User:Iamtrimble/sandbox/Trial Lawyers College

Overview

The Trial Lawyer’s College is a non-profit organization with a mission to train and educate lawyers and judges who are committed to the jury system and to represent and obtain justice for individuals; the poor, the injured, the forgotten, the voiceless, the defenseless and the damned, and to protect the rights of such people from corporate and government oppression. In all of its activities, the Trial Lawyer’s College will foster and nourish an open atmosphere of caring for people regardless of their race, age, creed, religion, national origin, physical abilities, gender or sexual orientation. The College does not offer training for those lawyers who represent government, corporations or large business interests. Trial Lawyer’s College was co-founded by Gerry Spence, an accomplished trial lawyer with a long career of defending individuals against the government and corporations. Spence is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame and has never lost a criminal case as a defense attorney in his 52-year career. (He has not lost a civil case since 1969.) Co-founders included Gerry’s one-time law partner and retired Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Bob Rose; and John Johnson, a retired social worker from Riverton, Wyoming.

History

The Trial Lawyer’s College was co-founded in 1994 by Gerry Spence, an accomplished trial lawyer with a long career of defending individuals in both criminal and civil cases; his former law partner and Wyoming Supreme Court Justice Bob Rose; and the late John Johnson, a social worker from Riverton, Wyoming. From 1994 to 1998, TLC had one course per year that typically lasted 32 days and included psychodrama and trial skills, all with a focus on empowering trial lawyers to more effectively defend individuals against the government and large corporations. The College was founded on two basic principles underlying the approach in trial lawyering that Gerry Spence sought to teach. The first principle is to treat trials as a matter of storytelling in which the lawyer consistently tells the client’s story beginning with Voir Dire, and continuing thru Opening Statement, both Direct and Cross Examinations, and in the Closing Argument. The second principle is that the lawyer’s primary instrument is him/herself, and so it is necessary for lawyers to know themselves thoroughly in order to effectively listen, learn and tell their clients’ stories. In 1999, TLC added a separate Judicial College which it conducted for several years. In 2000, TLC held two month-long courses. In 2001, the College introduced its first annual Death Penalty Seminar which it held for 14 consecutive years, as the nation’s Death Penalty sentences declined from 317 in 1994 to fewer than 80 handed down now annually. It also began offering annual Graduate Courses, as well as weekend Regional Seminars across the United States. The College now offers 10-12 courses per year and in 2015, the College will introduce a new course: “In Defense of the Damned– Murder and Capital Murder”, a much needed program to teach criminal lawyers how to better address the growing number of life-without-parole sentences that numbered over 159,000 nationwide in 2012, at least 50,000 of which were imposed automatically after a conviction. In 2009, Gerry Spence was elected the Chairman of the Board, and J. Jude Basile from Cambria, CA was elected the College President. He served until September 2013 when John Sloan from Longview, TX was elected as the College President. In addition to Gerry Spence and John Sloan, the College’s Board includes: Milton Grimes; Vice President, Dana Cole; Secretary, James R Clary Jr.; Treasurer, J. Jude Basile; Past President, Joseph Hawkins Low IV; Jim Nugent; R. Rex Parris; Kent Spence; Anne Valentine; John Zelbst and Debbie Taussig, Liaison to the F Warrior Alumni Board.

Gerry Spence

See also: Gerry Spence Gerald Leonard "Gerry" Spence (born January 8, 1929) is a semi-retired American trial lawyer. He is a member of the American Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame. As of 2014, Spence has never lost a criminal case as a prosecutor defense attorney; nor has he lost a civil case since 1969. Spence graduated from the University of Wyoming Law School in 1952, and was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree in May 1990. He started his career in Riverton, Wyoming, andafter a brief period as a defense attorney for the insurance industry, Gerry and his law partner at the time, and eventual co-founder of the College Bob Rose, shifted the focus of their practice and solely dedicated their efforts to defend the common man against corporations and government entities as well as those accused of criminal crimes. In 1974, Spence gained national attention for the Karen Silkwood case in which the heirs of Karen Silkwood, an employee of Kerr-McGee, sued the corporation for plutonium contamination which led to her death. By winning that case, Spence established his nationwide reputation as an advocate of representing people against corporations, insurance companies, banks, or "big business”.  He represented future clients who included Imelda Marcos, wife of the deposed Philippines President, who was sued by the United States government; Randy Weaver, an Idaho resident whose family was gunned down by the Sheriff’s office; Miss Wyoming Kim Pring who sued Hustler magazine for defamation; Geoffrey Feiger, who was charged by the federal government of violations of the Campaign Finance Act; and many, many more.  Gerry Spence is the author of sixteen published books. During 1995 and 1996, Spence appeared on CNBC in The Gerry Spence Show to discuss legal and social issues.  He continued to be a legal expert and guest speaker for network news for a number of years thereafter.

Distinguishing figures

Trial Lawyer’s College is a nonprofit school established at Gerry Spence’s Thunderhead Ranch near Dubois, Wyoming, where the majority of its courses are held. The College is devoted to the training of lawyers to be more effective advocates for their clients which, in Spence’s words: “begins with the self, with a knowledge of who we are and an understanding that we are unique, incomparable, and therefore in that way, perfect.” Spence’s teaching methods advocate self-acceptance and a story-telling method known as psychodrama that aims to allow trial lawyers to connect with their audience and the jury. Psychodrama “shuns the deadly intellectual, artificial and pretentious.” Instead, it focuses on listening and understanding thereby allowing sincerity, connection and spontaneous responses. Courses at The College are taught by 105 wholly volunteer faculty members. Both its alumni and faculty include accomplished civil and criminallawyers as well as public defenders nationwide and like its students, TLC’s faculty are only lawyers for the people. None of its faculty represent the government or large corporations. The Trial Lawyer’s College publishes a quarterly magazine, The Warrior, which is comprised solely of original articles authored by its alumni in order to educate its readers with stories about the application of the TLC methods in the courtrooms across our country. TLC offers financial aid and annual scholarships to law practitioners based on financial need. The College does not offer training to lawyers who represent government, corporations or large business interests.

Campus

The TLC campus is located at Spence’s Thunderhead Ranch near Dubois, Wyoming after it was converted from a working cattle ranch to a school campus. In the early 1990s, Gerry Spence sold the majority of his cattle ranch to the Wyoming Game & Fish to be forever protected as public land open to hunting and fishing, and retained over 150 acres for the sole use by the Trial Lawyer’s College for its campus which includes 17 ranch buildings that are now used for dormitories and faculty housing, classrooms, a cook-house and several meeting rooms in refurbished barns. It is designed to offer attending lawyers the chance to step back from their busy schedules, take important time for themselves and their study of trial lawyering. The campus is rimmed by Wyoming's Absaroka and Wind River Mountains with the Bear Creek and East Fork Rivers flowing thru it. It is located 20 miles east of Dubois, and 100 miles east of Jackson Hole and the Yellowstone National Park.

Programs

TLC programs include CLE-accredited courses, an internship program, and an alumni services program. All CLE courses are staffed by volunteer faculty members who are all alumni of the 3-week course. They contribute their time as well as expenses in order to teach the TLC methods to others. 2015 Courses Schedule January 23-25: California Urban Regional Seminar | Voir Dire - San Diego Bayfront Hilton - San Diego, CA March 19-22:  Georgia Regional Seminar |Cross Examination - Chateau Elan in Braselton, GA March 30:  TLC - July Application Deadline April 30-May 3: Texas Regional Seminar |Opening Statement - Hilton Austin Airport, Austin TX May 18:  TLC - September Application Deadline May 22-25: F Warrior Work Week - Thunderhead Ranch May 29-June 6: Defense of the Damned - Murder and Capital Murder; Thunderhead Ranch - Dubois, WY June 12-19:  Staff Training - Thunderhead Ranch June 25-30: Psychodrama for Lawyers - Personal Psychodrama and Directing Skills - Thunderhead Ranch July 7-30: Trial Lawyer’s College - July Session |Thunderhead Ranch - Dubois, WY August 8-15:  Graduate Course I (Available only to 3-week and 7-step graduates) | Thunderhead Ranch August 22-29: Graduate Course II (Available only to 3-week and 7-step graduates) | Thunderhead Ranch September 8-Oct 1: Trial Lawyer’s College - September Session | Thunderhead Ranch - Dubois, WY October 10-16:  Graduate Course III - Training for Small Group Leaders (Available only to 3-week and 7-step graduates) | Thunderhead Ranch October 22-25: Chicago Regional Seminar | Direct Examination - Hilton Oak Brook Hills