Getting Started in Criminal Defense

Registration

Click here to register online. (Note that the event registration site says you are "buying a ticket.")

Click here for the PDF of the brochure to fax or mail.

Program

8:30 - 9:00       Registration

9:00 - 10:00     DUI & Traffic for Beginners. Patricia Fulton

10:00 - 10:45   DV for Beginners. Liza Burke

10:45 - 11:00   Break

11:00 - 12:15   Criminal Defense Practice: Getting Clients, Managing Your Cases, Managing Your Office.
Bob Goldsmith, moderator; Allen Bentley, Kurt Boehl, Timothy Leary & Andrea Robertson

12:15 - 12:30   Using WACDL to Benefit Your Practice. Amy Muth & Teresa Mathis

12:30 - 1:30     Lunch & Discussion: Small groups with experienced lawyers.

1:45 - 2:30       Client Relations. Paula Deutsch

2:30 - 3:15       Drug Cases for Beginners. Mike Nance

3:15 - 3:30       Break

3:30 - 4:15       Tactical Decisions in Criminal Cases. Doug Hyldahl

4:15 - 5:00       Ethics.  Kimberly Gordon

Program Co-Chairs: Emily Beschen & Bob Goldsmith

CLE Credit

Application is pending for 5.5 general CLE credits and .75 ethics credits.

Faculty

Allen Bentley is a 1970 graduate of the Yale Law School.  He has served as a law clerk for a U.S. Court of Appeals judge, as an assistant U.S. attorney, and as an assistant federal public defender.  Since 1988, he has been in private practice in Seattle focusing on federal criminal defense, including environmental, health care and business crimes, procurement fraud, tax fraud, and grand jury practice.

Kurt Boehl has been in private in Seattle since 2005; practice is dedicated exclusively to criminal litigation, with a focus on violations of the Uniform Controlled Substance Act and the use and cultivation of medical cannabis.  He has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a Washington Rising Star 2010 - 2012, and was presented Washington State Bar Association Pro Bono Publico Award in 2010.  He is a graduate of the Seattle University School of Law.

Liza Burke is a partner at Burke Brown Attorneys, PLLC in Seattle where one of her primary practice areas is domestic violence defense in criminal and civil protection order proceedings. Ms. Burke has been a criminal defense practitioner for 18 years.  She is a graduate of the UW School of Law, served on the Board of Governors of the Washington State Bar Association from 2005 to 2008 and has been recognized as a Washington Law and Politics Super Lawyer from 2006 to present .

Paula Deutsch is an assistant federal defender in Seattle.

Patricia Fulton devotes her practice to defending clients accused of crimes with a focus on impaired driving related offenses. A graduate of the University of Washington School of Law, Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College, and consistently recognized as a “super lawyer” by Washington Law and Politics, Patricia has earned a reputation as an articulate and thoughtful advocate. In addition to membership in the Washington Foundation for Criminal Justice, Patricia is the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ legislative committee co-chair where she works on impaired driving related legislative projects.

Robert Goldsmith has been in solo law practice in Seattle since 1990. He is admitted to practice in Washington, Wisconsin and Illinois. Currently he is co-chair of the WACDL CLE Committee. From 1982 through 1990, he was a staff attorney at the Seattle-King County Public Defender Association and later was the training coordinator there. Before that, he practiced in Chicago with an environmental public interest group, specializing in federal court litigation of environmental and civil rights cases. He is a 1978 he graduate of the University of Wisconsin Law School. Since 2000, he has been an adjunct professor of criminal law at Seattle University Law School.

Kim Gordon has more than 15 years of experience representing misdemeanor and felony crimes at the state and federal level. She is a partner at Gordon & Saunders, PLLC, where she handles criminal cases in federal, state and misdemeanor courts. After graduating from Tulane University School of Law, she handled felony appeals at the Washington Appellate Project. She then began her trial practice at The Defender Association in 1999, and became supervisor of TDA’s Misdemeanor Division in 2002. She joined the criminal defense team at Schroeter, Goldmark and Bender and worked with them for three years before opening her own firm. She is WACDL’s President.

Douglas R. Hyldahl was admitted to practice in 1983, having graduated from the University of Washington School of Law.  From 1984 to 1987 he worked as a Tribal Defender for the Quinault Indian Nation and in private practice.  From 1987 to 2003, he worked for the Whatcom County Public Defenders Office representing clients charged with all levels of felonies and misdemeanors in adult and juvenile courts.  He has extensive trial experience in all classes of felonies and misdemeanors.  He served as Training Coordinator for the Whatcom County Public Defenders Office from 1995 to 2003.  Since April 2003, he has practiced with Lester and Hyldahl, PLLC.  He is WACDL’s President Elect.

Tim Leary has been in private practice in Seattle since 2008.  Prior to that, he spent ten years at the King County Prosecutor’s where he handled cases that involved virtually every crime imaginable: simple assault, DUI, drug possession, criminal mistreatment, violation of no contact orders, malicious mischief, felony assault, theft, robbery, kidnapping, rape, child molestation, and murder.  He is a graduate of the UW School of Law.

Amy Muth became involved in WACDL before she was admitted to the bar, helping out with the WACDL Chelan conference the summer she took the bar exam.  Eleven years later, Amy has found WACDL to be an invaluable resource, providing professional development, case help, and most important, some really great people to hang out with.  Amy has been extremely active in WACDL, and is a WACDL board member and former chair/co-chair of several WACDL committees and task forces, including the Legislative Committee.  She is also an amicus author and frequent CLE speaker.  Amy will share with you ways in which you can take full advantage of the opportunities WACDL has to offer its members.  Amy has her own practice in Seattle, which focuses on sex offenses and other serious criminal charges in state and federal courts.

Mike Nance graduate of the University of Mississippi School of Law and of the National Criminal Defense College in Macon, Georgia, is a former staff attorney for the Defender Association in Seattle.  Venturing into solo private practice in 1986, he later formed a small partnership specializing in criminal defense before returning to solo practice in 1997.  His current Seattle practice is a mix of criminal cases in state and federal court involving drug offenses and criminal fraud of both the white collar and low- brow varieties.

Andy Robertson graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1998, as a designated member of the National Order of Barristers and the UW Moot Court Honor Board.  She began her practice as a public defender in Snohomish County.  Andy has represented hundreds of persons accused of criminal charges, including DUIs, misdemeanors, and felonies. She has also handled appellate matters in Division 1 of the Court of Appeals and the Washington Supreme Court.  She has been repeatedly designated a “Rising Star in Washington Law," most recently in 2012.  Andy is a 2004 Warrior Graduate of the Gerry Spence Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming.  She has been a featured speaker and author for other statewide seminars and publications, including the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Washington Defender Association.  Andy operates a firm with her husband, Ryan Robertson. They have two sons: ages 6 and 3.  In her spare time, Andy is an ensemble improv performer with Seattle's longest-running live show, TheatreSports, with Unexpected Productions.