Become A Member Of The

Association Of Federal Defense Attorneys
(formed in 1994)

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How To Join

To join AFDA, click on the link below for the membership sign-up form.  But please note the restrictions on joining discussed in the next paragraph.

Go To Membership Sign-Up Form

Who May Join

Membership in AFDA is restricted to attorneys in private practice, public defenders, law professors, law school students, and any investigators and paralegals who assist defense attorneys in federal criminal matters.  If you are a defendant in a pending federal criminal action, you may join at the regular membership rate. If you are a federal inmate, your family members may also join, as AFDA conducts online seminars and chat discussions specifically for families of federal inmates.
    Membership in AFDA does have restrictions.  Neither prosecutors, attorneys employed by government agencies, nor law enforcement personnel (federal, state or local) may join the association.  These restrictions on membership are necessary to fulfill a key purpose of AFDA, which is to maintain a professional network within the community of federal criminal defense practitioners, their support staff, and those involved in related academic fields of study.

Go To Membership Sign-Up Form

Membership Fee

The fee to join AFDA ranges from $60 for three months to $335 for two years. For this fee, you get unlimited use of the web site; free online seminars; and discounts at hotel conferences and in the purchase price of online videos and audios. You may also purchase a one-day pass for $10 or a one-month pass for $25, each of which allows use of the web site with certain restrictions (Download Files and Brief Bank are not accessible); the passes also do not allow discounts for hotel conferences or product purchases. Except for those restrictions, the passes do allow unlimited use of the web site, including the Message Board and free access to the online seminars.

Go To Membership Sign-Up Form

Why Join AFDA

AFDA is a member-supported online association.  Its purpose is to provide the defense bar with affordable online educational services that are essential to the proper defense of federal criminal cases. Your membership dollars are primarily used to maintain the operation of the web site, which includes the following:

  • A State-of-the-Art Message Board which is a key resource for keeping you informed of developments in the field of federal criminal law, and for networking with your colleagues nationwide:
    • the Board contains individual forums where you can click on dozens of news updates covering many topics in federal criminal law, including: Dept of Justice policies; developments in federal sentencing; business / corporate crime enforcement; Bureau of Prisons policies and practices; U.S. Supreme Court rulings; updates for CJA panel attorneys; and more.
    • at no charge to members, the Board allows members to set up their own password-protected forums for their respective federal districts, thus allowing a local AFDA chapter, a CJA panel from a specific city, or counsel in a multi-defendant case, to have their own private forum on this web site.
    • for more information about the Board, Click Here.
  • A Brief Bank containing federal criminal motions (pretrial and trial), appellate briefs, sentencing memoranda and a variety of forms. You can download as many as you want into your hard drive, at no extra charge.
  • A Chat Room that has been custom-programmed for this web site, which allows users to create their own password-protected chat rooms, permits users to instant-message each other during chat sessions, and accommodates an unlimited number of users. Since being launched in 2003, the chat room system has been used regularly by CJA panel groups nationwide, and by counsel in multi-defendant cases. It's an efficient and productive way for defense attorneys to come together. You can use the chat rooms as often as you wish; it's all included in your membership fee.
  • Online Audios and Videos which you can download into your hard drive for a fee. All of the audios, and some of the videos, are downloaded together with an accompanying outline containing case citations; the citations are linked to the opinions so that the audio/video file, the outline and the cited cases are all downloaded together. AFDA members receive discounts on the fees charged for these downloads.
  • A Download Files library, which includes:
    • research memos and articles, including a substantial collection of research material on federal sentencing.
    • training manuals in federal criminal litigation
    • government agency documents (including BOP and DOJ publications)
    • You can download as many as you want into your hard drive, at no extra charge.
  • A Research section that offers a wealth of resources:
    • Our fast, state-of-the-art search engine that has been custom-programmed for this web site, allows you to access hundreds of government documents and key cases on federal criminal law issues.
    • For the Ninth Circuit practitioner: A Searchable Database of all Ninth Circuit Circuit Court opinions dating back to Jan 1990. The case opinions all have F.3d citations as well as jump cites within the opinions, so you can do complete research online.
  • A Calendar Of Events that provides members with a
    • schedule of hotel conferences
    • forms to register online for seminars

AFDA depends entirely on membership dues to keep this web site alive. We hope you will take a moment to become a member todayto take advantage of AFDA's educational resources.

Send email to AFDA

Go To Membership Sign-Up Form

Thank you for your interest and for supporting AFDA with your membership dollars.   We also welcome your comments and suggestions:
Send Email To AFDA