The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. Registration is required.
Registration is required to join the meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMlcO2urzwoE9w44A61UIi6AA8N8ujR93es
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Two Committee for Public Counsel Services public defenders have been selected to participate in the Boston Bar Association’s Public Interest Leadership Program.
Jim Barakat
Jim Barakat, with the Children and Family Law Division’s Brockton office, and Schuyler Daum, with the Public Defender Division’s Quincy office, will be part of an impressive class of attorneys who will participate in the 10-month program. The Public Interest Leadership Program (PILP) is geared toward promoting civic engagement and public service by advancing the leadership role of lawyers in service to their community, their profession, and the Commonwealth.
“Being a public defender, and advocate for the indigent, I hope to gain insight and implement ideas that my private firm counterparts have in regard to executing public interest initiatives, but I also hope to meaningfully add to the discussion by bringing my own ideas to the table,” Barakat said. “I hope to raise awareness of what CPCS does, advocate for the population we assist, and lift the voices of our clients during the PILP meetings at the BBA over the next year.
This selective program attracts a diverse group of attorneys who have graduated law school within the last 10 years and have demonstrated a commitment to pro bono and public service.
Schuyler Daum
“I’m excited to join the Public Interest Leadership Program to develop a new toolkit with which to fight for justice in the criminal legal system,” Daum said.
This year’s Public Interest Leadership Program (PILP) will be in a virtual format and has been designed to provide leadership and professional development training across key areas, including effective organizational leadership, diversity, equity and inclusion, pro bono engagement, and board service.
Committee for Public Counsel Services
Mental Health Litigation Division
Appeals Unit
January 2021
The Mental Health Litigation Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services is now accepting applications for the Mental Health Litigation Division (“MHLD”) Appellate Panel Certification Training
Qualifications:
Applicants must have the following minimum qualifications:
(i) Demonstrated proficiency in legal research and writing; and
(ii) At least one of the following:
Admission into the training is based on qualifications and current availability of mentors, such that not all applicants who meet minimum qualifications will be admitted.
Required Training:
Admitted applicants must attend the virtual MHLD appellate training program that includes live (synchronous) Zoom sessions on the following dates, as well as completion of asynchronous assignments in between live sessions:
Training Orientation- Thursday, February 18, 2021 from 3:45 – 5:00
Day 1 – Monday, February 22, 2021 from 9:00 – 12:30
Day 2 – Thursday, February 25, 2021 from 9:00 – 12:30
Day 3 – Thursday, March 4, 2021 from 9:00 – 12:30
Day 4 – Tuesday, March 9, 2021 from 9:00 – 12:30
Note that the total time commitment will approximate that of previous live trainings, i.e. approx. 21 hours.
The registration fee for the training is $150, which includes all materials. Please do not submit payment until after receiving confirmation that you have been accepted into the training, at which point you will receive payment and registration instructions.
Application Submission Instructions:
Please click here to download the application.
To be considered, you must submit a completed application via e-mail to ktalley@publiccounsel.net by January 22, 2021.
Your application must include:
(i) Answers to all questions in the application
(ii) A current resume;
(iii) Two writing samples totaling no more than 100 pages. If you are submitting a brief, please include the entire brief, including the cover page and tables of contents and authorities. If your samples include the name or work of other attorneys, you must identify the portions you wrote and explain whether anyone else edited your work.
Further Information:
For further information regarding the appellate panel certification process, please contact Karen Talley at ktalley@publiccounsel.net.
Hello,
As you may have already seen, the state – responding to a joint request from CPCS and the Massachusetts Bar Association – has added defense attorneys and other “court system workers” to Phase 2 of the vaccination priority list. The decision to add defense attorneys to the Phase 2 designation came over the weekend in response to a joint letter (See: Attached) we sent to Gov. Charlie Baker on Jan. 6.
We appreciate that the governor and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services quickly responded to our request. We also owe a debt of gratitude to MBA leadership, which continues to support the work that we do, and was ready and willing to stand with us as we made this request.
More information about the vaccine priority list can be found here. We are seeking more clarifying information from HHS and the governor’s office, including: the full list of defense attorneys and support staff involved in Phase 2 and where we fall on the priority list once the state enters the Phase 2 portion of the priority list. As of now, it is anticipated that Phase 2 distribution will occur during February and March. We will provide you with more information as it becomes available.
In seeking Phase 2 designation, our letter to the governor and HHS pointed out that defense attorneys and our supporting professionals both help maintain the critical infrastructure necessary to the ongoing operation of the judicial system to assure public safety. We also noted the enormous backlog of cases, and the fact that defense attorneys and supporting professionals must be ready to enter courthouses, jails and prisons as soon as possible to facilitate the operation of the judicial system.
It is clear that the state took our concerns seriously. Once again, I want to thank the MBA for its guidance and support in this ever-important campaign.
I look forward to providing more information as it comes in. Until then, stay safe, and thank you for all of the hard work you put in on behalf of our clients.
Anthony J. Benedetti
Chief Counsel
Committee for Public Counsel Services
The meeting will begin at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, December 17, 2020. Registration is required to attend the meeting.
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Dec 17, 2020 05:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIsdumhqTMoGNDAfuk-m959_v_DLM6DZzQM
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information
CPCS is now accepting applications for its 2021 CAFL Trial Panel Certification Training to represent children and parents in care and protection/termination of parental rights cases. The on-line training includes a mix of substantial self-directed learning and live Zoom sessions two mornings a week for four weeks. The training concludes with a full day mock hearing. Preference will be given to attorneys who submit applications by December 11 and who commit to accepting cases in central and western Massachusetts, where we currently have an attorney shortage. The agency actively seeks to diversify its private attorney panel membership.
For more information about the training and to download the application, click here: [application]
Registration is required to join the meeting
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwocuuppz0oGNPfw2P9DQvGoodx5TxZRnth
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
Registration is required to join the meeting
When: Oct 15, 2020 05:30 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsdeqopz8tGNPVwpdqWBihFwH_Zw-Agivt
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
The following was sent by CPCS Chief Counsel Anthony Benedetti to the entire agency regarding the passing of Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants and Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg:
This past week brought devastating news to the legal system, the commonwealth and the nation. We lost two legal legends with the passing of Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants and Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Their tireless, standard-setting work changed the trajectory of the law for years to come.
Ginsburg ensured that so many received equal protection under the law, believing that “We, the People” in the Constitution should be as all-encompassing as possible, and include all those left out when it was first written. She was a trailblazer specifically in moving the law dramatically toward recognizing gender equality. Ginsburg became a cultural icon and a role model later in life, in large part due to her blistering dissents in numerous cases in which she was on the losing end but knew that she was on the right side of history. Her career has launched thousands of legal careers. Many of those who she inspired show up in our courts every single day and fight for the rights of those who have the least. Her spirit lives on through your advocacy and empathy, and I am proud to call you colleagues.
More locally, Ralph Gants fought tirelessly to allow everyone to have access to the courts, and he forced the legal system to take a long, hard look at the inequities that persist today. He was a champion of civil legal aid and supported our mission to provide top-level representation to the people of this commonwealth. Along the way, he managed to find the time to connect with many of us personally. The bipartisan tributes to the Chief Justice say it all. He was fair, fearless and left the SJC in a better place than where he found it.
Losing both of these legal giants this week is painful and has understandably left many feeling sad, lost and discouraged. But the legacies of Ginsburg and Gants will not and cannot simply be left to history. Neither of them would have accomplished what they did if they succumbed to feelings of hopelessness. Their legacies will continue on through us – and not just public defenders and lawyers. They will carry on through every person who continues to believe that the law is for the many, not the few. We will continue our fight with their legacies, and that guiding principle, in mind. As RBG said: “If you want to be a true professional, you will do something outside yourself… something that makes life a little better for people less fortunate than you.”
Due to social distancing, the Committee will be conducting all matters virtually
Registration is required to join the meeting.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAsceuopjgjHN1nicuo3tIl08vr_4qfbbW_
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
