Ethics CLE

An attorney is a professional; and being a good and respected attorney means more than just making lots of money and having lots of clients. It means displaying, encouraging, and garnering reciprocal professionalism. In this introduction to legal professionalism, we cover some of the major temptations, quandaries, and slip ups that attorneys can handle properly if they adhere to a high standard of professionalism. We also review a sample state’s creed on professionalism, as well as a recent ethics - related case before ending with a summary of suggested best practices for maintaining the highest standards of professionalism and avoiding the scrutiny of the local bar’s ethics board.

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.

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.

The two greatest sources of professional risk to attorneys come from overlapping sources – ethical obligations and legal duties to clients. Using real world examples, this course explores a national survey of claims against lawyers based on attorney malpractice and professional misconduct. Common ethical considerations and the relationship between professional responsibility and malpractice exposure will be explored along with growing cyber risks to attorneys. Related causes of action, common defenses and jurisdictional considerations will be reviewed as well as risk management techniques and best practices to mitigate such claims.

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.

Representing both the husband and wife in estate planning? Assisting with the divorce of your favorite friends? Asked to represent co-defendants or multiple family members in a criminal, personal injury, or immigration case? New clients want to pay you with stock in their enterprise? From family law, trust and estates, and business law to criminal, personal injury, and immigration law, conflicts of interest exist as a fundamental concern in the practice of law. If ignored or misunderstood, fundamental concerns can create significant problems for the unwary lawyer. What’s a lawyer to do? Step one: assess whether there is a conflict of interest. Step two: analyze whether it is consent-able or impermissible. Step three: proceed accordingly. This course will explore these steps in the context of the conflict of interest rules and their applications in the everyday practice of law.

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.

In this program, Gary Reing, former Chair of the Lawyers Assistance Committee of the NYS Bar Association and NYC Bar Association, talks about his own addiction struggles and path to recovery, including his reinstatement to the practice of law. Additionally, he will address issues of substance use and addiction within the legal profession and discuss ways to identify attorneys in trouble and explore resources where attorneys can get help.

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.

In this ethics program, we explore how to deal with biased and bad judges within the governing ethics standards. We address the fundamental ethics issues involved in challenging a judge for disqualification, as well as the ethics traps for lawyers who make the charge too easily. We use as a case example an explosive, interesting historical case from the Cold War — the serial deportation trials of Harry Bridges. We also use famous current cases to explore the bias issues, as well as improper race-based conduct by judges and lawyers. Along the way, we offer useful tips to protect and advise clients so you tread carefully and safely.

When you decide to “hang out your shingle” and start a solo practice, you are an entrepreneur, just like someone starting a tech company or other new venture, and you face many of the same business, legal and tax challenges that entrepreneurs face. It’s a regulated business, of course, and you must operate your practice ethically and professionally, but it’s a business nonetheless. It’s impossible to commit malpractice or an ethical violation if you don’t have any clients. In part one of this fast-paced, two part presentation, hosted by a leading legal author, columnist and media personality who has operated a solo law practice out of his home for the past 25 years, you will learn the basics of starting and running a successful law practice.

Opening your own law firm? Congratulations! You are officially an entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur you will face many challenges and you must operate your practice ethically and professionally. The law is a profession, but it is also a business and to maximize your chances of success you must have a plan. In the conclusion of this exciting two part presentation, hosted by a leading legal author, columnist and media personality who has operated a solo law practice out of his home for the past 25 years, you will learn best practices for dealing with clients and making sure your operations are profitable at all times.

The term “lawyer well-being” may seem like an oxymoron. For a junior lawyer, the demanding hours, the pressures to bill, and the stressful work environments can be overwhelming and often have detrimental effects. It often seems impossible to manage high-levels of stress and combat burnout while at the same time finding time for self-care. This program will educate attendees on the data related to the prevalence of mental health issues and substance use disorders in the profession, particularly in lawyers under 30 years of age or ten years out of law school, and discuss certain indicators of burnout. In addition, the speaker will present best practices/effective strategies and preventative measures that junior lawyers can implement so that they not only thrive, but flourish in any practice setting.

Mental health issues and substance use disorders can impact any law student, attorney or judge regardless of ethnicity, gender, age, orientation of socioeconomic status. But no matter the background, the legal profession seems to suffer in silence. Why? Stigma – the cultural prejudice and discrimination that labels an individual as defective or weak has the power to create a reluctance to speak about the issues and be a barrier to seeking treatment. This program will define the stigma, explain the reasons why stigma is so pervasive in the legal profession, and why it is critical to overcome these beliefs and identify effective means to ameliorate stigma and identify affirming attiudes for recovery. Throughout the presentation, the speaker will focus on several different “life stages” of an attorney and how stigma affects each group and identify best practices to conquer stigma in the legal community.

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.

Solo and small firm attorneys often face the familiar challenge of handling work demands during peak times. How can a small firm continue to offer excellent client service when there are only so many hours in the day? Small firms often look outside to contract attorneys, co-counsel, or refer work out in order to ensure client needs are met. This program will discuss the ethical considerations involved when working with contract attorneys, co-counsel relationships, and referral relationships.

New client and wondering how to handle the fee arrangement? Retainer? Contingency arrangement? What’s a lawyer to do to ensure reasonable, collectable fees? Driving business is a necessary part of the practice of law and the legal ethics rules of the road are an essential part of the roadmap. This course, presented by Jan Jacobowitz, will explore the fundamental categories of fees, reasonableness standards, methods of fee collection, trust account issues, and more.

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 retainer agreement is an often neglected tool to meet our ethical obligations to our clients while simultaneously managing and reducing professional risks inherent in the practice of law. The retainer agreement touches on virtually every kind of private practice and directly addresses the two greatest sources of professional risk to attorneys – ethical obligations and legal duties to clients. This course explores the basics of the retainer agreement along with corresponding ethical considerations in the context of every day professional risks lawyers face through a review of the ABA’s model rules, sample retainers and ethics opinions. The “living” retainer agreement as a risk management device and best practice tool, including an overview of paralleling ethical considerations will be explored, along with how to develop a firm-wide retainer agreement plan.

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.

In 2012, the American Bar Association implemented “technical amendments” to a number of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct in order to address the evolution of technology in legal practice and the obligation to secure client data. We will discuss the amendments, subsequent ABA Formal Opinions clarifying the Rules’ application in practice, and basic steps needed to comply with the Rules. We will cover measures to secure the confidential client data on your firm network, individual computers, and mobile devices.

It’s not easy being a lawyer. Attorneys face rigid deadlines, packed calendars, and long hours. Clients are often stubborn and unforgiving, demanding 110% of your attention and expecting five-star work at 2-star prices. As attorneys are only human, even the most skilled and seasoned will inevitably, to some degree, make a mistake. A mistake may damage your case, and might also threaten your relationship with a client or even your position at a firm. But failing respond appropriately to a mistake will jeopardize your license and your career. During this course, we will consider an attorney’s duties related to error disclosure, what exactly those duties require, and why it’s important to take these duties seriously.

Given the rise in more employees working remotely, constant changes in technology, increases in data breaches, and the rise in more frequent employee turnover, knowing how to safeguard your law practice - both internally and externally - has become increasingly important. Lawyers also tend to me immersed in the practice of law and not in the practice of protecting valuable data - not just client data - but the lawyer's own work product and intellectual property. It is more critical now then ever to know how to safeguard such valuable assets.

The stars have all aligned. You have an attorney position to fill, and have found the perfect candidate with the right credentials, experience and book of business, who clears the initial conflicts checks (review of clients and matters on which the attorney is/was actively working). The attorney, looking for more interesting and meaningful work, better opportunities for advancement, and more money, has accepted your offer and is ready to start work. Your firm knows the value of having screening mechanisms in place, but even with all the “T”s crossed and “I”s dotted, the potential for a conflict of interest may arise. How can your firm implement an effective conflicts of interest screen and have some comfort in its effectiveness if and when the time comes to defend against a disqualification motion? During this course, we will consider how to build, implement and regulate effective screens for lateral hires.

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. 

This CLE program will cover the principal legal ethics rules implicated by lawyers’ social media use. In particular, we will cover the ethics rules governing confidentiality, trial publicity, and attorney advertising and solicitation— Model Rules 1.6, 3.6, 7.1 and 7.3— and how those rules interact with lawyers’ social media use. The second half of the presentation will detail the investigative uses of social media, including how Model Rules 4.2, 3.5, and 8.4 govern contact with represented persons, researching jurors, and impeaching witnesses.

Networking and client outreach are key at many points in a legal career, from strengthening current client relationships to getting jobs to building your professional community. Yet many lawyers shy away from networking or worry about running afoul of ethical rules when talking to prospective clients. This CLE addresses key professional rules lawyers should follow when engaging in practice management activities and walks participants through the creation of a personalized plan designed to help them communicate with current and prospective clients in an effective and ethical way.

In this course you will learn some of the most common ethical issues faced by lawyers today. We will address changing ethical obligations related to technology advancements as well as overseeing the actions of third-party vendors and non-lawyers within a law firm. We will also discuss the importance of attorney-client retainer agreements and ongoing duties owed to clients including communication and avoidance of conflicts.

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.

This one hour presentation will provide a fast-paced refresher on the foundational Rules of Professional Conduct governing our daily lives as practicing attorneys. We will also explore the most common ethics violations attorneys make – often inadvertently – to provide guidance on avoiding these most common mistakes.

This CLE program will help lawyers understand how using technology responsibly and protecting electronic data are actually ethical obligations. The first part of the program examines a lawyer’s duty of competence (rule 1.1) with respect to data security. The second portion of the program explains a lawyer’s confidentiality (rule 1.6) obligations with respect to protected client information. The third portion of the program analyzes how, and when, a lawyer needs to communicate (rule 1.4) a suspected data breach to her client. The final portion of the program discusses the Rules governing the supervision of trained IT professionals (rule 5.3).

This 60 minute CLE is geared towards registered patent practitioners and their support staff in understanding the obligations of patent lawyers. This IP Ethics CLE will cover topics including conflicts of interest, candor requirements, unauthorized practice of law, working with foreign associates, export control issues, and more.

This course is an advanced review of the legal ethics issues raised by litigation finance and how these have been resolved. We will cover ABA Model Rules, court decisions, bar opinions, and state rules (where appropriate) involving the following topics: attorney competence, scope of authority & control, communicating with the client, fee sharing, disclosure, privilege & confidentiality, and conflicts of interest. Attendees will leave this lecture with substantive knowledge of the ways litigation finance has developed without contravening attorney ethical rules.

Interacting online as a lawyer is a minefield of potential ethics violations. What ethics opinions are there that provide guidance for day-to-day activities? This course will review ethics opinions from the ABA and state bars around the country that address issues of blogging, selling legal informational recordings, engaging in social media, responding to negative online reviews, how to handle inadvertent email communications, and whether you can accept virtual currency as payment of legal fees.

Have you ever been the target of bullying or bias or observed others being bullied in the practice of law? According to a 2019 study by the International Bar Association, a significant number of legal professionals worldwide have been subjected to bullying at work or observed others being bullied, bias based on gender, race, age, LGBTQ+ status, disability and other characteristics impact who is most likely to be targeted. Despite employer policies on diversity, inclusion, anti-harassment and anti-bullying, the problem persists. This program will equip individual attorneys with ethical strategies to deal with bullies effectively and increase civility within the profession.

The times when people joined firms hoping to become partner and remain until retirement are long past. It is common for lawyers to have more than a dozen positions during their career with some changing jobs more frequently than that. With the recent demand for talent, some people are changing jobs in less than a year. These moves raise issues as to obligations to clients and the client’s rights to select counsel. Lawyers and firms also need to evaluate conflict issues associated with these changes. In addition, departing lawyers and their firms may be bound by partnership agreements that address transition issues. Often neglected by all concerned is staying on good terms, leaving without regard to the other side can have longstanding effect on the reputation of lawyers and firms, and in the worst case, lead to litigation.

This presentation will cover what you need to know about outsourcing, how to use it, and how to avoid malpractice traps.We also cover other services regularly outsourced by firms, as well as the financial benefits of outsourcing, so that attorneys can stay focused on their cases. By attending this presentation, you'll learn how the ABAand State Bar Associations have applied ethical rules in the context of outsourcing legal services and support.

Appellate ethics are often an afterthought, but they shouldn’t be. Ethical quandaries arise in a variety of different contexts throughout the lifecycle of an appellate case. Using realistic hypotheticals and examples from actual appeals, consider how the Model Rules of Professional Conduct apply on appeal.

Although lawyers do not receive formal training on how to assess capacity, they make capacity judgments on a regular basis. Lawyers should be familiar with the signs of “diminished capacity” that may be apparent when meeting with a client and how to address such a situation. Lawyers must be aware of the ethical guidelines for assessing capacity as well as the standards of capacity for specific legal transactions under state statutes and case law.

This presentation will provide an overview of multiple aspects of the attorney ethics rules that – may or may not be second nature to practicing attorneys – but are things about which regular people are largely unaware. And, as to some of the topics, even when someone who isn’t a lawyer knows of the rule, the reasons for it can be extremely confusing.

This course will provide an overview of the Duty of Confidentiality under Model Rule 1.6 as well as privilege and work product rules. We will cover the legal basis of an exceptions to both confidentiality and privilege. This course will analyze the tests to apply and real world application, as well as exploring the overlap of the rules of evidence.

One of the biggest challenges facing clients and counsel today is navigating the settlement process during high-stakes, complex litigation and/or class actions. This course, presented by Wyatt Partners (a corporation that focuses exclusively on evaluating both legal spend and litigation settlements), addresses today’s hot topics on this timely issue – both from an in-house and outside counsel perspective. The program will provide a step-by-step journey through the entire settlement process, beginning with the evaluation of risks to be considered when settling, the drafting and negotiating of the actual settlement documents, and the corporate, insurance, and judicial impacts on getting a settlement finalized and approved. The program will also specifically focus on applicable Rules of Professional Conduct and case law as they apply to all stages of the settlement process. Both law firms and corporations will benefit greatly from such insights on a timely and evolving topic that affects everyone in today’s legal and business market.

Do lawyers give up some of their First Amendment free speech rights when they are sworn into the bar? This course will enlighten lawyers who have been confused about what they can and can’t say publicly while complying with legal ethics rules. We will use real cases and the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct to explore where the line is with respect to lawyer advertising, trial publicity, statements to the media, political speech in the courtroom, criticism of judges, and more.

Working from home is particularly complicated for lawyers. While we navigate many of the same difficulties as other professionals, such as managing staff remotely and maintaining privacy, we are also subject to professional rules guiding nearly every aspect of our communications. How do we ensure that that clients can be completely open and honest about their legal situation and prevent disclosure of communications related to legal advice when we are outside of our office? Which communications and interactions do we need to be concerned about while working from home or from other unusual or awkward settings? And how can we ensure other attorneys and staff are they meeting these requirements when working from different locations? This course will survey the main issues related to communicating with both clients and staff in a work from home environment. It will also introduce you to practices that will reduce your liability and protect your peace of mind.

This presentation will shy away from more cutting edge topics, sometimes of fleeting importance and, instead, will re-center lawyers’ attention to what the presenter has proposed are the five core components providing the “recipe” for ethical lawyering. While limiting its scope to broad topics that are alliterative, this presentation will manage to discuss many more ethics rules than just five, including Model Rules 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.7-1.10, 1.15, 1.18, 3.3, 4.1, 7.1, and 8.4 among several others.

This ethics program will explore how in-house counsel can successfully master the Engagement Agreement process when hiring counsel, experts, consultants, and vendors for litigation or transactions.  Our speakers will guide attendees through the entire process – the necessary preparation (including the Request for Proposal (“RFP”) process); the drafting process (including incorporation of both hourly rates/fees plus any potential expenses to be incurred); and general best corporate/firm practices to maximize the benefits of what in today’s legal market is the most useful first step to address and prepare for an upcoming litigation or transaction.

Perfectionism in the legal sector has always been a problem due to the crushing time pressures, demanding clients, and rampant poor self-care and substance use disorders plaguing practitioners and legal professionals. This "culture of perfectionism" has encouraged maladaptive coping techniques and led younger lawyers to conceal mistakes, oftentimes to the detriment of both firm and client. This program will explain the phenomenon of perfectionism and provide readily applicable tools to manage its negative impact. It will define perfectionism, the wonder of "adaptive" perfectionism and the dangers of maladaptive perfectionism. This course will also provide strategies for taming your inner perfectionist and explore simple, yet life-changing tools to manage perfectionistic tendencies.

Social media is an ever-growing area that affects the practice of law, through attorney advertising, social networking, evidence collection, and monitoring. According to the Rules of Professional Conduct, attorneys must stay knowledgeable about anything that affects the practice of law, including social media. This course will touch on some of the basics of social media through various platforms. This course will also discuss the applicable rules of professional conduct that can be violated if attorneys are not careful regarding activity online. This course will address real-life case scenarios and examples of “what not to do”.

This course reviews the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct regarding conflicts of interest from a law firm risk management perspective. Various sources of conflicts-based risk will be explored and best practices/defenses will be examined. Logistical realities and actionable steps to better protect law firms and lawyers will be discussed.

This program will address the various ethical and practical concerns that lawyers and law firms may face when a lawyer decides to leave a firm. We will answer questions such as "Who handles communication with clients? Can the lawyer take their clients with them? If yes, what are the rules? Does the law firm have protections against its business interests? What can be disclosed when switching firms?" and many more.

Attorney Wellness has become a popular topic and one which is moving into the mainstream when practicing law. No longer a sign of weakness, addressing and adopting wellness strategies in your life can be an attribute that improves your practice and your life. In this 1 hour course, Jackie Cara, a practicing attorney and long time member of the NYS and Nassau County Lawyer Assistance Committees shares insight into why “wellness” is important now, why it’s becoming a professional imperative, and how to spot a problem with yourself or a fellow practitioner.

Cannabis attorneys are bound by the same rules of ethics as their non-cannabis law practicing lawyers, such as avoiding conflicts of interest, protecting privilege, and carefully weighing the pros and cons of possibly going into business with clients. However, for cannabis lawyers, these obligations can require greater care and attention for two reasons: one, cannabis law is relatively new practice, growing in states across the United States amid the backdrop of cannabis remaining a Schedule I Controlled Substance; and two, the business of cannabis is growing rapidly, resulting in knock-down drag-out fights for permits that repeat every time a new jurisdiction licenses cannabis businesses.

This course examines the ethical and practical issues arising when a client appears to be in a state of diminished capacity, and it provides counsel with methods for detecting an impairment and with focused analysis of the relevant Model Rules of Professional Conduct. The updated terms of Rule 1.14, entitled “Client with Diminished Capacity,” will be explored, with special attention given to the integration of key tenets of the Model Rules governing client communications, confidentiality, conflicts of interest and termination of representation into Rule 1.14.

This presentation will provide an overview of what electronic discovery (“e-discovery”) is, how to make the right discovery requests, and how to object to discovery requests. The presentation will then discuss case law relevant to common issues in e-discovery, particularly those that relate to the ethical obligations of clients, outside counsel, and in-house counsel.

ABA Model Rule of Professional Conduct 8.3 and its many state counterparts require lawyers to inform the appropriate professional authority once a lawyer "knows" another lawyer has engaged in certain professional misconduct. The duty or opportunity to "know" of such violations can vary depending on the relationship between the lawyers in question. This program will consider the provisions of Model Rule 8.3 and an attorney’s obligations to report another attorney or judge to the appropriate disciplinary authority. We will discuss when specific reporting is triggered, the consequences of acting or failing to act, and best practices for taking effective action.

In this course, attorney Michael Overly of Foley & Lardner LLP, will provide an overview of cybersecurity risk and response. This course will explore the ethical implications of attorney duties in regards to data breaches, virtual practice, and competence in the use of technology. when We will discusses the sources of cyber risk and how to manage them, including the human factor involved as both the greatest risk and first line of defense. Finally, this course will review the basics of developing a cybersecurity program.

This course will address five of the most common ethical blunders that attorneys encounter in the practice of law, including emails, the unauthorized practice of law while working remotely, the attorney-client relationship, and interacting with opposing counsel. We will address how to recognize these potential traps and explore best practices for staying within the Rules of Professional Conduct.

This six-credit course is designed to help Illinois newly-admitted attorneys meet their first year MCLE requirement and impart fundamental skills paramount to the practice of law. Taught by expert faculty, the six sessions range from professionalism to creating a purposeful and inclusive practice. They are:

Session 1: An Attorney's Top 5 Ethical Blunders
Session 2: Lessons to My Former Self: A New Attorney's Guide to a Purposeful Practice
Session 3: Working From Home Ethically: Technological Competence for Lawyers
Session 4: Email Communications for Lawyers: Strategies and Ethics
Session 5: Ensuring Access to Justice for Neurodivergent People
Session 6: Best Behavior: Ethical Strategies for Dealing with Bullying and Bias in the Profession.

Please note that this six hour program contains two checkpoints total. There are not checkpoints within each individual course.

The litigation has finally ended, and the “prevailing party” is now entitled to its reasonable legal fees. Thus begins the journey through the Fee Application process. While each process can vary depending on jurisdiction, type of underlying matter, and judicial preferences, at the heart of each application lies the need for organization, clarity, consideration of the Rules of Professional Conduct, and emphasis on a collaborative, transparent relationship between client and counsel in establishing the reasonableness of the fees. This ethics course, presented by Wyatt Partners (a corporation that focuses exclusively on the subject of legal fees), will be a procedural and substantive journey through the process from the perspective of both outside and in-house counsel.

The program will specifically focus on applicable Rules of Professional Conduct and case law, as well as the wide foray of experience our speakers have gained serving as fee experts across the United States and Europe as well as advisors to corporations and law firms with respect to legal fee applications. Both law firms and corporations will benefit greatly from such insights on a timely and evolving topic that affects everyone in today’s legal and business market.