Office of Defender Services
TRAINING BRANCH





TRAINING EVENTS >
COMBINED FDO & PANEL ATTORNEY PROGRAMS

Sequestration has had a severe impact on the Defender Services budget.  The impact includes a  reduction in our training budget of approximately 50% for the 2013 fiscal year, which ends on September 30th.  Congress's recent passage of a spending measure to keep the government financed through September, 2013 continues the budget reductions that were implemented during sequestration.  As a result of the reduction in our budget, the Sentencing Advocacy Workshop and Paralegal and Investigator Skills Workshop have been canceled.  The two events listed below will take place as scheduled.  Please check fd.org periodically for information on training events that will be held in fiscal year 2014 (October, 2013 through September, 2014).

    MULTI-TRACK CRIMINAL DEFENSE SEMINAR
    BUFFALO, NEW YORK - August 08 - August 10, 2013
    Contact:
    Jenna_Shepard@ao.uscourts.gov
    REGISTER HERE
    FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE APPLICATION

    The Multi-Track Federal Criminal Defense Seminar offers in-depth instruction in a variety of substantive areas of federal criminal defense practice. Sessions in each substantive area are grouped into tracks.  The four tracks for 2013 in Buffalo Niagara are:  Forensics, Mental Health and Mitigation, Digital Age Litigation, and Fundamentals of a Federal Case Plus! The Forensics, and Mental Health and Mitigation Tracks will begin on Thursday, August 8, 2013 and run until Saturday, August 10, 2013.  Fundamentals of a Federal Case Plus! will begin on Thursday, August 8, 2013 and run until midday Friday, August 9, 2013.  The Digital Age Litigation track will begin midday on Friday, August 9, 2013 and conclude on Saturday, August 10, 2013.
    In addition to the offered tracks, the seminar includes larger plenary sessions. These sessions will address topics of general interest and importance to most criminal defense practitioners.
    1. Fundamentals of a Federal Case Plus!
    Designed as an overview for new (and not so new) federal CJA practitioners, this program addresses topics that are essential to defending clients in federal criminal cases. It will include the basics of working up a federal case, release issues, sentencing guidelines, and beyond.
    2. Forensic Implications in Your Every Day Federal Case and Beyond
    This track will provide a better understanding of the science itself, or the lack of it, to better prepare defense counsel to challenge the use of such evidence in their cases at the trial level and in post-conviction.  These sessions will look at specific areas  of forensic  "science" many of which the courts and juries formerly relied upon, and now have been debunked and questioned.
    3. Mental Health and Mitigation - Identifying, Developing, and Understanding
    Forty-five percent of Federal prisoners have had a mental health problem, and 40% of federal prisoners have had symptoms of a mental health disorder.  This track provides an in-depth training to practitioners for identifying, developing, and understanding mental health and mitigation. We must develop the history and personal characteristics of the client to provide quality representation to our clients.  Pretrial release options, trial considerations and potential sentencing alternatives including treatment are all influenced by these factors.  We will cover changes in DSM-5 that practitioners will encounter in their practice as well as the importance of mental health symptoms and history.
    4. Digital Age Litigation
    The Fourth Amendment, ALPR, GPS, COO, GSM, Pinging - What does it all mean?  This track will focus on the digital aspects of criminal defense litigation, from cell phone tracking to Electronically Stored Information (ESI).