Why Lawyers Matter 2021 Program

The University of Illinois College of Law Program in Criminal Law and Procedure and the Office of the Federal Defender for the Central District of Illinois present:

WHY LAWYERS

MATTER WHY LAWYERS

MATTER VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM

Criminal Defense During the Pandemic

ILLINOIS LAW

WHY LAWYERS

MATTER

➜ Join Via Zoom

Criminal Defense During the Pandemic April 9, 2021 8:45 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

8:45 – 9:00 a.m.

Welcome Thomas Patton, Federal Defender for the Central District of Illinois; Patrick Keenan, Professor of Law, Criminal Law Program, Illinois College of Law

9:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Covid Trials: The Viral Courtroom Fight David Brengle, Office of the Federal Defender, Southern District of Illinois; Judith Miller, Associate Clinical Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School

10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Foundational Concerns After Two Decades of Apprendi Formalism and Functionalism Douglas Berman, Newton D. Baker-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law and Executive Director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law

11:00 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.

Break

11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Ethics in Sentencing Akin Adepoju, Assistant Federal Defender and Adjunct Professor of Law Washington, District of Columbia

12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.

Lunch Break

1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Current Issues in COVID Compassionate Release Elisabeth Pollock, Office of Federal Defender, Central District of Illinois

2:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m.

View from the Bench Sara Darrow, Chief U. S. District Judge for the Central District of Illinois

2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.

Panel – Current Issues for Criminal Defense Lawyers in the Central District of Illinois Thomas Patton, Federal Defender for the Central District of Illinois; Charles Schierer, CJA Panel Representative, Schierer & Ritchie LLC, East Peoria; J. Steven Beckett, Beckett Law Office, Urbana, IL

Participant Biographies Akin Adepoju has served as an Assistant Federal Defender for the Western District of Pennsylvania, where he served in both the Trial and Capital Habeas Units, and as Lead Trial Counsel for the District of Delaware Federal Defender. He is a federal sentencing expert and has litigated cases in state, federal, trial and post-conviction courts. Before joining the Federal Defender, Akin was a J. Kirk Osborn Fellow and spent his time at Fair Trial Initiative, where he litigated capital trial cases in North Carolina. He is a frequent speaker and instructor in training programs for state and federal defenders. He frequently lectures on trial strategy and sentencing advocacy, legal writing, and ethics.

Akin is a cum laude graduate of the University of Maryland, earned his J.D. cum laude from Rhode Island’s Roger Williams University School of Law, where he was a Dean’s Scholar, and his LL.M. from Temple University School of Law as a Public Interest Scholar. Akin serves as Adjunct Professor of Law at Delaware Law School, where he teaches Eighth Amendment Capital Punishment and Advanced Criminal Law courses. For the past year, Akin has been detailed to Defender Services Office in D.C., where he currently serves as an Attorney Advisor in the Training Division.

J. Steven Beckett is an attorney in Urbana, Illinois and serves of counsel to his former law firm, now known as Beckett Law Office PC. He has been practicing law since 1973 in Champaign County and has appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts in all types of criminal and civil cases. He has argued cases in Illinois appellate courts, as well as the 6th, 7th, 8th and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal. He has appeared twice before the United States Supreme Court. He is the retired Director of Trial Advocacy, having taught at the University of Illinois College of Law for over thirty years in the areas of trial skills, evidence, criminal procedure and white collar crime.

He has also taught undergraduate courses on subjects of actual innocence and law and the movies.

Professor Douglas A. Berman is Newton D. Baker-Baker & Hostetler Chair in Law andExecutive Director of the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, housed in the Moritz College of Law. Berman’s principal teaching and research focus is in the area of criminal law and criminal sentencing, though he also has

teaching and practice experience in the fields of legislation and intellectual property. He has taught Criminal Law, Criminal Punishment and Sentencing, Criminal Procedure – Investigation, The Death Penalty, Legislation, Introduction to Intellectual Property, Second Amendment Seminar, Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform Seminar, Federal and State Clemency Decisionmaking, Sentencing Law & Policy, and the Legislation Clinic.

David Brengle accepted a position as Assistant Federal Defender in February of 2015.

Prior to joining the Office of the Federal Defender for the Southern District of Illinois, Mr. Brengle worked as a private criminal defense attorney and accepted cases from the Criminal Justice Act Panel.

David began his legal career at the Missouri State Public Defender’s Office in 2007.

Sara Lynn Darrow is the Chief United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

She was formerly an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States District Court

for the Central District of Illinois, where she was chief of the violent crimes section.

Patrick Keenan is a Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law. An expert in human rights and international law, Professor Keenan focuses his research and scholarship on the connections between human rights, economic development, and business. He has published articles examining conflict minerals, human trafficking and tourism, China’s role in Africa, the human rights potential of sovereign wealth funds, the International Finance Corporation’s investments in Africa and the Caribbean, and many other issues. Professor Keenan has taught courses on human rights, business and human rights, international criminal law, and the responsibilities of lawyers. He also created, and for 10 years directed, the Human Rights Law Clinic, in which students worked directly with lawyers and advocates in Africa and the Caribbean on human rights issues.

In addition to teaching at the University of Illinois, he served as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Law School and lectured at the Chuo University School of Law in Tokyo. Before coming to Illinois, Professor Keenan litigated

death penalty cases in Georgia and Alabama as an attorney with the Southern Center for Human Rights.

Professor Keenan graduated from Yale Law School and Tufts University, clerked for Judge Myron H. Thompson of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, and served in the Peace Corps in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Judith Miller is an Associate Clinical Professor of Law in the Federal Criminal Justice Clinic.

Prior to joining the University of Chicago, Ms. Miller was a Trial Attorney at the Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. At Federal Defenders, she represented indigent defendants accused of federal felony offenses from arraignment through appeal. She received her JD from Yale Law School, as well as an MA in Political Science from Yale University. Ms. Miller clerked in Miami, FL, for the Hon. Judge Rosemary Barkett, of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Both before and after clerking, Ms. Miller also worked as a union-side labor lawyer for the law firm of Bredhoff & Kaiser, PLLC, in Washington, DC.

Thomas Patton graduated from the Southern Illinois University School of Law in 1993. He clerked for the Honorable Richard Mills and then served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for 18 years in the Central District of Illinois and the Western District of Pennsylvania. He became the Federal Defender for the Central District of Illinois in January 2015.

Elisabeth Pollock is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Central District of Illinois. Lis handles both trial division cases and appellate cases in the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, and in 2019, she litigated the Central District’s first capital death penalty case to a verdict of life imprisonment. Prior to joining the FPD in 2012, Lis worked for six years as a general practice attorney at Beckett & Webber, P.C., in Urbana, Illinois. In private practice, she handled a variety of cases in the areas of civil litigation and state and federal criminal defense. From 2014-2020, Lis served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law and coached the Trial Team. Currently, she acts as

the Programming Chair for the East Central Illinois Women’s Attorneys Association and serves on the Board of Governors for the Champaign County Bar Association.

Charles Schierer is a 1995 graduate from the University of Illinois where he earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

He worked for a public accounting firm in St. Louis for one year before enrolling in law school. In 1999, Mr. Schierer graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Washington University in St. Louis. After graduation from law school, Mr. Schierer began his legal career at

Sanberg, Phoenix & von Gontard in St. Louis where he defended mostly products liability and medical malpractice matters. Mr. Schierer started Schierer & Ritchie, LLC in 2005 with his wife Tiffany. The law firm handles criminal and civil matters. Mr. Schierer served on active duty in the United States Navy as a Judge Advocate General working as a prosecutor at Naval Base San Diego, and is currently a reservist with the Illinois Air National Guard, where he manages the legal office at the 182d Airlift Wing in Peoria.

He is licensed to practice law in Illinois, Missouri, and New York.

He lives in Dunlap with his wife and their six-year-old daughter. He has attended several St. Louis Cardinals Fantasy Camps where he pretends to still be able to play baseball.

WHY LAWYERS

MATTER WHY LAWYERS

MATTER ILLINOIS LAW