New York State
Defenders Association
Defenders Association
| BTSP2025 |
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New York State Defenders Association
Defender Institute Basic Trial Skills Program June 8-13, 2025
About the Basic Trial Skills Program The training includes small group exercises, lectures, and demonstrations by attorneys and communication specialists, and informal sessions with participants and faculty. Participants are divided into small groups and work together to try a criminal case designed by the faculty for the program. Topics covered during the six-day program include client interviews and collaboration, client-centered theory and theme development, narrative persuasion, voir dire, opening statement, cross-examination, impeachment, direct examination, and closing argument. This total immersion program is extremely demanding, with more than 40 hours of breakout sessions, lectures, and demonstrations. To successfully participate in the training, you must be familiar with all case materials prior to the program as well as prepare daily during the program for participant exercises. Volunteers Needed The Defender Institute is seeking volunteers from the local community to serve as mock jurors in a jury selection exercise, which will take place in the morning of June 10 at Skidmore College. Parking and lunch will be provided. Interested parties can fill out this Google Form. Dates Sunday, June 8 through Friday, June 13, 2025. Application deadline is Friday, April 4, 2025 (application is now closed). Location and Accommodations The Defender Institute 2025 Basic Trial Skills Program will be held at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York. Participants and coaches will stay in dormitory rooms in a student residence hall. Application and Admissions Process The Defender Institute seeks to accept applicants from a broad range of New York counties’ full- and part-time defenders and assigned counsel practitioners who handle a substantial number of assigned criminal cases. Participants are trained by some of the best trial attorneys and communication specialists in the country. If selected, participants are required to make a personal commitment to attend, with engagement, all sessions of the program. Each year, NYSDA’s Defender Institute receives more applications than it can accept and must turn down some applicants. Because participants will learn from each other both informally and in small group exercises, a diverse student body is sought. Some of the factors for acceptance are: levels of trial experience; diversity of the participant population; commitment to the representation of the poor; need for training; and skills or experiences, both in and out of the law, that can be shared with fellow participants. Those persons not selected for the program will be placed on a ranked waiting list.
Anticipated Schedule
MCLE Credit
NYSDA has been certified by the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board as an Accredited Provider of Continuing Legal Education in the State of New York (2022-2025). This transitional program has been approved for all attorneys, including newly admitted lawyers, in accordance with the requirements of the Continuing Legal Education Board for approximately 40 credit hours (depending on the final schedule), of which approximately 3 credit hours can be applied toward Ethics and Professionalism. Tuition assistance for financial hardship is available. Questions about tuition costs and tuition assistance should be directed to Stephanie Batcheller at sjbatcheller@nysda.org. About the New York State Defenders Association Spurred on by the Supreme Court’s decision in Gideon v. Wainwright, the New York State Defenders Association (NYSDA) was incorporated in 1967 to be the voice for defense lawyers in New York State. In 1981, New York State contracted with the Association to run the nation’s first Public Defense Backup Center, a clearinghouse that provides consultation, research, expert referrals, training, and publications to the state’s more than 6,000 public defense attorneys. In 1987, NYSDA established the Defender Institute, which presents the Basic Trial Skills Program and carries out a statewide series of continuing legal education seminars for public defense attorneys. |
