Expert Services

We provide technical assistance that is tailored to the unique needs and requests in each jurisdiction. This ranges from staffing government task forces, to holding confidential one-on-one meetings, to testifying before legislatures when asked. We also educate the public through speaking engagements, our Pleading the Sixth blog, and sharing what we know about the right to counsel so you can help fix the issue.

Government Technical Assistance

Speaking Engagements

  • March 22, 2017

    Idaho Public Defender Commission & General Assembly Boise, Idaho

    Executive Director David Carroll discusses the progress made by the Public Defender Commission in implementing recent legislative changes to ensure the right to counsel, including comparisons to similarly situated states and next steps.
  • February 24, 2017

    Tennessee Supreme Court, Indigent Representation Task Force Nashville, Tennessee

    Executive Director David Carroll testifies about proposed reforms to Tennessee’s primary and conflict indigent defense services.
  • January 13, 2017

    Tennessee Supreme Court, Indigent Representation Task Force Nashville, Tennessee

    In order to guarantee that the indigent representation system in Tennessee is addressing the needs of its recipients as well as benefiting the taxpayers, the Task Force is reviewing the state’s current system of providing representation to the poor. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll testifies about statewide indigent defense commissions.
  • January 9, 2017

    Mississippi Public Defender Task Force Jackson, Mississippi

    Executive Director David Carroll and 6AC Counsel Mike Tartaglia discuss preliminary findings from 6AC’s statewide evaluation of public defense.
  • October 21, 2016

    Tennessee Supreme Court, Indigent Representation Task Force Nashville, Tennessee

    In order to guarantee that the indigent representation system in Tennessee is addressing the needs of its recipients as well as benefiting the taxpayers of Tennessee, the Task Force is reviewing the state’s current system of providing representation to the indigent. 6AC Executive Director David Carroll testifies at the Task Force meeting about statewide indigent defense commissions.
  • September 21, 2016

    Indiana Public Defender Commission Indianapolis, Indiana

    Executive Director David Carroll presents the findings and recommendations from 6AC’s forthcoming October 2016 report of the first-ever statewide evaluation of trial level right to counsel services in Indiana since the state implemented what is widely known as “the Indiana model” for providing indigent defense representation.
  • March 29, 2016

    Boston University School of Law, seminar course on “Wrongful Convictions, Miscarriages of Justice, and the US Criminal Justice System” Boston, Massachusetts

    At the invitation of Prof. Michael Schneider, Jon Mosher explains to students “The Principles of Effective Indigent Defense Systems.” He is joined by Chauncey Wood, a private criminal defense attorney who specializes in post-conviction representation.
  • February 20, 2016

    University of Georgia School of Law, 11th Annual Working in the Public Interest Law Conference Athens, Georgia

    Phyllis Mann joins a panel discussion on representation of defendants in misdemeanor offenses. Also on the panel are David Singleton, Executive Director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, and Gerry Weber, Senior Staff Counsel at Southern Center for Human Rights. UGA’s Associate Professor and Director of Civil Clinics Alex Scherr moderates the discussion.
  • February 6, 2016

    American Bar Association, Annual Summit on Indigent Defense San Diego, California

    6AC Board Chair David Meyer speaks at the summit.
  • November 10, 2015

    U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, Right to Counsel National Campaign Inaugural Meeting Washington, D.C.

    Jon Mosher moderates a panel discussion on “Immediate Challenges to the Right to Counsel.” He is joined on the panel by: Judge Tom Boyd from the Michigan District Court bench; Chief Justice James Hardesty of the Nevada Supreme Court; and Senator Rodney Ellis of Texas.
  • November 5, 2015

    Charles Koch Institute, Advancing Justice: An Agenda for Human Dignity and Public Safety New Orleans, Louisiana

    Phyllis Mann moderates a panel discussion on “Justice Delivered: Protecting Liberty and Gideon’s Legacy.” Fellow panelists are: Norman Reimer, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; Doug Colbert, University of Maryland Carey School of Law; Jonathan Rapping, Gideon’s Promise; Kim Ball, U.S. Department of Justice; and Rick Jones, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem.
  • October 26, 2015

    KVNU, For The People Logan, Utah

    David Carroll is interviewed by Jason Williams about the 6AC report on Utah’s trial-level indigent defense services, The Right to Counsel in Utah: An Assessment of Trial-Level Indigent Defense Services.

While a criminal trial is not a game in which the participants are expected to enter the ring with a near match in skills, neither is it a sacrifice of unarmed prisoners to gladiators.

— United States v. Cronic (1984)

That government hires lawyers to prosecute and defendants who have the money hire lawyers to defend are the strongest indications of the widespread belief that lawyers in criminal courts are necessities, not luxuries.

— Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)

We reject … the premise that, since prosecutions for crimes punishable by imprisonment for less than six months may be tried without a jury, they may also be tried without a lawyer.

— Argersinger v. Hamlin (1972)