Training Program Overview

The mission of the LPDB Training Division is to inspire a values-based, client-centered defender culture and to ensure that each Louisiana public defender has the requisite skills to deliver high quality legal representation to their clients. LPDB's Training Program ensures that public defense services satisfy the state's constitutional obligation to provide a uniform system of qualified counsel for indigent defendants.

Beginning in 2009, the Training Program now hosts six annually recurring trainings:

■ Six-day, skills-intensive Defender Training Institute (DTI) for new defenders
■ Three-day Juvenile Defender Training
■ Three-day Investigator Workshop
■ Two-day Defender Leadership Training for District Defenders,
   Program Directors and supervising attorneys
■ Multi-day Capital Defender Training
■ Annual Legislative Update

In addition, the training program hosts skills trainings around the state, focusing on topics including:

■ Preliminary hearings
■ Voir dire
■ Forensics
■ Representation of clients with mental illness and/or intellectual disability
■ CINC advocacy
■ Advanced capital trainings
■ Juvenile skills and strategies
■ Professional ethics, train-the-trainers, and others

The Training Program also supports both on-site and long-distance trainings for financial managers and data entry technicians.

LPDB offers, for free, the most comprehensive and accessible defense attorney training program in the state, providing a tangible benefit to recruit and retain public defenders for the unique needs of a high-volume practice representing indigent people.

LPDB trainings provide CLE, and are offered at no cost to public defenders.

Annually, roughly 50% of all public defenders and roughly 33% of public defender non-attorney staff take advantage of at least one LPDB training program.

The Training Division is staffed by Julie Kilborn as the Director, Irene Joe as the Assistant Director, and Julie Gregory as the Training Coordinator.