Join author Donavan Bailey to discuss his new book, Mitigating Gideon: Revisiting the Public Defender and Its Role in an Equitable America. In an informative fireside chat with the author, we will explore his culturally competent mitigation model, how public defenders and specifically mitigation specialists uphold justice, and his vision for all public defenders to drive equity in a challenging social justice landscape.

Learning Objectives:

• Analyze the constitutional legacy of the 1963 Gideon v. Wainwright mandate and its modern evolution in safeguarding individual rights against systemic power imbalances.
• Evaluate the distinct, critical role of a Mitigation Specialist within the public defense system, specifically how they address a client's community, life circumstances, and social justice needs.
• Formulate actionable strategies to integrate and sustain professional cultural competency into contemporary criminal defense mitigation practices.

Getting the information is what we do, but how can we make the most of getting the information? Let's talk about preparing for interviews to get the maximum information and some of the challenges we experience. Iron sharpens iron by haring techniques and practices.

Learning Objectives:

• Preparing for the interview.
• Conducting the interview.
• What to do with the information collected from interviews.

Non-lawyers play an essential role in public defense, bringing unique perspectives and valuable skills to their teams and clients. In this session, we’ll discuss the opportunities and challenges non-lawyers face when shaping their professional reputation. Whether you’ve been in public defense for years or are just getting started, you’ll find practical strategies for presenting yourself authentically, building trust, and highlighting your strengths. This session will focus on real experiences and core values that help non-lawyers stand out as effective advocates and collaborators. Join us in a welcoming and supportive space to connect with others, share what works, and discover ways to develop your reputation with confidence and integrity.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the barriers non-lawyers face in building reputation in public defense, and why they go beyond "imposter syndrome."
• Translate non-legal skills and core values into language that resonates in public defense settings.
• Apply practical communication and networking strategies to build trust and stand out as an effective advocate.

Cultural competence isn't a checklist — it's what happens in the first jail visit, the first phone call, the moment a client decides whether to trust you or shut down. This session cuts through the theory and gets honest about what respect actually looks like in the field: how culture shows up in silence, in family dynamics, in a witness who won't talk, and in the assumptions, we bring into the room without realizing it. Attendees will leave with practical communication tools for interviews and community engagement, frameworks for recognizing bias under pressure, and a clearer understanding of how intent and impact aren't always the same thing — and what to do when they're not.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize the impact of culture on public defense practice by identifying how cultural beliefs, values, communication styles, and lived experiences can influence attorney-client relationships and legal representation.
• Develop culturally responsive communication skills that promote trust, respect, and effective advocacy when working with clients from diverse cultural, racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Apply cultural competence to real-world public defense challenges by identifying implicit biases, navigating cultural differences, and incorporating culturally informed approaches into case preparation and client advocacy.

“The person is not the problem; the problem is the problem." - Michael White, Co-founder of Narrative Therapy

Narrative therapy is a non-judgmental, non-blaming therapeutic approach and guiding set of principles used to understand how an individual makes sense of their lived experiences and identity. It differentiates individuals from their problems and assumes everyone has skills, competencies, values, and abilities that will support them as they work to reduce the influence problems have in their lives. Within this framework, individuals are centered as the expert in their own lives and the therapist is a collaborator in uncovering stories that have shaped their understanding of who they are and how they have come to be where they are today.

Understanding and deconstructing stories that have dominated an individual's life is critical. The stories we tell ourselves and the stories told by others shape our thoughts, feelings, and actions. Dr. Stephen Gaddis asserts, "Stories can be understood as quite powerful in that they help create or constitute reality. However, this then raises questions about how certain stories become dominant and others are subjugated. One answer is that stories emerge through histories of negotiations and contests between people, where some people have their stories privileged and some people have their stories disqualified...Problems are understood to result from the effects that emerge in the relationships between people and stories."

The techniques employed in narrative therapy can be used by anyone, whether or not a trained therapist. These include externalization (separating the individual from their problem), deconstruction (breaking down dominant narratives shaped by individual, familial, social and cultural influences), and re-authoring exercises (creating positive narratives that highlight skills and strengths the individual may not have previously recognized). We will practice interviewing using these tehcniques (structure will be based on number of participants) so each person can take the role of interviewer, observer, and client. We will also complete a Narrative Therapy Tree of Life which is a great tool to use when meeting new clients.

When it comes to mitigation and storytelling, our clients have often had their stories told several times and rarely by them. We may receive thousands of pages of records with information others have reported about the individual, but the individual is not the author. As mitigation specialists, social workers, and defense team members, we have a unique opportunity to help tell our client's story in a way that has likely not been done before. We can uncover what dominant stories shape their understanding of who they are and what they have done, why they relate to themselves the way they do, and offer an insight into future decision-making. At the same time, this approach to interviewing helps the individual re-author their stories through the recognition of missing plot lines/context, break larger narratives into smaller, less overwhelming pieces to examine, and identify times they beat the problem. This allows us to gain exceptional insight for mitigation while also challenging our client's negative beliefs about themselves through recognition of their strengths. This new understanding and way of relating to ones' self offers healing and hope that extends beyond the scope of our work.

Learning Objectives:

• By the end of this session, participants will be able to 1) Describe why narrative therapy techniques support mitigation and social justice.
• Create a Narrative Therapy Tree of Life.
• Practice three narrative therapy techniques of externalization, deconstruction, and unique outcomes.

If you are one of the many who find themselves experiencing burnout, a framework of fearless boundary-setting can help bring you from over-functioning and exhausted to effective and on-the-ball by allowing you to protect your peace! Learn how to identify your functioning limits in order to set appropriate boundaries for you and your role; learn to clearly and directly communicate the "what" and "why" of your boundaries with supervisors, coworkers, and clients, to mediate conflict, and to maximize opportunities for self-care and prevent burnout.

Learning Objectives:

• Knowing your functioning limits to set appropriate boundaries that work for you and your role.
• Clearly, directly, and fearlessly communicating boundaries and mediating conflict when boundaries are broken with supervisors, coworkers, and clients.
• Using boundaries to maximize self-care opportunities and prevent empathetic and vocational burnout

A client gives an answer—but did they understand the question? Are they being evasive, or struggling to process language, organize a response, remember information, or manage the effects of trauma or brain injury? These distinctions matter. This session will explore communication and cognitive red flags that may emerge during early client encounters, including behaviors easily mistaken for noncompliance, disinterest, or poor credibility. Attendees will learn practical strategies for improving communication, recognizing when speech and language may mask impairment, and determining when observations warrant referral to a speech-language pathologist, neuropsychologist, or other specialist. 

Learning Objectives:

• Identify common communication and cognitive red flags that may emerge during early client interviews.
• Describe simple strategies to improve communication when a client has difficulty understanding, processing, or responding to questions.
• Recognize when observed communication or cognitive concerns may warrant referral to an appropriate professional, such as a speech-language pathologist, neuropsychologist or other specialist. 

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into everyday life, court and forensic social workers are encountering clients who use AI for mental health support, legal information, parenting guidance, education, employment, safety planning, decision-making, and even AI companion relationships. This workshop explores how client use of AI is shaping assessment, intervention, documentation, and court-related practice while examining the ethical, clinical, and legal implications of AI-generated information, misinformation, bias, privacy, digital evidence, and overreliance on AI. Participants will learn practical strategies for assessing clients' AI use and responding to emerging ethical challenges, and supporting clients in using AI safely and responsibly while protecting client rights and maintaining the integrity of the judicial process.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify the ways clients are using artificial intelligence (AI) and examine the implications for assessment, intervention, documentation, and court-related social work practice.
• Analyze the ethical, legal, and clinical considerations associated with client AI use, including issues of misinformation, bias, privacy, digital evidence, AI companion relationships, and decision-making.
• Apply practical strategies for assessing and responding to client AI use while promoting ethical practice, protecting client rights, and maintaining professional judgment within court and forensic settings.

In the ever-changing digital age, looking for online and social media evidence is essential to any criminal defense investigation. This session will cover the latest techniques and tools to help trial teams confidently navigate digital pursuits for useful information in 2026. Participants will learn the latest search engine hacks, AI tools, advanced social media search strategies and resources to enhance your examinations. Investigators, paralegals and other defense team members will receive practical guides, handouts, and a curated collection of OSINT bookmarks to use in their own cases.

Learning Objectives:

• Provide investigators with open source investigation techniques that are working now.
• To introduce investigators to new AI tools to expediate workflows.
• Give investigators some ethical guidelines when exploring social media/online platforms and using AI tools.

This course will train participants on the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively engage with and advocate for Muslim clients. Attorney Safa Peera will offer an overview of unique cultural/religious practices that are key to representing Muslim clients effectively; instruct on areas where Muslim clients may require accommodations; and explain the importance of gaining such insight by appreciating the over representation of Muslims in the criminal system and their contributions to expanding the rights of incarcerated individuals.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand unique cultural/religious practices key to advocating for Muslim clients effectively.
• Recognize areas where Muslim clients may require accommodations.
• Appreciate the over representation of Muslims in the criminal system and their contributions to expanding the rights of incarcerated individuals.

Public defense organizations cannot become sustainable simply by teaching employees to be more resilient. Burnout, disengagement, turnover, communication failures, and declining performance are frequently predictable consequences of organizational design.The central premise of this talk is:

The health of a public defense organization is not measured by how much its people can endure. It is measured by whether the organization enables them to perform excellent, meaningful work without being consumed by it.

Drawing from the NAPD Sustainability Principles, neuroscience, systems thinking, psychological safety, behavioral economics, trauma-informed practice, and transformational leadership, the talk demonstrates how leaders can redesign organizational conditions that influence performance, belonging, health, and professional longevity.

The message is not that public defense work can be made easy. The message is that difficult work does not have to be made unnecessarily harmful.

Leaning Objectives:

• Explain how leadership behavior affects cognitive load, threat response, motivation, and decision-making.
• Distinguish psychological safety from comfort or lack of accountability.
• Recognize how status, power, fairness, and belonging influence organizational wellness.

Public defense teams encounter clients at various points on the spectrum of suicidal ideation; from passive thoughts of death to detailed plans. Equipping the entire team with the necessary skills and tools to effectively support clients dealing with these thoughts is essential, and could save a life. Join us to learn the foundational skills of assessment and how to effectively intervene, while balancing client autonomy, legal responsibilities to your client, and clinical best practices.

Learning Objectives:

• Brainstorm and assess the key factors (lived experience, culture, law & ethics) that guide our response to thoughts of self-harm and suicide as public defenders.
• Learn how to use the SAFE-T Protocol and C-SSRS (Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale) to determine a client's risk level.
• Consider a variety of intervention strategies to support clients within each risk level, and how these interventions can be tailored to support clients both in and out of custody.

A class on digital forensics, Celllebrite (cell phone) and search warrants that are often overlooked. class will teach the basics of cellbrite and its role in investigations, how to identify critical errors in prosecutorial warrants that benefit our clients.

Learning Objectives:

• What is Cellebrite
• What is a search warrant.
• How do we discover and attack critical errors that are often overlooked or unknown.

This course is designed for legal staff and support professionals who work closely with attorneys. The audience will learn how attorneys approach deadlines, feedback, and technology differently, and how to best work side by side with them. Get to know your attorneys' expectations, preferences, and needs so you can best support them. By sharing our own observations and approaches it will help other legal staff and support professionals to create stronger working relationships, clearer communication, and overall get a new perspective.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand different attorney work styles and expectations
• Improve communication between attorneys and support staff
• Build stronger working relationships and teamwork

What happens when a parent must fight for their children while fighting for their freedom? Presented by two lived experts who experienced incarceration during active child welfare cases, this session examines the devastating consequences of system involvement and the critical role defenders can play in protecting family integrity. Attendees will gain insight into the challenges, strengths, and advocacy needs of parents navigating both systems and leave with practical approaches to improving collaboration and client representation.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how incarceration impacts parents involved in child welfare cases.
• Identify common barriers to reunification and family preservation for incarcerated parents.
• Apply lived-expertise perspectives to strengthen client-centered criminal and family defense advocacy.

Shift your practice from asking "What is wrong with this client?" to "What happened to this client?" This session equips social workers, investigators, and mitigation specialists with actionable strategies to reframe client narratives within the criminal legal system. Attendees will explore critical tools for uncovering root causes, mitigating implicit bias in court reports, strengthening defense team collaboration, and managing the secondary traumatic stress inherent in high-stakes forensic work.

Learning Objectives

• Trace Comprehensive Histories: Identify multi-generational trauma, systemic oppression, and developmental factors to construct compelling biopsychosocial narratives.
• Conduct Trauma-Informed Interviews: Apply strategies to build rapport with hostile or incarcerated clients and collateral witnesses while preventing re-traumatization.
• Analyze Complex Records: Develop efficient workflows for gathering, subpoenaing, and synthesizing cross-system records (child welfare, medical, psychological, correctional).
• Mitigate Bias & Manage Burnout: Implement practical techniques to eliminate implicit bias from written court reports and manage secondary traumatic stress.

Quality defense investigation depends on more than the skill of an individual investigator. It requires early involvement, meaningful access to clients and discovery, ongoing communication, and an interdisciplinary team that understands how investigative work contributes to case strategy and client advocacy.

Using an anonymized homicide case as its foundation, this session introduces New York's first-ever-of-their-kind Standards for the Investigation Function on Interdisciplinary Defense Teams as a practical framework for examining those conditions. Participants will follow the case from assignment through resolution, identify critical investigative needs and decision points, and consider how investigators, mitigation specialists, social workers, paralegals, and other defense professionals can contribute to fact development and strategy. Although developed in New York, the standards offer principles that participants can adapt across jurisdictions, office structures, and roles to strengthen collaboration, identify barriers to effective investigation, and advocate for the practices and resources quality representation requires.

• Identify critical investigative needs and opportunities for interdisciplinary contribution at different stages of a criminal case.
• Apply professional standards to evaluate practices involving early investigator involvement, client relationships, discovery access, case conferencing, and communication across the defense team.
• Use standards-based language to identify barriers to effective investigation and advocate for improvements in team practices, organizational support, training, and resources.

How do our clients actually want to see defenders show up outside of the courtroom? How can we build trust with client communities before they are impacted by the criminal legal system? This panel will discuss the necessity of thoughtful community engagement for public defense offices. It will provide a brief training on how to conduct a community survey and share findings from NYCDS’s survey to better understand how people view public defenders and our role in client communities. Together we will discuss what events have been successful in the past and how to build powerful community outreach.

• Learn how to increase engagement and presence in the community to build trust as a public defense office. 
• Learn how to put together a survey to better understand the community’s knowledge and impression of public defense work
• Exchange ideas and best practices for community engagement with public defense offices across the country 

Human trafficking may be hidden within public defense cases. Potential indicators can be overlooked when a client’s charges, substance use, inconsistent statements, reluctance to engage, or repeated involvement in the justice system are viewed without the context of trauma, coercion, and exploitation. This interactive presentation will help participants recognize potential trafficking indicators, understand how trauma may affect a client’s behavior and communication, and distinguish survival responses from perceived noncompliance. Participants will explore trauma-informed strategies for building rapport and asking sensitive questions while supporting the client’s sense of safety, choice, and control. The presentation will also address how to reduce re-traumatization by explaining and pacing sensitive questions, seeking permission, monitoring distress, and coordinating across the defense team to limit the unnecessary recounting of the client’s experience. Through a realistic case study and guided discussion, participants will practice applying these strategies to client-centered advocacy, mitigation, service planning and coordinated client support.

• Identify potential indicators of human trafficking, coercion, and exploitation within public defense cases.
• Explain how trauma may affect a client’s memory, communication, behavior, and engagement with the defense team.
• Apply trauma-informed questioning strategies that support safety, choice, and control while reducing re-traumatization.

This session explores the critical role that careful investigation and attention to detail play in effective criminal defense. This course emphasizes how seemingly minor facts, inconsistencies, omissions, and overlooked evidence can become significant to a client’s case. Participants will examine practical strategies for reviewing discovery, identifying investigative leads, evaluating evidence, and uncovering information that may strengthen the defense. Through a detail-oriented approach to case preparation, attorneys will learn how thorough investigation can shape case theory, inform litigation strategy, and ultimately enhance zealous advocacy for clients.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the importance of thorough investigation by identifying how seemingly minor details can significantly impact the outcome of a criminal defense case.
• Develop strategies for uncovering critical evidence through careful review of discovery, records, witness statements, and other case materials.
• Apply attention to detail to effective defense advocacy by connecting overlooked facts and inconsistencies to stronger case theories, motions, negotiations, and trial strategies.

People don't need to think or work identically; they need a common understanding of how they treat one another and accomplish work together. As leaders, it is our responsibility to establish a cohesive interdisciplinary team culture across diverse teams of professionals from different functions, backgrounds, and specialties. The key is establishing shared norms while preserving space for respecting individual professional roles.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize how individual perspectives, professional roles, and working styles contribute to a strong interdisciplinary team.
• Define the shared norms and expectations that create a cohesive, respectful, and collaborative team culture.
• Practice strategies for building trust, psychological safety, and effective communication across diverse disciplines and functions.
• Identify leadership behaviors that reinforce shared norms while honoring individual expertise and professional autonomy.

Organizational wellness is not simply the absence of burnout—it is the intentional design of systems that enable people to perform meaningful work while maintaining health, engagement, and professional longevity.Participants learn how leadership decisions influence organizational culture through neuroscience, systems thinking, behavioral economics, and transformational leadership.

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish burnout, secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and moral injury.
• Explain how chronic and acute stress affect attention, memory, executive functioning, emotional regulation, and decision-making.
• Identify personal, relational, environmental, and organizational factors that influence sustainability.
• Create the foundation of a 90-day Personal Sustainability Plan.

Parent defenders of all disciplines are uniquely positioned to help families navigate the child welfare system while ensuring that parents' voices remain central to case planning and decision-making. However, advocacy is often most effective when advocates understand the viewpoints and challenges of the professionals and caregivers with whom they regularly interact.

In this panel discussion, a peer/parent advocate, social caseworker, and foster parent will discuss how they experience the same case from different perspectives. Panelists will explore what helps build trust, what commonly damages relationships, and how advocates can navigate disagreements while remaining focused on their clients' goals. Participants will hear candid reflections about communication, how to handle disagreements, and the practical realities of child welfare work from three unique viewpoints.

This session will provide parent defenders and advocates with a deeper understanding of key stakeholders and offer actionable strategies for strengthening relationships that can ultimately benefit the families they serve.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify common sources of conflict and mistrust in child welfare cases.
• Apply communication strategies that help advocates build productive relationships without compromising their advocacy role.
• Recognize opportunities to foster collaboration that supports parent engagement and reunification efforts.