The American Bar Association is in the process of revising its Prosecution Functions Standards and Defense Functions Standards, two influential documents that established a set of goals for criminal defense practice nationwide. On Friday, November 19, 2010, the University of Texas School of Law will host a conference to discuss the ABA’s proposed revisions to these documents. It will focus on ethical issues surrounding case loads, conflicts of interest, and prosecutor discretion in initiating and maintaining criminal charges.
The conference is one of several similar meetings taking place at law schools across the country. It will bring together legal scholars with practitioners—principally prosecutors and defense counsel, but also judges and other stakeholders—for conversations about the standards. An accomplished and diverse group of criminal justice practitioners from around Texas will participate in this conference, including district court judges, assistant United States attorneys, public defenders, district attorneys, and members of the private bar. UT Law’s Professor Jennifer Laurin organized this event together with the ABA’s Criminal Justice Committee.
Detailed information about this conference can be found on the ABA Prosecution and Defense Functions Standards Roundtable website.
The current revision process will culminate in the publication of the third edition of the Prosecution Functions Standards and Defense Functions Standards, which were last revised in 1992 and 1991, respectively. The University of Texas School of Law is honored to play a small part in that important endeavor by hosting this conversation among the leading players in Texas criminal justice.
Contact:
Kirston Fortune, UT Law Communications, 512-471-7330, kfortune@law.utexas.edu