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Nonparty discovery in domestic arbitration proceedings is an often misunderstood and overlooked aspect of case planning, management, and administration. As more domestic disputes are compelled to arbitration, either through company-sponsored programs in the employment and consumer context or through increased incorporation of contractual arbitration provisions in the commercial context, both advocates and neutrals need to understand how to properly address nonparty discovery in arbitration, which stands in stark contrast to similar processes in court litigation. With over 20 years of experience as a commercial and intellectual property litigator, coupled with over 10 years of experience as an arbitrator and mediator, Theo Cheng will explain the differences, provide an update on the legal landscape, offer practical tips, and share best practices to master this challenging aspect of arbitration proceedings.

In this course, Susan Borke shares how to use your growth mindset to learn new skills and become proficient in preparing for negotiations. We will learn strategies and tips for attorneys who want to become strategic negotiators, including how to shift from intuitive negotiating to intentional negotiating.

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.

The Rules of Professional Conduct contain special rules regarding the duties, obligations, and restrictions applicable to attorneys engaged in litigation, which also includes administrative proceedings. The course will provide an overview of the fundamental ethical rules, and their relationship to substantive rules and law, that litigators encounter. The course will include discussion of the rules that ever litigator needs to fully know and understand in order that they can properly represent their clients in dispute proceedings. Since a violation of the rules can result in significant harm to the client’s case, attorneys should stay fully informed about the pertinent rules. Although the course is basically an ethics course, ideas on how to better represent a client in litigation and comply with the rules will be discussed.

This course provides a general overview of the common law duty to preserve evidence and the process of developing and implementing a legal hold. The discussion will focus on essential practice information for both new and experienced litigators and will provide tips for recognizing and complying with the duty. This seminar will also be useful to transactional attorneys and business advisors whose clients may become obligated to preserve documents and information.

Culture and religion are at the forefront of the United States’ diverse population. Individuals hold true to their personal religious and cultural belief systems, even during the times of separation and divorce. Oftentimes, these individuals feel marginalized through the legal separation and divorce proceedings because their religious and cultural identities are not recognized. How do we give voice to these cultural and religious identities, so that our clients’ needs, and desires are heard and met in the divorce process? How do we make a legal divorce work for them, when their marriage is not? This program will provide an overview of the mediation process, and how it serves as a tool when approaching gray areas of diversity in religion, tradition, and customs that courts may not address in separation or divorce. These gray areas cover the topics of parenting, family dynamics in assets and debts, custody, and support.

Ransomware permeates the news. But what do you really know about it? Well, if you watch this three-part series, the answer will be a lot. We will talk about ransomware, how to respond, how to report, and how to take steps to minimize the impact of an attack. In Part 1, we will talk about ransomware and how to respond to an attack.

In August 2021, The Washington Post released a transcript of a February 2018 interview in which Rudy Giuliani told federal agents it was permissible to “throw a fake” during an electoral campaign. Just weeks before that transcript became public, Giuliani was suspended from the practice of law in New York for baselessly asserting that thousands of felons and dead people voted during the 2020 presidential election and that Georgia voting machines had been manipulated. This program will examine the ethics rules implicated by Giuliani’s recent conduct—ABA Rules 3.3, 4.1, and 8.4—and provide guidance on how to avoid suffering Rudy’s fate.

The changing reproductive health landscape has created confusion and fear among individuals identifying as female as to the privacy and security of their sensitive health data. Following the Dobbs decision, many women have abandoned their period tracking and female health technology (femtech) apps out of fear that their health data could be used to prosecute them for an abortion-related crime. This presentation (i) provides an overview of the shifting reproductive health landscape and privacy laws applicable to healthcare providers and femtech companies, (ii) describes how reproductive health data may be accessed and used by law enforcement officers, and (iii) provides suggestions for practical steps that femtech companies and healthcare providers can take now to help the women’s health industry regain consumer trust.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is intended to “prohibit discrimination and guarantee that people with disabilities have the same opportunities as everyone else to participate in the mainstream of American life -- to enjoy employment opportunities, to purchase goods and services, and to participate in State and local government programs and services.” For the past 10 years the DOJ has remained mostly silent on the issue of website accessibility, which silence has led to an onslaught of private litigation. However, in March of 2022, the DOJ publicly released its "Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA" purportedly establishing "how state and local governments and businesses open to the public can make sure that their websites are accessible to people with disabilities as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).” This course will explore: The history of the DOJ's position and enforcement actions related to Web Accessibility What clarification, if any, did the recent DOJ's Guidance on Web Accessibility and ADA provide to demonstrate how local governments and businesses can make their websites accessible? Update on the recent trend of DOJ Web Accessibility enforcement actions and key takeaways from the settlement terms and conditions

Have you ever felt frustrated by technology? Or, have you ever wondered how to be more productive? Often, you can get more done in less time if you improve your workflow, and if you learn how to use technology more efficiently. Many lawyers and staff struggle with these concepts, in large part because they were never trained how to do the programs their offices rely on. This program, based on presenter Dan Siegel’s popular book, How to Do More in Less Time, demonstrates practical, easy-to-use and implement ways for attorneys and busy professionals to use technology to be more effective – doing so in less time than through traditional methods. The program will explain how to customize and take better advantage of the technology already in use in law offices.

In this one-hour presentation, tax attorneys Ben Wagner and Kathleen Pfutzenreuter discuss some common tax issues and questions that arise for attorneys advising small business owners, including: the home office tax deduction, tax consequences and considerations in employing family members, the Section 199A Deduction from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, establishing residency in a lower or no-income tax state, whether certain items, such as cars, boats, and planes, are deductible business expenses, and how to determine whether the client should treat workers as employees or independent contractors.

Among the best skills new lawyers can possess, self-care may be the most lacking, according to research. Numerous studies have reflected the negative effects that the stress we develop as law students continue to impact us as we enter the legal profession. In this course, we explore how neuroscience (the study of the nervous system) recognizes the detrimental effects of the chronic stress placed on law students and lawyers. Such stress is manifesting itself in rates of anxiety and depression among attorneys that are at a rate more than 3 times that of the general population. Research has established the importance of developing and maintaining cognitive fitness to equip young lawyers with the skills they need to thrive professionally. The course also addresses the connection between nutrition and cognitive wellness and offers practical strategies to help you excel.

Whether its climate change, diversity on corporate boards, shareholders valuing more than financial returns or the integration of ESG factors in the investment process, ESG is shifting the paradigm in today’s business world. This course will examine what ESG really means, the forces driving the discussion, the issues gaining momentum, and the extent to which ESG is shaping corporate accountability. In addition to providing an overview of the ESG framework, the course will examine the key players driving the ESG dialogue as well as the the role of shareholder advocacy and employee activism. In addition, it will evaluate ESG’s impact in the boardroom and on corporate governance. Highlighted throughout the course will be legislative initiatives and the extent to which regulatory scrutiny by the Securities Exchange Commission is impacting issues ranging from climate related risk disclosures to investment and portfolio management.

Your client’s townhouse development project is underway. Things are going well and ahead of schedule. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection visits his work site and slaps him with a large fine and then serves him with an unsettling lawsuit. Now what? Is the project over? Will general liability insurance cover litigation costs and damages? In New Jersey, environmental lawsuits are frequently brought about by the NJDEP and attorney general. There is no quick exit ramp for these kinds of lawsuits, so trial preparation is key. A quick Q&A with the client reveals that he purchased the vacant parcel without doing basic due diligence to determine detrimental liens, covenants and restrictions. The local site plan and subdivision processes went smooth, and local approval was granted. What seemed like an “all clear” was anything but. The prior owner, it turns out, stuck him with a large unpaid environmental cleanup bill for nearby stream contamination. Unfortunately, these bills run with the land, not the owner at the time of occurrence. In this course, we will discuss how detailed trial preparation can spare your clients from the worst outcomes of environmental lawsuits. This involves how to research every nook and cranny of a property and its history, including NJDEP permits on file, rejected applications, transcripts of past proceedings, environmental investigations and studies. Preparation then involves determining which laws, regulations and subsequent caselaw are applicable to the case at hand, while keeping in mind that the federal government preempts the state in many areas of environmental law. Finally, sometimes it is better to live to fight another day: Striking a deal with the NJDEP is often favorable to fighting a bitter, losing litigious fight. Envisioning the most favorable and also plausible outcome is the most important factor shaping trial preparation. Then, we will survey some of the best practices for drafting responsive pleadings, supported by law, regulation and scientific evidence, to the best possible extent, so that your client receives the best representation in an area fraught with uncertainty

This presentation will discuss the causes of the current supply chain logjams, put them into historical context, and discuss some of the ways forward to help attendees better deal with supply chain partners, solve problems expeditiously, and be knowledgeable about commercial rights and responsibilities.

The goal of an arbitration management conference is to set the stage for an expeditious and cost-effective proceeding, anticipate issues or problems that might frustrate an arbitration hearing, and pave the way for a possible settlement of the dispute. Theo Cheng is an experienced advocate and arbitrator who will explain what counsel can expect from an arbitration management conference and provide practical strategies to optimize what you can realize from the event, as well as manage the costs of an arbitration, secure the discovery needed, and gather the information necessary to present your case effectively at the evidentiary hearing.

One reason clients request estate planning services is to create legacies, to provide generational wealth, regardless of their particular family dynamics. When first considering this objective, estate planning attorneys look to the alphabet soup – GRATs, INGs, IDGTs, CRTs, and more. However, one often over-looked planning mechanism may work just as well – properly drafted powers of appointment. So, this program covers applicable laws, rules, and regulations for preparing steadfast powers. We will also review hypotheticals to provide hands-on examples of legacy creation despite interesting family dynamics.

This course is designed to give guidance to lawyers 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 bar associations are starting to add a technology element to required CLEs. This course provides a summary of issues related to counseling clients in content of technology-related contracts, document retention policies, and e-discovery issues should litigation ensue.

We as a society cannot eliminate bias without having uncomfortable conversations. However, it is a topic that cannot be ignored. If you desire to understand why bias exists, ways to reduce bias, and how to create an inclusive environment in your law firm and within the legal profession, this course is for you. In this course, we will learn about implicit bias and how it manifests itself in the legal profession, including in pay inequity. We will also discuss intersectionality, the theory that the presence of more than one affinity status can negatively impact an employee when he or she is subjected to bias. Then, we will review the benefits of effective anti-bias training and policies. Finally, we will detail strategies that lawyers and law firms can implement to cultivate a culture of diversity and inclusion and to eliminate bias.