Course Description: 

This comprehensive continuing legal education conference is tailored for public defenders, assigned private bar counsel, and criminal defense practitioners. The program offers multi-track instruction designed to strengthen trial skills, master civil procedure in specialized proceedings, and implement constitutional litigation strategies.

Course Highlights: 

• Advanced Trial Advocacy: Strategies for effective witness cross-examination, strategic jury selection, securing crucial jury instructions, and using visual tools to build compelling courtroom narratives.
• Forensic Science & Digital Evidence: Techniques for analyzing and challenging complex forensics, including DNA probabilistic genotyping, firearm toolmarks, digital cell phone extractions, and emerging AI/deepfake technology.
• Constitutional & Pretrial Litigation: Frameworks for litigating Fourth Amendment search and seizure violations, holding police accountable during suppression hearings, and enforcing prosecutorial obligations to disclose exculpatory evidence.
• Specialized Proceedings: Mastering civil procedure and statutory protections in termination of parental rights, mental health commitments, pre-trial competency hearings, and probation/parole revocations.
• Ethics & Client Advocacy: Ethical guidelines for workload triage, navigating attorney-client decision-making, representing neurodivergent clients, and managing secondary trauma to maintain professional resilience.

Case Law Referenced:

• Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015)
• Collins v. Al-Shami, 851 F.3d 727 (7th Cir. 2017)
• Terry v. County of Milwaukee, 357 F.Supp.3d 732 (E.D. Wis. 2019)
• Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)
• Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979)
• Ingraham v. Wright, 430 U.S. 651 (1977)
• Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963)
• Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972)
• Mooney v. Holohan, 294 U.S. 103 (1935)
• Napue v. Illinois, 360 U.S. 264 (1959)
• Strickler v. Greene, 527 U.S. 263 (1999)
• United States v. Bagley, 473 U.S. 666 (1985)
• State v. Harris, 2004 WI 64
• State v. Wayerski, 2019 WI 11
• United States v. O’Hara, 301 F.3d 563 (7th Cir. 2002) & United States v. Grintjes, 237 F.3d 876 (7th Cir. 2001)
• Sell v. United States, 539 U.S. 166 (2003)
• State v. Johnson, 133 Wis. 2d 207, 395 N.W.2d 176 (1986)
• Virgil D. v. Lysondra J., 189 Wis. 2d 1, 524 N.W.2d 894 (1994)
• Melanie L., 2013 WI 67, 349 Wis. 2d 148, 833 N.W.2d 607
• State v. Davidson, 44 Wis. 2d 177, 170 N.W.2d 755 (1969)
• U.S. v. Curry, 965 F.3d 313 (4th Cir. 2020)