Spring Public Defender Conference
This course is co-sponsored by the Office of Indigent Defense Services and by the NC Association of Public Defenders.
The Spring Public Defender Conference provides training on current topics of interest to public defender attorneys and investigators. This year’s conference topics include extradition, parallel construction stops, driving while impaired, confrontation rights, discovery strategies, capacity evaluations, evidence, plea bargaining, and more.
This course will be held from Wednesday, May 7 to Friday, May 9.
Registration is closed for the 2025 Spring Public Defender Conference. Registration is currently closed, and we are at capacity for the 2025 Spring Public Defender Conference. Please note that there will be no on-site registration. You must be registered prior to the conference to attend.
For information about other public defense education courses, visit our Public Defense Education site.
Additional information
AGENDA
The agenda can be found here.
PARTICIPANTS: The Spring Public Defender Conference is open to public defenders, public defender investigators, private investigators, appellate defenders, capital defenders, special counsel, IDS legal staff, and attorneys from the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services, Inc.
Investigators are welcome to attend, as they may find the sessions helpful to their work.
CLE: The conference will offer approximately 12.25 hours of attorney CLE credit and qualifies for NC State Bar criminal law specialization credit, including two ethics hours, one technology hour, and one professional well-being hour.
If you are unable to attend the entire program, you will need to complete a partial credit form. Email partial credit forms to kfowler@sog.unc.edu by Friday, May 23.
HOTEL INFORMATION: Hotel accommodations are available from May 6 - May 9 at $169 per night plus tax at the Winston-Salem Marriott Downtown (425 North Cherry Street, Winston-Salem, NC 27101). Please note that limited rooms are available for Tuesday, May 6. To make a hotel reservation, you must book here. Group code SGVSGVA.
The group rate is available until Monday, April 14. After this date, accommodations depend on availability, and the room rate is subject to increase. To modify or cancel a hotel reservation, you must call central reservations at 1-800-228-9290. If you need to cancel, please do so as soon as possible.
The hotel only offers valet parking at $30 a day. Please see the parking map here for additional parking options near the convention center and hotel.
TRAVEL REIMBURSEMENT (State Employees Only): Your eligibility for travel reimbursement at the state rate is contingent on state rules and regulations. A customized travel expense allowance sheet, as well as a mileage chart from county seats to Winston-Salem, is available on the conference website. As an IDS employee, your lodging is reimbursable at the state rate for Wednesday and Thursday nights if you must drive more than 35 miles to the conference from your home or office, whichever is closer. Lodging is not reimbursable for Tuesday night unless you drive more than 185 miles. Breakfast will be provided at no charge on Thursday and Friday; state employees may not claim reimbursement for breakfast.
The mileage reimbursement rate is $0.625 per mile for those participants with overnight status who carpool to and from the program. (Those who are not eligible to stay overnight are not required to carpool and will be reimbursed at $0.625 per mile.) If carpool passenger names are not provided, or if you choose to drive alone, you will receive $0.33 per mile. All exceptions to the carpool policy must be pre-approved by IDS CFO Aaron Gallagher: Aaron.M.Gallagher@nccourts.org. Carpool exceptions must be made via email and the approval email must accompany the travel reimbursement forms. Please review the travel expense allowance sheet for further information.
Participants are encouraged to use their office’s state cars if feasible and if they are more than 150 miles from the site, to consider use of a rental under the state contract with Enterprise. For preapproval of the rental car and other information, contact Aaron Gallagher, Aaron.M.Gallagher@nccourts.org.
Kayla Fowler
