May 6, 2020 – The Accidental Lawyer: Terms of Engagement

May 6, 2020 - CLE

Sponsored by CLESeminars.com

Date: May 6, 2020
Time: 11:00 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. (Mountain Time)
Cost: $80.00
Credit Approval: 1.25 CLE Credits including 1.25 Ethics Credit

You’re a lawyer, right? Seemingly innocuous words, but when said at a cocktail party, family gathering, or even in a hallway or elevator at the courthouse, they pose a genuine challenge, don’t they? We want to use our training to help folks, right? After all, isn’t that at least a part of why many of us went to law school?

And yet, how many times has a conversation that began with those very words turned out to be the source of tremendous trouble? Beyond the obvious risk of getting sidetracked from the social occasion in which one is supposed to be participating, or the task one is trying to accomplish, there lurk even greater dangers. As some poor, unfortunate souls have learned, if a lawyer is not careful in responding, he or she may inadvertently create a professional relationship, without intending to do so–leaving the lawyer potentially exposed to a malpractice claim. And even if an attorney-client relationship is not deemed to have been formed, a would-be client may nevertheless believe that he or she is communicating with the prospective lawyer in confidence for the purpose of obtaining legal services. If that belief is found to have been a reasonable one, the attorney may end up prohibited from disclosing any confidential information communicated.

This new live, interactive workshop is designed to help lawyers be more alert to the vulnerabilities they may face in various non-office settings, and to equip them with best practices for defining their roles up front and setting clear boundaries with the person seeking advice. With the aid of three original film vignettes depicting three all-too-common challenging scenarios, participants will have an opportunity to identify their own areas of potential exposure, and to develop proactive strategies for navigating these situations with less risk and greater peace of mind.

Faculty
Michael Kahn is a “recovering lawyer,” having practiced for 6 years with the New Jersey Attorney General’s office. He is a licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Oregon, and his psychotherapy practice has focused on helping clients deal with anxiety, depression, grief/loss, career satisfaction, and men’s issues. He co-facilitates grief groups for lawyers in Oregon and Vancouver, BC. Michael presents training seminars and workshops on ethics, grief, wellness, diversity and inclusion and other topics throughout the U.S. and abroad, including for the U.S. military in Germany and Japan. He also is a professional coach and aids with career issues, stress management, retirement, and coping with change.

In addition to his ongoing work with ReelTime CLE, Chris Osborn is a former law professor, and the founding principal of Osborn Conflict Resolution, which provides Superior Court mediations, as well as collaborative law approaches for family law, construction, business, and will and probate disputes throughout North Carolina. Chris is trained as a collaborative lawyer and is a member of the North Carolina Civil Collaborative Lawyers Association. He has been certified by the N.C. Dispute Resolution Commission as a Superior Court mediator since 2009, and has assisted the vast majority of his legal clients over the years to reach amicable resolutions in a wide variety of litigation matters, including business breakups, construction and employment law disputes, and will caveats.

Marshall Cole is a trial attorney at Nemecek & Cole. He has extensive experience representing licensed professionals, including lawyers. Prior to joining Nemecek, Marshall was an associate with the law firm of Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard, and Shapiro.

Amanda Moghaddam is a Claims Attorney at Lawyers Mutual Insurance of California where she educates and assists attorneys with ethical and legal issues. She was previously with the law firm of Nemecek & Cole.

John M. Stuart was the Minnesota State Public Defender from 1990 to 2014, supervising a state public defense system in which 700 lawyers and support staff represent 175,000 clients a year. Prior to that he was a trial court public defender for 12 years. Stuart has served as Co-Chair of the American Council of Chief Defenders and taught at the National Defender Leadership Institute. In Minnesota, he has worked on numerous statewide task forces dealing with racial fairness, drug and sex offender sentencing, child welfare and juvenile justice. He holds a B. A. from Haverford College (Haverford, PA) and a J.D from the State University of New York Law School at Buffalo, where he was a volunteer law clerk for the Attica Brothers Legal Defense. Stuart retired in 2014 and is still active in the justice system, continuing to work on creating more drug courts and treatment programs for nonviolent offenders as an alternative to jail time.

Barry R. Vickrey served as Dean of the University of South Dakota School of Law (Vermillion, SD) from 1993 to 2011 and then served as a full-time professor until his retirement in 2016. He taught legal ethics throughout his career in legal education. Prior to his tenure at USD, he was on the faculty of the University of North Dakota School of Law for eleven years, including five years as Associate Dean. He was on the staff of the American Bar Association for five years, serving as assistant to the president elect president and as Director of the Division of Professional Education. Between college and law school, he was a staff aide on the Policy Planning Staff of the Governor of Tennessee. Barry lived in Tennessee for most of his early life and is admitted to the practice of law in Tennessee and South Dakota. He holds a B.A. in history and a J.D. from Vanderbilt University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. His wife, Mary Green Vickrey, is a singer-songwriter and music educator who holds a B.A. from Vanderbilt and an M.A. from USD. They have two grown sons and two grandchildren.