Jonathan Rapping
Jonathan Rapping is the Founder/CEO of the Southern Public Defender Training Center (SPDTC). Mr. Rapping is on the faculty of the John Marshall Law School in Atlanta, GA, where he teaches criminal law and criminal procedure. He is the former Training Director of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, an office nationally known for its training program.
Following his tenure at PDS, in 2004 Mr. Rapping became the first Training Director of Georgia’s new state-wide public defender system. In that capacity he was responsible for designing training programs for both legal and non-legal staff statewide. Mr. Rapping then became the Director of Training and Recruitment for the Orleans Public Defenders, where he was integral in the efforts to rebuild the public defender system in post-Katrina New Orleans.
In recognition of his work in New Orleans, he was a co-recipient of the prestigious Lincoln Leadership Award, given by Kentucky’s Department of Public Advocacy to honor leadership in national efforts to improve indigent defense. Mr. Rapping has trained public defenders all over the country, and was awarded a Soros Justice Advocacy Fellowship to develop the SPDTC.
In 2009, Mr. Rapping was named a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow by the Harvard Law School Office of Public Interest in recognition of his contribution to the public interest through his work with the SPDTC.
Read the Harvard Law School Press Release for its 2009-2010 Wasserstein Fellows
Mr. Rapping has published articles on the importance of changing organizational culture in order to effectuate indigent defense reform and on the need to focus on recruitment, training, and mentoring in an effort to impact cultural transformation. To view these articles click the links below (place the cursor over the article you would like to see and left click):
Directing the Winds of Change: Using Organizational Culture to Reform Indigent Defense
