First Friday meetings for defense attorneys

By Brooke Kaufman | Communications Specialist

RPW is hosting monthly Zoom meetups on the first Friday of the month from 4:00-5:00 p.m. First Friday meetings are for defense attorneys and RPW team members to discuss legal issues and new developments in resentencing and second look cases.

RPW Staff Attorney Jeff Ellis, Resentencing Resource Attorney Cindy Arends Elsberry, and Immigration Project Resource Attorney Sarah Hudson co-host the meetings.

Jeff Ellis is a Post-Conviction Attorney for the Seattle Clemency Project. Jeff has represented individuals accused of crimes at trial, on appeal, in state post-conviction, in federal habeas, and clemency proceedings since 1987.

Cindy Arends Elsberry is a Resentencing Resource Attorney for the Washington Defender Association. Cindy has worked in public defense for over 20 years and has a varied background, having worked with all types of cases, from low-level crimes to aggravated murder. She has experience with collaborative courts and mental competency hearings, and is death penalty certified. She worked at the Associated Counsel for the Accused in Seattle for more than 14 years before joining the Washington Defender Association in 2009. Cindy is a frequent speaker at CLE presentations and has a special interest in the issues involved when representing clients with mental illness, fair treatment and sentencing of youth/young adults, and defender well-being.

Sarah Hudson is an Immigration Project Resource Attorney for the Washington Defender Association. Sarah graduated from law school in San Diego and continued to explore her interest in immigration law by working with a non-profit focusing on defensive asylum cases. As a military spouse, she has lived in many places and explored different areas of law. Most recently, Sarah was a public defender and uses that experience to assist other defense attorneys with issues related to the immigration consequences of criminal convictions.

In the last meeting, held on March 3, a group of private criminal defense attorneys and public defenders discussed current and emerging issues in second look cases and asked questions of the resource attorneys supporting this work.

Defense attorneys can join the RPW team next month on Friday, April 7.