Vol. 37, Number 6—June 2005

Mentor Program Aims At
Ensuring Quality Legal Help

"This program gauges a lawyer's enthusiasm for criminal defense work in federal court. It's all about commitment to quality representation," said U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada. "We think it's been worthwhile." Since 1996, Hunt has matched mentors with lawyers who want to become Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorneys.

The Constitution's Sixth Amendment guarantees all those accused of a serious crime the right to a lawyer's help, but until the CJA was enacted in 1964 there was no authority to compensate lawyers appointed to represent those who could not afford to hire legal help.

The CJA provides a comprehensive system for appointing and compensating lawyers to represent such defendants. Each district court has its own CJA plan, spelling out how lawyers can join the "panel" of those available to be appointed to cases, and how appointments to the panel are made.

Not all lawyers have the experience to provide competent criminal-defense representation in federal courts. That's where the mentors come in.

For six or seven months each year, a small group of Nevada lawyers learns all it can about representing criminal defendants in federal court. While they maintain their private practices, the lawyers attend intensive training sessions and, for no pay, shadow experienced federal practitioners in a variety of court appearances.

The group usually numbers three or four, and the most in any one year has been seven or eight. "Our district tries to control the number of lawyers on the CJA panel so each member stays current with federal practice," Hunt said. "As a result, the number of mentored lawyers in any one year is kept relatively small."

About three dozen lawyers are CJA panel members in Nevada today; there are two dozen in Las Vegas, where the mentoring and training occurs.

"The training is one component of the mentoring program," said Nevada Federal Public Defender Franny Forsman. "Combined with the shadowing of CJA panel attorneys, the training is aimed at acquainting the participants with the players in, and culture of, the federal criminal practice."

On three successive Saturday mornings, the participating lawyers are schooled in federal criminal practice. The first week's classroom is a magistrate judge's courtroom. A magistrate judge and representatives of the federal public defender, U.S. attorney, and pretrial services offices serve as faculty.

The lesson includes pretrial discovery, the role of pretrial services officers and their reports, and bail hearings.

The second session is held in the federal public defender's office, where Forsman and her staff discuss preparing a case for trial, pretrial motions, and other pretrial issues. At the third session, held in the district's probation office, representatives of the federal public defender and probation offices tutor the participants on sentencing and post-judgement issues.

"There was no real model for all this," Hunt said. "It cameout of a discussion among CJA panel selection committee members. We had somelawyers who applied with lots of potential but with no or not much federal experience.I asked the panel attorneys if they'd be willing to take such folks undertheir wings, and most said 'yes.' It hasn't cost anything,and we've been fine-tuning the program ever since."

A new aspect will be added to the program in June, when the district court conducts its first mock trial, at which the participants will get to watch and hear the jury's deliberations.

Chief Judge Philip Pro (D. Nev.) praised Hunt's work, adding, "The judges of our court and the attorneys involved consider this to be a highly successful program."

Las Vegas lawyer Dan Albregts, the district's CJA panel representative for the past six years, said, "I'm not sure any other district has the organization we have in place. I'd be surprised if lawyers in any other district have to dedicate 30, 40 or 50 hours to training over a six-month period before they can be considered as a CJA panel member."

Forsman said that lawyers who become CJA panel members in Nevada face 10 hours of additional training each year.

They and all CJA panel attorneys nationwide also can participate in programs offered by the Office of Defender Services Training Branch, part of the Administrative Office. To see what training programs are currently offered, go to www.fd.org and click on "training."