New UB Law class aims to curb national prosecutor crisis

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Four years ago this May, protests overtook multiple neighborhoods in the city of Buffalo, as people rallied against the murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer. 

But beneath the raw anger directed at police departments and their officers lurked a much broader anti-law enforcement bent. 

"The George Floyd incident was the genesis of another talking point. And the talking point became, defund the police," said Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. 

The consequences were real, and they were felt nearly overnight. 

"I would get 30, 40, 50 resumes every year," he said. "Hard job to get. And I had only eight openings a year. I had the pick of the litter. Starting in the spring and summer of 2020, by January 1st of 2021, I had no resumes."

"I've got one resume on my desk right now. One," Flynn said. 

A nationwide study just released by the William & Mary Law School lays out in excruciating detail the biggest problems Flynn and other DAs are facing in trying to find attorneys: Low salaries, massive caseloads, a lack of options to work remotely and increased demand surrounding a state's discovery rules. 

Some of the nation's largest cities and counties are reeling, with dozens of positions sitting vacant. In places like Houston and Los Angeles, more than 15 percent of prosecutor positions are vacant. In Detroit, more than 20 percent of positions are unfilled. In Alameda County, Ca., more than a quarter of positions are open. In Miami, it's more like a third. Smaller cities are even worse. Sixty percent of positions are open in St. Louis -- where the major crime rate actually fell last year. And in Athens, Ga., where the district attorney covers two counties, the vacancy rate is approaching 85 percent.

It's the old adage of doing more with less. But the "more" in this equation is crime. And crime never stops. 

"I got a lawyer who's got 100 cases in court on a Monday morning. There's no way they can deal with 100 cases," Flynn said. "They can maybe deal with 50. So they handle the 50 most serious ones. The other 50: dismissed, dismissed, dismissed. It basically becomes an emergency room triage, where you can't let a case hang around. Because the longer you let a case hang around, then that gums up the whole system."

Isabella Bakshi has seen the studies. She's a second-year student at the University at Buffalo School of Law and following in the footsteps of her father, Sunil, who's a local criminal defense attorney. 

Her reaction now is simple: Sign me up. But getting here hasn't been easy.

"Definitely a very interesting time to be a student and to be in the legal field," she said. "A lot of people were hesitant on police and especially prosecution. So I kind of withdrew my desire to be a prosecutor at the time because I was unsure of what was really going on."

But Bakshi and dozens of others are staying with it, at least in part because of a new initiative at UB, spearheaded by John Flynn.

The Modern DA course aims to reach students *before they're influenced by stereotypes like all prosecutors do is throw people -- and in particular, people of color -- in jail. 

The instruction is real-world; the professors are Flynn's top assistant district attorneys, who spend most of the rest of their time in court. 

"Every one of my 10 teachers in there, they exonerate more people in one month than any defense attorney will in their lifetime," Flynn said. "Most of these kids you know, they're progressive, and they want to help society. And God bless them. So do I. And so, I need to tell them, hey, we're here to help society."