Upcoming Events

The following events may be of interest to panel attorneys and generally provide MCLE credit.

2025 Annual Defender Dinner

Friday, April 25th | 5:00 p.m. No Host Cocktails | 6:00 p.m. Dinner

Westin San Diego Gaslamp Quarter
910 Broadway Circle, 4th floor Ballroom

Featuring Keynote Speaker Danalynn Recer
Awards Presentation includes:
  • Conant-Cleary Award presented to Shervin Samimi
  • Paul Bell Award presented to Richard Levy

Please join us for our annual dinner to unite the entire San Diego criminal defense community.

RSVP by April 11, 2025: RSVP

CADC's 31st Annual Conference & Seminar 2025

Friday & Saturday, May 16th-17th | In-Person

Location: Liberty Station Conference Center

Registration is now open for CADC’s Annual Conference and Seminar. The two-day conference will be filled with informative and inspiring presentations, including the Project Directors Roundtable, a report from CADC’s lobbyist and criminal and dependency break-out sessions, providing a total of up to 8.5 hours of MCLE credit.

For more information and to register, please visit CADC’s website: https://cadc.net/product/conference/.

Upcoming Trainings by the Appellate Projects

CDCR Insights: Classification, Programming, Re-sentencing – A Correctional Counselor’s Perspective

April 9, 2025 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Remote

Hosted by: ADI

CDCR Counselor Clarence Hogan will provide information on the programming/jobs available at a prison, the new California Model, how an incarcerated person is classified and assigned to a prison, the process for determining which incarcerated person merits resentencing letters, and prison mail regulations, tablet usage, and visiting.

1.0 hours of general MCLE credit and appellate and criminal specialization will be offered.

Registration Link

The Ethics of Client Communications

April 23, 2025 from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. | Remote

Hosted by: ADI

ADI staff attorneys Charles Anderson and Laura Furness will moderate a virtual discussion of strategies and ethical considerations when communicating with challenging clients. The presentation, which includes hypotheticals and polling questions, is relevant to both criminal and dependency appellate practitioners.

1.0 hours of MCLE Ethics credit will be offered.

Registration Link

Persuasive Legal Writing

April 29, 2025 from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m. | Remote

Hosted by: CAP-LA

Presented by Daniel U. Smith, retired Certified Appellate Specialist and member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. In “Persuasive Legal Writing,” Mr. Smith teaches the key writing techniques that judges advocate to make legal writing persuasive. This is a general legal writing seminar on how to achieve clarity with writing that exemplifies brevity, simplicity, continuity and specificity. Attendees will receive a copy of “Persuasive Legal Writing” at no cost.

2.0 hours of MCLE credit will be offered.

MCLE Programs Offered by Other Defense Organizations

Countering Bias

April 30th from 12:15 – 1:30 p.m. | Remote

Presented by OSPD

IDID is proud to present a five part webinar series on fostering diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) in the public defender workplace. In the first presentation of the series, attorney Tatiana Kline will invite attendees to recognize how unintentionally learned biases harm marginally oppressed coworkers and how in order to positively evolve, we must all take steps to actively unlearn and counter these biases. At the end of this session attendees will leave with an understanding of the various forms of implicit bias, the nuanced ways it permeates the workplace, and how to take steps to actively unlearn bias.

1.25 hour of MCLE credit in Implicit Bias offered for this training.

Registration Link

On-Demand Courses

New Racial Justice Act Online On-Demand Course

OSPD is excited to open a new on-demand course on the Racial Justice Act. You will learn all the basics,
refresh your knowledge, and stay up to date on RJA developments! These videos and written materials have
been collected from around the state and are meant to help practitioners regardless of their experience in
litigating the RJA.

Participants are able to receive MCLE Self Study and Specialty Credit for their hours working on the course (up to 10-hours).

Registration Link

SVP Course

This course is intended for anyone in Indigent defense looking to learn more about Sexually Violent Predator (SVP) petitions and defending against these civil commitments. Those taking this course from start to finish can expect to spend approximately 9 hours to complete. However, registrants should also feel free to take this course at their own pace. Completion of this course earns 8.25 hours of general MCLE credits.

Registration Link