Week 1: June 7-June 11 Contingency Theories and Public Defenders

During my first week as an intern at the Richmond Public Defender’s Office I, along with the rest of the interns, received a vast amount of training. Included in these training sessions were presentations and workshops regarding client interview training, bond hearing training, a tour of the city, immigration training, courtroom presence training, trial skills training, juror research training, amongst numerous others to prepare us for our time at the office. Through this we were able to obtain a grasp of all of the procedures and guidelines that are crucial to working and communicating with our clients, which tend to be indigent individuals in underrepresented/impoverished neighborhoods. For example, as mentioned, one of the trainings we engaged in had to do with attorney-client confidentiality. This is important for working with these particular clients due to the fact that these individuals tend to be less trusting of anyone that works for or is employed by the state, despite the attorneys being appointed to represent them. 

Of all the training sessions, though, one of the presentations I found most valuable had to do with the different types of and reasons for becoming a public defender. According to Attorney Paner, who gave the presentation, the three primary types of public defenders are: the social worker, the warrior, and the movement builder. According to the presentation, a social worker public defender is one that is committed to changing the lives of their clients, a warrior public defender is one that understands the corruption within the system and wants to combat it, and a movement builder public defender sees public defense as the central ingredient to a revolutionary social movement. What is arguably of more importance, however, is the fact that she states that the best defense attorney is able to float through all three of these types. This is due to the fact that each case appointed to each attorney is different, and in order to have the ruling in favor of the client, it may require taking on a new form of motivation which will inherently impact the form of approach. 

This called to mind the contingency theories of leadership explored in Theories and Models. According to the various theories on contingency, such as that of Fielder’s, the best fit leader is the one who can adapt/restructure their leadership skills and methods to the various conditions of followers. This aspect of versatility, is similarly the case for the way in which the attorneys in the office offer is the best way to work with and represent our clients.