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The Mental Health Litigation Division of the Committee for Public Counsel Services is now accepting applications for the Mental Health Litigation Division (“MHLD”) Appellate Panel Certification Training

Qualifications:

Applicants must have the following minimum qualifications:

• • Demonstrated proficiency in legal research and writing
  • Demonstrated commitment to working on behalf of indigent individuals and/or people with disabilities

Desirable qualifications include:

1. 1. Two years of mental health trial experience;
   2. Primary authorship of two or more appellate briefs in other practice areas;
   3. A recent appellate clerkship, substantial editing experience for a law journal, or publication of a law journal article.

Admission into the training is based on qualifications and current availability of mentors, such that not all applicants who meet minimum qualifications will be admitted.

Required Training:

Admitted applicants must attend the virtual MHLD appellate training program that includes live (synchronous) Zoom sessions on the following dates, as well as completion of asynchronous assignments in between live sessions:

Day 1 – Tuesday, March 29, 2022 from 9:00 – 12:30

Day 2 – Friday, April 1, 2022 from 9:00 – 12:30

Day 3 – Tuesday, April 5, 2022 from 9:00 – 12:30

Day 4 – Thursday, April 7, 2022 from 9:00 – 12:30

**Note that the total time commitment will approximate that of previous live trainings, i.e. approx.   21 hours.

The registration fee for the training is $175, which includes all materials. Please do not submit payment until after receiving confirmation that you have been accepted into the training, at which point you will receive payment and registration instructions.

Application Submission Instructions:

To be considered, you must submit a completed application via e-mail to: ktalley@publiccounsel.net  by Friday, February 14, 2022. 

To download the full application, click here

Your application must include:

1. Answers to all questions in the application
2. A current resume;
3. Two writing samples totaling no more than 100 pages.  If you are submitting a brief, please include the entire brief, including the cover page and tables of contents and authorities.  If your samples include the name or work of other attorneys, you must identify the portions you wrote and explain whether anyone else edited your work.

Further Information:

For further information regarding the appellate panel certification process, please contact Karen Talley at ktalley@publiccounsel.net.