This interactive training program features both pre-recorded and live web-based training. Registered participants will be provided access to a library of on-demand video content focusing on developing case theories and themes, crafting opening and closing statements, the nuts and bolts of voir dire, and critical direct and cross-examination skills. 

The live web-based training features 4 interactive skill development sessions. Working with a national faculty of experienced trainers and defense attorneys, participants will work in small groups using case hypotheticals to hone their skills. 

The training is FREE but registration is required.

Live Web-based Training Dates

• March 25, 2022, 10 am -12 pm PT/1 pm - 3 pm ET (Case Theme and Closing Argument)
• April 1, 2022 ,10 am -12 pm PT/1pm - 3 pm ET (Cross Examination of Lay Witnesses)
• April 8, 2022, 10 am -12 pm PT/1pm - 3 pm ET (Cross Examination of Law Enforcement)
• April 22, 2022, 10 am -12 pm PT/1pm - 3 pm ET (Opening Statements)

Register Here

CLE credit pending

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FACULTY

Guy Cardamone is a dedicated public defender and attorney trainer who started his career in Miami, Florida, and currently works as an Assistant Public Defender and Training Coordinator in Madison, Wisconsin. Guy has defended the accused at all levels: from homicide to simple battery. He’s taught criminal defense and trial skills nationwide as a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College and the Wisconsin, Kentucky, and New Jersey Trial Skills programs. Guy has also presented on a variety of topics in criminal defense for NACDL, OACDL, Gideon’s Promise, the Wisconsin Bar, and the Wisconsin Public Defender. His multidisciplinary approach to criminal defense practice includes education, sales, psychology, and literary and film studies.

Michael Carter is the Executive Director of the Federal Community Defenders Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. Prior to becoming the Executive Director of the FCDO, Michael worked as a supervising attorney for the Neighborhood Defender Service (NDS) Office in Detroit, Michigan.  While at NDS, Michael supervised a team of advocates, including attorneys and social workers, and oversaw the training program for court appointed lawyers in Wayne County.  Michael previously spent seven years as a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia office and the FCDO where he represented indigent clients in serious felony cases. He has represented hundreds of clients and tried numerous criminal cases in state and federal courts in Michigan and Washington D.C.

Michael currently serves as a board member for the ACLU of Michigan Board of Directors, and serves as the affiliate’s national representative.  He also serves as a board member for the National Association of  Federal Defenders, co-chair for the board of the Detroit Justice Center, and board member of Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan (CDAM). 

Michael is a graduate Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, and the University of Michigan.

Jennifer Sellitti is Director of Training & Communications for the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender (OPD), where she is responsible for teaching trial advocacy and substantive law to public defenders in all of the agency’s practice areas. She works at the direction of the public defender on special projects that impact OPD clients such as police accountability, juvenile resentencings, and pretrial justice/bail reform. In addition, she represents clients charged with serious felonies at trials.

Prior to her appointment to director, she was the managing attorney for the Middlesex Trial Region and an assistant deputy public defender in the Essex County Adult Region. She worked as a staff attorney for the Committee for Public Counsel Services in Massachusetts before joining the OPD. Jennifer began her legal career at Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services, where she worked on the organization’s Prison Brutality Project investigating claims of prison violence and representing inmates housed in solitary confinement at super maximum security prisons in civil rights lawsuits against correctional facilities and individual officers.

Jennifer is a faculty member at trial advocacy programs across the country including the National Criminal Defense College and the National Forensic College. She speaks nationally at professional conferences about issues surrounding legal representation for the accused. She a trustee of the Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers of New Jersey and serves on the Advisory Boards of the New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Forensic Science Major and the State of New Jersey’s newly formed Conviction Review Unit. A graduate of Suffolk University Law School, Jennifer obtained a B.S. degree in public relations from Boston University. When she is not training lawyers or advocating for clients, Jennifer and her partner operate D/V Tenacious, a dive vessel that discovers, explores, and salvages shipwrecks in the North Atlantic. Jennifer is both a diver and a United States Coast Guard licensed ship captain.

Deja Vishny is a criminal defense lawyer who handles homicide cases consultant and trainer who specializes in homicide and false confession cases as well as suppression and trial skills. Deja is available as a consultant for defending homicide and confessions cases. She is also a nationally known trainer and speaker for your criminal defense, public defender or state bar association. She also handles homicide cases, specializing in defending women who have acted in self defense and is currently of counsel at Nelson Defense Group in Hudson Wisconsin works with Motley Legal on specific matters. Deja Vishny has lectured for criminal defense associations, public defender offices, state bar associations and NGO’s on defending confession cases, suppression and various aspects of trial practice in over 40 states and India. She is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and served on the Boards of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, National Criminal Defense College and the Wisconsin State Bar Criminal Law Section. In 2015 the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers presented her with a lifetime achievement award for the defense of the indigent accused. She is a three time recipient of WACDL’s award given to those who get acquittals in homicide cases. In 2012 Deja Vishny was honored by the Wisconsin Law Journal with a ‘Women in the Law’ award. She was named in SuperLawyers for several consecutive years. Previously she worked for the Wisconsin State Public Defender from 1980 to 2018, where she was the Homicide Practice Coordinator and Deputy Training Director and a well respected trial lawyer. She is an adjunct professor teachings trial advocacy at Marquette University Law School.

Zaki Zakari has been a state and federal public defender his entire career in San Diego county.  He's currently assigned to the Multiple Conflict Office which primarily handles homicides.  He's a past president of the San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer's Club, Executive board member of the San Diego Criminal Defense Bar Association, Executive board member of San Diego's Criminal Defender's Inc., and on faculty at the Trial Lawyers College.