters. He has represented individuals charged or targeted by the U.S. Department of Justice in cases involving allegations of government contracting fraud, criminal antitrust violations, perjury and false statements, Securities Act violations, accounting and bank fraud, Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), export controls violations, conspiracy, and other fraud-related offenses. He has represented witnesses in proceedings before a variety of governmental entities, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission and in appearances before federal and state Grand Juries. Before joining Miller & Chevalier, Wise worked at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where he defended indigent clients charged with felony, misdemeanor, and juvenile offenses in the D.C. Superior Court. He has tried more than forty cases to juries and judges, including homicides, armed robberies, conspiracies, and other serious crimes.  Wise has served as a faculty member at Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and in National Institute for Trial Advocacy’s Intensive Trial Training program. He also routinely participates in the training of lawyers in various aspects of criminal trial practice. Wise holds a J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. from Swarthmore College.

Gerald P. Word (Georgia)

Gerald P. Word is the head of the Georgia Capital Defender Office and the Coweta County Circuit County Public Defender.  He has been practicing since 1998.  He is a member of the Georgia Trial Lawyers Association, Carroll County Bar Association and the Coweta Circuit Bar Association.  Mr. Word has served two terms on the Federal Defenders Board, the first from 1983-1989 and the second from 1999-2003.  He is an active member of the Carroll County community, where he has been involved wit the Bill Glass Prison Ministry since 1983.  Mr. Word is also a past recipient of the Carroll County “ Foster Parent of the Year” Award.   He and his wife have raised over twenty foster children.  Mr. Word earned an A.B. from West Georgia College and a law degree from the Emory University School of Law.