Commitment to the development of excellent litigation, writing, trial, and appellate skills made Colorado Defenders some of the best in the nation. Our training unit ensures that all lawyers are able to litigate each case at the highest level, protecting the client’s constitutional right to trial and their right to challenge the government’s case at every stage of the proceeding.
No lawyer enters the courtroom without training. Our training also covers the specialized practice areas of non-attorney defenders seeking to elevate voices of different backgrounds and specialties in service of the client.
Our attorney training includes a comprehensive set of course offerings geared towards growing the skills of individual attorneys at every stage of their career:
- New Attorney Training – Our introductory training for new public defenders includes an 8-workshop basic lawyer training series as well as a series of courses focused on developing the skills necessary to represent juveniles charged with a crime.
- Intermediate Training – We offer intermediate training courses to ensure public defenders continue building their skills as they become more experienced and begin handling more complex cases. This includes our Attorney Bootcamp, which is geared towards transitioning attorneys from handling misdemeanors to felony cases.
- Advanced Training – Advanced training provides lawyers with concrete knowledge in areas that impact complex litigation practice, including forensics, mental health defenses and dealing with expert witnesses.
- Summer Legal Intern/Extern Training – Each summer, we work with law students who are interested in becoming a public defender. These summer internships provide law students the type of grounding in the law and procedure necessary to effectively perform the role of a public defender.