The Pre-Impeached Officer: Deposition Defense in Civil Rights Cases

Chris Balch, owner | Balch Law Group

Chris Balch of Balch Law Group has spent more than 30 years helping local government leaders work through complex legal matters, economic development, and community investment. His practice covers local government counsel and internal investigations, alongside land use and zoning, economic development consulting, and UAS implementation. He is regarded as a sought-after expert and speaker for local government lawyers across the country.

• Education & Credentials

He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee and of Mercer University School of Law. After law school he clerked for two years for United States District Judge Duross Fitzpatrick in the Middle District of Georgia before entering private practice. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, where he received the Navy Achievement Medal and the Good Conduct Medal.

• Recognition & Leadership

In 2022 he received the Marvin J. Glink Private Practice Public Entity Attorney Award, which recognizes a private practitioner who has provided outstanding service to the public. He is the only International Municipal Lawyers Association Local Government Fellow in Georgia.

• Professional Involvement

He is an acknowledged and sought-after expert and speaker for local government lawyers nationwide, and his legal scholarship appears in newsletters and professional journals.

• Experience

His career began with a two-year federal clerkship in the Middle District of Georgia, followed by private practice. At Balch Law Group he counsels local governments on complex legal matters and internal investigations, and advises on economic development and community investment. He comes from a family of social justice advocates and decorated veterans.

Adam Ainslie, Partner | Miller Waxler LLP

Adam Ainslie is a Partner at Miller Waxler LLP with more than a decade of experience litigating high-exposure, complex cases throughout California in state and federal courts. His practice focuses on professional liability, public entity liability, and general liability. He represents public entities and their employees in a broad range of tort, civil rights, and employment matters, including claims involving dangerous roadway designs, negligent maintenance, emergency vehicle operations, and alleged constitutional violations. He has successfully defended law enforcement officers in civil rights cases involving excessive force, false arrest, warrantless detentions, fabricated evidence, judicial deception, malicious prosecution, and deliberate indifference to medical needs. His experience includes extensive first- and second-chair trial work, appellate advocacy, defense verdicts, summary judgments, and favorable resolutions. In addition to litigation, he advises governmental agencies on litigation strategy, risk management, and proactive risk mitigation.

• Education & Credentials

Mr. Ainslie earned his Juris Doctor from Southwestern Law School, where he studied from 2013 to 2016 and participated in the Sports Law Society, Moot Court Honors Program, and Peer Mentor Program. He also attended the Donald E. Biederman Entertainment & Media Law Institute London Summer Abroad program in 2014. He earned his bachelor’s degree in Socio-Legal Studies & Ethics from Arizona State University in 2013, where he participated in the Sports Business Association..

• Recognition & Leadership

During his legal education, Mr. Ainslie received the Wildman/Schumacher Scholarship from 2013 to 2016 and the Hon. Mayor Tom Bradley recognition, as partially listed in his profile. He served as President of the Southwestern Law School Sports Law Society from 2015 to 2016 and as Editor-in-Chief of The Law Commentator from 2014 to 2016. He also participated in the school’s Moot Court Honors Program and Peer Mentor Program.

• Professional Involvement

Mr. Ainslie has been involved with the A New Way of Life Reentry Project as an Expungement Clinic Volunteer since October 2013, conducting client interviews in support of the organization’s civil rights and social action work. He also volunteered with Operation Gratitude from 2004 to 2007, assembling care packages for deployed troops. His academic involvement included the Southwestern Law School Sports Law Society, Moot Court Honors Program, Peer Mentor Program, and Arizona State University’s Sports Business Association.

• Experience

Mr. Ainslie is currently a Partner at Miller Waxler LLP, a position he assumed in October 2026. Before joining the firm, he was a Partner at Collins + Collins LLP from January 2025 to October 2026, where his practice focused on professional liability, public entity liability, and general liability. He previously served as an Associate Attorney at Collins + Collins LLP from December 2016 through December 2024, progressing from an initial Law Clerk position at the firm. His responsibilities included managing complex, high-exposure civil litigation from pre-suit evaluation through trial and appeal. Earlier in his career, he served as Editor-in-Chief of The Law Commentator from May 2014 to May 2016, writing about sports law issues involving labor and employment, internet gambling, NCAA regulation, and intellectual property, while overseeing publication operations. He also worked as a Law Clerk in Business and Legal Affairs at FOX Sports from September to November 2015, drafting agreements involving live-event programming, television series, on-air talent, public relations, and university athletic sponsorships. Additionally, he served as a Summer Law Clerk at Collins Collins Muir + Stewart LLP from June to August 2015.

SESSION 1 – Preparing the Officer for the Whole-Encounter Questioning in Excessive Force Depositions | Chris Balch | 2:30pm – 3:30pm

This session equips defense counsel with a framework for preparing law enforcement officers to testify across the full chronological arc of an excessive force encounter following the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Barnes v. Felix (2025), which rejected the moment-of-threat doctrine and mandated a totalityof-the-circumstances analysis with no temporal cutoff. Attorneys will learn how to conduct BWC reconciliation sessions, build articulable justifications for pre-seizure tactical choices, and prevent qualified-immunity-destroying admissions under expanded whole-encounter questioning. Attendees will leave with concrete deposition preparation protocols addressing the officer-created jeopardy exposure that Barnes left unresolved and that plaintiffs’ counsel will actively exploit.

BREAK | 3:30pm – 3:40pm

SESSION 2 – Auditing the Officer’s Public Record and AI-Drafted Reports Before the Deposition | Adam Ainslie | 3:40pm – 4:40pm

This session teaches civil rights defense attorneys how to conduct a systematic pre-deposition audit of a law enforcement officer’s public disciplinary record and AI-generated incident reports. Attorneys will learn about officer disciplinary disclosure and evidence-preservation requirements, federal discovery and issues involving the rise AI-generated police reports, and practical deposition strategies for navigating challenges to an officer’s adoption of an AI-drafted report. Attendees will leave with a concrete audit framework covering officer history, AI report authentication, and Section 1983 deposition question strategy for AI-generated evidence.