This webinar will provide a deep dive into the various motion to vacate vehicles available under California law. We will discuss timing, jurisdictional requirements, grounds, and offer real-life examples from post-conviction relief experts.
Presenters
Rose Cahn, Criminal and Immigrant Justice Attorney - Immigrant Legal Resource Center
Rose Cahn is a nationally recognized expert in the field of immigrant post-conviction relief and oversees the ILRC’s pro bono Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. With over 15 years of experience working in the field of immigrant rights, and a special focus on the intersection of criminal and immigration law, Rose is a frequent speaker and trainer on the subject. Rose has co-authored several manuals including, California Post-Conviction Relief for Immigrants (Tooby) and Helping Immigrant Clients with Proposition 47 and Other Post-Conviction Legal Options: A Guide for Legal Service Providers (Californians for Safety and Justice). Rose spearheads federal, state, and local advocacy to help advance the rights of immigrants with criminal convictions and assist providers in understanding how to better serve this population. She is one of the principle drafters of California Penal Code § 1473.7, a landmark piece of legislation that created a legal mechanism to vacate unconstitutional convictions. She serves on the Advisory Committee of the National Clean Slate Clearinghouse and is on the Steering Committee of the American Immigrant Representation Project.
Before working at the ILRC, Rose was a Senior Soros Justice Fellow at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area, where she founded the nation’s first Immigrant Post-Conviction Relief Project. Prior to that, she litigated post-conviction relief cases at the Law Office of Norton Tooby and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Warren J. Ferguson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Rose graduated cum laude from New York University School of Law, where she was the recipient of the Root Tilden Kern scholarship.
Michael K. Mehr, Attorney at Law – Law Offices of Michael K. Mehr
Michael K. Mehr is a nationally recognized expert in the field of immigration consequences of criminal convictions. He lectures widely to immigration attorneys, public defenders, and private criminal defense counsel. Michael has qualified to serve as an expert witness on the criminal immigration consequences of criminal convictions in Superior Court of California, County of Santa Cruz and County of Santa Clara. He has submitted numerous expert witness declarations about immigration and criminal law in Superior Courts throughout the State of California. Michael served as the expert witness in immigration law in the landmark California Appeals Court case of People v. Bautista (2004)115 Cal.App. 4th 229, which held that failure to defend against aggravated felony can be ineffective assistance of counsel.
Katharine Tinto, Director, Criminal Justice Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law – UC Irvine School of Law
Professor Tinto directs the Criminal Justice Clinic at UC Irvine School of Law, a legal clinic that offers criminal defense representation and post-conviction relief for low-income individuals. Before coming to UCI, she co-led the Immigration Justice Clinic at Cardozo Law School, a clinic focused on deportation defense of non-citizens with criminal convictions. Prior to entering academia, Professor Tinto worked for over seven years as a public defender in Los Angeles County.