2005 SDAP Seminar
RESERVATIONS MUST BE RECEIVED BY APRIL 29, 2005
RESERVATI0N
__ I enclose $80.00 for the SDAP Spring Appellate Seminar.
(Fee includes syllabus, refreshments and buffet lunch)
Name: ___________________________________________
Address: _________________________________________
_________________________________________________
Phone: __________________________________________
__ I will be unable to attend. Please send the syllabus to me. I enclose a check for $25.
An application is pending for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 4 hours, including one hour of ethics. SDAP certifies that this activity conforms with the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education. #
SIXTH DISTRICT APPELLATE PROGRAM
SPRING APPELLATE SEMINAR
Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 8:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
MARRIOTT SANTA CLARA, 2700 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara 8:30-9:00 REGISTRATION
9:00-9:30 DECIPHERING PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATIONS/Frank Dougherty
9:30-10:00 INVESTIGATING AND PRESENTING MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES IN HABEAS CORPUS/Paul Couenhoven and Jonathan Grossman
10:00-11:00 REAL LIFE ETHICAL DILEMMAS/Vicki Firstman, Michael Kresser and Lori Quick
11:00-11:15 BREAK
11:15-11:50 THE OLD AND IMPROVED EX POST FACTO CLAUSE/William Robinson
11:50-12:30 HOW TO MAKE A WINNING PREJUDICE ARGUMENT: A REPORT ON PERSUASIVE METHODS USED BY EXPERIENCED APPELLATE LAWYERS/Dallas Sacher
12:30-1:15 HOW TO PERSUADE AN APPELLATE COURT JUDGE OR STAFF ATTORNEY/Justice Richard McAdams and Judicial Attorney Renee Torres
1:15-2:00 BUFFET LUNCH
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Paul Couenhoven graduated from Wayne State University Law School in 1983. He clerked for U.S.
District Court Judge Avern Cohn in Detroit for two years. He came to California and worked for Patrick Hallinan
before joining the Alameda County Public Defender’s office in 1987. In 1989, he began his practice as a panel attorney,
eventually joining all five project panels and doing capital appellate defense. He joined the SDAP staff in 1997. Paul
has the case of People v. Hofsheier, S124363, before the California Supreme Court, concerning equal protection as
applied to the mandatory duty of different categories of sex offenders.
Frank Dougherty received his Ph.D in Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1972, and his J.D. from UC Davis in 1995. He is a licensed clinical psychologist who has conducted numerous psychological evaluations.
He also practices as an attorney with both a trial and appellate practice in criminal and dependency law.
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.
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. He recently obtained reversal
of the denial of a Romero motion in a Three Strikes case due to failure of the trial court to accord significance to
mitigating mental health evidence.
Michael Kresser has been Executive Director of SDAP since 1988. After graduation from Stanford Law School, Michael joined the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office in 1976. From 1980-1982, he was a
judicial attorney at the California Supreme Court. He became Chief Appellate Attorney of the Conflicts Administration
Program in 1985. He served on the Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee from 1994 to 2002.
Most recently, he was prevailing counsel in In re George T. (2004) 33 Cal.4th 620 in which the California Supreme
Court reversed a Juvenile Court finding of a criminal threat based on a high school student’s poem.
Richard J. McAdams is the newest member of the Sixth District Court of Appeal, joining the court in
September, 2003. Justice McAdams began his legal career in a San Francisco civil firm, then joined the Legal Aid
Society of Santa Cruz County, where he became acting director and founded Senior Citizens Legal Services. After
several years at Legal Aid, Justice McAdams began a private general civil and family law practice in Santa Cruz. In
1977 he was appointed to the Municipal Court. In 1998 he was elected to the superior court. He is serving as the Sixth
District’s representative on the Appellate Indigent Defense Oversight Advisory Committee.
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.
Williams Robinson is a 1980 graduate of UC Davis Law School. Bill has been a criminal defense
lawyer ever since. He has won numerous appellate cases including People v. Mendoza (1998) 18 Cal.4th 1114, People
v. Gangemi (1993) 13 Cal.App.4th 1790, People v. Garcia (1987) 195 Cal.App.3d 191 and People v. Fuller (1982) 136
Cal.App.3d 403. Bill joined the SDAP staff in 1998 and was SDAP’s faculty member at the Appellate Advocacy
College in 2000.
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. Dallas has been an editor of Forecite since its inception in 1990. His most recent
litigation success was reversal of a first degree murder conviction in People v. Dominguez (2005) 124 Cal.App.4th 1270.
Rene Torres graduated from Yale College and Boalt Hall School of Law. She then clerked for the late
Chief Justice Rose Elizabeth Bird. In 1980 she became a public defender in Alameda County. After 5 years as a PD
and a brief stint as a civil litigator, in 1986 Renee joined the First District Appellate Project as one of its founding staff
attorneys. In 2000, she took a 6 month leave of absence to work for then-Presiding Justice Christopher Cottle at the
Sixth District Court of Appeal. Since November 2003, she has been working as a research attorney for Justice Richard
McAdams at the Sixth District.
March 24, 2005
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