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Service dogs, assistance animals, emotional support animals, guide dogs, therapy animals, and ordinary pets—what’s the difference? Rules pertaining to assistance animals are complex, often puzzling, and ever shifting. In this introduction to the law of assistance animals, we unleash three foundational disability laws: the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act, and explore the making of an assistance animal under each of these acts.

This course is an introduction to the nonprofit practice area. Specifically, we will review the process for forming a nonprofit and seeking tax exemption under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Attorneys will learn the compliance requirements for nonprofits as well as the unique tax issues nonprofits face. Attorneys will feel empowered to expand their practice area to include nonprofit law. This course will also explore fiduciary duties of nonprofit board members. For attorneys interested in volunteering as a board member for a nonprofit, this course will examine the best practices to protect yourself from potential liability.

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.

A well-known legal aphorism states that while a good lawyer knows the law, a great lawyer knows the judge. Kidding aside, in order to be successful, a litigator must routinely have positive interactions with judges. This course will explore ways lawyers can improve their interactions with judges without running afoul of legal and ethical rules that limit the ways that lawyers and judges can interact with one another. Among the topics that will be discussed are MCLE classes and bar receptions, social media, courtroom advocacy and social hospitality.

Our world is becoming increasingly hyper-connected. The objective of the Internet of things is for everything to communicate and interface with everything. From wearable technology and smart home assistants, to Internet connected medical ingestibles and social credit scores, more data is being collected about us than ever, and this data can and is being used in litigation. This course will explain how this data is collected from the Internet of things devices, and the places that they store data such as the cloud, cell phones, and computers. Cases involving Internet of things devices such as digital pacemakers, fitness wearables, and smart home assistants will be discussed, with an eye to the future of how this data will become more prevalent and pervasive.

This program, taught by Board Certified in Immigration and Nationality Law attorney Ruby Powers, is designed to familiarize immigration attorneys with the successful tips and guidance in seeking relief under the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). This course will cover how to effectively work with clients in preparing and filing the VAWA application and tips on special considerations and complications that could arise. Learn the differences between VAWA and VAWA Cancellation of Removal in immigration court proceedings. Attorney Powers will share her years of examples in representing VAWA applicants throughout the program to help clarify the elements and ensure a successful process.

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.

This course is designed to expand on various issues under the umbrella of technology law. In every aspect of a lawyer’s career, technology plays a role. Technology is so important to today’s lawyer that state Bars are starting to add a technology element to required CLEs. This course provides a summary of issues related to e-discovery issues should litigation ensue and addresses attorney duties in regards to data security.

Now you know about ransomware. You know the types, you know how the attacks work, and you know what to do and not do in response to an attack. But so far, we’ve focused on how to stop the attack and resume operations as soon as possible. But in most cases, a ransomware attack also impacts individuals outside of an organization – customers and clients.

This course is designed to review basic contract provisions uniquely encountered with construction projects, such as provisions regarding “pre-bid inspections and liabilities imposed,“ “no-damage-for-delay,” “pay-to-be-paid,” and scheduling issues. The course will also address common contract provisions, but in the context of a construction project, such as indemnification and insurance, scope of work, issues with privity of contract and pass-through provisions, issues with fixed-fee and cost-plus projects, termination and abandonment, and damage limitations. In addition to expressed provisions, the course will cover implied terms, such as workmanship and code compliance. The course is designed to alert an attendee of the various contractual issues experienced with construction projects and how to generally address the issues when reviewing or preparing a construction contract or litigating the contract. The course will be beneficial for both the attorney who only periodically works with construction projects, as well as more experienced attorneys. Case law is cited in the materials to assist in identifying issues and their resolution.

Discovery can be one of the more challenging parts of a federal civil case. With so many rules, procedures, and opportunities for conflict, it’s no wonder that discovery makes some lawyers worry. This presentation will put your mind at ease with a step-by-step guide to the concepts and tools you need to navigate – and love— federal discovery.

Probate law is the body of law that deals with legal incapacity and the issues that come up after death. The vast majority of probate issues involve the administration of the estates of deceased people. In this course, you will learn how to effectively and efficiently guide fiduciaries through the probate administrative process.

This course will review the practical and legal principles involved in determining whether, and to what extent, space flight participants can recover from commercial human spaceflight companies for injury or death. It will cover common definitions, including commercial spaceflight operators and participants, state and federal statutes, and common law doctrine. It will then provide frameworks for weighing factors that may come into play when negligence occurs in commercial spaceflight.

In this course, Alyssa Johnson shares why the practice of law doesn’t always support lawyer well-being and what we can do about it. A recent ABA survey found that the COVID pandemic further exacerbated the stress caused by legal practice for a significant number of lawyers. Ms. Johnson outlines ways that organizations can provide services that enhance attorney mental health and well-being, and she equips attorneys with tools for hormone regulation, stress reduction, and self-advocacy, so that they have the clarity and courage to ask for what they want. All of this information is rooted in neuroscience data and tied to lawyers’ ethical duty to address their well-being.

The federal Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act (“McKinney-Vento”) guarantees homeless children and youth access to free, appropriate public education and the right to educational continuity and stability. With a global pandemic that has put many students at risk of housing instability and displacement, lawyers can play an important role in addressing their legal needs through McKinney-Vento. States and school districts are required under this federal law to review and revise laws, policies, regulations, and practices that may act as a barrier to the education of homeless children and youth. This course provides an overview of the educational rights of homeless children and youth and how lawyers can help them navigate and enforce these legal rights and ensure compliance of the law. Participants will learn the legal considerations when working with the educational rights of homeless students.

The entrepreneurial cannabis industry requires legal assistance like any other growing, innovative business sector. However, the cannabis industry does not necessarily resemble other evolving start-up business areas. Unlike most other industries, cannabis continues to be a federally designated illegal controlled substance, while various states have legalized cannabis and planted a patchwork garden of cannabis statutes, regulations, and ethics advisory opinions. What’s a lawyer to do? Legal ethics questions abound! What type of legal assistance may a lawyer provide to a client involved in the cannabis industry? May a lawyer accept product or an interest in a cannabis business in lieu of fees? Will a lawyer who participates in a medical marijuana program or indulges in recreational cannabis face ethical repercussions? This course will explore the historical context of the cannabis debate, the legal ethics implications for lawyers seeking to represent cannabis clients, and the current state of the legal profession’s response to legal ethics questions posed by lawyers traipsing through the patchwork garden of state regulations.

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.

Amidst a pandemic quickly turning endemic, people are learning the value and power of the virtual world, from education to work to healthcare. A doctor on vacation in Hawaii conducts a follow-up appointment with her 83-year-old cancer patient in New York City while a Florida Cardiologist checks in to see why his patient in Nevada has such a low heart rate at the moment. These are just some of the exciting ways that telehealth can benefit patients and providers, but what are the rules in this fast-changing environment? This course will provide you with the tools you need to advise your clients on the legal and regulatory aspects of telehealth from both a federal and state perspective.

Defamation Law has its origins in church doctrine and has undergone various significant changes over the last nearly 1,000 years. Because the action in the United States is based on state law, the elements one will need to prove may differ depending on the jurisdiction. In this Overview of Defamation Law, attorneys he presentation discusses both recent articles and cases addressing various aspects of a Defamation claim, including jurisdiction, venue, the requisite elements, and what is need to have success at summary judgment.

Once a company agrees to do business with the United States federal government, with that promise comes agreement to assume a slate of obligations, most of which are foreign to commercial practices. This precept could not be more accurate when it comes to the labor and employment obligations that apply to federal contractors. From prevailing wage obligations to affirmative action to federal sick leave, it is critically important that a federal contractor understand the scope of obligations applicable to the type of federal government contractor work it undertakes to perform. In this course, we will highlight key federal labor and employment obligations and suggest strategies for how to ensure compliance and mitigate risk, particularly given the potentially debilitating sanctions associated with non-compliance with some of these statutes, regulations,and executive orders.