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Proyecto
ACCESO is promoting the
rule of law throughout the Americas.
The ACCESO team works with all the sectors in the administration
of justice. We are judges, prosecutors, public defenders,
legal educators, and journalists. We are building new
systems for conflict resolution that are fair, efficient
and transparent.
By training legal innovators, together we are srengthening
the rule of law in our Hemisphere.
For more information contact us
[email protected]
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Janeen Kerper Trial Skills Academy in San Diego trains lawyers from
around the Latin America
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ACCESO
Capacitacion joined with California
Western School of Law’s Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy
to hold the 14th Annual Janeen Kerper Trial Skills Academy April 25
to 29, 2005 in San Diego.
The program trains lawyers or judges from around the world in oral
trial advocacy skills. There were nearly 60 participants, including
lawyers from North and South America and the Caribbean.
"This is a real international group, showing the strength of
the adversarial system," said Professor Justin Brooks, director
of the Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy and an ACCESO instructor
who has lectured on DNA testing and criminal defense in Chile.
ACCESO Director, Professor
James Cooper, agreed: "We are not only exporting a set of
legal skills to legal professionals in other countries, but spreading
the good parts of our legal culture."
This
year’s Academy brought together top criminal defense attorneys
from around the the United States to help their colleagues become
more effective trial lawyers. At the week-long academy, the "student"
criminal defense attorneys learn how to improve their trial techniques
and strategies through role-playing of the defense and prosecution
in a simulated criminal case.
The late Professor Janeen Kerper was a co-founder of both the Institute
for Criminal Defense Advocacy and Proyecto ACCESO. With ACCESO, Kerper
helped spread trial skills in Latin America as those countries move
their criminal procedure from the inquisitorial system to the adversarial
system.
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Max Gould listens to a participant perform
a simulated
exercise
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"This training is a great part of Janeen’s
legacy," said Lilia Velasquez,
a long-time ACCESO Trainer,
who also participated as an instructor in this Trial Skills Academy.
Max Gould
and Ezekiel Cortez also taught at the Trial Skills Academy this year.
Both have worked in public defense in courts in New York City and
San Diego. Seasoned defense advocates, they both have trained new
public defenders in Chile, and other countries.
This year, the Trial Skills Academy added several sections in Spanish
to teach cross-examination and other skills to judges and lawyers
from Mexico, Paraguay, and Puerto Rico. In all these countries, there
are reform processes that are implementing oral trials to help promote
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Joshua Carten, a long-time
friend of the late Professor Janeen Kerper, instructs at the
14th annual Trial Skills Academy
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transparency and enshrine the rule of law.
"This program builds on the momentum ACCESO has enjoyed in Latin
America and is exposing a new set of lawyers to new advocacy skills
they will need in their new criminal systems," concluded Cooper,
"Janeen would be proud."
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