NDAA's Trial Advocacy Academy - 101 Series - Direct Examination
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Live Webinar: NDAA's Trial Advocacy Academy - 101 Series - Direct Examination
75-minute presentation
June 5, 2025
2:00 - 3:15 pm ET
Direct examination is a critical skill for prosecutors. A prosecutor’s ability to listen to a witness’s answers is equally as important as the questions that are asked. A well-organized direct examination will establish the facts of the case, the elements of the crimes, the prosecution’s case theory, and will address unfavorable facts.
Join us on June 5, 2025, for the next session in NDAA’s Trial Advocacy Academy – 101 Series focused on the fundamentals of direct examination. This webinar will help participants learn how to organize and structure questions, handle objections, control and redirect witnesses, and will provide other strategies to enhance courtroom performance.
Register and attend three Trial Advocacy Academy - 101 Series webinars and receive a $50 credit toward a NDAA training.
Cost:
Members: $100
Non-members: $125
If you would like to become a member, please join here!
Eligibility:
NDAA’s mission to serve and support prosecutors and their staff. In consideration of this commitment, NDAA requires that all those in attendance of our programs currently work in or work closely with prosecution: NDAA invites prosecutors, lawyers and paralegals in local, state, tribal, federal and military government attorneys’ offices. If you are not sure about your eligibility, please contact training@ndaajustice.org.
Questions?
Please contact training@ndaajustice.org.
Jenny Desch
Assistant Solicitor
5th Circuit Solicitors Office, SC
EDUCATION:
B.B.A., Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1995).
J.D., Western New England, School of Law, Springfield, Massachusetts (2001).
BAR ADMISSIONS:
Massachusetts and South Carolina. Supreme Court of the United States.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
Assistant District Attorney, Hampden County, Massachusetts (2001 – 2005); Assistant/Senior Solicitor, Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office, York, South Carolina (2005 – 2024); Assistant Solicitor, Fifth Judicial Circuit Solicitor’s Office, Columbia, South Carolina, (2024 – present)
HONORS:
Leadership South Carolina, Class of 2024; SCWLA Emerging Leader award recipient 2023
SPEAKING EXPERIENCE:
National District Attorneys Association (2023 – present); South Carolina Magistrates Advisory Council Intensive Training Seminar (2024); Faculty, South Carolina Solicitors’ Association and SCCPC “Prosecution Bootcamp” (2016 – Present); Non-fatal strangulation quarterly training (2023-2024); Grace Presbyterian DEIJ panelist; South Carolina Solicitors’ Association Annual Conference (2020); regular speaker at law enforcement and SCDPPS training programs on domestic violence; presenter, Governor’s Statewide Domestic Violence Summit (2016); and speaker at South Carolina Bar Convention, Criminal Law Section CLE, Columbia, South Carolina, (January 2020).
CURRENT PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES:
DV Fatality Review Committee Fifth Judicial Circuit representative and DVCC representative (2025 – present). Gregory-Hayes Inn of Court charter member; GHIOC Treasurer (2023-present) Grace Presbyterian DEIJ committee (2023-present); York County Bar Association President (2021 – 2023), YCBA Secretary 2020-2021; South Carolina Women Lawyers Association Present-Elect (2025); SCWLA Secretary (2024); SCWLA Board Member (2021 – 2024); HER PLACE Board member (2021-present); Strangulation Task Force; Crisis Intervention Advisory Board (2023-present); NDAA Predicate Question Manual project (2022); Sugar Creek Elementary School, School Improvement Council; Safe Passage CAC MDT (2016-2024); Domestic Violence Task Force (York County); DV Fatality Review Committee Sixteenth Judicial Circuit representative and DV staffing coordinator; and SART/DART, DV team lead 16th Cir. Solicitors Office (2016-2021).
Donna Kauffman
Chief Deputy District Attorney
San Bernardino County, CA
Chief Deputy District Attorney Donna Kauffman started her career with the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office in July 2006. Donna is a career prosecutor with experience in a variety of assignments, but her true passion is gang prosecution. Donna served as a gang prosecutor for 4 ½ years in the Victorville office before being reassigned to the San Bernardino office where she continued to follow her passion as a gang prosecutor, first as a member of the Gang Prosecution Unit, and eventually as the lead prosecutor in the unit. She has tried complex gang murders, wiretaps, and one death penalty case. She was promoted to Supervising DDA in December 2017 and supervised a group of 16 attorneys ranging in experience from new hires to veteran prosecutors. In August of 2023, Donna was promoted to Chief DDA and is the Desert Division Chief for San Bernardino County. Donna has come to realize her new passion for leadership and development. Donna takes her role as a mentor and leader seriously and invests greatly in the professional development of the prosecutors assigned under her care.
This course has been approved for credit in Illinois, Kansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. All other attorneys seeking CLE credit should contact their state bar for more information. At the conclusion of the course and after completion of the electronic evaluation survey, all attendees will receive a uniform continuing education certificate that they may use to report their continuing education hours to their state bar or reporting agency. Questions regarding CLE can be directed to cle@ndaajustice.org
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