225 Broadway Ste 900
San Diego, CA 92101
TEL: 619·234-8467
FAX: 619·687-2666
1122 State St. Suite E
El Centro, CA 92243
TEL: 760-335-3510
FAX: 760-335-3610
FDSDI was charted in 1972 under the Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law for public purposes. FDSDI is governed by a 13 member board of directors. The board, which also governs Appellate Defenders, Inc., selects and oversees the executive director for both organizations. The board meets every month except for August to discuss the business of the organizations and the projects of the board as a whole.
The board names four officers – President (two-year term) and the Vice-President, Secretary, and Treasurer (one-year term). To facilitate its work it has a number of committees, both standing and ad hoc. Examples include Finance, Management Liaison, Awards and Annual Dinner, Board Development, Nominating, Audit, etc.
At the Annual Defender Dinner, which it sponsors, the board presents the Paul Bell Award for excellence in appellate advocacy and the E. Stanley Conant Award for excellence in trial advocacy.
Members are chosen by the present board for three-year terms. They receive no compensation for their service.
- President/Secretary: Elizabeth Missakian, Criminal Defense Attorney, Criminal Law Specialist, former ADI panel attorney
- Vice President: Ezekiel Cortez, Criminal Defense Attorney, Criminal Law Specialist
- Chief Financial Officer: Gerald Blank, Criminal Defense Attorney
- Charles Bird, Civil Appellate Attorney, Luce, Forward, Hamilton et al.
- Arthur Campbell, Professor of Law, California Western School of Law
- R. Jerry Coughlan, Civil and Criminal Defense Attorney, Coughlan Semmer and Lipman LLP
- Jami Ferrara, Criminal Defense Attorney
- Linda M. Keller, Professor of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
- Alex Landon, Criminal Defense Attorney, Criminal Law Specialist
- James Mangione, Attorney, Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Goodwin LLP
- John Mitchell, Criminal Defense Attorney
- Jean Ramirez, Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law
- Patricia Robinson, Criminal Defense Attorney
- Non-directors serving on an advisory basis to the Audit Committee are Clancy Wilson, an attorney with Branton & Wilson, and Kim Ufford, Certified Public Accountant with Levitzacks