Registration and breakfast

Welcome and Business

Keynote Introduction: Representative Christine Watkins

Representative Watkins represents District 69, serving Carbon, Duchesne, Emery and Grand Counties. She began her legislative service in 2017. She is a retired educator who worked in Charter School Administration and Labor Relations. She received her bachelor of science from Utah State University and her Masters of Educational Administration from the University of Utah. Representative Watkins has been a tireless advocate for families in her service at the state legislature, running many important bills aimed at improving the experience of parents and children involved in the child welfare system.

Representative Watkins will be sharing her insights on the changes she has witnessed in Utah’s child welfare system during her time in office and goals for the future.

Viewing Child Welfare Cases from the Criminal Side of the Street: Eric Jacobsen

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BREAK

Kinship Connections: JeanMarie Morris, LCSW | Kinship & Foster Care Program Administrator, DCFS

JeanMarie Morris began her child welfare career in 1994. She has been in many different roles at the Division of Child and Family Services including a Foster Care and In-home caseworker, CPS investigator, and supervisor over both of these areas as well as Family Preservation and Kinship. Along the way, she and her husband became the kinship placement for their nephew's infant daughter. In part, because of this experience, JeanMarie focused her master's degree on kinship issues. She received her Master's of Social Work in 2006 from the University of Utah. In 2005 she helped create the kinship program in the DCFS Northern Region and supervised this team until 2015 when she moved up to the DCFS state office as the State Kinship Program Administrator. Currently, she is also the state administrator over Foster Care. JeanMarie is a licensed clinical social worker and has had experience with pediatric psychiatry, Juvenile Justice Services, hospice, and is a therapist providing marriage, family, and individual counseling.

Ms. Morris will be providing an overview of the work DCFS is doing around Kinship, the benefits of kinship care, kinship data, and DCFS kinship policies and expectations.

Legislative Update with Adam Trupp | Assistant Director, Utah Indigent Defense Commission

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Adam is the Assistant Director of the Utah Indigent Defense Commission. He started with the IDC in January 2020 and his focus is on Juvenile Court defense.

He spent eleven years working in different positions in the Utah Child Welfare system before moving on to a different type of work. During those years he was an Attorney guardian ad litem, a juvenile court administrator for child welfare at the Utah AOC and then director of policy and planning for the Utah Division of Child and Family Services. After leaving DCFS, he worked for the Utah Association of Counties as legal counsel and CEO until 2019.

Adam is the father of two children who are on scholarship playing Division 1 college sports. It is a mystery to his wife and him where the children got the athletic skill to accomplish this. They are both comforted, however, by the fact their children bear a strong resemblance to their parents and that babies being switched at birth occurs very rarely.

Mr. Trupp will be presenting the 2022 legislative update, reviewing the bills that passed during the most recent session that impact child welfare practice.

LUNCH

Hearing Checklist and Guiding Questions on Permanency- Using the Bench Card in Hearings with Judge Jeffrey Noland and Candace Reid

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Judge Jeffrey J. Noland has served on the Second District Juvenile Court since 2010 and was appointed by Governor Gary R. Herbert. He presides in Weber and Morgan counties, with special cases in Davis County. He also presides over a juvenile problem-solving court addressing substance abuse with young people. Judge Noland is a graduate of Weber State College and the University of Utah College of Law. Before his appointment, he practiced as a deputy prosecutor, Guardian ad Litem, and a parental counsel in child welfare cases. Currently, Judge Noland serves as the chairperson of the Court Improvement Project. He also is a member of the Judicial Wellness Committee, the Utah Court Facilities Committee, and serves locally on the advisory board for the Department of Child & Family Studies at Weber State University.

Candace Reid is a longtime PDA member. She practices in Cedar City and holds a parental defense contract for Iron County.

Judge Noland will be presenting on the Hearing Checklist and Guiding Questions on Permanency (also known as the bench card), its origin, and how it should be used in the courtroom. Ms. Reid will be providing her insights on how it has specifically been used by defense attorneys.

Post Adjudication Motion Practice and Discovery Practice Pointers with Jason Richards and Erin Byington

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Jason is the current PDA President-Elect and represents the 2nd District. He grew up in Ogden, Utah and graduated from Ogden High School in 2000. He attended undergrad and law school at the University of Utah. Before law school, he worked for a number of years in politics, managing field operations for several state-wide initiatives and successful congressional campaigns. After graduating law school, Jason worked for two years for Weber County public defenders, mainly on capital homicide cases. He is now in private practice with offices in Ogden and Farmington. He has had a parental defense contract since 2012, is a member of Weber and Davis County Bar Association, as well as the juvenile and bankruptcy sections of the Utah State Bar, the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Utah Bankruptcy Lawyers Forum. In 2016, he was awarded the trial attorney of the year award by the PDA. Jason has extensive experience at the trial and appellate level in defending the rights of parents in child welfare matters. He lives in Farmington with his wife and 3 kids. When not at work, he can usually be found skiing, running, gardening, cooking, and playing with his kids.

Erin Byington

Every year, we get requests for practical training tips for our conference. This year, PDA board members Jason Richards and Erin Byington will be sharing their expertise on two particular topics that often stump parental defenders: Post Adjudication Motion Practice and Discovery.

Appellate Case Law Update with Emily Adams, Sara Pfrommer, and Alexandra Mareschal

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Ms. Adams is an appellate attorney based in Utah. Her practice at The Appellate Group is focused exclusively on appeals. She counsels with clients to determine their best strategy on appeal and strategizes with clients and attorneys about preparing for an appeal while in district court.

Apart from appellate briefs, in her practice she has submitted amicus briefs before the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Utah Supreme Court; she has represented criminal defendants and civil clients on appeal to the Utah appellate courts; she has drafted motions for permission to file an interlocutory appeal in the Utah appellate courts; and she has filed petitions for certiorari.

She is licensed to practice law in Utah and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court. She loves being enormously tall, being a celiac in a bread-filled world, trying to do a pull-up, and dragging her kids on hiking trips.

Appellate Case Law Update with Emily Adams, Sara Pfrommer, and Alexandra Mareschal

Ms. Pfrommer enjoys working with her friends and colleagues at The Appellate Group. She used to be a partner in the AmLaw 100 firm of Shepherd, Mullin, Richter & Hampton in Los Angeles, until she came to her senses and moved to Utah, where she has specialized in appellate practice for the last 20 years. In her former life, she was a bankruptcy and financial fraud litigator and has been in the trenches with several complex trials and many evidentiary hearings under her belt. She knows business law and is a procedural and jurisdictional goddess.

In Utah, she has specialized in family law and child welfare appeals, winning the Parental Defense Alliance’s Appellate Lawyer of the Year award in 2014 for In re C.C., a case that changed how Utah courts dealt with competing adoption petitions between foster parents and a family member. She has argued thirteen cases in the Utah Supreme Court and numerous others in the Utah Court of Appeals. She’s admitted to practice in Utah, California, the Ninth Circuit, the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court.

When Ms. Pfrommer is not busy wrestling some thorny question to the ground, she is obsessed with tennis and loves to travel.

Appellate Case Law Update with Emily Adams, Sara Pfrommer, and Alexandra Mareschal

Alexandra Mareschal is an appellate attorney specialized in family and child welfare law. Since graduating from the S.J. Quinney College of Law, she has been a full-time appellate attorney at Zimmerman Booher and clerked for Justice Paige Petersen at the Utah Supreme Court. Recently, she joined the Indigent Appellate Defense Division of the IDC as the Senior Child Welfare Appellate Attorney and looks forward to improving the child welfare justice system to better serve Utah's families.

She prefers to go by Alexa even though a certain ecommerce titan has since usurped the name for their AI.

Ms. Adams and Ms. Pfrommer will be presenting the annual case law update. Ms. Mareschal will be providing insight on her recent impressive win in In re J.L. in front of the Utah Court of Appeals.

Registration and Breakfast

Business

Understanding the Office of Child Protection Ombudsman with Paul Schaaf

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Mr. Schaaf is the Child Protection Ombudsman for the Utah State Department of Human Services. Paul has worked in state government for over 30 years, which includes 14 years with the Office of Child Protection Ombudsman, and 14 years with the Division of Child and Family Services. Some of his most interesting years occurred during the David C. class action lawsuit against DCFS. Paul has a master’s degree in Public Administration.

Mr. Shaaf’s presentation will include a summary of the purpose of the Ombudsman’s office and accompanying statistics, as well as a presentation of scenarios of OCPO effectiveness and ineffectiveness.

Ethics Hour: Dealing with Difficult Clients with Mark Tanner

Mark H. Tanner graduated from Brigham Young University with a Bachelor of Science degree from the Marriott School of Management in 1983. He pursued his Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the College of Law at the University of Tulsa, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, earning his JD in 1986. He has worked as Emery County Attorney, Carbon County Public Defender, Emery County Conflicts Counsel, and in private practice. He is married to the former Nanette Hinkins. They are the parents of 10 children, and six grandchildren (so far).

Mark is active in his community. He has served as the youth baseball county league president and city commissioner. He has served on and chaired the Orangeville City Zoning and Planning Council, and chaired the Orangeville Centennial Celebration. He has served many years in the Boys Scouts of America, and currently serves as the Tavaputs District chairman. He was awarded the Silver Beaver in 2012. Mark currently serves as South Eastern Utah Bar Association (SEUBA) president, serves on the Pro Bono Committee for the Seventh Judicial District, and as a board member for Heritage Funeral Home. He was awarded the PDA Attorney of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.

He represents parents in DCFS matters, and also practices in the areas of criminal defense, bankruptcy, estate planning and other family matters. Mark loves being with his family, serving the community and cheering the youth on to responsible and productive adulthood.

Mr. Tanner will be presenting on how to ethically deal with challenging clients through the framework of the Rules of Professional Conduct.

Mid Morning Break and Awards

Update on the Expansion of the Defense Side Social Worker Program with Adam Trupp

Mr. Trupp will provide insights on how the defense side social worker program will be expanding due to the recent passage of a bill sponsored by Senator Harper.

Professionalism and Responsibility Challenge with Grant Dickinson

Grant Dickinson has been a member of the Parental Defense Alliance since 2010 and served as the President of the PDA Board of Directors from 1026-2018. He is now an emeritus member of the board. Grant’s practice focuses mainly in Utah County and like many of our members focuses on Parental Defense, Criminal Defense, and Family Law related cases. Grant achieved the Parental Defense Alliance Appellate Attorney of the Year Award in 2012. While studying at Willamette University, Grant served each year on the executive board of Willamette University’s Public Interest Law Project. Prior to Law School, Grant was employed at the Fourth District Court as Deputy Clerk in Commissioner Patton’s Court and as a Deputy Probation Officer.

Mr. Dickinson will be providing our Professionalism and Responsibility Hour with his Challenge.

Boxed Lunch available for pick up in the foyer