NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY

Jeff Chapdelaine, JD, LICSW is an Attorney, Forensic Social Worker, and Forensic Drama Therapist based in Boston Massachusetts.  He represents clients in both criminal and plaintiff’s civil cases. He consults nationally on plaintiff’s civil cases and on cases where people are accused of committing crime, working with lawyers and on trial strategy, jury selection and trauma informed client focused case preparation.  His consulting company trains both lawyers and mental health professionals on areas where legal systems and mental health systems intersect.

He serves on the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Criminal Curriculum Advisory Committee and as faculty locally for MCLE and Committee for Public Counsel Service, and nationally for the National Criminal Defense College in Macon Georgia, the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois Wyoming, several state systems and at other training programs.

Mildred “Millie” Geckler Dunn has passionately represented indigent clients accused of federal crimes as a staff attorney with the Federal Defender Program, Inc. since April 1993. Millie has tried more than 30 cases and has successfully represented death row inmates in habeas corpus. Millie handles a variety of federal cases, ranging from racketeering offenses, drug distribution, bank and Hobb’s Act robbery cases, carjacking cases, firearms and explosives crimes, fraud and financial crimes, child pornography and enticement crimes, and immigration offenses. Millie continues her representation through sentencing and at appeal, proudly continuing her advocacy for her clients.

Millie was born and raised in Carol City, Florida. She earned a BA in English with High Honors in 1986 from the University of Florida, and a J.D. with honors from the University of Florida’s College of Law. While studying law, Millie clerked for Judge Robert Cates and was a research assistant for three professors. After graduation, Millie joined Vincent, Corey, Taylor and Feil’s complex commercial litigation section in Atlanta. Millie is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and has taught at numerous CLE programs, covering diverse topics such as cross-examination, ethical considerations in white collar crime cases, Constitutional challenges, the Rules of Evidence, guideline issues, challenging sentencing enhancements, and effective trial techniques.

Millie has also spent many years advocating for children, through her positions on the North Atlanta High School Local School Counsel, the NAHS Arts Counsel, and her service of the board of a local non-profit Theatre Conservatory. Millie is married to Tom Dunn, who has been a JAG Corps Officer, Executive Director of the Georgia Resource Center, and First Assistant Capital Defender for Western New York. Tom currently teaches Law and Social Justice at South Atlanta High School, as well as leading the Mock Trial Program, Skills USA Program, and Boys Making History mentorship program. Together Tom and Millie have 7 wonderful children and there is never a dull moment.

Jodie represented her first capital client forty-one years ago. For the past 31 years she has been in private practice in Indianapolis handling death penalty cases – at times as a trial defender, a mentor or expert witness in post-conviction proceedings or, as a capital mitigation specialist or jury consultant. She has mitigated capital cases in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma and Ohio. Last fall, she served as lead counsel in a penalty phase retrial and got her client, who had spent 21 years on Indiana’s death row, a sentence of 110 years. Earlier this year she was the mitigation specialist for another client who spent 20 years on Indiana’s death row and is now serving two life sentences. Her testimony as an expert witness on ineffective assistance of counsel resulted in the Seventh Circuit’s grant of a penalty phase retrial for in 2018.

From 1998 – 2009, in addition to lawyering, Jodie was the part-time Training Director for the Indiana Public Defender Council. Jodie has served as a faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC) summer Trial Practice Institutes since 1981, for NCDC’s advanced programs in Cross Examination, Theories and Themes of Persuasion, Voir Dire and Closing Argument; and capital trial advocacy programs including Life in the Balance, the Darrow Death Penalty College, and the Bryan Schechmeister Death Penalty College in San Jose, California. Jodie has taught thousands of criminal defense lawyers, social workers or mitigation specialists in twenty-seven states and was part of a team invited to Moscow to facilitate the Russians’ transition from three judge panels to juries. Jodie was a “Super Lawyer” for seven years. Writing and storytelling are special passions. In 2014 Jodie earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Butler University.

Jodie’s son Ben is an artist and freelance journalist and her daughter Cady works for Salesforce in Colorado and is an avid climber of 14’er’s. In her spare time Jodie writes poetry, jogs, kayaks, camps, hikes and reads. Her first grandson, Sovann, was born in Cambodia on the Fall Equinox and now lives with her and his parents, disrupting their sleep cycles with exquisite precision and yet his smile, on waking, is poetry itself.

Drew Findling’s practice, The Findling Law Firm, P.C., focuses exclusively on federal and state criminal defense and he tries cases ranging from matters involving complex white- collar crimes to serious violent felonies. Mr. Findling spent the first three years of his career as a Fulton County, GA public defender. Over more than 30 years, he has represented clients in state and federal courts across the country, as well as in international matters.

As a public defender, he was a leader in developing the battered woman syndrome defense. Nationally, Mr. Findling was the first attorney to successfully employ that defense based exclusively on verbal abuse. For his efforts, the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (GACDL) awarded him their Indigent Defense Award. In recent years, he has successfully represented a string of well-known clients including: Dennis Rodman, Shaquille O’Neal, Grammy Award Winner Cardi B, Grammy Award Nominee Faith Evans, Emmy Award Winner actor/comedian Katt Williams, actor/comedian Mike Epps, Hip Hop superstars, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame, Offset, Quavo, and Takeoff from the Grammy-nominated group Migos, Boosie, Trippi Red, Lil Baby, Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Jim Jones and Da Baby. Mr. Findling has also represented Morris Brown College President Dolores Cross, Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett, and, in the highly publicized public corruption jury

trial of Clayton County, GA Sheriff Victor Hill, Mr. Findling won an acquittal of all charges in the 37-count indictment. For his effort on behalf of Sheriff Hill, Mr. Findling received the NAACP’s Civil and Human Rights Award and a commendation by the Legislative Black Caucus of Georgia. He also secured a non-prosecution agreement for the long-serving District Attorney of Douglas County, GA, David McDade.

Mr. Findling is a member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the American Bar Association. Findling also serves on the Board of Advisors for the prestigious National Clearing House on Science and Technology of Law. Due to Mr. Findling’s success in jury trials, appeals, and post-conviction work, he has been named as one of Georgia’s Legal Elite in Georgia Trend Magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Top Lawyers in Georgia, and as a Georgia “Super Lawyer” by Atlanta Magazine and one of the Best Lawyers in America© in the area of criminal defense.

Mr. Findling is a Past President and a Life Member of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (“NACDL”). Mr. Findling joined the Association in 1988 and has served multiple terms on the Board of Directors. His commitment includes service as chair of multiple committees related to forensic science, chair of the Membership Committee, and as co-chair of the Discovery Reform Committee. He also served as a member of NACDL’s Nominating Committee and National Forensics Litigation College Advisory Board. Mr. Findling was the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Robert C. Heeney Memorial Award which is given to one criminal defense attorney in the country each year by NACDL.

In his more than 30 years of practice, Mr. Findling has published numerous articles and become a highly sought-after speaker, speaking in more than 40 states across the country. He has spoken extensively on topics as race in the criminal justice system, combatting collateral consequences of convictions, defending battered woman syndrome cases, jury selection in high profile cases, forensic preparation for a criminal trial, effective opening statements and closing arguments, professionalism, and advanced cross-examination. He has lectured at Emory Law School, Georgia State University College of Law, and the University of Georgia Law School. He has been on the faculty of the National Criminal

Defense College since 1989 and also teaches at NACDL’s White Collar Criminal Defense College at Stetson and Tulane University Law School’s Pre-Trial Criminal Litigation Boot Camp. Mr. Findling is also regularly invited to serve as a legal analyst on various respected national television news networks. Mr. Findling was recently profiled in a New York Times piece, “Atlanta’s #BillionDollarLawyer Is Looking Out for Your Favorite Rappers,” and he was a guest speaker at the 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival on “Hip-Hop Collision: Music Race and the Law.” In 2018 Mr. Findling was featured in a documentary by Mic.Com and a 2019 documentary on CNN’s “Great Big Story.” Mr. Findling was also recently named an R&B/Hip-Hop Power Player by Billboard Magazine and a Top-20 Hollywood Troubleshooter by the Hollywood Reporter

Fernando became a lawyer in January of 1983 because he lacked the size, speed and talent to be an NFL quarterback. In order to satisfy his insatiable desire to overcome unending adversity he became a criminal defense lawyer.

He was born in Havana, Cuba in 1955, raised in Louisiana and Wyoming. He graduated from Louisiana State University-Geaux Tigers- and later from the University of Denver College of Law in 1982. He started as a trial lawyer in the Denver trial office of the Colorado State Public Defender’s office in 1983 and spent a total of 25 years with them. He is now in private practice and teaches trial tactics around the US, Mexico, Chile, Cuba and Argentina. He has tried over 130 jury trials and more than 25 homicide trials. He is on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College and is a member of the American College of trial lawyers.