The ABA’s Project to Revise the Criminal Justice Standards for the Prosecution and Defense Functions

In late 2005, I was asked by the ABA Criminal Justice Standards Committee whether I would serve as ‘Reporter’ to a Task Force that was being formed to consider revisions to the Criminal Justice Standards for Prosecution and Defense Functions. The call did not come out of the blue; I had previously worked with the ABA in various capacities. In the mid-1990s, I had served as a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professional Responsibility. In 1999, I published an article bemoaning the lack of specific guidance in the ABA Criminal Justice Standards for prosecutors acting in an investigative role.

That article led to my membership on a Task Force, which ultimately promulgated draft standards addressing ‘Prosecutorial Investigations,’ finally adopted by the ABA in 2008.