Vermont CLE requirements

The practice of law has a big problem: women and BIPOC lawyer attrition. Studies show that the mental health of women and BIPOC lawyers suffers more and they leave the profession faster than others. But late nights and unpredictable hours are symptoms of mismanagement, not inherent in legal work. In this course, Dr. Carminati will discuss the Livable Law Method she created to guide legal organizations toward implementing agile project management techniques. With this method, managers can learn to equalize workflow, improve transparency, and decrease needless stress. Most importantly, they can improve outcomes for women and BIPOC lawyers in their organizations.

Estate planning is a common and needed area of legal services. The need is only growing. So are low cost and no cost non-attorney alternatives. Learn what a comprehensive estate plan is and the strategies only attorneys can provide, so that you can provide value to your clients and they ultimately leave your office with a manageable to-do list.

Nursing home abuse and neglect cases can be difficult and confusing to manage. In this course, Michael Brusca will guide you through the process of nursing home abuse and neglect litigation, including choosing the proper claims, procuring discovery, developing deposition strategies, and obtaining appropriate experts.

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.

Drafting a trust can seem overwhelming. This course will help you navigate what kind of trust you will need as part of a Will or Revocable Trust and discuss key provisions that can be included. We will focus on practical drafting advice in order to ensure that attorneys have the tools necessary for success.

Many legal consumers are only familiar with traditional, full-scope legal representation. However, this is not practical or affordable for many, and perhaps even most, Americans. This leads many to decide to “go it alone” and represent themselves. However, some representation is almost always better than no representation at all. Offering flexible representation, also called unbundled, limited scope, or à la carte services, allows you to connect with legal consumers who may otherwise feel priced out of the legal market. During this hour long seminar, we will address what precisely “unbundled” and limited scope services are (and are not) and what benefits can be achieved not only to the consumer but also to you as an attorney in offering these options. We will also provide you with resources, from the relevant ethical rules to tips on how to identify appropriate candidates for unbundled or limited scope services.

Unfortunately, threats by students to commit self-harm or violence towards others are common in schools today. It is imperative that schools have procedures in place to immediately respond to those threats and that school employees understand how federal law may dictate additional action once the immediate threat is addressed. This one-hour presentation gives a brief overview of the legal considerations for responding to threats, trauma, violence, and suicidal behaviors.

This one hour presentation will highlight some of the legal issues arising out of the use of social media both in the workplace and off duty. We will consider the various considerations affecting both employers and attorneys when monitoring and reviewing social media activity. Attorneys who take this course will be better able to identify some of the many legal risks related to the use of social media and will be better able to mitigate those risks.

Cybersecurity risk management and the potential for enforcement actions is not diminishing. An area of increasing interest by the Federal Trade Commission, the United States Department of Justice, and Congress is third parties benefiting financially from taking sensitive data, including protected health information, without obtaining affirmative patient/consumer consent (especially from social media and search engine giants). The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the agency tasked with enforcing HIPAA, also plays a critical role here. The purpose of this presentation is to address different federal government initiatives, recent enforcement actions and incidents, and risk mitigation.

This course is an introduction to the basics of trademark and copyright protection for businesses. It will provide attorneys with the information they need to advise clients on what types of protection may be appropriate for their businesses. We will discuss different types of trademarks, the differences between state trademark applications vs. federal applications, the federal application process, and some best practices for counseling clients. We will also briefly discuss copyright protection and copyright notice requirements.

Truck accidents are different than car accidents. There are added regulations, additional evidentiary issues, and the regular need for experts. Because of this, it is difficult to tackle a truck accident case without significant experience. This course will provide an overview of the basic steps in how to litigate a truck accident case. We will start at the time the call is first received, the initial investigation, pleading, discovery, and commonly litigated issues. We will cover this from both the Plaintiff (injured party) and Defendant (truck driver) perspective. There is, obviously, much more to litigating a truck accident than we can cover in 1 hour. If you have any questions on your truck case, please feel free to email me ([email protected]) or call me 404-793-0026.

Climate change is the term on everyone’s tongue, but the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, with its goals to half US carbon emissions by 2030 and become a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, is not the only major federal law that continues to shape land use in the United States. From the now defunct navigable waters protection in the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act to the alive and kicking 1973 Endangered Species Act, a web of evolving laws and regulations touches upon every square inch of land in the country. This course offers an overview of the federal framework for such laws, including enforcing agencies (Hint: It’s not just the EPA) and their more detailed regulations interpreting the laws. We will also touch upon the big 6: Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, CERCLA, Coastal Zone Management Act, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and the Endangered Species Act. Finally, we conclude with historical context, including former president, Teddy Roosevelt, and how Rachel Carlson’s Silent Spring galvanized the nascent environmental movement in the United States and led to many of the subsequently adopted laws.

Families are unique social constructs with unique challenges. Accordingly, estate planning attorneys must anticipate and draft for these challenges if they do not want clients (and the estate plans) to be subject to probate or estate administration court battles. This program covers applicable laws, rules, and regulations for drafting trusts that address three of the most common, yet challenging, family dynamics: hostile family members, spendthrift beneficiaries, and family factions. We will also review hypotheticals to provide hands-on examples of provisions that can be helpful in keeping the peace or at least keeping clients from nasty court battles.

The Biden Administration’s proposed budget for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) seeks, among other things, funding to hire significantly more OSHA inspectors in 2022 and beyond.  As businesses brace for aggressive enforcement in the coming years, this program is designed to help attorneys assist their clients through an OSHA investigation.  You will hear from a former OSHA trial attorney while he reviews the investigation process from the opening conference through the issuance of citations.  The program further addresses considerations attorneys need to be thinking about when advising clients on whether to settle or litigate OSHA citations.  Often these important considerations include how OSHA citations will affect third party claims which may present significantly more liability than the OSHA penalties themselves.  Moreover, the program discusses best practices during the investigation process and settlement strategies to achieve client objectives while minimizing risk of future repeat or willful violations. 

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

Very few, if any, areas of law possess the high levels of complexity and consequences as the analysis of, and response to, the collateral immigration consequences of criminal activity. When counseling non-citizens who have interacted with law enforcement, attorneys must consider a wide range of potential effects. What pleadings or sentences put their client on the radar of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”)? What will be the likelihood of ICE detention? Will the client become inadmissible to or deportable from the U.S? How will the potential immigration claims be affected—both affirmative and/or defensive? What about the ability to safely travel? Similarly, attorneys must know how to apply the appropriate analysis to outline all of the potential scenarios before the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or the Immigration Courts, and the risks and benefits attendant to each. This course will provide an overview of the main immigration consequences of criminal activity, including what you should look for and how to proceed from the initial consultation.

This program will briefly discuss the purpose of the IDEA and the standard for individualized education programs (IEPs), and will discuss more in-depth the sections of IEPs and what they should entail. This program will also cover evaluations, and what districts are required to do, as well as parent’s rights. The program will be New York based, but New York’s regulations strongly mirror federal law, and differences will be noted. It will also cover updates in special education law, including the COVID pandemic and its impact. This program will benefit new attorneys to the special education field, and attorneys who are seeking to better understand what an IEP is, how it is created, and what it is based on in order to be appropriate.

This program will address the importance of lawyer well-being as it relates to our ability to practice law with competence. Information will be provided on what well-being is and why the legal profession has such high rates of substance use and mental health concerns as compared to the general population. Specific steps we can take to ameliorate substance use and mental health issues will be provided. Finally, several trauma-informed body-based tools will be taught that are effective in calming anxiety, overwhelm and stress.

As lawyers, most of us spend our share of time writing – e-mails, letters, memos, motions, briefs. No matter how much we write or how good our writing is, we can always improve. In this one hour program, we will discuss the different ways that lawyers and law firms can improve their overall writing styles and habits.

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.