BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:icalendar-ruby CALSCALE:GREGORIAN X-WR-CALNAME:Dean's Luminaries in Law Series Featuring Jonathan Rapping X-WR-TIMEZONE:Pacific Time (US & Canada) BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20261012T220153Z UID:tag:localist.com\,2008:EventInstance_53630559445465 DTSTART:20261009T000000Z DTEND:20261009T010000Z DESCRIPTION:The Dean's Luminaries in Law series continues with a timely and thought provoking conversation with renowned criminal justice innovator J onathan Rapping. Rapping is the Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise\, a nonprofit public defender organization. His tal k is titled "21st Century Public Defense: Stories from the Front Line of T oday's Civil Rights Struggle".\n\n \n\nIn June 2025\, the Washington Supre me Court issued an order adopting a set of caseload standards for public d efenders\, with a 10-year implementation period to begin on January 1\, 20 26\, and a three-year progress report to be prepared by the Office of Publ ic Defense.\n\n \n\nAt present there are four separate lawsuits addressing the adequacy of public defense in Washington. Counties have sued the stat e arguing that the state's failure to properly fund local jurisdictions hi nders the effectiveness of the system. The ACLU of Washington has sued Yak ima County for failing to timely appoint counsel. The Washington Appellate project has sued the state Office of Public Defense arguing that proposed changes to its funding structure will render it impossible for their lawy ers to carry out their ethical duties to clients and vindicate their clien ts' constitutional rights. Seattle University School of Law's Defender Ini tiative addressed these workload standards in its annual conference in Jun e.\n\n \n\nRapping's visit is thus extremely well-timed. Washington is goi ng to need to be creative and dynamic if we are to develop a system of pub lic defense that guarantees to everyone across the state the quality of re presentation to which they are entitled. As one of the nation's leaders in recruiting\, developing\, and sustaining public defenders\, Rapping's mes sage should be of great interest to students\, faculty\, the legal communi ty\, and\, truly\, anyone concerned about justice.\n\n \n\nDate: October 8 \, 2026\n\nTime: 5:00 to 6:00 p.m.\n\nLocation: Student Center Room 160 (T he LeRoux Conference Room)\n\nFree to attend and open to all\; registratio n required\n\nStreet parking is readily available or explore our visitor p arking page for parking options\n\n \n\nThis event is a collaboration betw een Seattle University School of Law's Defender Clinic and Seattle Univers ity's College of Arts & Sciences. The law school's Defender Initiative is a partnering sponsor.\n\n \n\nAbout Jonathan Rapping\n\n \n\nJonathan Rapp ing is a nationally renowned criminal justice innovator and the Founder an d former Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise\, a nonprofit publi c defender organization whose mission is to transform the criminal justice system by building a movement of public defenders who provide equal justi ce for marginalized communities.\n\n \n\nSince its inception in 2007\, Gid eon’s Promise has grown from a single training program for sixteen attor neys in two public defender offices in Georgia and Louisiana to a national enterprise with over 1\,000 participants in 40 offices across 27 states a nd the U.S. Virgin Islands. The organization’s initial three-year progra m for new public defenders has expanded into the only comprehensive model that supports defenders at all levels of their careers\, with programming for new lawyers\, supervisors\, chief defenders\, trainers\, law students\ , and the clinical instructors who teach them.\n\n \n\nFrom 2022 to 2024\, Rapping served as the Chief Executive Officer of Gideon’s Promise. In 2 024\, he stepped down as CEO to join the organization’s Board of Directo rs\, where he continues to advance its mission and vision for justice-cent ered public defense reform.\n\n \n\nRapping is the Professor of Law and Di rector of the Criminal Justice Certificate Program at Atlanta’s John Mar shall Law School (AJMLS) and visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law Scho ol. He also serves as the Faculty Director of the Center for Criminal Just ice Innovation (CCJI). Through the CCJI\, Rapping and his colleagues aim t o develop future lawyers with exceptional legal skills and justice-centere d values\, while connecting them with a robust network of mentors and prof essionals. Students will be guided to forge a professional identity aligne d with their purpose for coming to law school.\n\n \n\nRapping is a freque nt contributor to national conversations on criminal justice reform and ha s been featured by media outlets including The New York Times\, The Washin gton Post\, HuffPost\, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution\, Mother Jones\, E ssence\, and NPR stations nationwide. He has spoken at TEDx Atlanta\, regu larly presents to public defender and criminal defense organizations acros s the country\, and frequently lectures at law schools nationwide. His wor k with public defenders was the inspiration for the award-winning HBO docu mentary Gideon’s Army.\n\n \n\nRapping is the recipient of numerous awar ds and distinctions\, including the MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Gran t\, the American College of Trial Lawyers Emil Gumpert Award\, the Harvard Law School Wasserstein Public Interest Fellowship\, the Cardozo Law Schoo l Inspire Award\, and the George Soros Open Society Fellowship. He and Gid eon’s Promise have also received the National Alliance of Sentencing Adv ocates and Mitigation Specialists Sentencing Project Award\, the Southern Center for Human Rights Gideon’s Promise Award\, and the Emory Universit y Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award.\n\n \n\nHe is the author of Gideon’s Promise: A Public Defender Movement to Transform Criminal J ustice (Beacon Press\, 2020)\, which explores a cutting-edge vision for pu blic defenders in the effort to transform the criminal justice system.\n\n \n\nRapping earned his J.D. from George Washington University School of L aw\, his M.P.A. from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University\, and his B.A. from the University of Chi cago.\n\n \n\nAbout the Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Series\n\n \n\nThe Dean's Luminaries in Law Lecture and Conversation Serie s brings to Seattle University School of Law nationally and internationall y preeminent leaders from law practice\, the judiciary\, government\, and the corporate world\, to share their bold ideas about the future of law an d the legal profession. \n\n \n\nAbout Seattle University School of Law's Defender Initiative\n\n \n\nThe Defender Initiative is part of the Center for Civil Rights and Critical Justice\, whose mission is to advance justic e and equality through a unified vision that combines research\, advocacy\ , and education. The project works to effect systemic improvement in the p rovision of public defense services in Washington and nationally.\n\n \n\n About the Defender Clinic\n\n \n\nSeattle University's highly ranked Ronal d A. Peterson Law Clinic provides students with the opportunity to work on real cases\, helping real clients\, under close faculty supervision. Stud ents in the Defender Clinic represent both juvenile and adult clients with respect to criminal legal system involvement. GEO:47.610752;-122.318706 LOCATION:Student Center\, The LeRoux Conference Room SUMMARY:Dean's Luminaries in Law Series Featuring Jonathan Rapping URL;VALUE=URI:https://events.seattleu.edu/event/luminaries-in-law-jonathan- rapping CATEGORIES:Lectures & Presentations END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR