HAVING WORKED SIX years as an attorney in the Clark County Public Defender's Office, Phil Kohn knows its deficiencies. Well enough, in fact, to anticipate reporters' questions about plans to remove the "hit me" sign from the office's back. Last year, it was the National Legal Aid & Defender Association sniping about representation of juveniles. Two years prior, the Spangenberg Group crowed about dismal trial rates for indigents. Every year, the American Civil Liberties of Union of Nevada.
"I remember reading the NLAD report and laughing with my wife about the fights I had with [former county public defender] Morgan Harris over this issue or that issue," says Kohn who, on April 6 became the county's fifth Public Defender. "I left because of those disagreements."
For six years, Kohn headed the county's special public defender's office—which handles the majority of the death penalty cases, murder cases where there's a conflict for the public defender's office and those involving juveniles charged with murder—experience the Santa Barbara district attorney's office alum and 12-year resident says will aid his work.
As an insider, can you change the office's culture to shore up the shortcomings? How?
I've been out of this office for five years, so I'm not an insider. I watched mistakes made in the past, but I couldn't change them. There was one supervisor, and I wasn't it. Now I have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make those changes.
What are the office's strengths?
We've got some attorneys who work long and hard for clients. Unfortunately, every institution in human affairs is judged by its weakest links. I know we are going to be judged by our weakest links. If a couple of guys miss a court appearance, we'll hear about it, and we should. There's no excuse for that.
Weaknesses?
No mid-management—team chiefs had no authority. There wasn't a lot of accountability. I've recommended having true supervisors without caseloads who could do real training and share workloads. In the special deputy public defender's office, nobody missed court appearances. It's not going to happen here. I've heard horror stories about attorneys not seeing clients for months.
What's the higher priority: raising the trial rate to national standards or better training?
Training. Who wants someone to go to trial when they are not prepared or don't have the skills? It's important that attorneys act in the best interests of clients. We don't want them going to trial just to build numbers, but we do want a well-trained staff that's not afraid to go to trial. There's a rumor that the DA's office requires each deputy to try five cases. That's not true. I won't be part of a trials-for-numbers-sake operation.
Elgin Simpson, board member for the Western Community Police Training Center, which develops cop training procedures, asks: What are your plans to improve training and deal with people who've been there for 20 years and done nothing, and how will you improve training?
We've hired a training officer, Terry Richmond, from the Indiana public defender's office. We've got a program starting in which more than 40 attorneys will go through a three-day trial advocacy program. Experts will break down some of the attorneys' cases. In the special public defender's office, we sent lawyers to Santa Clara (California) for training. I'd like to institutionalize formal yearly training and see isolated days where attorneys and judges could, without missing court, train intensely—maybe during the week of the state bar convention.
And the do-nothing staff?
We will switch them out immediately.
Address this finding from a 2003 National Legal Aid & Defender Association report: There's a crisis in juvenile representation.
We have eight attorneys out in juvenile court—about 600 cases per attorney per year. The national average is 200. As much as we need more lawyers, we need more social workers. Most of our kids either have an alchool problem, drug problem or mental health issue.
Can you combat understaffing?
The county has complete control over our funding. The County Commission has said the DA's office is one of the priorities this year. We want to see what the county manager will do about it.
Nevada ACLU Executive Director Gary Peck asks: Are you prepared to put the office on notice that attorneys who come to work late, leave early and miss court appointments will be reprimanded; supervisors who haven't done significant trial work in years will be scrutinized; and attorneys can't recommend sentences for clients?
My team chiefs will know where their attorneys are, and I expect them to write up attorneys who flout the rules. I'm not going to let people who've been here a long time leave at 2 o' clock. It's not going to be business as usual. (Supervisors) will be replaced. I was in this office five years ago. I watched it and it made me sick. It's wrong. Attorneys are paid well by this county. Because of that, people who'd normally work three to five years and then go into private practice, stay on. That's good because you keep good people, but bad because some folks lose interest.