Phyllis E. Mann

Director, National Defender Leadership Institute

National Legal Aid & Defender Association

1140 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 900
Washington, DC 20036

(202) 306-3792 | Fax: (202) 872-1031
p.mann@nlada.org

Bio

Phyllis E. Mann is Director of the National Defender Leadership Institute, within the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.  She is located in Texas.  Prior to joining NLADA, she was a consultant in criminal defense, providing expert testimony in state and federal courts in capital defense, research and writing in systemic areas of criminal defense, and serving as the curriculum coordinator for NLADA's Life in the Balance capital defense training.  Before returning to Texas, Phyllis practiced exclusively criminal defense -- trial and appeal, state and federal -- in Louisiana.  She has previously served as a public defender for Rapides Parish, as an appellate public defender for the Louisiana Appellate Project, as a court appointed capital defender certified by the Louisiana Indigent Defender Assistance Board, and as a CJA panel attorney for the Western & Middle Districts of Louisiana.  In 2005, Phyllis secured the unanimous opinion from the Louisiana Supreme Court in State v. Citizen & Tonguis, establishing the authority for trial court judges to halt capital prosecutions where there is no funding for the defense of the accused.  Following Hurricane Katrina, she led an ad hoc group of criminal defense attorneys in their pro bono efforts to document and represent the approximately 8500 prisoners and detainees evacuated from south-eastern Louisiana jails.  She received the 2006 Arthur von Briesen Award from NLADA for her contributions as a private attorney to indigent defense in Louisiana.  Phyllis is a past president of the Louisiana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and was the recipient of LACDL's 2005 Justice Albert Tate Jr. Award for lifetime achievement in criminal defense.

Phyllis E Mann - Wed, 01/20/2010 - 14:40

Mississippi: A Short Story
Phyllis Mann, NLADA
2010
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Mississippi has 82 counties and a statewide population estimated in 2009 at roughly 2.95 million. The felony trial courts are structured through 22 Circuit Court districts, with each comprising multiple counties.  As the NAACP-LDF so succinctly stated, with the exception of death penalty cases and felony appeals (since 2005), “the State of Mississippi does not contribute one dollar towards the representation of poor defendants. Instead, it requires counties to shoulder the full obligation of providing lawyers for the poor.”

JSERI, Caselaw, Mississippi, Defender, Funding, Independence, Indigent Defense System, Public Defense Reform, Standards, State Public Defender
Byrne JAG federal funding -- can public defense systems get these funds?
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
25
02
2011
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Commonly referred to as Byrne/JAG grants, the official name is the "Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant Program."  The program is administered by the Department of Justice (DOJ), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), and is described by BJA as "the leading source of federal justice funding to state and local jurisdictions."

National, NLADA Home, Federal, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Federal, Funding, Indigent Defense System, Leadership | Management - General
Understanding the comparison of budgets for prosecutors and budgets for public defense
Phyllis E Mann, NLADA
09
02
2011
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From watching crime shows on television, we would all have the impression that a prosecutor stands on one side and a public defender stands on the other in every case, giving the appearance that their roles are exact mirror images of each other. But this is not true, for several reasons.

National, JSERI, Defender, Funding, Indigent Defense System
Understanding the debate about full-time public defender offices or appointment of private attorneys
Phyllis E Mann, NLADA
28
01
2011
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No one public defense delivery model is inherently better than another.  In fact, almost every jurisdiction, whether organized by state or county, uses a mixture of delivery systems to provide all of the representation that is required.  There are three basic forms of delivering indigent defense representation:

National, Administration | Structure, JSERI, Boards | Commissions, Indigent Defense System
Representing Veterans - a sample guide to resources for public defense attorneys
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
06
12
2010
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When your client is a veteran, there are significant social service resources potentially available to aid you in effectively representing your client.

Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Louisiana, Criminal Defense, Defender, Military & Veterans Affairs
What defense attorneys need to know about "evidence-based practices"
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
22
09
10
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The phrase “evidence-based practices” (EBP) is the catch-phrase of the day throughout our criminal justice systems.  But what exactly are these practices, how do they affect our clients, and what do we as defense attorneys need to know and do about them? 

National, Defender Legal Services, JSERI, NDLI, Criminal Procedure, Defender, Ethics | Professional Responsibility
Language access for public defense clients
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
17
08
2010
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Today the Department of Justice announced that it has issued a letter to chief justices and administrators of state courts regarding their obligation to provide oral interpretation, written translation and other lan

National, Civil Legal Services, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Civil, Defender, Language Access | Interpreters
Survey of case management systems for indigent defenders
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
12
08
2010
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The National Legal Aid & Defender Association and the National Juvenile Defender Center are gathering information about the current state of case management and/or tracking systems being used by public defense agencies and systems around the country to capture information on both juvenile and adult clients.

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender, Leadership | Management - General
NIJ 2010 Annual Conference provides information and material for public defenders
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
23
07
2010
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It has often seemed that the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has focused primarily on addressing issues of criminal justice from the vantage point of law enforement, prosecution, and corrections, but perhaps that is beginning to change.  NIJ held its annual conference on June 14-16, 2010 in Arlington, Virginia.  As the research, development and evaluation agency of

National, Federal, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender
Progressing from law school to J.D. to public defender, training is the key
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
31
03
2010
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Law school may teach us to "think like a lawyer," but it seldom prepares an attorney to defend a living breathing client who is charged with a specific criminal act where the prosecution will take place in a specific jurisdiction that has its own unique policies and procedures.  Instead, lawyers learn how to actually represent clients when they take their first jo

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender, Training
A down & dirty primer on strategic planning
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
31
03
2010
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Say the words "strategic planning" and the eyes of many defense attorneys will immediately glaze over.  Yet having a concrete plan, measuring progress, and being able to prove that progress has occurred are all critical in convincing budgeting bodies and policy-makers that we as public defense attorneys are effective and accountable.  So, here we provide some

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender
Planning and carrying out a campaign to achieve anything!
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Insttitute (NDLI)
30
03
2010
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Public defense systems are constantly setting new goals, trying to implement new and better ways of representing clients, devising community education programs, and working to convince budgeting bodies and policy-makers of the importance of effective representation for the poor in our criminal justice systems.  We all need a simple plan that we can easily follow to achieve

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender
Materials from National Symposium on Indigent Defense to help you improve your indigent defense system
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
26
03
2010
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Leaders from all areas of indigent defense gathered in Washington on February 18-19, 2010 to participate in the Department of Justice National Symposium on Indigent Defense: Looking Back, Looking Forward, 2000-2010.   In the hope of seeding successful reform efforts in more and more jurisdictions across the nation, the DOJ Bureau of Justice Assistance has made

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender
American Council of Chief Defenders to meet in Washington DC April 14-16, 2010
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
24
03
2010
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Chief public defenders from throughout the country will be meeting in Washington D.C.

National, Defender Legal Services, American Council of Chief Defenders | ACCD, NDLI, Defender
Department of Justice launches "Access to Justice" initiative
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
26
02
2010
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The U.S.

National, Defender Legal Services, NDLI, Defender
Attorney General Eric Holder keynotes DOJ National Symposium on Indigent Defense
Phyllis Mann, National Defender Leadership Institute (NDLI)
18
02
2010
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The Department of Justice held its National Symposium on Indigent Defense: Looking Back, Looking Forward, 2000-2010, in Washington, D.C.

National, Federal, NDLI, Defender