By Corey Farris
Assistant Director of Law Career Development
Golden Gate University, School of Law
As many of you may already know, I was a deputy public defender before I came back to GGU to join the Law Career Development team. I first attended the California Public Defenders Association - Basic Trial Skills Institute nearly ten years ago when I was a "baby" public defender. This summer was my first year on the faculty and it was a genuinely inspiring experience.
The Basic Trial Skills Institute is an entire week spent learning from practicing criminal trial lawyers who come from all over California to share their experiences in the criminal justice system. The event is held on the University of California, San Diego campus and both the participants and faculty stay in the dorms and attend sessions at The School of Peace Studies. The morning sessions are filled with speakers like Brendon Woods (The Alameda County Public Defender), Chuck Denton (Deputy Public Defender for Alameda County), Traci Owens (Deputy Public Defender for Santa Clara County and 2012 "Defender of the Year" winner), and Susan Leff (former San Francisco deputy public defender and GGU adjunct professor), just to name a few. The afternoons are small group "breakout" sessions where new PD's are grouped up with seasoned litigators to work on voir dire, cross examinations techniques, and client interview skills. Each beginner PD has the opportunity to get on their feet in front of a small audience and practice the skills they learn during the morning sessions. After the exercise, each participant receives immediate feedback from one or more faculty members. The new PD's seemed to enjoy the experience and there was not a single participant in my group who did not show improvement as the week went on.
As a first time faculty member, I cannot fully put into words how much I got out of this experience. It was wonderful to meet new deputy public defenders practicing in different counties. Each county has its quirks and this week of training allowed the young attorneys to learn about what it's like to practice in counties they may have never been to. I was able to meet the heads of offices across the State and hear about the strategies they use to deal with common problems that defense organizations face. Indigent criminal defense work is challenging in many respects, so building a strong support network is critical to prevent burnout and to deal with secondary trauma. For me, the CPDA has always represented a crossroads where training and peer bonding meet to push people back out into the world a little bit more confident than they were before they came in the door. To that end, I did a little bonding of my own and herded together the GGU alums who were at CPDA!
On day two of the conference, I introduced myself to Felicia Carrington. I approached her and had a slightly awkward start because I knew she looked familiar, but could not figure out how I knew her. To my relief, she was having the same problem. But, before too long, we worked out that we had been classmates at GGU! She's now a senior attorney at the Solano County Public Defender's Office and was also on the faculty panel for the conference. I invited her to lunch so that we could catch up and then decided to connect with other GGU alums. By the end of the next day, I reached out to: Karina Alvarez - a 2010 alum, working in the Santa Clara PD's office; Bree Ryan - a 2015 alum, working in the Solano County Alternate Defender's Office; Julia Deutsch - a 2011 alum, working in the Kern County PD's office; Michele Queirolo - a 2014 alum, working in the San Joaquin PD's office; and Jared Pursell - a 2015 alum, working in the Fresno County PD's office. Most of us were able to connect for a group lunch where we exchanged war stories and contact information. You never know when you may share a mutual client or want to talk to a fellow alum about relocating to another office in a different county. So, I encouraged them to connect to each other on LinkedIn, plan to meet up at future trainings or conferences, and to get together for coffee when time and geographic limitations permitted.
Aside from meeting up with a group of talented GGU alums and enjoying my work with new PD's as a first-time faculty member - I learned a lot myself. One of the faculty members that I was paired up with works primarily on gang cases in Riverside County. As you can imagine, trying gang cases is challenging and picking an unbiased jury can seem an impossible task. He was amazing when it came to discussing controversial topics with mock jurors during the voir dire breakout session and I left the session sad that I hadn't gotten to see him in a real courtroom. I immediately connected with him on LinkedIn and vowed to one day make it to Riverside to see him in action.
After nearly ten years of practicing as an attorney, I am always looking for opportunities to learn more about my craft and to expand my network of legal professionals. Training conferences like this one are a great place to do both. Besides, networking at an event where you already have one major thing in common with other attorneys is a good place to start if you are struggling to present as authentic, engaged, and interested.
If you would like to hear more about general networking tips, the CPDA, or the GGU alumni I recently connected with, please feel free to set up an appointment with me, and I would be happy to share my experiences with you.
