NATIONAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE COLLEGE FACULTY

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

A native of Decatur, Ga., W. Devin Franklin is Movement Policy Counsel at the Southern Center for Human Rights. His present work focuses on supporting local movements in Georgia and community education and base building in matters related to policing violence, jail overcrowding and the connectedness of carceral systems and the harms experienced by communities.

He joined SCHR in March 2022 after working as a Senior Assistant Public Defender at the Office of the Circuit Public Defender-Atlanta Judicial Circuit for over 12 years, zealously advocating on the behalf of nearly 1500 indigent, accused persons charged with felony offenses. Devin is a graduate of Gideon’s Promise trial advocacy training program for Public Defenders and currently serves as a faculty member for the organization’s Core 101 programming.

Additionally, he is a recipient of the 2020 Gideon’s Promise Foot Soldier Award, an honor given in recognition of service to make equal justice a reality, and the 2024 ‘Commitment to GACDL Award’ given by the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Devin has served on the faculty of the Georgia Public Defender Council’s Advance Practice Workshop during its existence and is also on faculty for GACDL’s Bill Daniel’s Trial Advocacy Program and the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC). He has also served as Co-Chair and curator for the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ 2022 Winter Training, “Death to the Criminal Punishment Bureaucracy: The Evolution of Criminal Justice and the Revolution of Values in a Carceral Society”.

He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree from Hampton University (Hampton, Va) in Sports Management and a Juris Doctor from Mercer Law School (Macon, Ga).

Patrice Fulcher is the Director of Training for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender (OPD).  She joined OPD in 2015, and is responsible for heading the Agency’s Gideon’s Promise Certified New Hire Attorney Training Program, and developing/managing all other public defender training curriculum for OPD’s attorneys and core staff throughout the state. Prior to becoming OPD’s Director of Training, Patrice was a tenured Associate Professor at Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School. Her scholarship and other publications focus on issues surrounding the Prison Industrial Complex; private prisons, forced prison labor, and jail/prison video visitation.  She has lectured extensively on these issues as well as the erosion of the 4th Amendment, client-centered representation, and effective storytelling techniques for defense attorneys throughout the U.S.

From 1995-2007, Patrice successfully represented indigent clients as a public defender in Georgia.  She handled capital cases, major felonies, and fought against unconditional jail conditions.  She did so while serving as a Senior Staff Attorney for the Georgia Capital Defender and the Fulton County Public Defender offices; as Senior Staff Attorney for the Fulton County Conflict Defender; and while working with the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Patrice has served as a Core Instructor for Gideon’s Promise, Inc. since its inception, and is a faculty member for the National Criminal Defense College.  She has also been a litigation instructor for The Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, The Kentucky Death Penalty Institute, The Mississippi Office of the State Public Defender Training Division, The National Association for Public Defense, The American Bar Association NACDL National Defender Training Program, The National Legal Aid & Defender Association, and is a faculty member of the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Workshop. She received her J.D. from Emory University School of Law, and her B.A. from Howard University. Patrice is admitted to practice law in Georgia and Maryland.

Kevann A. Gardner, Esq. is an experienced trial attorney who has practiced for over 11 years serving indigent clients in felony and misdemeanor cases. He currently specializes in litigating murder, attempted murder, and first-degree sexual assault cases as a supervising attorney in the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (‘PDS’).

Mr. Gardner began working at PDS in 2005 as a criminal defense investigator. Before starting his current supervisory role, Mr. Gardner served as a law clerk, a staff attorney, a hiring committee member, and the organization’s client intake representative. He also worked as a public defender at the Legal Aid Society in the Bronx, New York, handling misdemeanor and felony cases. He currently teaches in trial advocacy programs at Harvard Law School, the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, the National Criminal Defense College (NCDC), and the Defender Institute Basic Trials Skills Program for the New York State Defenders Association. He is also an adjunct professor at the American University Washington College of Law.

Mr. Gardner was born and raised in Detroit, MI. He earned his B.A. from Oakwood University in Huntsville, AL and his J.D. from the Cardozo School of Law in New York, NY. During law school, Mr. Gardner worked for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the New York State Assembly Subcommittee on Election Day Operations and Voter Disenfranchisement, and clerked for the Honorable Cheryl E. Chambers in the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court.

Kyana Givens is the current Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. Kyana became a Federal Public Defender in the Eastern District of North Carolina in 2020 after being a Visiting Attorney Advisor, Defender Services Office, Training Division, from August 2018-December 2019. She previously served as a trial attorney at The Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Washington since 2009 and a state public defender with the King County Public Defender (TDA) in 2005. Ms. Givens has been committed to mentoring and teaching other defenders throughout her practice. As the Albert M. Sacks Fellow at Harvard Law School, Ms. Givens worked closely with Clinical Professors teaching and training in trial advocacy.

While at Harvard, she represented adult and juvenile clients being served by CJI and provided litigation support to Prof. Charles J. Ogletree, Jr. on criminal and Civil Rights matters. Ms. Givens’ dedication to teaching and mentoring extends beyond the legal community. She has also taught Constitutional Law to undergraduate students at Seattle University. A graduate of Northeastern University School of Law (Boston, MA), Ms. Givens earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Seattle Pacific University (Seattle, WA).

Ms. Givens is a faculty member at The National Criminal Defense College (NCDC) in Macon, Georgia, she is also on the Faculty for the Trial Skills Academy for Federal Defenders and she regularly speaks at CLEs about trials skills, emerging digital technology in criminal cases and unconscious bias.

She is the proud mother of two boys, her weakness is ice cream, and enjoys travel, camping, county fairs, and any sandy beach.

Andres R. Guevara has been a trial attorney since graduating from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1995. Out of his Denver office, Andres handles both private and court-appointed criminal work in various
Colorado state courts (through the Office of the Alternate Defense Counsel (“ADC”)) and in federal courts (through the CJA Panel). Since starting his own law firm in 2007, Andres has handled and tried every type of criminal case, from
homicides, to sex assaults, human trafficking, federal drug and gun cases, and large conspiracy cases. He has also handled post-conviction cases (including a State death penalty case) and has presented oral arguments before both the
Colorado Court of Appeals and the Colorado Supreme Court.

Andres is a long-time instructor with ADC and the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar and has been on the faculty of the National Criminal Defense College for the past seven years. He has presented and trained attorneys
throughout the country, including presentations at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) annual conferences, trial training of lawyers with the U.S. Marines, and regional trial advocacy programs. Andres has
presented on different topics including opening and closing arguments, direct examinations, cross-examinations, federal criminal law, trial practice, jury selection, evidentiary topics, and RICO cases. Andres is also an author having
published in the areas of federal law enforcement, marijuana laws, and most recently in the area of cross-examining child witnesses (for The Champion, the official magazine of the NACDL, published June, 2022).