Inside the 2025 CDAM Conference: Evolving Defense Strategies for Michigan

Last week, we drove up to Bellaire for the Criminal Defense Attorneys of Michigan (CDAM) Fall Conference. CDAM isn't just a meetup; it's where Michigan's defense bar goes to learn from experienced trial attorneys and compare notes on what's actually working in courtrooms right now.

We don't go to conferences like this just for the CLE credits. We go because the law keeps changing and forensic technology keeps advancing.

Learning from the Best

The conference opened with a keynote from Jerome Buting, one of Steven Avery's trial lawyers from Making a Murderer and co-founder of the Center for Integrity in Forensic Sciences. Sorin spent the rest of the day in sessions on challenging DNA and forensic evidence, including a presentation from Megan Graham, a nationally recognized expert on DNA litigation.

Jonathan attended sessions on how the Supreme Court's Bruen and Rahimi decisions are changing firearms defense in Michigan, as well as sessions on pre-trial motion practice and bail hearings led by Mary Chartier, Takura Nyamfukudza, and Professor Blase Kearney.

We reconnected with colleagues from the Allegan and Kent County Public Defender's Offices and met private defense attorneys from firms across the state.

Back to Work in Holland

Conferences end. We're back in Holland now, back to the files on our desks. The forensic evidence strategies, the constitutional arguments, the motion practice techniques. All of it came home with us.

If you're facing criminal charges in West Michigan, you want attorneys who keep learning. That's what we do.