Client-Centered Representation and the Reconceptualization of the Role of the Appellate Public Defender

• In Event: Legal Services for the Indigent – Integrating Awareness of The Client’s Experience into Research and Practice

Abstract

While client-centered representation has gained traction among trial level public defenders over the past few decades, appellate public defenders have just recently begun to explore the use of this approach in their work. With appellate representation traditionally more “hands off” than trial level defense, the shift to client-centered representation has transformed appellate defense into an increasingly front-line profession. This paper uses a combination of focus groups and interviews with stakeholders in Michigan’s state-level appellate system to examine how public defenders are re-conceptualizing their professional roles and orientations in the transition to client-centered defense. Our results suggest that public appellate attorneys, like other front-like workers, are experiencing ambiguity in the goals of their work and their subsequent responsibilities. Like other front-line workers, they operate within a broad context of bureaucratic constraints but exercise considerable decision-making power on a daily basis, which they use to simultaneously to attend to client needs, meet institutional mandates, and achieve the goals they identify as most important.

Authors

• Jeanette Hussemann, Urban Institute

• Jonah Siegel, Michigan Indigent Defense Commission

• Dawn Van Hoek, MI State Appellate Defenders Office