search
Master the balance between AI-driven efficiency and your professional duty to maintain accuracy, security, and ethical standards.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the practice of law—but attorneys remain responsible for the accuracy, confidentiality, and integrity of their work.
This practical program explores the ethical and competence obligations surrounding AI and other emerging technologies, offering real-world guidance on supervision, verification, client communication, and risk management.
Attendees will leave with practical frameworks for making informed, defensible decisions about when—and how—to use AI in legal practice.
Topics Covered:
The NYS Academy of Trial Lawyers is the largest statewide trial bar in the US with 5,700+ lawyer and judge members. We are committed to protecting, preserving and enhancing the civil justice system. Our highly acclaimed CLE programming features extraordinary presenters covering the most timely and important topics.
Clinical Lecturer & Chief Public Defender at Texas Tech University School of Law, Director of Legal Solutions at Steno
As Chief Public Defender of the Caprock Regional Public Defender Office, Joe runs the only public defender office in the country housed inside a law school. His students represent real clients facing real consequences across rural West Texas counties where access to counsel is most fragile. As a Clinical Lecturer, he teaches criminal defense practice skills. His students learn to leverage AI tools not as a shortcut, but as a force multiplier for the kind of careful, client-centered representation that indigent defense demands. His published work on AI regulation, ethics, and practical adoption has appeared in the ABA Journal, Bloomberg Law, LAW.COM, and other national outlets. He is the author of Texas Criminal Jury Charges (James Publishing, 2026), a two-volume publication containing more than 650 jury instructions with supporting legal analysis, and was nominated for the International Legal Technology Association's Innovative Leader of the Year Award in 2026. Before Caprock, Joe built the Concho Valley Public Defender Office from the ground up into the largest rural public defender office in Texas, covering twelve counties with locations in San Angelo and Abilene. He previously served in public defender offices across rural South Texas and the Hill Country. Joe has served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and currently sits on TCDLA's Public Defender, Rural Practice, and Law School committees. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas Legal Services to the Poor in Criminal Matters Committee, a mentor in the Future Indigent Defense Leaders of Texas program, and sits on the Oversight Board of two regional public defender offices. He is Board Certified in Criminal Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization — a distinction held by fewer than 10% of Texas criminal defense attorneys — and speaks frequently across Texas on criminal defense matters including mental health in criminal representation, indigent defense systems, magistration, and pretrial procedure. Joe was born in Australia and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. He was an Ingram Scholar at Vanderbilt University, where he was President of the Vanderbilt Prison Project. In 2010, he graduated from the University of Texas School of Law with honors. He has also worked for two committee chairmen across three legislative sessions in Austin and spent time in private practice in Baltimore, where he worked on appellate and post-conviction matters. Outside the office, Joe is an amateur potter, a Master Gardener, and an eleven-time Ironman finisher.