CAFL Guardianship Training

CAFL is presenting a one-day certification training for attorneys wishing to represent children and parents in guardianship of minor proceedings in the Probate and Family Court.  The Tuesday, July 25, 2017, training at the Worcester Law Library, is open to all CAFL attorneys in good standing on the care and protection trial panel who have graduated from the CAFL mentor program.  To register for this training click on the link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/cafl-guardianship-training-tickets-35439796385.
 
The deadline for registration is Friday, July 14.
 
For CAFL trial panel attorneys who are interested in the training but have not yet graduated from the mentor program, please email caflattorney@publiccounsel.net indicating your interest and include your full name, BBO number, the courts from which you are willing to accept assignments, the name of your mentor, and a brief description of any experience you have in the Probate and Family Court.

Congratulations to the Essex County Bar Association Advocates

UPDATE:   The following article on the Essex County Bar Advocate Program being named this year’s recipient of the American Bar Association’s Harrison Tweed Award appeared in The Salem News on June 28, 2017:   http://www.salemnews.com/news/local_news/local-legal-assistance-program-receives-national-award/article_825265e8-c83e-5c41-9873-f47c655446ed.html

Continue reading →

Children and Family Law Division is Seeking Mentors

The Children and Family Law Division is currently seeking experienced panel attorneys to serve as mentors in all regions in the Commonwealth. Mentoring is an excellent opportunity for experienced CAFL practitioners to work closely with newly trained attorneys in an effort to support their courtroom and advocacy skills.

Mentors facilitate the professional growth of newly certified attorneys by helping them learn substantive law, court rules and procedures and improve their legal skills through experience, instruction and feedback. Mentors and mentees are required to meet before mentees take on their first case assignments. Mentors must be available to meet frequently with new mentees to review cases and professional development goals. Mentors must have sufficient time to meet with mentees, answer questions and observe the mentee in court.

The CAFL Administrative Office provides direct oversight of the mentoring program. Mentors must attend quarterly mentor meetings with CAFL Administrative staff. Mentors are required to keep contemporaneous time records of their activities. Mentors are required to provide Administrative staff with a brief written status update on mentee progress bi-annually.

Applicants should be CAFL certified and have a minimum of four (4) years of experience representing children and parents in state intervention proceedings. Applicants must have significant litigation experience. Applicants should be able to establish and maintain good relationships with court personnel, members of the bar and the CAFL Administrative Office. Applicants must be available to attend an all-day mentor training on July 20, 2017, in Boston.

To apply, please email a statement of interest (specifying the courts in which you are interested in working), a current resume, and a legal writing sample by June 23, 2017, to CAFLattorney@publiccounsel.net

CAFL Certification Training to Represent Children and Parents in Termination of Parental Rights and CRA Cases

The Children and Family Law Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services is seeking qualified attorneys to represent children and indigent parents in care and protection/termination of parental rights and child requiring assistance cases in the Juvenile Court.  Admission to the CAFL trial panel is by application only and requires completion of a seven-day training.  Applicants must be members of the Massachusetts Bar or be admitted to the Bar of another state and be eligible to practice law in Massachusetts.  All attorneys who accept CPCS assignments are required to maintain malpractice insurance.

The application for the Fall 2017 CAFL Certification training can be found below:

CAFL Trial Panel Training Application Fall 2017 FINAL

DCF New Family Assessment and Action Planning Policies

The Massachusetts Department and Children and Family Services (DCF) has a new policy directing social workers how to conduct clinical assessments and create “action plans.” The policy went into effect on February 6, 2017 and replaces DCF’s “Assessment Policy # 85-011” and “Service Planning and Referral Policy # 97-003.”   As part of the new policy, the term “action plans” will replace “service plans.”

A full summary and comments on the new policy are available here: Action Plan Summary and Comments.

The new DCF policy is available here : https://www.publiccounsel.net/cafl/professional/triallitigation-practice-tools-and-resources.

MBA Recognizes CPCS Attorney With 2017 Access to Justice Defender Award

On May 4, 2017, Public Defender Division Staff Attorney Rebecca Jacobstein received the Massachusetts Bar Association’s 2017 Access to Justice Defender Award for her  work on behalf of clients affected by the misconduct of a state drug lab chemist in Western Massachusetts.

Rebecca and her husband and mother were present at the MBA Annual Dinner to receive the Award.

Congratulations Rebecca.  Thank you for the work you do for our clients.

You can listen to a podcast of Rebecca discussing her work on the fallout from the drug lab scandal HERE.

Here is a photograph of Rebecca receiving the award from MBA President Joseph Catalano.

2017 Access to Justice Award Winner: Rebecca Jacobstein

Here is the text of the nominating letter.

We nominate Attorney Rebecca A. Jacobstein of the Committee for Public Counsel Services for 2016-2017 Massachusetts Bar Association  Access to Justice Award – Defender Award.

Attorney Jacobstein is a CPCS staff attorney in the Appeals Unit of the Public Defender Division.

For the last three years, she has been relentless in the pursuit of justice for her clients and thousands of other people affected by the Sonja Farak Amherst Drug Lab scandal.

Sonja Farak was a chemist in the Department of Public Health’s State Laboratory in Amherst, Massachusetts. Ms. Farak apparently suffered from a drug addiction while employed as a drug analyst at the Amherst Lab.  She was convicted of stealing and tampering with drugs at the lab. An investigation, conducted by the Massachusetts Attorney General, has revealed that Ms. Farak routinely was high on drugs during her working hours at the drug lab.  As a result of Ms. Farak’s misconduct, many people have been convicted of crimes and sent to prison.  Initially, it was believed that Sonja Farak’s misconduct only affected a small number of cases.  Now, as a result of Rebecca Jacobstein’s work (together with Northampton attorney Luke Ryan), we know that it is likely that Ms. Farak’s misconduct occurred over the course of many years and affected thousands of people.

In 2014, Attorney Jacobstein had just begun working as a staff attorney in the CPCS Public Defender Division Appeals Unit. The Chief of the Appeals Unit assigned Attorney Jacobstein to represent, on direct appeal, two men who had been convicted of drug related crimes in which Sonja Farak conducted the chemical analysis: Erick Cotto and Jermaine Watt.  In the Cotto case, Attorney Jacobstein obtained direct appellate review in the Supreme Judicial Court.  The Cotto case turned out to be a watershed in the litigation involving the Amherst Drug Lab. On April 8, 2015, the Supreme Judicial Court issued an opinion calling for a full investigation into the scope and timing of Farak’s misconduct. Commonwealth v. Cotto, 471 Mass. 97 (2015).  After the decision in Cotto, the Attorney General’s Office appointed former Superior Court Judge Peter Velis as a Special Assistant Attorney General to conduct the investigation.

Meanwhile, in the Watt case, in which direct appellate review was denied, Attorney Jacobstein stayed the appeal and brought a series of motion in the Superior Court seeking to document the timing and scope of Farak’s misconduct.  The efforts of Attorneys Jacobstein and Ryan were described in Slate:

Two defense attorneys, Luke Ryan and Rebecca Jacobstein, subpoenaed

Farak’s medical records to see if their clients had been affected, and found

that her drug use and theft had extended all the way back to 2004, eight

full years before the state claimed it began.  They contend that this new

evidence warrants a review of all 29,000 samples Farak claimed to have

tested during her career.  They also claim the government concealed this

“smoking gun” evidence from defense attorneys.

Dahlia Lithwick, Crime Lab Scandals Just Keep Getting Worse, Slate (Oct. 29, 2015).

On April 1, 2016, the Attorney General’s Office released its report on the scope and timing of Farak’s misconduct. The report described serious and significant misconduct on the part of Farak, beginning in late 2004 or early 2005 and lasting until Farak’s arrest in January, 2013.

At a hearing in Hampden Superior Court on June 6, 2016, Berkshire District Attorney David Capeless, the President of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, stated that all eleven District Attorneys agreed that Farak defendants were entitled to the same conclusive presumption of misconduct furnished to defendants affected by Annie Dookhan’s misconduct in the case of Commonwealth v. Scott, 467 Mass. 336 (2014).

A second report, conducted by retired Judge Velis concluded that there was “no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct or obstruction of justice” in matters related to the Farak case. Attorney Jacobstein and her colleagues have submitted documents and affidavits that challenge that conclusion.  They have filed motions to dismiss Farak convictions based on prosecutorial misconduct.  Evidentiary hearings into the allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and the scope and effect of Farak’s wrongdoing on thousands of tainted convictions will begin on December 12, 2016, in Hampden Superior Court.  These hearings have the potential to reveal prosecutorial misconduct and lead to the reversal of thousands of tainted drug convictions.  These hearings are happening, in large part, because of the outstanding legal work of Attorney Jacobstein, who took her early assignment to two direct appeals and turned it into a zealous pursuit of justice for thousands of people.

CPCS Honors the Best in Indigent Defense – 2017 Awards Ceremony

On Tuesday, April 25, CPCS had the pleasure of honoring exceptional members of our community – attorneys from the public and private counsel divisions, as well as a social worker, investigator and administrative professional – who work tirelessly to insure that CPCS meets our mission:  to fight for equal justice and human dignity by supporting our clients in achieving their legal and life goals; to zealously advocate for the rights of individuals; and to promote just public policy to protect the rights of all.

Gathered at the John Adams Courthouse were honorees, members of the staff and private bar, friends, family and clients of the honorees, as well as many Committee members.   The evening was aptly described by Committee Member Arnold Rosenfeld, “an outstanding demonstration of the spirit, diversity, and extraordinary competence of the full time staff and the members of the private bar who carry out the responsibilities of CPCS.  Those who received awards … all demonstrated an exceptional commitment to justice.  They all had remarkable stories to tell.”

The 2017 CPCS Award Recipients:

DEREGE B. DEMISSIE, Thurgood Marshall Award.   The Thurgood Marshall Award honors a person or persons who champion the cause of zealous representation for the poor, and the right to effective assistance of counsel for all.

Derege Demissie began his law career at the firm of Grayer & Dilday, where he concen-trated in immigration, civil rights and other civil litigation. Derege joined CPCS in 1998 as (continue reading here)

SARAH E. SCHOOLEY, Margaret Winchester Child Welfare Award.    The Margaret Winchester Child Welfare Advocacy Award honors a staff member or a private attorney who, through his or her zealous advocacy and extraordinary commitment to children and parents in care and protection and other Massachusetts child welfare cases, is a model for other advocates seeking to protect the rights of children and parents.

Since 1990, Sarah Schooley has been providing high-quality representation to parents and  (continue reading here)

LISA M. KAVANAUGH, Carol Donovan Exceptional Advocacy Award.  The Carol A. Donovan Award for Exceptional Advocacy is presented to the lawyer, public or private, whose representation of poor people facing the awesome power of the state is most reminiscent of Carol’s fierce commitment to their vigorous and effective representation, and the cause of equal justice for all.

After a stellar academic career (Yale, summa cum laude; Harvard Law School, cum laude)  (continue reading here)

ANDREW S. CROUCH, Edward J. Duggan Award For Outstanding Service – Private Counsel. The Edward J. Duggan Award for Outstanding Service, Private Counsel is given to an Assigned Private Counsel and is named for Edward J. Duggan, who served continuously from 1940 to 1997 as a member of the Voluntary Defenders Committee, the Massachusetts Defenders Committee, and the Committee for Public Counsel Services.  The award has been presented each year      (continue reading here)

ANGEL RODRIGUEZ, Maria Souto-Armand Goyette Investigator Award.  The Maria Souto-Armand Goyette Award honors a staff investigator for outstanding investigative work. Maria Souto was an indefatigable CPCS investigator in the Boston office.  Armand Goyette, the first investigator at the Massachusetts Defenders Committee, was recognized as a consummate criminal defense investigator who provided outstanding service for over 25 years.  (continue reading here)

JESSIE ALTAGRACIA BRITO, Maura Mellen Administrative Professional Award.  The Maura Mellen Administrative Professional Award honors an administrative staff member who has made an outstanding contribution to the delivery of zealous and effective advocacy for CPCS clients. The award recognizes that administrative staff members perform many critical roles in the provision of zealous representation to CPCS clients.

Jessie Brito, the consummate dedicated, intelligent, hardworking, collaborative colleague,  (continue reading here)

BRANDON L. CAMPBELL, Paul J. Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award.  The Paul J. Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award recognizes a public defender or private attorney whose legal advocacy on behalf of persons involved in civil and/or criminal mental health proceedings best exemplifies zealous advocacy in furtherance of all clients’ legal interests.

Brandon Campbell has all the qualities of a stellar legal advocate.  Dogged determination  (continue reading here)

CYNTHIA NICHOLLS, Jane Addams Award For Outstanding Social Service Accomplishments.  The Jane Addams Award for Outstanding Social Service Accomplishments honors a staff social worker or social service advocate who exemplifies a commitment to clients through his or her advocacy, support, and dedication.  The Addams Award recognizes the profound impact of social workers and social service advocates serving as members of a legal team.  It is named for Jane Addams, a pioneer (continue reading here)

LAURA CHRISMER EDMONDS, Jay D. Blitzman Youth Advocacy Award.  The Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy is presented to a person who has demonstrated a commitment to juvenile rights, which is the hallmark of Judge Blitzman’s long career as an advocate.  The award honors an advocate who has exhibited both extraordinary dedication and excellent performance to assure that children accused of criminal conduct, or otherwise at risk, are treated fairly and with dignity in the courtroom, in the community, (continue reading here)

JOANNE DALEY, Edward J. Duggan Award For Outstanding Service – Public Defender.  The Edward J. Duggan Award for Outstanding Service, Public Defender is given to a Public Defender and is named for Edward J. Duggan, who served continuously from 1940 to 1997 as a member of the Voluntary Defenders Committee, the Massachusetts Defenders Committee, and the Committee for Public Counsel Services.  The award has been presented each year since 1988 to the public defender who best represents zealous advocacy — the central principle governing the representation of indigents in Massachusetts. (continue reading here)

 

CPCS 2017 AWARDS CEREMONY

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO ATTEND
THE COMMITTEE FOR PUBLIC COUNSEL SERVICES 2017 AWARDS CEREMONY
TO HONOR MEMBERS OF OUR STAFF AND PRIVATE BAR 

JOHN ADAMS COURTHOUSE, PEMBERTON SQUARE, BOSTON
TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2017 — 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.

♦♦♦♦♦

Jane Addams Award for Outstanding Social Service Accomplishments 
Cynthia Nicholls

Jay D. Blitzman Award for Youth Advocacy
Laura Chrismer Edmonds

Carol A. Donovan Award for Exceptional Advocacy 
Lisa M. Kavanaugh

Edward J. Duggan Private Counsel Award for Outstanding Service 
Andrew S. Crouch

Edward J. Duggan Public Counsel Award for Outstanding Service
Joanne Daley

Paul J. Liacos Mental Health Advocacy Award
Brandon L. Campbell

Thurgood Marshall Award
Derege B. Demissie

Maura Mellen Administrative Professional Award 
Jessie Altagracia Brito

Maria Souto-Armand Goyette Investigator Award
Angel Rodriguez

Margaret Winchester Child Welfare Advocacy Award
Sarah E. Schooley

RECEPTION TO FOLLOW AWARD CEREMONY — PLEASE RSVP HERE