Paul Bell fellowship
The Paul Bell Memorial Fellowship is awarded by the board of directors of Appellate Defenders, Inc., in memory of Paul Bell, beloved assistant director of ADI until his untimely death in July 1997. It recognizes his dedication to indigent appellate defense and his deep concern for the development of attorneys, by providing the recipient(s) opportunities to learn more about the craft of appellate advocacy.
Coverage of fellowship:
The fellowship sends the recipient(s) to one or more training programs throughout the country.
Starting in 2012: To make the fellowship available to broader ranges of panel attorneys and more relevant to all aspects of appointed appellate work, ADI made changes in 2012. Each year ADI will consider what programs might be especially valuable. Some may be programs created and presented by ADI. Some may be seminars open to some or all of the panel, featuring prominent experts whose ordinary cost may be prohibitive to a number of attorneys. Others may be programs put on by other organizations in relevant areas of practice. There may be more than one a year if the total costs are within budget. At various times the fellowship will offer programs at basic and advanced levels, in criminal and juvenile practice, on current trends and classical principles, in substantive and procedural areas, etc. For example, in 2012 ADI offered a full-day seminar featuring nationally renowned speaker Bryan Garner. In later years the fellowship has provided ten $500 scholarships to programs of special relevance to our work, such as the California Appellate Defense Counsel annual conference, the California Public Defenders Association programs on delinquency and dependency law, and the California Attorneys for Criminal Justice annual program on appellate practice.
Until 2012: The fellowship formerly sent recipients to the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Appellate Training Seminars, most of which took place in New Orleans. The four-day program included intensive training and individualized workshop activities with nationally known appellate advocates. Newer panel attorneys who were not yet doing serious, complex appeals were preferred.
Past winners sent to the NLADA program:
1997 Nancy King
1998 Richard Pfeiffer
2000 Marta Stanton
2001 Eric Larson
2002 Leslie Barry
2003 Maria Morrison
2004 Christian Buckley and Kevin Sheehy
2005 Tom Owen, Stephen Hinkle
2007 Allison Simkin and Neale Gold
2008 Liana Serobian and Niccol Kording
2009 Hassan Gorguinpour, Lisa Holder, Cathy Lintvedt
2010 Jonathan Demson, Helen Irza, Lauren Johnson