Indiana bundle

In this course you will learn the basics of construction contracts and key terms that are often included agreements. We will address key payment provisions that should be carefully considered and evaluated in contracts as well as dispute resolution options and how to best draft them to suit individual needs. We will also cover the types of key disclosures to make in construction contracts to stay in compliance with state regulations.

Many lawyers who are new to practice may say they want to be litigators, but they don’t necessarily have an idea of what that looks like. This introduction to litigation covers some of the most common steps of every case and includes practical first-hand knowledge of the best practices and common pitfalls of each step. This course will detail the process of litigation, from pleadings, to discovery, to dispositive motions through trial, while discussing the importance of continued settlement negotiations along the way.

Are you curious about environmental justice work? Confused about where to start? This course will cover basic terminology and history; laws commonly used to present and seek to address environmental justice issues in U.S. courts; and practice tips and principles.

Young and old attorneys can always learn something about Trademark Law. In this introduction to Trademarks, attorneys learn the basics of Trademark Law from prosecution of a Trademark to obtain one through litigation when a Trademark is infringed. The presentation is broken down into three sections. First, the results of an interview with a Trademark Examiner from the United States Patent and Trademark Office about her prosecution pet peeves is addressed. Second, the basics of Trademarks is presented. Third, a sample case on Trademark infringement is thoroughly analyzed and discussed.

In this program, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Senior Attorney and Managing Litigator Selena Kyle will introduce the concept of environmental justice and discuss trends in federal environmental justice policy and private environmental-justice advocacy. This program will use examples from the guest’s own impact litigation practice to illustrate current issues in environmental justice.

Trade Secret Law is rather atypical among legal causes of action, including particularly intellectual property claims. In particular, depending on whether the claim is brought based on the law of a specific state—for example, Utah, Texas, or Wisconsin—or whether the claim is brought based on federal law, the elements one will need to prove may differ. In this introduction to Trade Secret Law, attorneys learn the basics of Trade Secret Law. The presentation is broken down into four sections—one for each possible element needed to be proven to prevail on a Trade Secret claim. In addition, a sample case addressing each element of the identified Trade Secret claim is thoroughly analyzed and discussed.

This course will teach you the fundamentals of using federal Civil Rule 35 to take mental examinations, a discovery technique commonly used in employment cases by management to have a mental health practitioner intrusively question the plaintiff. We will discuss who can attend such an examination, the uses and misuse of “garden variety” emotional distress, the role of the treater and the treater as a “hybrid” witness, the reports required of a forensic expert and treater, as well as psychological testing and the controversy over malingering and the Fake Bad Scale, and tax treatment of emotional distress damages. By the end of this course you should be able to answer the following questions: Must the plaintiff endeavor to mitigate emotional distress damages? Can the defense conduct an ex parte interview of plaintiff's treater? And can the defense require the plaintiff to be interviewed by a vocational rehabilitation professional?

From graduation day of law school to the retirement party, no lawyer can avoid encountering the "Rambo"-type lawyer who, both in litigation and out, uses aggressive and oftentimes unethical behavior to advance their client's cause. Are these types of dirty-tactic attorneys unavoidable? Can they be sympathized with, effectively battled, or at least partially understood? In this seminar, we approach all those goals in the entertaining format of positing a look at them through A Natural History of the North American Silver-Tongued Rambo Litigator (Rambus litigatus), and we closely examine their cultural and jurisprudential origins; their "anatomy and physiology"; their development, range, and distribution; tool use; fighting behaviors; and finally ponder some proposals for their potential conservation or extinction.

On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) issued a landmark decision regarding the scope of protections afforded under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for gay, lesbian and transgender employees in a trio of consolidated cases: Bostock v. Clayton County, GA., Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission et al., 140 S.Ct. 1731, 2020 U.S. LEXIS 3252 (Jun. 15, 2020) (consolidating No. 17-1618 (Bostock), No. 17-1623 (Zarda) and No. 18-107 (R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes). In a 6-3 decision authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch, SCOTUS found that the plain meaning of Title VII’s prohibition making it illegal for an employer to discriminate against an individual employee “because of such individual’s . . . sex” [42 U.S.C. §2000e-2(a)(1)], was sufficiently broad to prohibit an employee from being discharged merely for being gay or transgendered. Id. at 1739. As a result of that decision, and prior directives from the Department of Labor (“DOL”), and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”), federal law bars discrimination and harassment on the basis of sex to protect employees and applicants for employment from being harassed, denied employment or promotion, or otherwise subject to adverse treatment because they do not conform to societal gender expectations. This program will help employers to make sure that their workplace conforms to federal law and provides a safe space for employees to express their gender identity.

This course will provide an overview of fashion law and how it intersects with intellectual property. The course will touch on more commonly known areas of fashion including apparel, shoes, and accessories. This course also will address how fashion is going beyond just the clothes or the accessories themselves and now reaching more into technology including supply chain optimization, virtual fitting rooms, and wardrobe recommendations using artificial intelligence (AI).

Immigration attorneys often struggle with the demands of practicing in a highly complex area of law in which the stakes are extremely high for their clients. Many different agencies are involved, and attorneys must be fluent with the grounds of inadmissibility and removability, their related waivers, potential eligibility for benefits, potential penalties and forms of relief, and countless regulations, statutes, agency manuals, memoranda, and abstract legal concepts and principles that govern every aspect of immigration practice. In this context, attorneys must advocate for clients whose ability to live, work, remain with their families, or to avoid persecution or harm may lie in the hands of the attorney. 

An overview and introduction to the practice of law in New Jersey’s Municipal Courts. The Municipal Courts encompass many different areas of practice including, traffic, criminal, and local ordinance violations. Practicing in the Municipal Courts is a great way for newly admitted attorneys to gain immediate litigation experience and for solo and small firm attorneys to supplement their practices.

It is not uncommon for lawyers to be asked to serve on board of directors of the nonprofit organizations in their communities. The issues that arise for lawyers serving on such boards are different than non-lawyers’ service. This program reviews the fiduciary duties imposed on directors of nonprofit organizations as well as the ethical issues that can arise when a lawyer is serving as only a board member and as both a board member and counsel to the organization. There is also discussion regarding protections available for a lawyer/director as well as considerations when deciding on whether to join a nonprofit board.

The New Jersey judiciary handles tens of thousands of landlord-tenant cases every year. These cases touch many facets of life and law. Despite the volume and complexity of these cases, the practice of landlord-tenant remained largely the same since the 1970s. The COVID-19 pandemic changed this. In August 2021, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered sweeping changes to the administration and adjudication of landlord-tenant cases. This discussion addresses these dramatic changes, the policy reasons underlying them and best practices for practitioners new to the field.

In 2006, social activist and author Tarana Burke introduced the world to the hashtag and phrase “metoo,” which provided a platform for thousands of employees to speak more candidly about sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior in the workplace. Many forms of sexual misconduct that were once tolerated by employees and employers, is no longer acceptable. Sexual harassment involving anyone from C-suite executives to hourly wage earners can expose an organization to great financial and reputational harm. In this program, counsel tasked with investigating sexual harassment allegations will learn how to implement preventative training and conduct comprehensive investigations. The program will review key steps needed to conduct a balanced investigation and help lawyers and investigators avoid the appearance of bias when dealing with an inherently sensitive subject. This course will also provide an overview of the “Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act,” the federal legislature passed by the U.S. Senate in February 2022.

Cyber-based claims are an exponentially growing threat to attorneys. Cyber risks touch on every area of practice and overlap with the two greatest sources of professional risk to attorneys – ethical obligations and legal duties to clients. This course explores the basics of legal malpractice claims along with corresponding ethical considerations in the context of the cyber threat while providing practical advice for anticipating, mitigating and surviving cyber risks and related claims. Cyber-based causes of action, common defenses and jurisdictional considerations will be reviewed as well as risk management techniques and best practices, including an overview of how to develop a cyber risk management team and plan.

This course offers an in-depth survey of the current state of the major topics in animal law and provides participants with the key principles, rules, and regulations – as developed by common law and from statute – affecting animals. Styled as a cinematic presentation, the course examines animal-related laws via their philosophical, scientific, and practical underpinnings, and from a variety of differing perspectives, exploring how the courts have treated animals in the past and will likely treat them in the future, locally and nationally. From the foundational (How are animals defined? Do animals have rights? Why are animals properties?) to the pragmatic (What procedural obstacles might confront claims made on behalf of animals? What substantive constraints might prosecuting an animal abuse case entail?).

Intellectual Property Law is different than most areas of the law. In particular, attorneys that prosecute patents and file applications for trademarks practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). As such, those attorneys—who are required to be licensed by a state and, thus, subject to its Model Rules of Professional Conduct—are also subject to and must follow the USPTO’s Rules of Professional Conduct. In this Overview on Ethics and the IP Attorney, attorneys learn some of the similarities and differences between the two sets of ethical rules, as well as analyze cases addressing some IP-specific ethical issues.

They say that life's two sole absolutes are death and taxes. This presentation can't help you with the former, but it will address the latter by surveying the basic principles of federal income taxation for typical individual taxpayers. We'll cover the whole process of calculating federal tax liability, from computing taxable income to running that number through the tax tables to properly accounting for payments and credits.

In a legal system where not everybody speaks English, court interpreters are crucial to overcome language barriers. This one-hour presentation is designed to provide attorneys with valuable information that will benefit their work with court interpreters during legal proceedings.