Anna M. Ahronheim is an attorney in private practice. Ms. Ahronheim obtained her J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law. For the next 22 years, she was an attorney with the Illinois Office of the State Appellate Defender. From 2008 through 2017, she was the supervisor of the Capital Habeas Unit of the Federal Public Defender’s Office in the Western District of Pennsylvania and represented clients in habeas corpus proceedings. She has given presentations on postconviction practice at seminars sponsored by numerous organizations and law schools. She intends to devote her post-public-defender practice to the representation of incarcerated clients in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Michigan.
Keith Grant is Senior Supervising Attorney at the Lake County Public Defender’s Office, in Waukegan, where he focuses on criminal defense. He is the President of the Illinois Public Defender Association, was Past President of the Lake County Bar Association, and sits on the Board of Directors of both the Lake County Bar Foundation and the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority. Grant received his B.A. from Ripon College and his J.D. from Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Alison H. Motta has been in private practice since 2001. She is a Partner with Motta & Motta LLC in Aurora, where she concentrates her practice in criminal defense. She is a member of the state and federal trial bar. She is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and ATLA. Ms. Motta received her J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Robert M. Motta II is a Partner with Motta & Motta LLC in Aurora, where he concentrates his practice in criminal defense (both state and federal) and family and divorce law. He is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and ATLA. Mr. Motta attended Eastern Illinois University for undergraduate studies and received his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Marcos D. Reyes is the Local Attorney Manager for the Wisconsin State Public Defender’s Office based in Portage, Wisconsin, where he practices in criminal defense. He is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Wisconsin Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Puerto Rican Bar Association. Reyes received his B.A. from Loyola University and his J.D. from Loyola University Chicago School of Law.
Stephen L. Richards is an attorney at the Law Office of Stephen L. Richards, in Chicago, where he concentrates his practice in criminal defense and civil rights. He received the Kutak-Dodds Award, Defender Prize, from the National Legal Aid & Defender Association in 2003. He has lectured and written extensively on criminal law and the death penalty, and he has been a member of the Illinois Supreme Court’s Screening Committee for the Capital Litigation Trial Bar and Past President of the Illinois Public Defender Association. Richards received his B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School.
Joshua Sachs is Principal Attorney of the Law Office of Joshua Sachs, in Evanston, where he concentrates his practice in appellate criminal cases. Mr. Sachs, now semi-retired after 45 years of active practice in the trial and appeals level defense of Illinois and federal criminal prosecutions, has returned to music, his first love. He plays the cello in the Evanston Symphony Orchestra and in the Symphony of Oak Park and River Forest. Mr. Sachs earned his B.A. from Grinnell College and his J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law.
Jed H. Stone is an attorney at Stone & Associates, Ltd., in Waukegan, where he concentrates in criminal defense and civil rights. He is a Fellow of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers, was nominated by his peers as an Illinois Leading Lawyer in 2020, and has been selected as an Elite Lawyer in the field of criminal defense since 2022. Stone received his B.A. from Lake Forest College and his J.D. from Chicago-Kent College of Law.
Lawrence Wechter is retired from the practice of law. Prior to retiring, he was the Principal Attorney at the Law Office of Larry Wechter in Geneva, where he focused on civil and criminal appeals. Mr. Wechter received his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law.
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