Remarks from Dan Goyette’s Nelson Mandela Award Acceptance Award Speech

Thank you for those kind and generous remarks, Damon … this beats being run out on a rail or carried off in a pine box. The only thing Damon has not been generous about is the time allocated to accept […]

Dear Norm

Dear Norm, You’ve meant more to me, personally and professionally, than you know. I was only 5 or 6 years out of law school when I started at the ABA. To debate ideas with someone of your stature was intimidating […]

Stand Up for Norm Lefstein

“Stand up, Scout, a great man is passin’.” I took a little liberty there from the words of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” when one of the black folks in the upstairs courtroom gallery tells Scout to join the others there […]

So it isn’t all about me? My Lessons in Client Focused Leadership

I am a new member of NAPD and had the pleasure of attending the 2019 Executive Leadership Institute in Frankfort, Kentucky. I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on the impact that the Institute is having in my professional […]

Jeff Adachi Receives National Criminal Justice Award

This blog post was co0authored and is released in coordination with the San Francisco Public Defender's Office.  MIAMI, FL – San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi was posthumously awarded the Equity Award by the National Consortium on Racial and Ethnic Fairness […]

Dust and Ash

Once, in a time that seems like a different life but was really only about five years ago, I packed up my tiny apartment, gave my dog to a friend, and moved across the world to take my first job […]

The Best Generation

How did we get to this point?  The story is a familiar one to public defenders in America.  While the Sixth Amendment was a vital part of our Bill of Rights, that amendment did not apply to the states for […]

NAPD Systems Builders Committee Launches New Program

Strong public defense systems make public defense better for clients and their families, public defense professionals and their families, and communities as a whole. The Systems Builders Committee was created to help build strong public defender delivery systems throughout the United […]

A Vision for SVP Defenders

My life as a SVP attorney began 10 years ago in Missouri with only 4 people in my office to talk to.  Early on I found out that being a SVP/SDP attorney is an incredibly isolating journey.  We work long […]

Yolo County Hosts First Annual Holistic Defense Fundraiser

The Yolo County Public Defender’s Office hosted the first annual Holistic Defense Fundraiser on March 15th, 2019. The fundraiser coincided with the 56th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark Supreme Court decision which guaranteed quality legal representation to everyone […]