In this presentation, we offer a critique to the current understanding of holistic defense. The concept of holistic defense was created with the idea that a client is multifaceted, a whole human being and has multiple systems interplaying with their lives. However, it was not conceptualized by centering the legal implications parents face during child removal. Family defense has often been seen as a collateral consequence to a criminal case and as such most public defender and legal aid offices do not engage with parent representation in a meaningful way. From our experiences defending the mothers of north Tulsa, Oklahoma, parent defense is critical to the concept of true client centered representation. The original holistic defense model places an emphasis on a client's ability to obtain social services, resources in order to "fix themselves" rather than on zealous legal advocacy against a corrupt system. In this presentation, we will discuss how incorporating goal driven client advocacy and fact investigation helps better inform legal defense strategy and positively affect case outcomes.
Kaushiki Chowdhury, JD
Family Defense Practice Leader
Still She Rises
Kaushiki is the current Family Defense Practice Leader at Still She Rises, Tulsa. In her role, she directs and leads the development of the family defense practice to ensure clients are receiving creative, excellent, and client centered advocacy from all team members. Prior to joining the family defense team, Kaushiki was the criminal defense practice leader where she built and supervised the development of the criminal defense practice. Before joining Still She Rises in 2017, Kaushiki worked as a deputy state public defender in Golden, Colorado. In her career as a defender, she has primarily handled and litigated serious felony cases from child neglect to sex offenses to murder. Kaushiki received her Bachelor of Arts from The University of Texas at Austin and her Juris Doctorate from The University of Cincinnati.
Brittany Plange
Client Advocacy Supervisor
Still She Rises
Brittany is a first-generation Ghanaian-American with deep roots in Oklahoma and a passion for eradicating anti-blackness and other oppressive structures. She graduated from the University of Oklahoma, where she studied Women & Gender Studies and African & African-American Studies. While at the university she co-founded the student organization, Students for Social Justice, was president of the Shannon Self Policy Debate Team and was a member of the Ronald E. McNair fellowship program. In McNair, she got to present her research on how the domestic labor of black women has shaped civil society. It is her hope to contribute to philanthropic communities in Tulsa and throughout her home state of Oklahoma.
LaNitria Turner
Investigation Practice Supervisor
Still She Rises
LaNitria began working for the Office of Capital Post-Conviction Counsel in Jackson, Mississippi in 2011. Prior to that she was a member of the U.S. Navy. LaNitria has dedicated much of her career to public service, mainly in assisting in the representation of the men sentenced to death in the state of Mississippi. She has experience working for criminal defense attorneys in private practice and has also worked for the State of Hawaii Attorney General's Office.
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