Nuts and Bolts and Ethics of Criminal Appeals: A Practical Guide to Criminal Appeals in the Virginia Appellate Courts (On Demand Seminar)

A pre-recorded streaming video replay of the March 2021 webcast, Nuts and Bolts and Ethics of Criminal Appeals: A Practical Guide to Criminal Appeals in the Virginia Appellate Courts.

Have you been appointed to your first criminal appeal and you aren’t sure where to start? Have you done criminal appeals and want to improve your skills and knowledge? Or are you interested in growing your practice in this area of the law?

This course will take you step by step through the critical rules of appellate practice in Virginia so that you are more confident to handle an appeal from preservation of issues in the trial court through oral argument. The panel will also discuss ethical considerations in appellate practice including when you must appeal and the role of Anders v. California.

FACULTY

Elwood Earl Sanders, Jr., Lantagne Legal Printing / Richmond
Virginia B. Theisen, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Elwood Earl “Sandy” Sanders, Jr., Lantagne Legal Printing / Richmond
Elwood Earl “Sandy” Sanders, Jr., is an appellate procedure consultant at Lantagne Legal Printing, in Richmond. He received his B.A. from Wright State University in 1980 and his J.D. from the University of Alabama in 1983.  He was in private law practice in Woodbridge (Prince William County) from 1985 to 1996, primarily conducting trials and appeals, many of which were for indigent criminal defendants.  In 1996, he was hired by the Public Defender (now Indigent Defense) Commission to be their first Director, Capital and Appellate Services, and then Virginia’s first Appellate Defender until 2000.  Mr. Sanders then became an associate with the Framme Law Firm, advising Pre-Paid (now LegalShield) members with a myriad of matters and assisted the firm in the successful defense at the Supreme Court of Virginia of a civil verdict of over a million dollars. Since 2007 he has been with Lantagne Legal Printing. 

Mr. Sanders is author or co-author of ten law review/journal articles (cited by law students authors and professors around the country), several practice-oriented articles, the editor of Chapter 13 (Appeals) of Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia, published by Virginia CLE^®, and has been an adjunct instructor at several colleges and universities and one law school, including VCU (the School of Business at Snead Hall), the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at the University of Richmond, and the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond.  He presently teaches non-profit law for pastors, lay leaders, and Salvation Army officers online at Nazarene Bible College. Mr. Sanders also has conducted approved CLE on state appellate procedure and ethics in state appeals for numerous local and specialty bar associations and law firms throughout the Commonwealth.  

Mr. Sanders was also instrumental in bringing the Olympic sport of curling to the Commonwealth, as a founder and first president of the Curling Club of Virginia. 

Virginia B. Theisen, Office of the Attorney General / Richmond
Virginia Theisen currently serves as a Senior Assistant Attorney General and unit leader in the Criminal Appeals Section of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office. She has worked in the Criminal Appeals Section for over 28 years, where she handles criminal appeals in Virginia’s appellate courts. She also litigates habeas corpus and other post-conviction cases in state and federal courts.  Ms. Theisen serves on the Virginia Model Jury Instruction Committee and has lectured on appellate issues within the Commonwealth and at federal habeas corpus seminars sponsored by the National Association of Attorneys General.  In 2017 and 2018, she taught an appellate practice seminar at the University of Virginia Law School. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.