West Virginia CLE requirements

Special care is needed when working with clients in trauma, both to support them and to protect yourself. This session covers the ways to prevent secondary trauma and compassion fatigue when working with clients in trauma, including how to maintain your equilibrium while hearing stories of trauma and tips on self-care during the interview and afterward. We will define the serious consequences that may arise for practitioners working with those in trauma and outline a well-being approach to prevent burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious trauma. This program will benefit practitioners who work with clients in trauma, including those in criminal law, family law, immigration law, employment law, and all those whose work, including pro bono work, touches on issues of trauma.

Professional sports involve a unique interplay between antitrust and labor law. On the one hand, pro leagues have a cartel structure where independent team owners coordinate policies with regard relocation, broadcasting deals and salary controls, their way of doing business raises antitrust questions and poses challenges for courts to determine whether these policies violate antitrust law. In addition, because labor agreements are made by all of these owners through the umbrella of the league, the labor agreements combine aspects of labor law, but also involve the applicability of antitrust exemptions involving their labor agreements. This presentation will focus on the basic antitrust standards, the scope of Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption, the scope of the “rule of reason” test and the scope of the so-called non-statutory labor exemption to antitrust. If there is time, we will review some key provisions of the current labor agreements between Major League Baseball and its players and the NFL and its players.

Employers often begin planning and preparing for decisions concerning compensation for employees, including raises and bonuses, in the second half of the year. As attorneys, we provide guidance to our clients to ensure that these compensation decisions are made in accordance with federal and state laws. As part of this process, the time is also ripe to assist clients with reevaluating pay practices in hot spot areas such as misclassification of non-exempt employees and independent contractors, equalize any pay disparities, and ensure that pay plans and compensation practices are consistent with state law. In this presentation, we will guide you through these end of year compensation considerations and equip you with the tools you need to assist your clients to comply with federal and state wage and hour laws and avoid costly mistakes.

One of the challenges faced when attempting to treat or assist an individual suffering from a mental illness is a lack of insight into having such an illness. The individual may deny suffering from a mental illness and therefore refuse treatment or the assistance of a family member or loved one, insisting that he/she can function independently, despite evidence to the contrary. The individual may prevent others from accessing medical and financial information, thereby making it impossible to speak to care providers and financial institutions to protect, advocate and plan for the future. Even if the individual has the capacity to sign advance directives such as a Power of Attorney or Health Care Proxy, he/she can either refuse to do so or revoke those documents after execution. The circumstances might require a more restrictive type of intervention.

This course, presented by Jennifer L. Hess, an attorney and lecturer on long term disability law topics, provides an overview of long term disability insurance policies subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”). This is an introductory course is designed to benefit any attorney who is currently handling long term disability matters or interested in handling these matters. In two parts, this course: (I) reviews the basics of ERISA law; and (II) discusses the 9 fundamental policy terms critical to long term disability claims. In doing so, this course will cover the rights and protections that ERISA offers to claimants, provide useful practice tips, and share strategies to maximize a claimant’s disability benefit income under the policy.

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

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

Navigating a divorce case from complaint to judgment is almost as difficult as navigating New Jersey’s “pothole” filled highways. There are hazards at every stage of the proceedings which can derail your case at any time. This Divorce Law Guide will help you safely avoid those potholes so that you can get your client what they want - a DIVORCE JUDGEMENT. This course is a basic guide of the various stages of a divorce case in New Jersey. The statutory and procedural hurdles are discussed in plain English so that even the new practitioner and the client can understand the lengthy and costly divorce practice.

In this practical webinar, you will learn how to ethically and effectively represent a placing parent in an adoption starting with the initial meeting with the client through the adoptive placement and thereafter. Adoptions are unique with regard to the receipt and sharing of confidential information as well as avoiding conflicts of interest in representation.

Copyright Law can be the Charles Dickens of the law. It can be the best of times; it can be the worst of times. It truly is A Tale of Two Scenarios. If the attorney handling the copyright matter for the client is well prepared, does the initial research, and understands the general principles, it will be the best of times—going from initial application through final issuance and, possibly, victory at trial. If the attorney handling the copyright matter is unprepared, does not conduct sufficient research ahead of time, or does not understand the general principles of copyright law, then it will be the worst of times. The initial application may result in rejection from the U.S. Copyright Office, or the attorney could find himself embroiled in protracted and, ultimately, unsuccessful copyright-infringement litigation. In this introduction to Copyright Law, we cover the basics from application through litigation in an effort to ensure the attorney practices Copyright Law in the best of times.

This course surveys federal law as it relates to people with disabilities—specifically, you will learn about the protections provided to disabled persons under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This CLE course is the first of a two-part series. The primary focus of Part I is to provide an overview of the ADA’s non-discrimination provisions as they apply to employers, government entities, and public accommodations. Then, the focus of Part I will be on employment discrimination under Title I of the ADA. The course will provide attorneys with a working knowledge of Title I to better represent clients who face employment discrimination on the basis of disability.

When a State officer violates someone’s constitutional rights, 42 USC § 1983 allows suit for money damages. But no such law allows claims against federal officials. Instead, since Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), the Supreme Court has implied a private cause of action for damages against federal officers for some types of Constitutional violations. In Ziglar v. Abbasi, 137 S. Ct. 1843 (2017), the Supreme Court substantially narrowed this doctrine, limiting the rights of people in prison or federal detention centers to sue for money damages when they have been beaten, placed in dangerous conditions of confinement, discriminated against or otherwise mistreated. This course will survey the current state of prison Bivens claims.

This program will focus on Workers Compensation, Social Security Disability Benefits, and Unemployment Benefits. After an overview of each program’s basics, we will begin with a recapturing public benefits policies from the Covid-19 Pandemic. We will review and assess the current state of these benefits programs in terms of both legal changes and operational changes. The final portion of the program will look at the political, global, and economic factors impacting these programs. We will focus on predicting the impacts on public benefits and proactive steps we can take to best prepare your clients.

Social media is a minefield: All of us are just a click away from going viral! But the risk of internet infamy hasn't stopped students and faculty staff from posting, sharing, and tweeting their way into free speech flare-ups at campuses across the country. So what can recent First Amendment controversies and cases involving social media teach us about freedom of expression and the First Amendment? Join Will Creeley from the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression as he takes a closer look at student and faculty free speech rights in our extremely online world.

This module provides an overview of the skills needed to conduct thorough, effective, and actionable workplace investigations. Participants will learn how to sift through a variety of material using best practices and clearly present results that businesses rely on when making important decisions. The basic questions an investigator might have will be addressed: what constitutes a complaint, when to investigate, who should investigate, and how to investigate. It also addresses issues of confidentiality, provides tools to better determine witness credibility, and underscores the necessity of unpacking one’s own biases prior to undertaking an investigation. This CLE will benefit in-house and general counsel, third-party attorneys who regularly conduct investigations, HR personnel, and anyone else involved in determining who did what at work.

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.

Have you ever thought about what is stored in your mobile phone, smartwatch, or laptop when you travel, and who can access that information? This course will address the current state of the law governing searches of international travelers’ electronic devices at the U.S. border. The course will then discuss the changing legal landscape in light of technological advancements in the amount of digital data that people carry with them when they travel.

Preliminary injunctions and temporary restarting orders are extraordinary remedies whose use have recently been on the rise. Success in getting a court to grant requires passing rigid procedural hurdles and satisfying high standards of proof. In this one hour program, we will review various factors to consider when obtaining preliminary injunctions and temporary restraining orders as well as discuss issues that should be considered prior to filing for injunctive relief. Injunctions can be useful tools in protecting assets and halting wrongdoing but, injunctive relief means only as much as the ability to enforce it.

This course is a primer to class litigation, in essentially three parts: Part 1 is class action legal theory, Part 2 is the public policy debate, and Part 3 is class litigation in practice. Part 1 will address the creation of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23, as well as key legal developments in class action law, including Wal-Mart v. Dukes, Campbell-Ewald v. Gomez, Amchem v. Windsor, and others, up through the present day. Part 2 will address the major arguments both for and against class actions as public policy. Part 3 will address class litigation in practice, tracing changes in how class actions are litigated over time, and how class litigation has been practically impacted by developments in class action case law, with a focus on how to use the current law to successfully prosecute or defend a class action.

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.