Professionalism And Legal Malpractice CLE
Quimbee's professionalism and legal malpractice continuing legal education (CLE) courses deliver the content lawyers need with engaging videos that are fun to watch.
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Professionalism And Legal Malpractice FAQ
Quimbee Professionalism and legal malpractice CLE Online
If you’re looking for a simple, engaging way to learn about professionalism and legal malpractice and fulfill your continuing legal education (CLE) requirements, look no further than Quimbee CLE online.
All Quimbee CLE online courses are built from the ground up by our world-class team of attorneys and designers. Our goal is to create a product that will not only help you meet your CLE requirements but will actually be enjoyable to watch. Sign up for a Quimbee CLE course today!
An Overview of Professionalism and legal malpractice
Attorney
professionalism is an important but little-discussed area of legal
practice. While most attorneys rightfully dedicate their time to honing
their expertise in their practice area, understanding and following the
rules of professionalism is also a vital aspect of a successful legal
practice. The inability to abide by professionalism and its rules
frequently leads to legal malpractice - the disobeying of the many rules
a lawyer must follow.
Many states have formal codes of professionalism
by which attorneys must abide. These codes generally require attorneys
to act with courtesy and politeness when dealing with courts and other
attorneys. The notion of civility is central to many states’
professionalism codes–despite the public perception of attorneys, nearly
all state bars place a strong emphasis on mutual respect and
cooperation among lawyers. Attorneys generally must also act honestly
and refrain from filing frivolous motions.
Who Should Take CLE Courses in Professionalism and legal malpractice?
Most state bar associations require some form of CLE credits in professionalism/professional ethics. Even if you practice in a state that does not have a professionalism CLE requirement, every attorney can benefit from keeping abreast of ethical requirements. Understanding attorney professionalism can help ensure that when you find yourself in an ethically challenging situation, you’ll be able to make the right decision. CLE courses in professionalism can help attorneys think about how to deal with these challenging situations that they might not have given much thought to previously, such as handling self-represented adversaries. Additionally, success within the legal profession is often driven by one’s reputation among both colleagues and clients; by ensuring that you know how to act with the highest level of professionalism, you’re maximizing your reputation and future opportunities.
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The Ethical Implications of Legalized Cannabis
Public support for legalized cannabis is at an all-time high, and at least 33 states have legalized it in some fashion. In light of the booming cannabis industry and the significant regulatory challenges that cannabis-related businesses face, the need for legal advice is industry-wide. However, giving cannabis-related legal advice can raise some hazy ethical issues for attorneys, due in part to the continued illegality of cannabis at the federal level. In this presentation, we will examine both the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and a selection of state rules and opinions as we work through the ethical implications for lawyers who don’t stay off the grass.
Ten Things Every Lawyer Should Know About Substance Use
Addiction is a great equalizer. Among attorneys, substance use is particularly concerning; it is pervasive and covert. Approximately 50-75% of lawyer discipline problems involve substance use. Paradoxically, the qualities that can propel a lawyer to success can also put a lawyer at risk. In this presentation, we introduce ten things that every attorney should know about substance use. Topics include the incidence of substance use disorders, contributing factors, the ethics of impaired lawyering, strategies for addressing substance use, and practical tips for increasing resiliency.
A Malpractice Not To-Do List
Almost everyone likes a to-do list. But what about a not to-do list—a malpractice not to-do list? A malpractice not to-do list is a list of professional behaviors or situations that, if undertaken, stand to bring a lawyer closer to malpractice. In this presentation, we present a seven-item not to-do list spanning every phase of a representation—from initial consultation, to relationship-building, to routine client interactions, to end of relationship. We explore why clients file malpractice claims and identify a wide range of common ethical traps.
Civil War: How Attorneys Can Communicate with Courtesy, Decency, and Respect and Avoid Becoming Just Another Lawyer Joke
In this course, we will discuss the importance of maintaining civility in communications with clients, opposing counsel and others and recommend best practices for doing so by exploring scenarios that an attorney might face in practice.
Perils and Pointers: Issues in Mergers and Acquisitions
Transactional attorneys need to understand, appreciate, and actively assess their risks to prevent ethical violations and malpractice suits. In this presentation, we will address a broad range of ethical issues relevant to transactional practice. Particular emphasis will be on ethical perils in the M&A context, including mistakes, conflicts of interest, attorney-client privilege, candor in negotiations, and cybersecurity and technological competence. Each peril will be paired with a helpful list of pointers to help the M&A attorney prevent it.
Attorney Professionalism: There's More to it Than Just Making a Lot of Money and Having a Lot of Clients
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.
Cannabis Conundrum: Weeding Among the Hazy Legal Ethics Lines
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.
Professionalism Today: Pandemics and A Lawyer's Virtual Life
In the COVID-19 pandemic environment and perhaps its aftermath, lawyers must operate in a virtual world that requires extensive use of technology. The pillars of professionalism – competence, civility, public and community service, and pro bono work to ensure access to justice – are always relevant. This era’s needs and concerns accentuate the tenets of professionalism, as the legal profession adopts and adapts to virtual practice and communicating professionally.
Professionalism: How Wonderful it Really is to be a Lawyer
Professionalism in the practice of law is not just complying with the Code of Professional Conduct. It is about how a lawyer is as a lawyer. This presentation describes what professionalism looks like in key areas of a law practice. Integrity, competence, attorney-client relations, dealing with other attorneys and with society, as well as why attorneys should look out for each other. A good attorney is ethical, it is the great attorney who understands and exercises professionalism throughout the day and over time.
An Introduction to Legal Malpractice Claims and Related Ethical Issues
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.
Ethics for Litigators
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.
Cyber-Based Legal Malpractice Claims: Defenses, Risk Management and Ethics Issues
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.
Trademarks and Trade Dress In Cars: An IP Overview
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.
Professionalism: It's More than Being Ethical
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.
Bad Judges? Ethics Questions in Seeking Judicial Disqualification
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.
Ethics and the IP Attorney - Serving Two Masters
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.
Regulation, Risk & Resilience: The Nexus between Professional Liability, Duty of Competence and Attorney Well-Being
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.
Skills for Success: Basics for the IL Newly Admitted Attorney
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 time management. They are: Session 1: Strive to Thrive: Not Only Succeeding but Flourishing as a Junior Lawyer Session 2: Leveling the Playing Field Session 3: Conflict Conundrums — An Introduction to Legal Ethics & Conflicts of Interest Session 4: Professionalism: It’s More than Being Ethical Session 5: An Introduction to Legal Malpractice Claims and Related Ethical Issues Session 6: Doing More in Less Time For Lawyers. Please note that this six hour program contains two checkpoints total. There are not checkpoints within each individual course.
The Modern Jury: Trying a Case in the Days of COVID-19
Justin Blitz discusses everything an attorney needs to know to detail trial tactics and strategies, presenting the thought process of the plaintiff attorney throughout the evolution of the trial and best practices for conducting trials during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. Blitz will begin the course by discussing strategies for jury selection, how to tell your client’s story and what to expect at trial during the pandemic. This program will also cover ways to effectively communicate your message to younger jurors, and provide some tips on how to give successful opening statements, and direct and cross examinations along with tips on summation. Mr. Blitz offers practical advice that he has learned through his years of practice and advice on trying a case during the COVID-19 pandemic from his recent successful 4 week trial that he recently concluded.
Great Lawyers Know the Judge: The Law, Ethics, and Effectiveness of Lawyers' Interactions with Judges
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.
Attorney Wellbeing: 'Tis the Season to be...Jolly - Setting Expectations Not the Table
This one-hour program discusses the science of resilience, patience and gratitude and offers practical skills and exercises to incorporate these practices into our daily life. We focus on the impact of stress on the mind and body, and how the pandemic is adding to stress to an already overly stressed profession. The objective of this course is to provide tools to approach setting expectations given the current environment of uncertainly.
Grace Under Pressure: Strategies to Combat Stress in the Practice and Prevent Burnout
This one-hour program discusses the science of stress and resilience and offers several strategies to combat stress in the legal practice and to prevent burnout. The objective of this course is to provide tools that will increase lawyer competency by learning to identify stress and appropriately respond to stressors.
Legal Ethics Overview and Common Violations
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.
Civil Trial Preparation for Attorneys Newly Admitted in New Jersey
How is trial preparation in civil cases New Jersey different from other states’/federal practice? What are the special rules as to discovery? What are the customs and practices? How are the rules of evidence different? How does one preserve errors for appeal? This is an overview with examples from the presenter’s own experience. It is also helpful for new attorneys practicing in New Jersey courts.
Set Yourself Up for Success: Setting Expectations and Establishing Good Client Screening
Screening clients, scoping cases and setting appropriate expectations of clients is a fundamental part of having a successful legal practice. It’s important to be able to determine whether a potential client fits your (and your firm’s business) model, whether the potential client has any knowledge of the legal remedies available to them, and whether they have a realistic understanding of the costs involved. Setting appropriate expectations from the get-go can make or break your attorney-client relationship. During this hour long seminar, we will address the many issues that can emerge from an attorney’s failure to set appropriate expectations and screen clients, as well as provide tips to ensure that you are set up for success from the very beginning.
Don't Burn Bridges: How Legal Employers and Lawyers Can Separate Without Breaching Ethical Obligations to Clients and Each Other
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.
What Regular People Don’t Know About the Lawyer Ethics Rules and What That Means for Lawyers
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.
Do's and Don'ts of Establishing an Attorney-Client Relationship: Engagement Agreements and Disengagement Letters
You’ve identified a great client, but now you need make sure that you’re properly establishing that attorney-client relationship. You’ve withdrawn from a case, but now you need to make sure the client understands that your representation has ended. As with any relationship, knowing how to establish the parameters of an attorney-client relationship, and how to successfully terminate that relationship, is key. Participants in this course will gain an understanding of the importance of successfully establishing an attorney-client relationship, and how to address the end of that relationship.
Breaking Away From Bad: Avoiding Troublesome Clients and Ethically Handling Mistakes Made for the Good Ones
This presentation will address two different topics that might be more related than you think at first. Mistakes in the practice of law are both inevitable and avoidable, and when they occur they trigger a variety of ethical issues and obligations for the lawyers involved. When they happen in the course of representing clients for whom it was a mistake to agree to be their lawyer in the first place, they can be doubly unpleasant. So, in addition to addressing ethical obligations brought about by mistakes, this course will also discuss ways that lawyers can try to avoid taking on “unworthy” clients in the first place.
Can I Keep Working From Home?: The Ethics of Remote Work
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many lawyers began working remotely from home every day. How do the ethics rules apply to long-term remote or “hybrid” practice? In this course, we will explore some of the rules of professional responsibility implicated by long-term remote and hybrid practice—including the rules of confidentiality, communication, supervision, and competence—and offer practical tips for ethical compliance. We will end with a discussion of the rules on unauthorized practice of law and the ethics opinions offering guidance to lawyers who may be living and working remotely from a state in which they are not admitted to practice.
Back to Basics: Sailing the Five C's of Ethical Lawyering
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.
Zealous Civility: Keeping Calm and Carrying On in Times of Crisis
This course explores the concept of civility and what that looks like in daily legal practice and times of crisis. We will use recent events to define and set the context for upholding civility in the legal profession. We will also review the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct relating to civility and sanctions for failure to uphold it, as well as relevant caselaw.
The Ethical Implications of Legalized Cannabis
Public support for legalized cannabis is at an all-time high, and at least 33 states have legalized it in some fashion. In light of the booming cannabis industry and the significant regulatory challenges that cannabis-related businesses face, the need for legal advice is industry-wide. However, giving cannabis-related legal advice can raise some hazy ethical issues for attorneys, due in part to the continued illegality of cannabis at the federal level. In this presentation, we will examine both the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct and a selection of state rules and opinions as we work through the ethical implications for lawyers who don’t stay off the grass.
Ten Things Every Lawyer Should Know About Substance Use
Addiction is a great equalizer. Among attorneys, substance use is particularly concerning; it is pervasive and covert. Approximately 50-75% of lawyer discipline problems involve substance use. Paradoxically, the qualities that can propel a lawyer to success can also put a lawyer at risk. In this presentation, we introduce ten things that every attorney should know about substance use. Topics include the incidence of substance use disorders, contributing factors, the ethics of impaired lawyering, strategies for addressing substance use, and practical tips for increasing resiliency.
A Malpractice Not To-Do List
Almost everyone likes a to-do list. But what about a not to-do list—a malpractice not to-do list? A malpractice not to-do list is a list of professional behaviors or situations that, if undertaken, stand to bring a lawyer closer to malpractice. In this presentation, we present a seven-item not to-do list spanning every phase of a representation—from initial consultation, to relationship-building, to routine client interactions, to end of relationship. We explore why clients file malpractice claims and identify a wide range of common ethical traps.
Civil War: How Attorneys Can Communicate with Courtesy, Decency, and Respect and Avoid Becoming Just Another Lawyer Joke
In this course, we will discuss the importance of maintaining civility in communications with clients, opposing counsel and others and recommend best practices for doing so by exploring scenarios that an attorney might face in practice.