Washington Defender Association’s 2025 Defender Conference will focus on trial skills, the rules of evidence, and related topics. Some of the sessions will focus on traditional trial skills. Other sessions will focus on using the rules of evidence when preparing for and during trial. There will also be a sessons on the topics of defining what statements are testimonial under Crawford v. Washington and using a forensic linguist in criminal cases. Additional timely topics include a legislative update, crimmigration law, defender wellbeing, and resentencing.

The conference will include both a keynote and a capnote. Our keynote speaker will be Christopher Poulos, who regularly speaks and writes about his path from addiction and incarceration to college, law school, the White House and beyond. Christopher is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Justice and Human Dignity. Our Capnote speaker will be Judge Linda W.Y. Coburn, who serves on the Washington Court of Appeals, Division I. Judge Coburn was elected to the Washington State Court of Appeals in November 2020 after 15 years at the trial court level either as a career public defender or a judge. She led the effort in the creation of the Legal Financial Obligations (LFO) Calculator as part of a Price of Justice Grant received by the Minority and Justice Commission and has taught or presented on the topic of LFOs across the state and nationally.

And once again, we’ll be recognizing the excellent work of your colleagues at WDA’s Annual Awards Ceremony, followed by Defender Karaoke! Heavy appetizers will be provided by WDA.

Please note – rooms are very limited at Sun Mountain Lodge, however there are many other lodging options in Winthrop and the surrounding areas. More information will be included in your confirmation.

We are also continuing our Leadership Program the day before the conference on April 24th. Interested in the pre-conference Leadership Program? You must register separately. Click here for more information!

For the full 2025 WDA Defender Conference schedule, click here.

To register for the 2025 WDA Defender Conference, click here.

9.75 possible CLE credits have been requested from the WSBA.