This program provides a basic overview of business bankruptcy, from both the troubled business’s perspective and the creditors’ perspective. We will discuss common reasons why businesses file bankruptcy, and the objectives that businesses seek to achieve through bankruptcy. We will also discuss the basic “nuts and bolts” of bankruptcy, including the automatic stay, the treatment of executory contracts and unexpired leases, Chapter 11 plan confirmation requirements, and preference and fraudulent transfer actions.

In this course, attorney and forensic expert Mark Silver delves into criminal mitigation strategies for the client suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder. Borderline Personality Disorder is among the least understood, and yet perhaps the most important mental health issues for criminal defense lawyers. As many as 6% of the population carry the diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder and the criteria for this mental health issue provide profound understanding regarding the criminal defendant's decision-making, behaviors and conduct, emotional instability, erratic conduct, impulsivity, depression and low self-esteem, and related matters. It is crucial for the criminal defense lawyer to be able to recognize borderline personality disorder in clients and know when to refer the case for an evaluation and/or how to use aspects of this disorder for mitigation purposes.Borderline Personality Disorder: Pre-plea and Pre-sentence Criminal Mitigation Strategies

President Joe Biden has signaled his administration’s intention to actively encourage the reopening of physical workspaces and curbing COVID-19 outbreaks by requiring mandatory vaccination of federal employees and employees of federal contractors and direction the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to enact emergency temporary standard (ETS) regulations to require employers with 100 or more employees to require vaccination or submit to weekly testing. President Biden’s announcement will require both employers and employees to confront new realities and to address both physical and operational changes required by the lingering effects of Covid-19 on the workplace. President Biden’s announcement most likely will encourage employers not affected by OSHA’s ETS to also adopt vaccine mandates. This program will offer a guideline for assisting employers to navigate what presumably the new ETS or other vaccine mandates will have on the workplace.

This course provides an advanced overview of criminal mitigation as a key strategic tool for criminal defense lawyers, and reviews various humanizing processes that a criminal law attorney can utilize to better advocate for his or her client. Mr. Silver discusses how the use of psycho-social analysis, which can also impact the factual analysis of the case, can provide a more positive and informed narrative of a client and increase their chances of success in the courtroom. Both experienced and novice lawyers will gain important insight into various criteria to consider and deploy at the pre-sentence or pre-plea stage of representation.

Human trafficking knows no limits, and this predatory crime plagues rural, suburban, and urban communities in the United States and throughout the world. Traffickers deprive their victims of their identity, self-worth, autonomy, and freedom through force, intimidation, and false promises. This continuing legal education course will review the various federal laws protecting child and adult human trafficking victims. This course will review two scenarios that in-house or external counsel may encounter when advising businesses and health systems: (1) drafting human resources and procurement policies that effectively prohibit human trafficking activities (e.g., avoiding suppliers that violate human rights laws by engaging in labor trafficking activities, prohibiting employees from viewing or receiving child or trafficked pornographic materials on company or personal devices on work time, and prohibiting employees from purchasing sexual activities while traveling out of state or to a different country for work), and (2) advising a health system on devising a community-wide protocol and health system policy to respond to and aid victims of human trafficking.

National attention has addressed the pay gap for women. Beyond that, there is an information gap, a power and understanding gap, and common perceptions of femininity that have resulted in institutional disadvantages for female attorneys, especially litigators. This program exposes nationwide statistics regarding the wage gap between female and male attorneys and pays special focus to recent academic and bar association studies addressing gender differences in the profession. The course also addresses practical ways to overcome this gender gap, including negotiation strategies and skills to foster leadership and opportunities for professional development. The goal of this program is not just to raise awareness of the issue but to also offer its participants the opportunity to solve the problem.

Do you friend, tweet, connect, or blog with colleagues, friends, clients, and others? If so, have you installed an automatic mental pause button before posting on social media? Are you now wondering about where and why to find said pause button? Well, you have come to the right course because we will explore the answers to these questions and more as we journey to uncover the impact of social media upon the practice of law. After a bit of historical context, the course will reveal why today’s lawyer must be imbued with social media savvy in order to effectively represent clients, market a law practice, and avoid ethical landmines that endanger a lawyer’s license to practice law.

This course is designed to teach young and aspiring lawyers the importance of professionalism. The legal profession is a noble profession in which lawyers represent the interests of their clients, but the manner in which lawyers converse with each other is critical to the success of the profession. The best compliment a lawyer can get is a future referral from a former adversary. Professionalism drives this result.

Mental health issues and substance use disorders can affect any attorney, in any setting, and at any time. Left untreated, they can destroy careers and lives. This program will discuss where the legal profession currently stands in relation to the substantial challenges presented by untreated mental health issues and substance use disorders and examine the nexus between ethical competence, under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and attorney well-being. This program will educate attendees on how to recognize the signs of an impaired attorney, how to approach the colleague and begin a conversation, and discuss the possible disciplinary and professional liability implications of an impaired attorney’s conduct. In addition, the speaker will present best practices/effective risk management strategies, preventative measures, and proposed policy and well-being initiatives, that attorneys in any practice setting may implement to protect clients, themselves and other firm members as well as save careers.

This course is designed to give the participant an insight into how the sports world has changed because of COVID-19. We will discuss the renewed focus on some legal terms involved in contracts and ways the practice of sports law and the sports business will change moving forward.

In this overview of trademark and trade dress law, we use famous and fun automobile cases to explore how trademark laws work in the realm of cars. We address the fundamentals of trademark law, including functionality, inherently distinctive trademarks, secondary meaning, and likelihood of confusion. We use fun car cases to explore the trademark limits of copying. And we see jurists sometimes disagreeing with each other on the role of trademark laws for automobiles. Along the way, we offer useful tips to protect and advise clients and prepare cases.

It is not always clear how a deposition or written discovery responses can be used by a party during an evidentiary hearing or trial. The applicable discovery rules provide guidance, but frequently the judge is unsure of what is and is not permissible, and whether the response even needs to be shown to the witness or whether the witness or opposing party is allowed to explain or rebut a discovery response. This presentation will discuss the permissible use of discovery responses and depositions under the applicable rules of civil procedure. Additionally, there will be a discussion of practical considerations for use of the discovery. Finally, this presentation will provide suggestions on methods to make the discovery responses more effective or useful at a hearing or trial.