Sixth District Appellate Program
Spring Appellate Seminar
Friday, May 7, 2010
Milton Marks Conference Center
State Building, 350 McAllister Street,
San Francisco, CA
RESERVATION
DUE TO THE STATE BUDGET CRISIS, THE ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICE OF THE COURTS IS UNABLE TO REIMBURSE SDAP FOR SEMINAR COSTS. CONSEQUENTLY, THERE WILL BE A $50 NONREFUNDABLE ADMISSION FEE. TO RESERVE, PLEASE SEND A CHECK FOR $50. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO ATTEND AND WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE A SYLLABUS, PLEASE SEND A CHECK FOR $30
Name: ___________________________________________________
Address: _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
Phone: __________________________________________________
__ I will be unable to attend. Please send me the syllabus.
An application is pending for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 4 hours. SDAP will advise all participants as soon as approval is granted. SDAP certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.
Mail to Sixth District Appellate Program, 100 N. Winchester Blvd., Ste. 310, Santa Clara, CA 95050.
RESERVATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 23, 2010.
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SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
8:30 - 9:00 a.m. REGISTRATION, refreshments
9:00 - 9:45 a.m. Effective Legal Argumentation by Dallas Sacher, Assistant Executive Director
9:45 - 10:30 a.m. Self-Defense: Evidentiary and Instructional Issues by Lori Quick and Vicki Firstman, Staff Attorneys
10:30 - 11:00 a.m. Arguing Ineffective Assistance of Counsel on Direct Appeal by Paul Couenhoven, Staff Attorney
11:00 - 11:15 a.m. BREAK, refreshments
11:15 - 12:00 p.m. Turning Murder Into Manslaughter by Bill Robinson, Staff Attorney
12:00 - 12:45 p.m. Hot Topics in Mental Health by Jean Matulis, Panel Attorney, and Jonathan Grossman, Staff Attorney
12:45 - 1:15 p.m. Clues from the Clerks by Michael J. Yerly, Clerk, and Corrine Pochop, Assistant Clerk, Sixth District Court of Appeal
1:15 - 1:30 p.m. Presentation of Gerald Z. Marer Award for Panel Excellence by Michael Kresser, Executive Director
1:30 - 2:00 p.m. LUNCH
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PAUL COUENHOVEN graduated from Wayne State University Law School in 1983. After spending two years with the Alameda County Public Defender’s Office, he began his practice as a panel attorney, eventually joining all five project panels and doing federal capital appellate defense. He joined the SDAP staff in 1997. Paul’s recent victories include People v. Hofsheier (2006) 37 Cal.4th 1185 [equal protection violation to make sex offender registration mandatory for unlawful oral copulation but optional for unlawful sexual intercourse]; In re Grunau (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 997 [reinstatement of appeal dismissed for failure to file opening brief]; Lewis v. Superior Court (2008) 169 Cal.App.4th 70 [petitioner removed from sexual offender registry]; People v. Kanda (2009) H031532 [murder conviction reversed due to erroneous manslaughter instruction].
VICKI FIRSTMAN has been a SDAP staff attorney since 1996. Vicki is a graduate of Santa Clara Law School. She began her legal career with the Monterey County Public Defender where she represented clients until 1982. Vicki was a judicial attorney with the Sixth District Court of Appeal from its inception in 1984 until 1995. She is involved with both criminal and dependency cases in her staff work, and has assisted in major habeas litigation in dependency and criminal cases both in the appellate and trial courts.
JONATHAN GROSSMAN is a 1991 graduate of Hastings College of Law. Jonathan worked as a Deputy Public Defender in San Joaquin County from 1991 to 1999 where he handled numerous law and motion and appellate matters in both criminal and child dependency cases. Jonathan joined SDAP in 1999. Among his notable victories are Juan H. v. Allen (9th Cir. 2005) 408 F.3d 1262, in which he obtained federal habeas to reverse his client’s murder and attempted murder convictions due to insufficiency of the evidence and People v. Whaley (2008) 160 Cal.App.4th 779, reversing a life commitment as a sexually violent predator imposed retroactively following a revision of the SVP law.
JEAN MATULIS is a 1988 graduate of the University of San Francisco Law School. From 1989 to 1996, she worked for Protection and Advocacy, Inc., which provides advocacy services for people with disabilities in institutions. She joined the SDAP panel in 1997 and has specialized in appeals involving mental health issues, including Sexually Violent Predator commitments, findings of incompetence to stand trial, and mentally disordered commitments.
CORRINE POCHOP began her career as a Santa Clara Superior Court courtroom clerk, then joined the staff of the Sixth District Clerk’s Office in 1984, and was made Assistant Clerk in 1988.
LORI QUICK graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1990. Between 1990 and 1992, she was a Deputy Public Defender in Marin County. In 1992, Lori joined the Public Defender’s Office in Santa Cruz. Lori became a SDAP staff attorney in 1996. Lori's litigation victories include a grant of habeas corpus from the Ninth Circuit for a Three Strikes client due to instructional error concerning use of domestic violence propensity evidence (Acosta v. Lewis, 04-17017) and obtained a full reversal of multiple sex offense convictions and resulting 162 year to life sentence in People v. Ojeda, H029199.
WILLIAM ROBINSON is a 1980 graduate of UC Davis Law School. Bill has been a criminal defense lawyer ever since. He joined the SDAP panel in 1987 and the SDAP staff in 1998. He has prevailed in numerous published cases, including People v. Mendoza (1998) 18 Cal.4th 1114, People v. Le (2006) 136 Cal.App.4th 925 and People v. Miller (2009) 175 Cal.App.4th 1109. He recently obtained an OSC from the Sixth District in a Three Strikes case on an IAC claim due to counsel’s failure to contest an alleged prior strike for infliction of great bodily injury where the People could not prove the victim was not an accomplice.
DALLAS SACHER is SDAP’s Assistant Director. He graduated from Santa Clara Law School in 1981. Dallas worked as a staff attorney at the Fifth District Court of Appeal from 1982 to 1983. After a stint at an LA firm, Dallas moved north and began a private appellate practice. He joined SDAP’s predecessor, the Conflicts Administration Program, as a staff attorney in 1986. His recent litigation successes include obtaining an OSC by order of the California Supreme Court, representing his client at the evidentiary hearing in superior court, getting one of two convictions set aside due to IAC, and seeing his client resentenced from 25 years to life to six years and released (In re Magnan, S133572), and obtaining federal habeas relief from a 25 year to life sentence after conducting an evidentiary hearing in the district court in Pakes v. Yates.
MICHAEL YERLY has been Clerk/Administrator of the Sixth District Court of Appeal since 1988. He began his career as a court room clerk with the Santa Clara County Superior Court, then joined the Sixth District Court at its inception as Assistant Clerk. He has served as an advisory member of the Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee (AIDOAC).
(March 19, 2010)
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