NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE
FACULTY DIRECTORY
For a list of NCDC faculty who have taught in prior years, please click here.
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Chris Adams
Attorney, Adams & Bischoff
Biography
Chris concentrates in criminal defense in federal and state courts. Chris concentrates on defending clients accused of white collar crimes, street crimes, sex offenses and capital murder in the South and around the country.
Since launching his private practice in 2007, Chris has represented clients in serious matters from Las Vegas to New York City to San Juan, Puerto Rico. However, the bulk of his practice is fighting for men and women accused of crimes in and around South Carolina.
Norma Aguilar
Federal Defenders of San Diego
Biography
Norma Aguilar is the Training Director at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. She began working at Federal Defenders after graduating from Berkeley Law School in 2000. As the Training Director, Norma helps develop various substantive law and skills-based training programs. Norma has taught at national conferences on a variety of substantive federal law issues. In addition to serving faculty with the National Criminal Defense College, she also serves as faculty at the Trial Skills Academy program offered by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Norma is a fluent-Spanish speaker and has taught at various Spanish-language trial skills programs in the United States, Mexico and Argentina. Before becoming the Training Director, Norma was a Trial Team Leader. In that capacity, she helped guide and mentor newer attorneys while litigating her own cases. She has tried various types of federal offenses from immigration, drug, sex-trafficking, fraud and others. Norma has argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals seven times.
Tara Allen
Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island
Biography
Tara I. Allen is the Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Prior to this role, she was an Associate Professor of Law at Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol, Rhode Island where she taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence and Criminal Trial Practice.
Prior to academia, Tara was a trial lawyer in Federal Public Defenders Offices in Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and California. She was a supervising staff attorney for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, a law clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and a judicial intern in the Federal District of Massachusetts.
Currently, Tara is a member of NCDC’s Board of Regents. She is a frequent panelist, presenter, and instructor for legal skills workshops nationally. Tara regularly provides expertise to trial lawyers on various subjects, including evidence law, trial strategy and addressing race in federal courts. She received her JD from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, MA and her BA from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT.
Jenny Andrews
Director of Training; Indigent Defense Improvement Division; Office of the State Public Defender CA
Biography
A child of counterculture, raised off the grid by back-to-the-land hippies on the Lost Coast in Northern California, Jenny Andrews is a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School. She started her career as a public defender in Oakland, California in 1996, but left after seven years, after experiencing burnout and moral injury, and didn’t practice law for three years. She returned to public defense work in 2007, and continued working as a public defender in Sonoma County and Santa Barbara County, in a wide variety of positions, including: Forensic Resource Counsel, Felony Team Leader, Director of Training, and Senior Deputy.
For 23 years, she consistently and aggressively litigated cases, including misdemeanor, felony, juvenile, civil commitment (mentally disordered offender and sexually violent predator), mental competency, homicide and multi-jurisdiction (and multi-jury) trials. She has carried specialized caseloads requiring complex, forensic and capital litigation. In 2022, she became California’s first Director of Training at the new Indigent Defense Improvement Division of the Office of the State Public Defender.
She teaches on the faculties of Gideon’s Promise, the National Association for Public Defense, the National Criminal Defense College, the Trial Advocacy Workshop at Harvard Law School, and the California Public Defenders Association. She has taught in public defense training programs in New York, New Jersey, Montana, Mississippi, Missouri, Tennessee, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Georgia, and in public defense offices throughout California. She has designed and presented training programming for public defenders working at all levels, from intern through capital litigation, and in specialized areas such as challenging forensic evidence, discovery litigation, mentorship, and sustaining well-being. She conceptualized and launched a Felony Team Unit, a Pre-Arraignment Unit, and Be Well Wednesday, a weekly wellness meet-up with experiential practices for public defenders. She created and teaches a series of online course for the NAPD Academy on Sustaining Well-Being in Public Defense, created BeSustained.org to support the well-being of defenders, and presents frequently on supporting and sustaining well-being.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
Brook Antonio , II
Senior Counsel
Biography
Brook Antonio, II is currently a Senior Counsel with the Officer for Access to Justice as the Criminal Policy Team. Brook comes as an experience public defender from the Western District of North Carolina as a First Assistant, Federal Public Defender. Prior to his experience in North Carolina, Brook served as a Deputy Chief and Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Federal Public Defender in the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division. Brook also practiced criminal defense in Washington, D.C., as a Staff Attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS). Prior to working at PDS, Brook was a Staff Attorney at the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office in Atlanta, Georgia. Brook received his Juris Doctor from North Carolina Central University School of Law and his Bachelor of Science from the University of South Carolina, where he participated on both the football and track and field teams.