Investigator Meetup – 02/09/2024 2:00 EST, 1:00 CST – Beyond ChatGPT: Advanced AI concepts for Public Defender Investigators W/ Rocky Ramirez

We’ve all heard of Chat GPT and other generative AI tools – but how will we actually use them for casework? What other tools exist that we can use that will allow us to go beyond the limitations of generative AI? In this presentation, we will explore the larger potential of AI to transform the daily operations of public defender investigators, focusing on its application for enhancing evidence analysis and case preparation. We’ll delve into advanced use cases, demonstrating how to fine-tune AI models to better meet the specific needs of legal defense casework, including techniques for summarizing vast amounts of documentation, extracting critical information, and even eventually exploring how we might analyze patterns in officers’ actions over time. Join US!

This session will be recorded and available My Gideon next week.

ROCKY RAMIREZ  – Bio

Rocky grew up in Grapevine, TX and was a member of the Grapevine Debate Team and Mock Trial Team. Rocky did his undergrad at Texas Tech University majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Political Science. During this time he was the Music Director and then Station Manager at 88.1 KTXT-FM the college radio station.

He attended Western State University in California and graded on to Law Review and was a member of the Latino Student Bar Association. Rocky also obtained a degree in Sound Engineering from the Los Angeles Recording School and spent two years as an intern and sound engineer in Los Angeles. Rocky moved back to Texas and started his law practice in Lubbock as a panel attorney in the Lubbock Private Defenders Office. In 2019 he attended Gideon’s Promise in Atlanta, GA as one of the inaugural members of the Future Indigent Defense Leaders program (FIDL 1.0). In May of 2022, joined the team at the Bexar County Managed Assigned Counsel Office in San Antonio, as the Law & Technology Resource Attorney and was eventually made the Director of Technology and Professional Development. Rocky has now joined the Concho Valley Public Defender’s Office as a Felony Assistant Public Defender. He will split his time between case-work and technological change for the office.

Rocky is a regular presenter at CLE conferences speaking about the intersection of Technology and Indigent Criminal Defense. His presentation subjects have included Automation for Indigent Criminal Defense Attorneys, Case Management Systems, and the use of AI for Criminal Defense.

At home, Rocky is a proud father of two beautiful boys who keep him busy in his time away from work.

JONATHAN LYON is currently the Investigator Resource Coordinator, past Member Support Coordinator and the national survey investigator for National Association for Public Defense. Since the pandemic he has led roughly 150 meetups for investigators both nationally and internationally. Jon is the president of Lyon Legal Logistics to help attorneys in and out of court with Discovery and technology and has assisted attorneys in multiple federal court jurisdictions (www.lyonlegallogistics.com/).  He is also a legal investigator for McClain Investigations. Jon began his investigative background working in a PI firm and then for 12 years for the Office of the State Appellate Defender of Illinois. His primary focus has been on post-conviction death penalty cases. In addition, Jon worked for LexisNexis as an award-winning national trainer of the CaseMap suite of software. He also worked for Lockheed Martin as a contractor supporting government attorneys and investigators with software and electronic discovery support needs. He is a Certified Defense Investigator through DePaul’s Center for Justice in Capital Cases and a Certified Trainer through the Bureau of Justice Assistance. He has taught at the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College, Cardoza, DePaul, Kent, Iowa, and University of Michigan law schools.

He has also taught at the National Defense Investigator Associations Annual Conferences, National Association of Legal Investigators annual conference, National Association for Public Defense, The Innocence Project, NACDL, Federal Defender’s winning strategies conferences, Life in the Balance, American Society of Criminology, US Army, Intellenet and numerous state and county public defender conferences. It is not unheard of for Jon to be invited back to conferences. Jon was most recently interviewed on “Public Defenseless” episode #99. Jon is the Creator/Webmaster for the internationally utilized website www.internetsleuth.net.