DPA 2025 Annual Conference

During this session, participants will learn strategies and techniques to incorporate the client’s story into a compelling mitigation argument throughout the second phase of a non-capital trial or sentencing hearing. Rules 1.1 and 1.3 require that we are competent and diligent and thus we must zealously represent our clients even after a guilty verdict. By using interview and investigatory techniques we can uncover stories of our client’s past and present that can be crafted into a compelling mitigation story to help a judge and/or a jury to believe our clients deserves a brighter future.