Volunteer Death Penalty Attorney Experience and Advice

Volunteering to represent a death row prisoner is a great way to learn a new substantive area of the law, but it is also a fantastic way to gain skills and experience that will benefit you in your regular civil practice. In this segment, Bob Rothman, partner at Arnall Golden Gregory, explains how litigating a post-conviction death penalty case will help you become a better civil lawyer as you engage in tasks such as developing creative legal arguments, conducting fact investigations, interviewing witnesses, taking depositions, arguing motions, and much more.

Our volunteer attorneys have won life-saving victories for more than 55 death row prisoners resulting in sentences of less than death. In this segment, Amy Van Gelder, counsel at Skadden Arps, talks about what it is like to win relief for your client and the importance of providing hope to a client who has never before had a true advocate.

The death penalty itself can be a divisive issue, but the importance of good representation in our criminal justice system is an idea all lawyers and citizens can support. In this segment, Larry Fox, partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath and professor at Yale Law School, talks about the reactions of his family, colleagues, and clients to his many years of work as a volunteer death penalty attorney. He shares why even those individuals who may look less favorably upon the work will proudly boast about the volunteer death penalty representation performed by their law firms.

The large majority of our volunteer attorneys have no background in criminal law or death penalty representation when they take their first capital cases. Bill Abrams, Partner at King & Spalding, explains how civil litigators can successfully handle death penalty cases and discusses some of the people and resources available to guide them through the process.

Michael Siem, formerly of Fish & Richardson and now Special Counsel at Baker Botts, was part of the volunteer attorney team that received the Death Penalty Representation Project's 2012 Exceptional Service Award. In this segment he talks about the types of recognition that are available for volunteer law firms and the positive impact of that recognition on management perception, client relationships, and career development.

Joanne M. Hepburn, associate at K&L Gates, tells the story of her client's execution and how it impacted her views on volunteer death penalty work.

Steven Schneebaum, partner at Fox Rothschild LLP, began working as a volunteer death penalty attorney more than 20 years ago. In this segment, Steven talks about what he expected when he started this work, and how those expectations have compared with the reality of representing someone on death row.

Steve Kaplan, former partner at Fredrikson & Byron in Minneapolis, describes the development of the personal and professional relationship with his Louisiana death row client, Damon Thibodeaux. After many years of working to prove Damon's innocence, Steve was able to secure Damon's exoneration and release from prison in late 2012.

Mark Olson, partner at Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP, describes the stages of a death penalty case and what he did as a volunteer attorney at each stage.

Jeff Koppy, volunteer attorney and partner at Jenner & Block LLP, talks about his experience representing death row prisoners in Florida and Texas, why there is a need for volunteer attorneys in those jurisdictions, and the challenges he has faced and how he overcame them.