Wow, if you have not attended one of the seminars that our organization has presented, you have missed something special. TCDLA and CDLP seminar course directors are fantastic, and we should all give them a rousing round of applause for the work they have performed in providing quality education to criminal defense lawyers throughout the state. You owe it to yourself, to your client, and to our profession to attend at least two of our seminars. Thanks to the financial responsibility of Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Education Institute (TCDLEI), there are, once again, scholarships available for TCDLA seminars.
Before there was mandatory CLE, there were TCDLA seminars. We should take honest pride in the fact that TCDLA and CDLP seminars have lead the way in educating criminal defense lawyers, not only statewide but nationally as well. Our organization has always had the education of criminal defense lawyers as one of its cornerstones. I have yet to hear, at a TCDLA seminar, “I am only here because I need the hours.” I have heard, “This course is worth the week out of my practice,” when referring to the Texas Criminal Trial College. I have heard some TCDLA seminar participants remark that because of a particular topic or speaker they were going to rework an argument or trial theory.
Standing around the coffee bar at seminar breaks, one is able to overhear criminal defense lawyers helping other criminal defense lawyers, by sharing experiences. This, perhaps, after the speakers and course materials, is the third best thing about our seminars. We are eager to help one another.
Personally attending our seminars is important, but our organization understands that sometimes you just cannot work it into your schedule. Your organization has responded to this fact by making available to you the course material in digital format and by developing online seminars that may be viewed from your computer. The Technology committee of TCDLA is in the process of getting a video and audio library, of selected topics from seminars, organized so that access to the material is user friendly. If you are called upon to help in this endeavor or if you desire to volunteer your help, please do so.
A course director for one of our seminars is responsible for seeking out members of our organization to speak at the seminar. They are responsible for developing the speaker topics, as well as keeping on top of the speakers to get the written material in to headquarters. Since July of 2012 the following women and men have graciously accepted the responsibility of course director. Just as that old television commercial said, “We are so proud of our product we put our name on it.” TCDLA is so very proud of their course directors, we put their names on the course announcements.
CDLP: Winning Trial Tactics (S. Padre Island)
Jeanette Kinard, Bobby Lerma, Mark Snodgrass,
& Sheldon Weisfeld
CDLP: Trainer for Trainers (S. Padre Island)
Sarah Roland & Lydia Clay-Jackson
CDLP: Innocence Work for the Real Lawyer (Austin)
Jeff Blackburn, Sarah Roland, & Gary Udashen
CDLP: Primer for Court Appointments (Austin)
Betty Blackwell & Judge Herb Evans
CDLP: Assaultive and Homicide Offenses (San Antonio)
Jorge Aristotelidis (co-sponsored w/ SACDLA)
TCDLA: Top Gun DWI (Austin)
Grant Scheiner & Danny Easterling
TCDLA: Strike Force Training (Conference Call)
Reagan Wynn & Gary Udashen
CDLP: Gideon’s Trumpet (Abilene)
Jenny Henley, Randy Wilson, & Sarah Roland
TCDLA: Juvenile Law (Galveston)
Kameron Johnson
TCDLA: Appellate Law (Galveston)
Brian Wice
TCDLA: Drug Law (Galveston)
Bobby Lerma
CDLP: Gideon’s Trumpet (Georgetown)
John Convery, Robert Phillips, Bennie Ray,
& Sarah Roland
CDLP: Indigent Defense (El Paso)
Janet Burnett, Greg Velasquez, & Rick Wardroup
CDLP: Capital Case Litigators Initiative (Houston)
Carlos Garcia & Rick Wardroup
CDLP: Innocence Clinic (Dallas)
Jeff Blackburn & Gary Udashen
CDLP: 10th Annual Forensics (Dallas)
Larry Renner, E. X. Martin, Carlos Garcia,
& Rick Wardroup
CDLP: Criminal Law: Trends and Updates (Laredo)
George Altgelt
CDLP: Gideon’s Trumpet (Sugarland)
Derick Smith & Patrick McCann
CDLP: Jim Greenfield Memorial Nuts’n’Bolts (San Antonio)
Jay Norton (co-sponsored w/ SACDLA)
TCDLA: Stuart Kinard Advanced DWI (San Antonio)
Gary Trichter, Troy McKinney, & Doug Murphy
TCDLA: Defending Those Accused of Sexual Assault (Houston)
Stanley Schneider
CDLP: Hal Jackson Memorial Jolly Roger
Nathan Miller & John Ross
Our course directors would not be successful without the wonderful help from headquarters staff. These men and women have dedicated their professional life into making us a top-notch organization—and better lawyers. Anyone who has attended one of our seminars knows how very helpful the staff is, and moreover, they do not see helping us as “going out of their way.” No task asked of them goes uncompleted. We surely owe them a sincere THANK YOU. Joseph, you and your team are (to use Tony the Tiger’s word) “GR-R-R-EAT!”
I am looking forward to seeing you at the next seminar.
The Hat Lady
