Each fall, PDS hosts the Deborah T. Creek Criminal Practice Institute (CPI) conference, a comprehensive day and a half conference that brings criminal defense attorneys together with local and national experts in criminal justice, courtroom advocacy, constitutional law, and indigent defense services.
The Institute begins with a provocative discussion of the law with nationally-known speakers,
followed by a series of seminars on a wide variety of topics. Many of the staff attorneys,
the non-legal staff, and area alumni participate in the CPI conference.
PDS also produces the 2-volume Criminal Practice Institute Practice Manual (CPI manual), the only comprehensive treatise on the criminal law in the District of Columbia. In addition to the detailed discussion of the law, the CPI also includes an exhaustive resource guide to assist attorneys in locating public and private social service agencies and organizations in the Washington, DC metropolitan area that provide housing, treatment, counseling, and other social services to indigent people.