By Brian Klas
TDCAA Training Director in Austin
Tool metaphors get tossed around a lot in the world of training and professional development. Everyone has a toolbox or necessary repair in desperate need of new tools. How are you going to function from one moment to the next without this cutting-edge tool? You don’t have Sears (RIP) Robo-Grip pliers? Shame!
The thing is, any mechanic or tradesperson knows you don’t need to load up on a bunch of nonsense tools—Robo-Grips are pretty cool, but most of those gadgets are garbage. You just need quality tools and maybe some help maintaining and using the tools you already have. Tools can be adapted, practiced with, applied to new situations, and cared for. When new tools are necessary, they should work with or replace existing tools, not function counter to their current use.
In 2025, TDCAA’s training continues to be designed by our membership for our membership. Our training aims to hone the skills our members already possess and introduce new concepts in ways that are immediately practical.
Our 2025 lineup
First up is our Prosecutor Trial Skills Course in mid-January (before this journal is published). As many of you know, we put on this course two times a year. It is a weeklong training designed to introduce attendees to the tools we use in our profession. Seasoned prosecutors work in small groups of attendees to provide secondary explanations of topics and to offer guidance on the daily issues prosecutors face. Built for new prosecutors, the course is the foundational training for successful prosecution in Texas. If you missed the course in January, another will be held in July. We consistently hit capacity on it, so register as soon as you are able.
In February, the annual Investigator Conference will be held in College Station. We’re excited to venture to a new area of the state and try out a brand-new venue. Throughout the year, TDCAA’s Investigator Board members gather ideas from their peers and meet to distill those ideas into training topics that cover what’s most relevant to our investigators.
April brings an exciting development with our specialized training conference. We’ll be in Sugar Land this time around, and we’re trying something new. When planning for this April specialty course, TDCAA’s Training Committee expressed a few high-need areas for training. Rather than jettison all but one idea to create a single-topic conference, we created an agenda for a broader section of our membership. This year, we’ll have two full days of training on prosecuting domestic violence cases and two full days on prosecuting child sex assault—hence the name of the course, Prosecuting Domestic Violence & Child Sex Assaults. Also, we are working with the Texas Children’s Commission to provide additional training for offices handling a Child Protective Services (CPS) caseload. The model for this training is new, and I can’t wait to see how it works.
In May, we’ll head to Galveston for our regular Civil Law Conference. We have a great group on our Civil Committee, and they’ve got a solid slate of training topics to cover. They are also keen to reproduce the Civil Practitioners Boot Camp we tried out a couple of years ago. Barring the unforeseen, that’ll be a go in 2026.
In June, we’re introducing our Advanced Writing & Appellate Advocacy Course. Course Directors Emily Johnson-Liu and Alan Curry have been working hard to design a course aimed at both appellate prosecutors and those who simply want to sharpen their legal writing skills. We have held a similar course in recent years, and the instruction looks to be top-notch once again. Keep an eye on our website for additional details when they are finalized.
Also in June, we’ll host the first of our two standalone courses from our Prosecutors Management Institute, the Fundamentals of Management module. These work only with a small attendance, so they are sure to fill quickly; in the past, they have hit capacity within a few days of opening for registration. The second management course will be held in August; both the June and August schools will take place in Austin. These standalone courses are open generally to our service group but were originally designed for smaller offices and attendees who missed the course when it was brought to their home county. If you are interested in the traditional management training model and would like to work with TDCAA to get this training in your jurisdiction, have a look at the Prosecutor Management Institute page on our website by going to www.tdcaa.com/prosecutor-management-institute-pmi for contacts and instruction.
In addition to the previously mentioned Prosecutor Trial Skills Course, July is also home to our Advanced Trial Advocacy Course. We are continuing our partnership with Baylor Law School to provide 32 applicants with top-tier trial training. As I’ve said many times, if you are good in trial but want to be great, this is the course for you. Shanna Redwine, an ADA in Montgomery County, will be our Course Director, and she’s busy at her workbench putting together a case problem that focuses on child homicide. Applications for the course will be available in late April or early May.
I could go on and on, but I will stop at our Annual Criminal & Civil Law Conference. The Annual will be held in Round Rock at the Kalahari Resort. If you were there with us last time in 2023, you know it is a top-notch training facility surrounded by lots of things to do. It is incredibly early to discuss this event except to note that the schedule will be different this year. Instead of the main course starting Wednesday afternoon, we will kick things off Tuesday afternoon. I expect we’ll still have a live Legislative Update scheduled the day before on Monday, and we will adjourn the Annual Conference on Thursday.
Again, there is always more training, and I encourage you to keep an eye on TDCAA’s website for upcoming training opportunities. Our Assistant Training Director, Joe Hooker, is putting together new online courses even as you read this, and our new Domestic Violence Resource Prosecutor, Kristin Burns, is setting up a training system that will reach across the state—similar to what W. Clay Abbott, our DWI Resource Prosecutor, has so successfully done with intoxication offenses.
Conclusion
I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible down the road. We remain committed to providing the best possible training to Texas prosecutors and staff. We are invested in your success, and while I tend to focus on the training itself, there is no better place to network, solve problems, and build connections than a TDCAA conference. It is an advantage we have as prosecutors. These events are where you discuss the use and care of tools you’ve developed as a professional, as well as the most complex legal or ethical issues imaginable, with others who have the expertise and objectivity to give valuable feedback. And talking shop is fun.