cathleen.bennett

Cathleen L. Bennett is the Criminal Defense Training Director at the Committee for Public Counsel Services (the Massachusetts Statewide Public Defender). As a trial lawyer in the Public Defender Division, she defends indigent clients charged with crimes in the state courts of Massachusetts. Cathy is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College, and is a core faculty member of Gideon’s Promise (formerly the Southern Public Defender Training Center) which was the subject of an award winning HBO documentary called Gideon’s Army. She has taught at trial advocacy and other criminal defense programs across the country, and is.an adjunct faculty in trial advocacy at Boston College Law School. She is the editor and a chapter author of the Massachusetts District Court Criminal Defense Manual (MCLE, Inc.) and has written chapters in Trying Sex Offense Cases in Massachusetts (MCLE, Inc.), Trying Murder and Homicide Cases in Massachusetts (MCLE,) and in Massachusetts Courtroom Advocacy (MCLE, Inc.). She received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the Committee for Public Counsel Services in 2007, the Scholar-Mentor Award from Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc. (MCLE) in 2008 and the Outstanding Faculty Award in 2011 from Gideon’s Promise.