The SDAP Appellate Seminar will be by Zoom on May 1 from 9 am to 1:30 p.m. Justice Wilson will speak. The seminar will also include sessions on panel attorney safety, how the State Bar disciplinary system works, and useful ways of using AI ethically. There will be four hours of MCLE credits, including one hour of ethics and one hour of technology.
The seminar is free of charge to panel attorneys and will be held via Zoom. Advance registration is required. This can be done via the links provided in a SDAP panel alert. All attendees will be emailed the written materials in advance of the seminar. All articles will later be posted on the SDAP website.
SDAP has been approved by the California State Bar as an MCLE Multiple Activity Provider. This seminar series is approved for 4.0 hours of General MCLE credit, including 1.0 hours in ethics and 1.0 hour in technology. SDAP certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.
Schedule
9:00 – 10:00 a.m. A VIEW FROM THE BENCH by Justice Charles Wilson. Learn more about Justice Wilson, one of the newer justices to join the Sixth District Court of Appeal.
10:00 – 11:00 a.m. AI FOR APPELLATE ATTORNEYS: ETHICS, BEST PRACTICES, AND A PRACTICAL DEMONSTRATION by Panel Attorney Alexis Haller and Assistant Director Anna Stuart. The presentation will feature a practical demonstration of selected AI tools, along with a brief discussion of ethics, responsible use, and tips for using those tools in practice.
11:15 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. THE STATE BAR DISCIPLINARY SYSTEM: WHAT ATTORNEYS SHOULD KNOW by State Bar Deputy Trial Counsel Mary Oushana. The presentation will provide an overview of the State Bar discipline process, including the lifecycle of a complaint, common sources of attorney misconduct, ethical obligations under the rules, and standards used to determine sanctions.
12:15 – 1:15 p.m. PANEL ATTORNEY SAFETY by Staff Attorneys Randall Conner and Kevin Armonio. Learn a recipe to bake safety into your appellate practice. Topics include dealing with challenging clients, protecting personal information online, and when to reach out to SDAP about safety concerns.
1:05 – 1:15 p.m. PRESENTATION OF THE GERALD Z. MARER AWARD FOR PANEL EXCELLENCE
About the Presenters
JUSTICE CHARLES EDWARD WILSON was appointed to the Sixth District Court of Appeal by Governor Gavin Newsom in August 2021. Prior to his elevation to the Court of Appeal, Justice Wilson served on the Santa Clara County Superior Court for seven years. During his tenure with the trial court, he served as the Supervising Judge for the Family Violence Division and Supervising Judge for the Palo Alto Courthouse. In addition, Justice Wilson has served as a faculty member for Witkin Judicial College, the Domestic Violence Institute, and the Assigned Judges Conference. He has also served as a contributor for the California Judges Benchbook: Domestic Violence Cases (CJER).
Prior to his appointment to the bench, Justice Wilson worked as a civil attorney handling complex litigation. Later, as a Deputy District Attorney, he developed extensive trial experience litigating matters ranging from murder to property crimes.
Justice Wilson received his BA in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He received his JD from the University of San Francisco (USF) School of Law and MBA from the University of San Francisco School of Management
KEVIN ARMONIO graduated from University of California College of the Law at San Francisco (formerly known as Hastings) in 2016. After graduating from law school, he worked in the tech industry on policy enforcement and trust and safety issues. He started working on criminal appeals in 2023 at the Law Offices of Cliff Gardner. He became a SDAP Staff Attorney in June 2025.
RANDALL CONNER graduated from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1995. After stops at the Federal Trade Commission, Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison, Morgan Lewis and the U.S. Department of Justice, he worked as a solo criminal defense practitioner and served as a member of the FDAP, SDAP, CAP-LA, ADI and CCAP appellate attorney panels. He became a SDAP staff attorney in July 2023.
ALEXIS HALLER is a California attorney whose practice focuses on criminal appeals, habeas proceedings, and civil appeals. He spent a decade at a San Francisco litigation boutique before opening his own practice in 2009. Mr. Haller serves on CJA appellate panels in several federal districts and is a member of the SDAP and FDAP panels. In 2025, he founded the AI Appellate Group, a community of California attorneys exploring the use of AI in appellate practice. Mr. Haller has published research evaluating AI models on complex litigation tasks and presents regularly on AI ethics and responsible use.
MARY OUSHANA is a Senior Trial Counsel in the Office of Chief Trial Counsel at the State Bar of California, where she has worked since 2019. In that role, she handles all phases of attorney disciplinary proceedings, from investigation through trial. Before joining the State Bar, she spent several years as an attorney at nonprofit organizations in Los Angeles, including the Eviction Defense Network and Public Counsel, where she represented low-income tenants facing eviction and homelessness.
ANNA L. STUART graduated from the Monterey College of Law in 2015. Prior to attending law school, she worked as a financial analyst for 10 years. After a brief stint as a panel attorney and as a supervisor with the San Jose State University Record Clearance Project, Anna joined the SDAP staff in October 2016. Among her appellate successes is People v. Christian (H044243), where the court reversed her client’s 25 year to life sentence after finding trial counsel ineffective for failing to object to judicial misconduct.
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