For the past 35 years the Washington Defender Association has provided relevant, responsive and comprehensive legal training on the unique ethical responsibilities and challenges related to representing low-income clients in Washington’s criminal, juvenile, civil commitment and child welfare court systems. This year’s program is specifically designed to provide defenders in every practice area with current and nuanced ethical guidance as they work with clients, opposing parties and the courts. The program will assist and guide defenders as to their ethical obligations at every stage of their work with clients from charging to post-conviction advocacy.
Defenders will gain practical knowledge and skills as it relates to the daily adherence to and implementation of the RPC’s. Defenders will explore their ethical obligations in a rapidly changing legal landscape. These changes include but are not limited to a growing understanding of the way racial bias impacts our clients and their experiences in Washington’s justice systems and the unique ethical responsibilities we have to our non-citizen clients. Defenders who attend the program will gain strategies for ethical representation and enhance for their practice skills and client communication skills. Our faculty is made up of experienced and practicing public defense trial attorneys, judicial leaders and experts in the field of legal ethics. We honored to have Washington State Supreme Court Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud joining us a keynote speaker.
Click here for a full schedule. 6.0 Ethics credits have been requested from the WSBA for this program.