Casey Rogers honored with the 2024 Kevin M. Andersen Memorial Award
From Steuben County, pictured are Rogers, Brocklebank, Sauro
BATH – Steuben County First Assistant Public Defender Casey E. Rogers has received one of New York State’s highest honors for her work in public defense.
Rogers received the state Defenders Association’s 2024 Kevin M. Andersen Memorial Award July 22 at the association’s 57th Annual Meeting and Conference in Saratoga.
The award recognized Rogers for her high-quality legal work, leadership, generosity, and commitment to and respectful treatment of all clients.
Rogers was nominated for the award by county Chief Public Defender Shawn Sauro.
“She is compassionate and passionate about our clients,” Sauro said. “Casey is an immensely skilled trial attorney and the epitome of model trial advocacy.”
A leader in the county public defense department, Rogers manages the office’s rapidly growing staff, and acts a role model and mentor to the department’s up-and-coming attorneys, Sauro said.
The Kevin M. Andersen Memorial Award is presented to an attorney who has been in practice less than fifteen years, who practices in public defense, and who exemplifies the sense of justice, determination, and compassion that were the hallmarks of its namesake, a lawyer at the Genesee County Public Defender’s Office
NYSDA Deputy Director Natalie Brocklebank noted Rogers’ fight for proper implementation of the discovery reforms of 2019, which included access to, and dissemination of, the association’s resources.
“Casey has been a true advocate for her clients and has tirelessly worked to ensure the spirit of new reforms is followed,” Brocklebank said. “She would share her insights about the local landscape of how the courts were interpreting the changes … (and develop) creative and compelling arguments without giving up.”
Positive results were followed up to ensure that any good decisions that have come out of her jurisdiction are shared with her colleagues as well as the larger defender community, Brocklebank said.
During the difficult period of reform implementation, complicated by COVID, Rogers won numerous motions on discovery issues according to NYSDA Staff Attorney Maxwell Kampfner.
“Casey has been instrumental in changing the culture and perception of public defense in Steuben County,” said Sauro.
The 2024 award is not the first Sauro’s office has received.
In 2023, Sauro accepted a NYSDA award on behalf of his office for working continuously to invoke and enforce discovery.
Rogers has helped make sure such excellence continues, Sauro said, adding “Discussing public defense practice, one young attorney told me ‘I want to be the best…I want to be Casey Rogers.’”
