David Beller specializes in criminal defense, attorney and judicial discipline, and internal investigations. He represents individuals and organizations involved as targets, subjects, or witnesses in state and federal criminal investigations and related grand jury and pretrial proceedings, including antitrust actions.
David brings a depth of experience in managing crisis level regulatory and criminal matters, as well as in advising clients on how to structure compliance programs so as to help avoid such problems.
He has defended actions throughout Colorado and worked opposite both municipal and state prosecutors, Colorado Attorney General, Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies, Department of Human & Health Services (TRAILS), Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, Judicial Discipline Commission, university disciplinary boards, SEC, Department of Justice, and United States Attorney’s Offices for the Districts of Colorado and the Eastern District of California. His litigation skills have also been called on to assist in the representation and support of firm clients in complex civil and regulatory actions.
Alison Bloomquist was appointed Director of Training and Education for the Connecticut Division of Public Defender Services in 2016. Before moving to Connecticut, Alison served for over ten years as a staff public defender in greater Boston, and two years as Attorney-in-Charge of the Norfolk Superior Court office at the Massachusetts Committee for Public Counsel Services. She tried numerous felony cases to verdict across eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut, and has appeared before the Massachusetts Appeals Court. She was chapter author for MCLE publications: Massachusetts Superior Court Criminal Practice Manual, Massachusetts District Court Criminal Defense Manual, and Trying Drug Cases in Massachusetts. Alison is faculty at the National Criminal Defense College, and serves on the curriculum committee and as faculty for the National Association of Public Defense Executive Leadership Institute. She has been invited to teach federal and state public defenders all across the country, including Colorado, District of Columbia, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Washington, Wisconsin, as well as the Navy and Marine Judge Advocate General's Corps. Alison is a graduate of Northeastern University School of Law, and Boston University. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut with her wife, two sons, and their silver lab, Cooper.
Carmen earned her BA and MA at Washington University in St. Louis. She fell in love with indigent defense during her criminal law clinic at Georgetown University Law Center. A member of the Gideon's Promise class of 2012, after graduating from law school, Carmen worked in the Nashville Public Defender’s Office for a year before moving home to Denver, CO. Following two years as a paralegal in death penalty post-conviction matters, Carmen landed at a three-attorney firm committed to indigent clients. While at this firm, Carmen carried adult and juvenile conflict contracts with the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel and Office of Respondent Parents' Counsel. In May 2019, she returned to full time indigent defense as a Deputy Public Defender for the Colorado Springs Office of the Colorado Office of the State Public Defender. During her time at the COSPD, in addition to her caseload, Carmen was a faculty member for the state-wide mandatory public defender trial advocacy program. Before joining the Federal Death Penalty Resource Counsel as a Capital Fellow, Carmen served as an Assistant Federal Defender with the Federal Defender Program, Inc. She is also Alumni Faculty with Gideon's Promise and has taught for other systems such as the Kentucky Office of Public Advocacy and the Wisconsin Office of the State Public Defender.
Jennifer Buyske earned her J.D., with honors, at Gonzaga University School of Law in 2010. She is licensed in the State of Montana, and was commissioned in the United States Navy in 2010. She is a Judge Advocate General (JAG) in the Navy and has been stationed in Guam, Florida, and Connecticut. As a defense counsel, she has tried numerous contested courts-martial cases and represented many Service Members in a number of different legal proceedings. In her current role, she advises senior officers on a variety of criminal justice matters and provides training to civilian and JAG practitioners.
Jeff Chapdelaine, JD, LICSW is an Attorney, Forensic Social Worker, and Forensic Drama Therapist based in Boston Massachusetts. He represents clients in both Criminal and Civil cases. He consults nationally on plaintiff’s civil cases and on cases where people are accused of committing a crime, working with lawyers on both trial strategy, juror focus, and trauma-informed client-focused case preparation. His consulting company trains both lawyers and mental health professionals on areas where legal systems and mental health systems intersect, and assists organizations with organization development. He serves on the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Criminal Curriculum Advisory Committee and as faculty locally for MCLE and Committee for Public Counsel Services training programs, and nationally for the National Criminal Defense College, the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, the Trial Lawyers College, and at other programs. He has served on the Human Rights Committee for the Center of Hope in Central Massachusetts and the Board of Directors for the Boston Gay Men’s Chorus.
Fernando Freyre became a lawyer in January of 1983 because he lacked the size, speed, and talent to be an NFL quarterback. In order to satisfy his insatiable desire to overcome unending adversity, he became a criminal defense lawyer. He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1955, raised in Louisiana and Wyoming. He graduated from Louisiana State University-Geaux Tigers- and later from the University of Denver College of Law in 1982. He started as a trial lawyer in the Denver trial office of the Colorado State Public Defender’s office in 1983 and spent a total of 25 with them. He is now in private practice and teaches trial tactics around the US, Mexico, Chile and Argentina. At last count, he had tried over 130 jury trials and more than 25 homicide trials. He is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and is a member of the American College of trial lawyers.
Shawna Mackey Geiger is the Director of Engagement for the Colorado Office of the Respondent Parents’ Counsel. Her focus is on supporting and improving family defenders in Colorado. Before moving to ORPC she was the Director of Training for the Office of the Federal Public Defender in Denver and was previously the Training Director for the Colorado Office of Alternate Defense Counsel. Prior to her role as a trainer, Ms. Geiger represented clients as a public defender as well as in private practice where she focused on indigent criminal and juvenile defense. Ms. Geiger teaches trial advocacy, storytelling, persuasion, leadership, and client communication skills across the country. She also serves on the Board of Regents of the National Criminal Defense College. Recently, she spends far less time in courtrooms with clients but loves the time she spends in classrooms and conference rooms teaching lawyers to bring their clients’ stories to life in an effort to slowly turn the tides of injustice and uplift our defender communities to continue their valiant fight.
Andres R. Guevara has been a trial attorney since graduating from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. Out of his Denver office, Andres handles both private and court-appointed criminal work in various Colorado state courts (through the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (“ADC”)) and in federal courts (through the CJA Panel). Since starting his own law firm in 2007, Andres has handled and tried every type of criminal case, from misdemeanors to homicides, sex assaults, human trafficking, federal drug and gun cases, and large conspiracy cases. He has also handled post-conviction cases (including a State death penalty case) and has presented oral arguments before both the Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court.
Andres is a long-time instructor with ADC and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and has been on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College for the past five years. He has presented and trained attorneys throughout the country, and has presented multiple times at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) annual conferences, and has trained lawyers at various regional trial advocacy programs, including the United States Marine trial program. Andres has presented on different topics including opening and closing arguments, direct examinations, cross-examinations, federal criminal law, jury selection, cross-examining police officers, cross-examining child witnesses, organizing a team for felony cases, and motions practice in COCCA/RICO cases. Andres is also an author having published in the areas of federal law enforcement, marijuana laws, and most recently in the area of cross-examining child witnesses (for The Champion, the official magazine of the NACDL, June 2022 edition).
Stan Hickman is a graduate of the Howard University School of Law and began his legal career in the Criminal Defense Division of the Legal Aid Society in Queens, New York. Stan has been a practicing criminal defense attorney for over 28 years and during that time has tried cases ranging from misdemeanor assaults to homicides. Currently, Stan works for New York County Defender Services in Manhattan as a supervising attorney managing a team of attorneys with varying degrees of experience. Additionally, he participates in developing organizational policy and has been involved in numerous internal training presentations. Stan has served as a faculty member for the Office of the Public Defender in New Jersey's Trial Advocacy Training and the Nash York Litigation Advocacy Program. Stan is a dedicated public defender with a keen interest in participating in training seminars across the country!
Andrew’s practice focuses on representing individuals in all areas of criminal defense. He has won not guilty verdicts at jury trials in numerous complex criminal matters including first degree murder, sexual assault, armed robbery, felony assault, domestic violence, DUI, burglary, fraud, and drug cases, and countless other serious matters. He represents individuals in municipal, state and federal court.
Andrew also defends licensed professionals including attorneys, teachers, medical professionals, and others. He has successfully defended actions brought in in the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA), Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, Department of Human & Health Services (TRAILS), Title IX investigations, and school disciplinary boards.
Abe Hutt has been a trial lawyer in Denver since 1984. He handles criminal, civil and administrative cases, including professional license matters, although his primary emphasis has been on criminal defense. He has represented clients in the trial courts of all of Colorado's 22 judicial districts, as well as the Colorado Supreme Court, the Colorado Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for Colorado. He has represented attorneys, judges, teachers, physicians, nurses, veterinarians, pilots, dentists, stock brokers and real estate brokers in disciplinary proceedings concerning their professional licenses. He successfully defended the writer Hunter S. Thompson on DUI and assault charges, and won dismissal of all charges against a City of Aspen building inspector charged with criminal homicide following the carbon monoxide poisoning of a family of 4. He has defended criminal cases for public defenders, elected district attorneys, judges, legislators and other public officials. He has won acquittals or dismissals in cases of first degree murder, sexual assault, distribution of drugs, child abuse, embezzlement and DUI. He has negotiated favorable plea bargains in every kind of criminal case from capital murder to speeding tickets.
Danny Jackson is an attorney in the 4th Judicial District, and he has been an attorney since 2012. Danny’s legal practice focuses entirely on juveniles and their families, whether defending children in delinquency cases or defending families in dependency and neglect proceedings. He was named the Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel’s Attorney of the Year in 2020. When outside of the courtroom, Danny enjoys wandering the mountains with his wonderful wife, Kady, and their dog Lucy.
Rachel Lanzen received a Juris Doctorate in 2001 from the University of Iowa College of Law. While in law school, she worked at Legal Services Corporation and HELP Legal Aid as an intern, and the Human Rights Commission as an investigator. Rachel Lanzen spent 14 years at the Colorado State Public Defender's Office representing defendants criminally accused and was recognized as an excellent mentor and teacher to many younger attorneys in her office. Rachel continues her work for justice and equality at Lanzen Law, LLC. where she provides counsel and advocates through all stages of legal proceedings in district court, juvenile court, and county court. Rachel has experience working on civil matters, such as assisting with record sealing, petitions to deregister, and representing parents in dependency and neglect cases. Her practice mainly focuses on defending individuals accused in criminal cases including misdemeanors, felonies, and capital offenses, Rachel is able to represent any case in any jurisdiction in Colorado.
Renate Lunn is the Director of Training at New York County Defender Services in Manhattan. Prior to joining NYCDS, she worked for The Legal Aid Society representing clients in The Bronx, Brooklyn, and Manhattan. After graduating from Columbia Law School, she clerked for Hon. Robert P. Patterson of the Southern District of New York. She has taught trial skills in New York, Kentucky, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. Renate is admitted to practice in NY State and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
Gen Manco is an associate attorney with Hartigan Law LLC, where her practice focuses on family defense, representing parents involved in child welfare proceedings. She provides clients with compassionate legal representation as their families struggle with difficult issues such as addiction, mental illness, homelessness, and domestic violence. She fights to ensure that the government honors its legal obligations to all families involved in the child welfare system. Gen earned her Juris Doctor Degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law in December 2015. During law school, she gained broad experience working in a variety of legal areas including juvenile delinquency, immigration, eviction defense, and permanent protection orders.
Gen attended Boston University for her undergraduate degree, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree with Distinction in History after completion of a Distinction thesis project. She later achieved a Paralegal Certificate with Distinction from Queens College, City University of New York, and was the recipient of the Barbara Grossman Scholarship for graduating with the highest GPA in the program. Gen went on to work as a paralegal at the Denver and Boulder offices of a law firm specializing in commercial litigation and corporate governance, before deciding to go to law school.
Dinah Manning proudly hails from South Central Los Angeles, California and has spent her career fighting for people who are marginalized, oppressed, and subjugated by the criminal injustice system.
Dinah’s commitment to client-centered zealous advocacy was her guiding principle as a supervising attorney in the trial division at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) and a Deputy Federal Public Defender in the Office of the Federal Public Defender Central District of California’s trial division.
As a public defender, Dinah analyzed the bedrock inequities in the criminal system, held prosecuting agencies to their constitutional burden, and interrogated practices of police misconduct, which makes her uniquely suited for her role as Chief of Strategic Initiatives & Senior Advisor to the Los Angeles City Controller. In this capacity, she leads assessments and audits of the City’s most complex and largest agencies, provides accountability and oversight focused on policing within the city, and helps manage the citywide fraud, waste, and abuse investigations.
A core tenet of Dinah’s career is to improve the quality of indigent defense practice. With the goal of empowering lawyers to push themselves to new heights in trial advocacy and vindicate their clients’ rights, Dinah trains public defenders, private practitioners, and students on every aspect of trial practice nationwide. In addition to training with ADC, she serves as faculty with the National Criminal Defense College.
After graduating from the University of Southern California with a degree in philosophy, Dinah earned her Juris Doctorate from Columbia Law School as a Harlan Fiske scholar.
Janene McCabe is a determined and aggressive attorney with a proven record as a skilled courtroom litigator taking nearly 100 cases to trial. She has a dedicated practice of criminal defense and represents individuals who are charged or pending charges in municipal, county, and district court.
Janene works tirelessly to provide a thorough and effective defense. Her clients appreciate the time she spends with them, understanding the courtroom battle and case preparation, and her approach to dealing with the often traumatic and dehumanizing criminal court system.
Lisa has dedicated her career to fighting for those charged with crimes. She has handled thousands of cases and gone to trial hundreds of times. She has gone to jury trial in cases ranging from drug possession, murder, sexual assault, domestic violence, robbery, and traffic. She has tried cases in state court and federal court. She has argued before the Colorado Court of Appeals and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Lisa believes in representing the entire person and making sure that they are not simply viewed as a case number, but an actual human being. She loves her job and loves fighting for her clients. It is the greatest honor one could ever imagine. She grew up in Aurora, Colorado, graduating from Smoky Hill High School. She raised her kids there and loves Colorado. In her time away from work she loves to spend time with friends and family.
Ieshaah Murphy is an Assistant Professor of Law at Howard University School of Law, where she teaches Evidence, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure. Before joining Howard, Professor Murphy was an Assistant Professor of Law and Director of the Criminal Defense and Racial Justice Clinic at the University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law. Under her leadership, the Clinic fought against mass incarceration and racial injustice in the criminal legal system through direct representation, community engagement, and strategic action. Her teaching and scholarly work are centered on criminal law and procedure, racial disparities in the criminal legal system, and indigent defense reform.
Before her tenure at UDC Law, Professor Murphy spent over a decade practicing as a civil rights attorney and public defender. She most recently served as a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Maryland, where she represented incarcerated individuals in their efforts to secure parole and tackled a range of issues at the intersection of civil rights and the criminal legal system. As a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS), she represented hundreds of indigent children and adults charged with serious offenses. At PDS, she also supervised attorneys and co-founded the agency’s annual week-long defender training program for law students from historically excluded communities.
As a founding member of the Black Public Defender Association (BPDA), Professor Murphy serves as the training director, where she develops and leads race-conscious training programs for defenders nationwide. Originally from Buffalo, NY, she earned her B.A. in Sociology, Phi Beta Kappa, from Spelman College, where she was a Gates Millennium Scholar, Dean’s Scholar, and valedictorian. She received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, where she won multiple awards for excellence in trial advocacy.
Bert Nieslanik has been a lawyer for 32 years. Since 1990, she has given hundreds of talks on various areas of the law in nearly every state in the county. Topics Bert has taught include ethics, cross-examination, expert witnesses, trial strategy, direct examination, trial theory and themes, jury selection in general and in death penalty litigation, persuasion in the courtroom, storytelling, demonstrative evidence, and trial advocacy skills. She has taught for National Criminal Defense College and many other trial advocacy programs throughout the nation. Bert was a managing attorney in both the Jeffco and Grand Junction Public Defender’s Offices and practiced as a deputy public defender before that. Bert has worked on two capital cases and was the Olom Award recipient in 1993. In 1998, Bert became the first Deputy Director of the Office of Alternate Defense Counsel and retired from this position in 2017.
Robert Pepin, a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Law, has been a criminal defense lawyer since 1982 when he started as a deputy with the Colorado State Public Defender’s system. Bob’s eleven-year state defender stint included serving in three regional offices, heading the Adams County Regional Office for five years, and training new attorneys. He spent six years as private counsel with Recht & Pepin, P.C. and has been an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Colorado since 2000. His trial experience ranges from DUI to death penalty cases. He is a past president of the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and past co-editor of the Colorado Bar Association’s Criminal Law column. Bob has been a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Ga since 1991 and has trained attorneys in various workshops and clinical programs. He has lectured extensively on subjects including jury selection, cross and direct examination, evidence, opening statement, and closing arguments.
Archana has been a public defender in New York City since 2005, at both the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem and The Bronx Defenders. Throughout her career, she has served as a staff attorney, supervisor, and manager, and currently focuses on representing clients charged with homicide. She has tried cases ranging from homicides to violations, advocating for thousands of clients across New York City.
Archana is a faculty member at the National Criminal Defense College and the New York State Defender Basic Trial Skills Program. She also teaches at various public defender training programs and spent three months in Palestine with the International Legal Foundation, where she trained and mentored public defenders.
Before her career as a public defender, Archana spent two years litigating civil claims related to wrongful convictions. She clerked for the Honorable Myron H. Thompson in the Middle District of Alabama and is a graduate of Columbia Law School and Cornell University.
At the national ACLU Cynthia manages efforts to reform federal and state criminal legal systems along with ACLU affiliates across the nation. She also co-convenes the Justice Roundtable and co-chairs the Criminal Justice Working Group at Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. Additionally, she serves on the board of the Deason Criminal Justice Center.
During the Obama administration, Cynthia served as Executive Director of the historic Clemency Project 2014. Often referred to as the nation’s largest law firm of nearly 4,000 lawyers, she provided pro bono support to obtain release for nearly 2000 people.
She was cited in the Merriam Webster Dictionary when the word decarceration was entered. (Decarceration | Definition of Decarceration by Merriam-Webster (merriam-webster.com))
Cynthia also served on the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections, a nine-member, bipartisan, Congressional blue-ribbon panel charged with examining the federal corrections system. The task force released its groundbreaking report Transforming Prisons, Restoring Lives: Final Recommendations of the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections in January of 2016.
She previously served as the Executive Director of the Federal Defenders of the Middle District of Georgia, Inc. and taught at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago. For more than 10 years prior to teaching, Cynthia practiced federal and state criminal defense in Georgia.
A founding board member of the Georgia Innocence Project, and the first African-American female president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, she received the 2016 COS Humanitarian Award, the 2017 annual service award from the Alpha Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated, the 2017 Champion of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Joseph R. Biden Brown Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Ms. Roseberry earned a B.S. degree from Wilberforce University in Ohio. She earned a J.D. from Georgia State University College of Law. She currently serves on the Reebok Human Rights Awards Board. Ms. Roseberry is also a member of the Council on Criminal Justice.
A national and international speaker, Ms. Roseberry has presented in nearly every U.S. state in Europe and the former Soviet Union and to a delegation of judges from China. Her TEDx talk, My Father, My Hero, delivered from inside a prison, has been critically acclaimed. See her TEDx talk at http://bit.ly/myfather-myhero.
PAUL R. RUDOF is an attorney at Strehorn, Ryan & Hoose in Northampton, Massachusetts, specializing in criminal defense at both the trial and appellate levels in both state and federal courts. Over his twenty-five-year career, Paul has tried cases in almost every county in the Commonwealth, from misdemeanors to murders. He has argued many appeals before the Massachusetts Appeals Court and Supreme Judicial Court, winning appellate victories in several landmark cases. Most recently, with his law partner Ryan Schiff, Paul litigated and won Commonwealth v. Mattis, the first decision in the country to conclude that a life-without-parole sentence is unconstitutional for anyone under the age of twenty-one. Paul has also trained thousands of criminal defense lawyers throughout the country in trial skills, substantive law, and forensics, both as a faculty member at the National Criminal Defense College since 2006 and at conferences in almost half of the states. Before entering private practice, Paul was a public defender for 118 years with the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Prior to that, he clerked for the Hon. Michael Murphy of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, worked as a tenant organizer in Tucson, Arizona, and taught middle school in Washington D.C. He is a graduate of Brown University and the University of Utah College of Law.
Bonnie Stewart has been the Appellate and Post-Conviction Case Coordinator for the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (OADC) since 2007. Prior to coming to the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel, Bonnie worked as a paralegal for the Law Office of Lindy Frolich from 2000-2006 and then as a contract paralegal working on primarily death penalty cases and perfecting OADC appeals until she started her job with the OADC. In her current role, Bonnie oversees Appellate and Post-Conviction cases before assigning them to OADC contractors. She is also the staff liaison for interviewing, onboarding, and coordinating with contractor paralegals.
COLETTE TVEDT is the Chief Municipal Public Defender for the City and County of Denver, CO where she oversees attorneys, client support team members, and peer navigators providing holistic defense representation to indigent clients charged with municipal offences. Prior to that she was the founder and owner of Tvedt Law, where she represented individuals in state and federal court charged with misdemeanors to first-degree murder. Prior to her move to Denver, Colette served as the Director of Public Defense Training and Reform for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). In that capacity, she focused on developing and delivering premier training programs for public defense providers nationwide focusing on forensic science, mental health issues, and trial skills. Colette also published reports regarding public defender workload studies, constitutional deficiencies in municipal courts, effective assistance of counsel, and the right to counsel. Colette co-authored bail manuals for states undergoing bail reform including Colorado, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, and conducted training for lawyers, judges, and pretrial and probation officers. Colette has devoted her career over the past 30 years to representing indigent clients accused of crimes as a public defender in Massachusetts and Washington State and in private practice in Seattle and Denver. She has organized training programs for thousands of defense lawyers and served for several years as a Clinical Professor of Law at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. She was also an adjunct professor at the University of Washington School of Law and at Seattle University Law School. She is a faculty member and board member of the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC). She was previously the Colorado National Representative for the Criminal Justice Administration (CJA) Panel and a member of the District of Colorado CJA Standing Committee. Colette Tvedt is an honor graduate of Rutgers University, where she also attended law school.
Hollis Whitson is a partner in the Denver law firm, Samler & Whitson, P.C., handling appeals and working with trial teams in complex cases. She graduated from Yale Law School in 1984. She was a trial and appellate attorney at the New Mexico Public Defender, and served as head of the Appellate and Mental Health Divisions. She worked at the Denver office of the Federal Defender before starting her law firm and joining ADC in 2001. Prior to abolition, Hollis served on death penalty trial teams as the appellate specialist tasked with preserving the record for appeal. She is a recipient of the Jonathan Olam Award, a frequent trainer, and author of the annual ADC/CCDB Roadshow Law Update Outline.
Christy Van Gaasbeek has been the ORPC's Training Director since January 2019. As Training Director, Christy designs and implements training programs for the attorneys, social workers, and parent advocates who represent indigent respondent parents. Christy’s goal is to ensure fair treatment for parents in the child welfare system through educating and empowering the professionals who represent them. Christy has dedicated her legal career to working with underserved populations through the representation of both respondent parents and the criminally accused. Before her work for the ORPC, Christy worked as a public defender and private criminal defense attorney, where she learned the important difference a zealous advocate can make for the people they represent.
Porsha Shaf'on Venable is the Deputy Director at The Juror Project. Born, raised, and still residing in the Bronx, Porsha-Shaf’on received her J.D. from California Western School of Law and her MSW from New York University School of Social Work. She initially worked at Bronx Defenders as a Forensic Social Worker while attending law school. She then returned to Bronx Defenders as a Law Clerk, and after law school, she was a Staff Attorney in the criminal defense practice, the Adolescent Defense Project, and a Team Leader. In 2017, she joined the Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem as a staff attorney. In October 2017, she returned to the Bronx Defenders for the fourth time in her career. She is currently a supervising attorney.
Porsha-Shaf’on has facilitated many conversations and conducted trainings on showing up as your Blackest self in the courtroom, Cross-examination, Jury Selection, and Jury Nullification at Public Defense agencies across the country, The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, The Black Public Defenders Association, and The National Association of Public Defenders and The National Council (FREEHER).
While few people get excited about jury duty, Porsha-Shaf’on believes community members are missing an opportunity: jury duty is not only a unique and given civic right, it’s a quiet but important lever for change in our legal system. More than training on the importance of sitting on a jury, Porsha-Shaf’on is obsessed with making nullification the next big thing – a power that all jurors have and should be encouraged to use.
Andre Vitale (Jersey City, NJ). Andre has served as a public defense lawyer for over 25 years as a trial lawyer, training director, educator, and mentor. He currently works as the First Assistant Deputy Public Defender with the Essex Trial Region of the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender. Andre previously served as a Special Assistant Public Defender and Training Director with the Monroe County Public Defender’s Office (Rochester, NY) and as the Assistant Training Director with the King County Department of Public Defense (Seattle, WA). Andre has extensive trial experience taking more than 100 cases to verdict, while handling some of the most complex matters. He has developed an expertise in defending homicide and sex cases, with a proficiency in contesting forensic and other technical evidence, including DNA, fingerprints, CSAAS, and eyewitness identification. Andre authored an article: Fighting Racial Prejudice through Suppression Litigation, which was published in July 2021 edition of the CHAMPION magazine, for the National Association for Criminal Defense’s (NACDL). Andre designed a Defending a Child Sex Case advanced trial skills program, which has been used by Public Defender Offices in Montana, Missouri, New York, and New Jersey. He is a core faculty member with Gideon’s Promise (gideonspromise.org), Harvard Law School’s Criminal Justice Institute Trial Advocacy Workshop (TAW), the Alternate Defense Counsel Trial Skills Program in Denver, Colorado, as well as the Defender’s Academy with the Bronx Defenders. Andre is a frequent presenter for the National Association of Public Defense (publicdefenders.us). Due to his passion and commitment to client–centered representation, Andre has received the Kevin Andersen Award by the New York State Defender’s Association (NYSDA) and the Denison Ray Award by the New York State Bar Association.
Tally Zuckerman is a Colorado native and a principal at Zuckerman Law, LLC. Prior to forming the firm, Ms. Zuckerman was an attorney in the Denver Trial Office of the Colorado State Public Defender. Ms. Zuckerman spent several years as a Deputy State Public Defender practicing solely in the area of indigent criminal defense. While at the Public Defender’s Office, Ms. Zuckerman represented thousands of clients in county court, juvenile court, drug court, and district court. She has handled cases ranging from misdemeanor domestic violence assault and DUI to sexual assault and homicide. Ms. Zuckerman has extensive experience in juvenile law and handling cases in Colorado’s specialty courts. Ms. Zuckerman has been in private practice since 2013, practicing solely in criminal defense. She has a private practice, ADC practice, and is on the CJA panel. Ms. Zuckerman is currently the private criminal defense attorney representative on the Domestic Violence Offender Management Board as well as the defense representative on the Attorney General’s Domestic Violence Fatality Review Board.