The Nashville Tenessean reports:

Defense lawyers to huddle

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers is meeting this week in Nashville to discuss the difficulties of defending clients accused of rape, murder and other heinous crimes.

Attorneys from around the nation will gather at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel for the seminar, ''In Their Defense: Representing the Client Everyone Loves to Hate.''

Criminal defense attorney Mark Geragos, who represents Scott Peterson and has defended actress Winona Ryder and, until recently, pop star Michael Jackson, is scheduled to speak at a luncheon.

The seminar begins tomorrow and runs through Saturday.

The cost of the seminar for nonmembers of NACDL is $520. Attorneys affiliated with state criminal defense lawyer associations of Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and Missouri get in for $295. The seminar is free for law students. For more information call 202-872-8600 or log onto www.nacdl.org/meetings.

We'll be there starting tomorrow. If you're a defense lawyer who's never been to an NACDL meeting, we highly recommend it.