Retired Wayne County Public Defender Honored

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY (07/24/2013)(readMedia)-- Ronald Valentine, who served as Wayne County Public Defender for over forty years, received the 2013 Wilfred R. O'Connor Award from the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) on Monday evening at its conference in Saratoga Springs.

V. Bruce Chambers, an attorney from Newark, New York, nominated Valentine for the award. Chambers, now in private practice and Director of the Wayne County Assigned Counsel Program, once worked in the Public Defender Office with Valentine. "I had an opportunity to watch the dedication and talent that he brought to the position," Chambers said, adding, "To Ron, the client was everything."

Valentine's successor, James Kernan, said in a news interview after becoming Public Defender in 2011 that "'Ron is an excellent attorney who fought really hard for every client he represented.'" The article went on to note that "Valentine's vision went beyond helping the client to understand how a positive impact on an individual also made the county better."

In 1983, Valentine joined the NYSDA Board of Directors, and served until stepping down in 1999. He was on the exploratory committee that designed NYSDA's award-winning Defender Institute Basic Trial Skills Program and on its inaugural faculty.

Valentine began as Public Defender shortly after Gideon vs Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court's right to counsel case. It is fitting to recognize in the year that Gideon turned 50 Valentine's efforts to provide his clients what Gideon promised: "the guiding hand of counsel." He also provided lessons to other lawyers; in Chambers' words: "He taught me that patience was one of the skills one needed to succeed at public defense, the patience to gain the trust of a client, the patience to negotiate with a prosecutor or judge who probably had a different view of the case, and the patience to develop the facts of the case for trial."

Wilfred R. O'Connor was a founding member and long-time President of NYSDA. The NYSDA Board of Directors created the Wilfred R. O'Connor Award to remember Bill and honor his sustained commitment to the client-centered representation of the poor. The award is presented to an attorney who has been in practice fifteen or more years, practices in the area of public defense, and exemplifies the client-centered sense of justice, persistence, and compassion that characterized Bill's life.