NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY
R
Song Richardson
Notes
TPI Graduate
Elton Richey
Attorney at Law
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TPI Graduate
Ann Roan
Emeritus Faculty
Biography
Ann M. Roan is a lawyer in private practice in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in adult and juvenile criminal defense at the trial, appellate and post-conviction levels. Prior to that, she was a deputy state public defender with the Colorado State Public Defender for 27 years. From 2004-2017, she served as the training director for the system, and specialized in juvenile defense and complex litigation training from 2013-2017.
Before being named training director, Ann practiced in the Public Defender’s trial offices across the state, as well as in the appellate division, where she argued frequently before the Colorado Court of Appeals and Supreme Court. She has tried numerous homicides and other serious felonies, and defended children facing prosecution in adult court for homicide and other serious juvenile matters throughout Colorado.
Ann is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, GA; the NACDL Capital Voir Dire College in Boulder, CO; and has taught state and federal criminal defense lawyers in Georgia, Kentucky, Texas, New Orleans, Washington, Iowa, New Mexico, South Carolina, Alabama, Utah, California, Idaho, Washington D.C. and Alaska. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado School of Law and is a frequent guest lecturer on voir dire at the University of Colorado School of Law. She is a fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers and chairs its amicus committee.
She has published numerous articles in The Champion and The Colorado Lawyer. Ann also contributed a chapter to the critically-acclaimed book How Can You Represent Those People?, published in August, 2013. In 2015, the Colorado Juvenile Defense Center named her Colorado’s Outstanding Juvenile Defender. In 2018, she received the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Jeffery Robinson
The Who We Are Project
Biography
Jeffery Robinson is a deputy legal director and the director of the ACLU Trone Center for Justice and Equality, which houses the organization’s work on criminal justice, racial justice, and reform issues. Since graduating from Harvard Law School in 1981, Jeff has three decades of experience working on these issues. For seven years, he represented indigent clients in state court at The Defender Association and then in federal court at the Federal Public Defender’s Office, both in Seattle. In 1988, Jeff began a 27-year private practice at the Seattle firm of Schroeter, Goldmark & Bender, where he represented a broad range of clients in local, state, and federal courts on charges ranging from shoplifting to securities fraud and first degree murder. He has tried over 200 criminal cases to verdict and has tried more than a dozen civil cases representing plaintiffs suing corporate and government entities. Jeff was one of the original members of the John Adams Project and worked on the behalf of one of five men held at Guantanamo Bay charged with carrying out the 9/11 attacks.
In addition to being a nationally recognized trial attorney, Jeff is also a respected teacher of trial advocacy. He is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, and has lectured on trial skills all over the United States. He has also spoken nationally to diverse audiences on the role of race in the criminal justice system. He is past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a life member and past member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Jeff is also an elected fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
Hugo Rodriguez
Attorney, The Law Office of Hugo Rodriguez
Biography
Acknowledged as one the country’s primer trial attorneys and an authority on law enforcement techniques, Hugo attended Trial Practice Institute in 1991 and returned the next year as a member of the faculty. A retired FBI Agent and Legal Counsel, he brings a unique perspective and skills as a criminal defense lawyer. The FBI’s first “Hit Man”, his undercover identity was of a renegade lawyer.
After leaving the FBI, as trial counsel, Hugo became the first attorney to defeat DOJ and the FBI in a nationwide class action for “Systemic Discrimination” of Hispanic Agents in all aspects of employment.
Finding his calling as a criminal defense lawyer, he became a supervisor for the Federal Public Defender in Miami, as well as Director of Training for ten years. Having tried over 100 jury trials, in 2000, he established Hugo Rodriguez and Associates.
The firm is dedicated to complex Federal Cases nationally and internationally. Hugo has represented over 500 clients in the Southern District of Florida and throughout the United States. As a consultant, he is retained counsel for several foreign countries, including Cuba, Lithuania, Germany, Colombia, and Ecuador. The Supreme Court, Republic of Colombia recognized him as an expert in U.S. criminal law, practices, and procedures.
In addition to being a faculty member at NCDC for the last 30 years, Hugo also teaches at the Institute of Crim. Advocacy, Cal. Western School of Law, San Diego, CA and Intensive Trial Advocacy Program, Cardozo School of Law, New York City, NY.
He is also a frequent legal consultant for national and international media, regularly appearing on Univision, Telemundo, CNN, and CNN Español.
“I owe NCDC everything. Without the college, I would not be the lawyer I am today.” – Hugo Rodriguez
Notes
Recent Teaching History
Heather Rogers
Santa Cruz County Public Defender
Biography
Heather Rogers (she/her) has been a public defender for 20 years in the state and federal courts. Heather has handled cases at every stage of litigation, from arraignment through trial and appeal. She has represented clients accused of offenses from delinquency to homicide, defended detainees incarcerated at Guantánamo Naval Base in Guantanamo, Cuba, and argued cases in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Heather is honored to serve as the first Public Defender of Santa Cruz County, her birthplace and home. Before her appointment, Heather served as a public defender at Biggam, Christensen & Minsloff, the defense firm that previously provided public defense services for Santa Cruz County. Heather is a faculty member of the National Criminal Defense College, lecturer in Legal Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and frequent trainer at regional and national trial skills programs. Heather has also taught at California Western School of Law and Monterey College of Law. Heather clerked for the Honorable M. Margaret McKeown on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals before starting her career in public defense at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. Heather also served as a public defender in Monterey County and at the Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of California before coming home to Santa Cruz. Heather has an A.B. in English Language & Literature from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from Stanford Law School. Heather lives in the Aptos mountains with her husband, children, and pets. In her free time, Heather enjoys traveling, hiking, and snowboarding.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
2019 Trial Practice Institute in Bristol (July Session)
Cynthia Roseberry
Deputy Director of Policy, Justice Division; ACLU
Biography
During the Obama administration, Ms. Roseberry served as project manager of the historic Clemency Project 2014. Often referred to as the nation’s largest law firm of nearly 4,000 lawyers, it provided pro bono support to more than 36,000 applicants for presidential clemency.
Ms. Roseberry also served on the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections, a nine-member, bipartisan, Congressional blue-ribbon panel charged with examining the federal corrections system, including overcrowding, prison violence, public safety measures, prison rehabilitation and employment programs, and re-entry programs and policies to reduce recidivism. The task force released its groundbreaking report Transforming Prisons, Restoring Lives: Final Recommendations of the Charles Colson Task Force on Federal Corrections in January of 2016.
Previously, Ms. Roseberry was the executive director of the Federal Defenders of the Middle District of Georgia, Inc. She has taught advanced criminal procedure and co-taught in the death penalty clinic at DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, where she also founded the misdemeanor clinic. For more than 10 years prior to teaching, she practiced federal and state criminal defense in Georgia.
A founding board member of the Georgia Innocence Project, she was the first African-American female president of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. She received the 2016 COS Humanitarian Award, the 2017 annual service award from the Alpha Alpha Chapter of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Incorporated and the 2017 Champion of Justice Award from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Ms. Roseberry earned her Bachelor of Science from Wilberforce University in Ohio, where she initiated into Zeta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She earned her Juris Doctor from Georgia State University College of Law.
A national and international speaker, Ms. Roseberry has presented in nearly every U.S. state in Europe and the former Soviet Union. Her TEDx talk, My Father, My Hero, delivered from inside a prison, has been critically acclaimed. See her TEDx talk at http://bit.ly/myfather-myhero.
David Rothstein
Rothstein Law LLC
Biography
After 33 years as a public defender, David has opened his own law office where he will practice criminal defense and advise attorneys on potential professional conduct issues.
David began his public defender career in 1989 as a trial attorney. He has served as a managing attorney, a major crimes/homicide attorney, and an attorney in the program’s appellate office. He has tried approximately forty cases to a jury, including a capital murder case, and has handled over 150 appeals. In his current position, David continues to handle a small number of trials and appeals and is involved year-round in planning and conducting trainings, including a month-long training for the program’s class of new lawyers, and trainings on case analysis and trial skills for new and experienced lawyers.
In addition to his appointment as NCDC faculty, David is a former adjunct professor at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, the (soon to be outgoing) chair of the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Professional Conduct Committee, and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers. He is a recipient of the New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Champion of Justice Award, and an award for service to the profession from the New Hampshire Bar Association.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
2022 NCDC Trial Practice Institute (June Session)
2022 Winter Online Cross (January/February 2022)
Amy Rubin
Federal Defender, Eastern Washington and Idaho
Biography
AMY RUBIN first joined the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho in 2000 as a fellowship attorney and then returned in 2003 after a two-year federal clerkship in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2013, she became the managing attorney in the office. Amy graduated from the University of Colorado in 1995, received her law degree from the University of Montana in 2000 and has taught practical trial skills at trial advocacy programs including Emory University and the University of Idaho, at the Alternative Defense Counsel program in Colorado, and is on the faculty of NCDC.
She has lectured at the Andrea Taylor Sentencing Workshop as well as before the Washington State Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. She is also a faculty member at the Orientation Program for new Federal Defenders in Santa Fe.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
Paul Rudof
Attorney, Strehorn, Ryan and Hoose
Biography
Paul Rudof is an attorney at the law firm of Strehorn, Ryan, and Hoose in Northampton, Massachusetts where he focuses on criminal defense at both the trial and appellate levels and civil rights litigation. He practices in both state and federal court. Before entering private practice, Paul worked for 18 years as a public defender at the Committee for Public Counsel Services (“CPCS”) in Massachusetts, first in the Essex County office, then in the Public Defender Training Unit, and finally as the state-wide Public Defender Co-Counsel.
Paul has been a faculty member at the National Criminal Defense College since 2006 and has lectured on trial skills, forensics, and substantive law to defender organizations throughout the country. After graduating from law school at the University of Utah, Paul clerked for the Honorable Michael Murphy on the 10th Circuit United States Court of Appeals. Paul earned his Bachelor’s Degree from Brown University and, prior to law school, worked as a middle school teacher in Washington, D.C. and a community organizer in Tucson, Arizona.
Notes
Recent Teaching History
2022 NCDC Trial Practice Institute (June Session)
2021 NCDC Trial Practice Institute (July Session)
2021 Online Cross (February/March 2021)
2020 Online Cross (June Session)