Virginia Live CLE Bundle 2021

Exemplifying professionalism and civility in attorney conduct is critical across all practice settings, including private practice, in-house, and government. This program will review case scenarios and real-life examples of professional and unprofessional conduct to identify the opportunities or potential disciplinary proceedings associated with each. Case scenarios and real-life examples from a variety of jurisdictions with broad applicability will be reviewed. Attorneys will learn practical strategies to recognize unprofessional conduct early, avoid ethical traps, and strengthen trust with the courts, clients, and colleagues. The program will also differentiate between historically relevant and contemporarily prevalent issues of professional conduct.

It will focus on the significance of professionalism and on specific issues, including competence, diligence, communication, advocacy, frivolous claims, discovery, conflicts of interest, public perception, and social media. Attorneys of all levels of expertise and from all practice settings and areas should attend this program.

Learning Objectives:

• Define aspirational standards of professionalism in contemporary legal practice.
• Recognize unprofessional conduct and when it crosses into conduct that may warrant disciplinary proceedings. 
• Develop practical strategies to avoid ethical traps and strengthen trust with courts, clients, and colleagues.
• Realize the implications that unprofessional conduct has on public trust in the legal system.

Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are being increasingly adopted by various industries, such as financial services, healthcare, supply chain management, and the legal profession, due to the ability to increase transparency, reduce costs, and improve security. Multiple studies predict the blockchain technology market will be worth over 1400 Billion by 2023. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are creating a new area of law, much like the internet, which created a new area of law in the 1990s. As such, legal professionals must learn about the legal issues in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. 

Legal professionals will learn about Bitcoin and updates to blockchain technology, as well as legal issues, including recent case decisions, enforcement actions, and proposed and passed legislation. Attendees will also learn about new topics, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the Metaverse, and the legal issues for both topics. Finally, attendees will learn updated best practices for incorporating blockchain technology into their legal practice.

This course suits attorneys and legal professionals (paralegals, legal researchers, regulators, and legislators) at any level who want to learn more about blockchain technology and its impact on the legal world.

Learning Objectives:

• Review cryptocurrency and blockchain basics
• Evaluate legal applications to intelligent contracts and decentralized autonomous organizations
• Analyze case law, regulatory enforcement actions, and proposed/enacted legislation
• Introduce new areas of blockchain technology, including NFTs and the Metaverse, and the legal implications for both new regions
• Discuss updated best practices to incorporate blockchain technology into your legal practice

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Central Time: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Mountain Time: 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Pacific Time: 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Alaska Time: 7:00 AM - 8:30 AM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 6:00 AM - 7:30 AM
 

Ongoing legislative and litigation battles, now in more than twenty states, are occurring over the use of ESG (environmental social governance) investment criteria for government funds, contracts, and pensions along with attempts to establish corporate disclosure requirements where ESG factors inform business choices. On one side stand ESG advocates who factor variables such as climate change into investment screens and supply chain decision-making. Their alleged ultimate goal is to mitigate the risks associated with environmental harm downstream and to create sustainable revenue flows. On the other hand, opponents view ESG investment risk screens as boycotts against specific industrial sectors such as nonrenewable energy. Both sides perceive the other as favoring undemocratic and unlawful constraints on free trade. Familiarity with the growing body of legislation and case law is increasingly necessary to effectively advise corporate clients and government entities.

ESG strategies such as divestment from the fossil fuel industry when required in negative investment screens for stock portfolios, partnership agreements, or government contracting have become associated with mitigating risks and enhancing corporate efficiencies on the one hand and targeted boycotts against excluded industries on the other. This has led to a raft of legislation across the country either strengthening ESG requirements such as in Oregon or laws that seek to undo ESG commitments such as in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, Idaho, and Utah. The latter often proceed by conditioning government contract awards on the removal of ESG scores thereby effectively banning the use of ESG criteria by recipients. Likewise, litigation is percolating in multiple states such as Oklahoma, Utah, Maryland, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Wisconsin asserting that government attempts to allow or require ESG factors in investment decision-making is ultra vires in contravention of federal law and free market principles.

This course is suitable to attorneys at any stage in their career who seek to better understand the burgeoning controversy regarding incorporating ESG risk factors into government contracts and corporate investment decision-making.

Learning Objectives:

• Review the origins and expanding meaning of “ESG” (i.e., “environmental social governance”) including the ongoing debate over whether ESG represents a threat to free market principles via the move away from shareholder theory to stakeholder theory
• Evaluate recent trends marked by legislation introduced in 37 states in 2023 to either prevent or encourage companies to consider ESG risk factors such as climate change preparedness and diversity of management/workforce in investment decisions along with litigation by investors directly against corporations
• Analyze the practical challenges of creating positive or negative investment screens for particular categories of stocks held in portfolios such as for those in the energy sector
• Comparatively assess controversies over ESG (environmental, social, governance) on the one hand and DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) on the other
• Analyze multiple cases across at least seven states in the past two years seeking to prevent retirement plan administrators from considering ESG factors when making investments on behalf of plan beneficiaries
• Forecast the efficacy of legislation and/or litigation whether favoring or disfavoring ESG criteria in changing actual corporate practices

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Central Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Mountain Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Pacific Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Alaska Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Monday, December 29, 2025

Legal scholars debate whether financial institutions should not primarily serve shareholders but owe primary direct duties to creditors, insureds, and account holders. Further debates span if these institutions also owe broader fiduciary duties to the public, given the protections banks receive from taxpayers as institutions that are “too big to fail.” This has turned into an ongoing debate about the original purpose of the corporate entity and differing opinions over the lessons of precedent. This course will discuss this topic at length, reviewing recent trends for incorporating banks as benefit corporations. It will also discuss proposals for legislation to allow federally chartered banks to consider non-shareholder interests in decision-making expressly.

Attendees will learn the history of financial institutions, specifically focusing on instances of them prioritizing wealth generation over the common good. Regarding more recent times, attendees will also learn modern attempts to define and/or legislate corporate responsibilities and new perspectives towards more enhanced fiduciary duties. The course will consider the enhanced provision of services allegedly provided to stakeholders by seven benefit B Corp Banks in the U.S. and six foreign banks in the UK, Canada, and Australia. Lastly, it will discuss the legal risk assessment of JPMorgan Chase & Co., Bank of America Corp., and Wells Fargo & Co.’s not to transition to benefit corporations.

This course is ideal for attorneys at any stage in their careers interested in the trends towards enhanced fiduciary duties of financial institutions for multiple stakeholders, the incorporation of thousands of benefit corporations, and values-driven banking.

Learning Objectives:

• Evaluate the history of banks as institutions prioritizing wealth generation over the common good
• Assess the debate over reimagining corporations and financial institutions that require enhanced fiduciary duties for multiple stakeholders
• Review proposed federal legislation to align federally chartered bank priorities with the public’s interests
• Analyze the alleged provision of enhanced services of seven examples of B Corp Banks in the United States and six foreign banks in the UK, Canada, and Australia
• Evaluate the basis for rejecting big banks' proposals to convert to benefit corporations
• Assess the likelihood that large or small banks will transition into statutory Public Benefit Corporations (PBCs)

Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Central Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Mountain Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Pacific Time:  11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Alaska Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Tuesday, December 30, 2025