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Welcome to the web site for the Association of Federal Defense Attorneys (AFDA), an Internet-based association for criminal defense attorneys, law professors, paralegals, investigators, and all other professionals associated with the field of federal criminal defense litigation.  AFDA has been approved as an MCLE provider by the State of California since 1997.

AFDA was formed in 1994 by Los Angeles defense attorney Gregory Nicolaysen and is the only association devoted exclusively to the federal criminal defense bar. The opening of the web site in early 1995 signaled the first site for any criminal defense organization.  The principal purposes of AFDA are (1) to provide online education and online resources / updates for defense attorneys at very little cost; (2) facilitate networking and communication within the defense bar through AFDA's state-of-the-art chat room and online seminar technology; (3) present hotel conferences on key topics for federal defense attorneys.  Operating within this specific focus, AFDA leaves other important projects such as legislative lobbying and the filing of amicus briefs to those defense organizations which are already doing an excellent job.

We invite you to become a member by joining online. For membership fee information, Click Here. You may join AFDA for a period of three months, six months, one year or two years. You may also acquire a one-day or one-month pass. The membership fee entitles you to unlimited use of the web site, plus discounts on hotel conferences and the purchase of online audio and video programs.  The membership fees are purposely kept low in order to make membership easily affordable and thereby encourage everyone, particularly court-appointed lawyers, to support this work.

AFDA is entirely member-financed, operating on a break-even basis to provide an inexpensive resource for the defense bar. The association does not obtain government grants or commercial loans; does not permit advertising on the web site; and does not rent or sell membership lists.  Nor do you have to worry about the web site generating pop-up ads or any other invasive marketing gimmicks that have become a serious problem on the Internet in recent years.  All revenues to AFDA are generated through membership dues, as well as fees charged for educational programs, which include hotel conferences and online audio / videos programs.

This web site provides education / information resources on all phases of federal criminal defense, from the complex white collar case to the basic bank robbery case.  The site has been designed for use by the private defense bar, CJA attorneys, and Federal Public Defenders, as well as professionals who provide support services to the defense bar.  The contents of the web site include:

  • Online Seminars: at no charge to members, online programs lasting from 30 minutes to one hour are presented in the form of powerpoint-type slides, sometimes accompanied by an audio file. The slides contain links to any cases or documents that are cited, so that you can download them into your hard drive. Topics for these seminars have included federal sentencing issues, Bureau of Prisons policies, and bail/detention proceedings. Members can obtain a transcript of any seminar they attend, as well as a certificate of attendance for submission to their State Bar, as to those states which allow MCLE credit for online education. For more information on how the online seminar feature operates, CLICK HERE.
  • 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 today to network with your fellow defense attorneys and support this important work.

Send email to AFDA

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