Virginia Live CLE Bundle 2021

The tension between the business of law and the profession of law has never been more perilous; the ancient trap of politics warping values and judgment for lawyers and judges has never gaped wider. Gallup’s annual survey of the public’s trust in institutions and occupations shows lawyers tied in the “Net Negative” category with newspaper reporters, with only 17% of the public regarding attorneys as honest and trustworthy. What defines a traditional profession is a public servant who is trusted. Losing public trust in the legal profession is a looming disaster for a democratic society.

This program explores critical practice challenges that the Rules of Professional Conduct do not adequately address in some cases. The remedy is an understanding and mastery of professionalism, lawyers devoting themselves to core values and objectives, and seeking exemplary ethics rather than merely compliance with ethics rules that even the American Bar Association admits don’t provide sufficient guidance in many situations a lawyer may face.

“Professionalism: When the Rules Aren’t Enough” will engage, challenge, and enlighten practitioners at all levels desiring to sharpen their legal ethics skills so they can bolster both the justice system and the legal profession for the benefit of the public.

This is a multidisciplinary, hypothetical-based program that will give participants new tools, explore up-to-date developments in legal ethics, and hone ethics alarms so they ring before a client has been harmed rather than when it is too late.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize the limits of mere formal compliance with the ethics rules
• Identify where and when the Professional Rules of Conduct seem to cover or address situations or cases inadequately
• Understand how ethical rules should be used and why they must be regularly reconsidered
• Recognize and anticipate ethics issues in legal practice at the earliest possible time
• Develop tools and techniques to address common legal ethics dilemmas by considering and discussing challenging hypothetical situations based on actual cases
• Review recent news stories, ethics cases, and opinions, and how they have influenced the legal sphere

It is important for attorneys to learn about challenges to legal ethics principles posed by lawyers succumbing to alcoholism and/or addiction and the ways in which the legal profession is currently seeking to prevent, or remedy, such problems. Even attorneys not suffering from alcoholism or addiction have a professional responsibility to learn about, and apply critical analysis to, the legal profession's ongoing efforts to prevent, or attempt to remediate, problems for this profession. Attorneys who are "recovering" from either condition (or both) can contribute valuable insights in an interactive seminar on the subject such as this seminar.

The format of this course is a blend of the lecture method with the Socratic method extensively involving a high degree of interactive participation and critical analyses of a wide range of issues relevant to the subject of the seminar in a manner not limited to mere chronological description of particular topics and sub-topics. Depending on the number of participants in a particular seminar, the format usually results in most, if not all, participants verbally engaging in conversational-styled interactive discussion and/or analysis of particular topics in the seminar and also permits interruptions, questions, challenges, etc. throughout the seminar. Think of collegially enjoyable and enlightening round-table discussions. It's a form of learning by thinking in the course of interactively participating rather than learning solely by listening (the latter of which is the lecture method).

Any attorney who is required to attend a CLE seminar on "substance abuse" and any other attorney recognizing the professional responsibility to understand how the legal profession and the courts are currently seeking to (a) reduce the number of lawyers succumbing to such problems, (b) provide effective remedial assistance when needed, and (c) apply suitable disciplinary measures when necessary.

Learning Objectives: 

• Examine the effect of the Constitution's (and each state constitution's) vesting of "the judicial power" of the sovereign in its "Supreme Court" and its thereby incorporation of the evolutionary nature of the judiciary's common law inherent judicial power (i.e., sui generis power) to define, prescribe, and enforce educational, moral, ethical and civil standards for the practice of law and the status of lawyers as officers of the courts
• Explore how exercising such common law inherent judicial power (sui generis power) in an adversarial system created under common law, the supreme court of the sovereign (i.e., the U.S. Supreme Court and each state supreme court) creates structural and functional tools for the administration of justice -- i.e., rules of evidence, burdens of proof, procedural rules, and regulatory control over the conduct of attorneys
• The judiciary generally encourages lawyers to participate actively in the regulatory control over our profession generally and the conduct of lawyers individually. Therefore, each attorney has a duty to keep abreast of such disciplinary and regulatory activities and as much as possible to actively participate (pro bono, of course) in, and support, such activities
• Explore the "illness" nature of alcoholism or addiction
• Develop and implement regulatory measures to provide remedial assistance to those suffering from such illness, but do not let the goal of remediation to completely eclipse ethical (and moral) responsibility
• Analyze how the public perceives the legal profession as a "self-regulating" profession" and how this underscores the duty of the legal profession to handle  this regulatory responsibility in ways that increase, rather than diminish, the public's confidence in our legal system
• Recognize the legal profession’s duty to avoid letting compassion unduly repress the sense of responsibility to protect the justice system from the too-widespread perception among the public that lawyers can always avoid the consequences of their own shortcomings or misconduct

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Central Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Mountain Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Pacific Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alaska Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Tuesday, July 1, 2025
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Attorneys should attend this program because it will equip them with valuable skills to navigate challenging interpersonal dynamics. Such training helps in enhancing communication strategies, reducing conflicts, and fostering a more cooperative legal environment. Additionally, mastering these best practices can improve client satisfaction, strengthen professional relationships, and ultimately lead to more successful case outcomes.

Attendees will learn key skills such as effective communication, conflict resolution, emotional intelligence, and stress management. This course will discuss the process of identifying and resolving issues, with a focus on doing so with difficult clients.

A wide range of legal professionals with varying levels of experience would benefit from attending this program. Attorneys from novice lawyers to seasoned practitioners seeking to refine their skills, paralegals and legal assistants to support attorneys more effectively and improve client interactions, and mediators for enhancing their conflict resolution and negotiation techniques are encouraged to attend.

Learning Objectives:

• Name three different situations or circumstances that could cause a client or opposing party to be “difficult”
• Describe three ways adverse childhood experiences may impact a client or opposing party
• Compare how toxic stress may impact a client, an opposing party, and an opposing counsel
• Identify the relationship between trauma and resilience
• Explain how trauma may impact a client or opposing party
• Explain how vicarious trauma may impact an opposing counsel
• Assess the importance of self-care in the legal profession

Attorneys should attend this program to explore how medical experts are crucial to defending a personal injury case in trial. Medical experts are critically important yet ever-challenging witnesses to examine. An arsenal of skills for direct and cross-examining medical expert witnesses is essential to trying a case at the highest level.

With direct examination, attendees will learn how to select and vet medical experts, develop a direct examination strategy, employ effective questioning techniques, and use demonstrative aids. With cross-examination, attendees will learn about the goals and philosophy of cross-examination, how to prepare the cross, reliable methods for cross-examination, and how to deal with hostile or evasive experts on cross-examination; the presentation will also cover ethical considerations when dealing with experts and practical tips/common pitfalls.

This program is highly recommended for attorneys with limited to moderate experience who are actively involved in litigating and trying personal injury and medical malpractice cases.

Learning Objectives:

• Examine how to select and vet medical experts
• Develop a direct examination strategy
• Explore how to employ effective questioning techniques in direct examination of medical experts
• Assess how to use demonstrative aids
• Prepare for cross-examination by a medical expert
• Utilize effective techniques and deal with evasive experts