NYSDA Defender Institute Completes 2013 Basic Trial Skills Program

ALBANY, NY (06/21/2013)(readMedia)-- It's the third week of June, so those tired but motivated people leaving the RPI campus late Friday afternoon must be new graduates of the Defender Institute Basic Trial Skills Program (BTSP).

This year, this annual training event by the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) brought together 42 lawyers from New York City and around the state, eager to learn to represent their clients well. They included legal aid attorneys from Buffalo and Nassau County, county public defenders from Rochester and Belmont, and assigned counsel lawyers from Seneca Falls and Latham.

In six fascinating, fruitful, and fatiguing days they practiced questioning witnesses and interviewing clients (all played by skilled actors). They questioned potential jurors (volunteers from the region, playing themselves). They gave opening statements and final arguments. They did all this under the watchful, critical, and helpful guidance of skilled lawyers and a variety of communication coaches who also gave lectures and demonstrations.

Most importantly, the new trial lawyers participated in discussions about how becoming familiar with clients' lives – not just the isolated events and times set out in charging documents or described by their accusers – lets lawyers most effectively represent those clients. Then, through hands-on exercises, they learned how effective this client-centered form of practice can be.

BTSP has long garnered respect. The New York State Judicial Commission on Minorities, which endorsed BTSP in 1991 for "enhancing the competence and racial sensitivity of public defenders" through its model program, reiterated that support in 2011.

And BTSP is just one of the many ways NYSDA works to improve the quality of public defense services. NYSDA was recently recognized for "Outstanding Achievements in Promoting Standards of Excellence in Mandated Representation." Receiving the award was particularly meaningful this year, the fiftieth anniversary of the right to counsel decision in Gideon v Wainwright.