2024 Ethics and Social Media Update

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

July 10, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This program will discuss significant ethical developments involving attorney use of technology and social media. 

2024 Ethics in Litigation Update, Part 1

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

June 4, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Description: TBD

2024 Ethics in Litigation Update, Part 2

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

June 5, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Description: TBD

2024 Fall New Attorney Program

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Friday, September 27, 2024
8:00 am to 12:30 pm (MDT)

Boise Centre East

195 S. Capitol Blvd., Boise

*In-Person Attendance Only* 

4.0 CLE credits of which 1.0 is Ethics – NAC Approved

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration   $100.00

Day of Registration         $130.00

The New Attorney Program consists of an introduction on Idaho practice, procedure, and ethics. This course meets the CLE requirements of Idaho State Bar Commission Rule 402(f)(3).  Participants must be admitted and sworn into the Idaho State Bar for this course to count toward the New Admittee CLE requirement. If the participant will not be sworn in on or by September 27, 2024, they will have to wait until Spring 2025 to take this course. * 

Agenda

8:00 am      Lawyering Skills

9:30 am      Break

9:45 am      Federal & State Judiciary Panel 

11:15 am    Break

11:30 am    Idaho Lawyer Assistance Program

12:00 pm    Idaho State Bar & Idaho Law Foundation Potpourri

12:30 pm    Program Concludes

2024 Indian Child Welfare Act Conference

Sponsored by the Idaho State Bar Child Protection and Indian Law Sections

Friday, April 19, 2024
8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

University of Idaho College of Law

501 W. Front St., Room 221 - Boise

*Live Webcast Available

5.75 CLE credits (pending)

Registration: 

General Registration                                                                       $50

Members of the Child Protection or Indian Law Sections        No cost

Law Students                                                                                   No cost

Take Advantage of the Section Membership Registration Benefits Now: Join the Child Protection or Indian Law Sections for only $25.

The Idaho State Bar Child Protection and the Indian Law Sections have joined forces to present the latest information and best practices when dealing with cases involving the Indian Child Welfare Act. 

Program Agenda

8:30 a.m.      Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 a.m.      Welcome and Introductions

9:15 a.m.      Spirit of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA)

                      Sandy White Hawk, First Nations Repatriation Institute  

9:45a.m.       ICWA Overview

                     Sheldon Spotted Elk, Casey Family Programs

10:45 a.m.   Break

11:00 a.m.    ICWA Overview Con’t

12:00 p.m.   Hosted Lunch - Catered by Life’s Kitchen

1:00 p.m.     Preparing for a Qualified Expert Witness

                     Jessica L. Partridge, Office of the Idaho Attorney General

2:00 p.m.     Tribal Roundtable

                     Garrett L. Brown, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla

                     Anne M. Kelleher, Nez Perce Tribe

                     Anne Laughlin, Shoshone-Paiute Tribe

3:15 p.m.     Snack Break

3:30 p.m.     The Effects of Trauma

                     Sheldon Spotted Elk, Casey Family Programs

                     Janice Beller, Canyon County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office

4:30 p.m.     Program Concludes

2024 Spring New Attorney Program

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Friday, May 3, 2024
8:00 am to 12:30 pm (MDT)

Boise Centre East

195 S. Capitol Blvd., Boise

*In-Person Attendance Only* 

4.0 CLE credits of which 1.0 is Ethics – NAC Approved

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration   $100.00

Day of Registration        $130.00

The New Attorney Program consists of an introduction on Idaho practice, procedure, and ethics. This course meets the CLE requirements of Idaho State Bar Commission Rule 402(f)(3).  Participants must be admitted and sworn into the Idaho State Bar for this course to count toward the New Admittee CLE requirement. If the participant will not be sworn in on or by May 3, 2024, they will have to wait until Fall 2024 to take this course. * 

Program Agenda

8:00 am    Lawyering Skills

                     Moderator:     Hon. Jessica M. Lorello – Idaho Court of Appeals

                     James A. Cook – Idaho Legal Aid Services Inc.

                     Jeremiah M. Hudson, Fisher Hudson Brown Horton

                     Aaron R. Bell, Evans Keane, LLP

                     Sarah J. Clemens, Law Clerk, Idaho Supreme Court

9:30 am     Break

9:45 am     Federal & State Judiciary Panel

                     Hon. Raymond E. Patricco – U.S. Magistrate Judge, District of Idaho

                     Hon.– Nancy A. Baskin, District Judge, 4^th Judicial District

                     Hon. Laurie A. Fortier – Magistrate Judge, 4^th Judicial District

11:15 am     Break

11:30 am    Idaho Lawyer Assistance Program

                     Mack Mayo – Paine Hamblen LLP 

12:00 pm   Idaho State Bar & Idaho Law Foundation Potpourri

                     Jennifer M. Schindele – Idaho Volunteer Lawyers Program

                     Andrea Getchell, Idaho State Bar

12:30 pm    Program Concludes

*The next course will be held on Friday, September 27, 2024, in person in Boise.

Brave New World: Lawyer Ethics & AI

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

June 14, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

The use of artificial intelligence is not some distant prospect.  Many of the tools lawyers use today – online research platforms that suggest other areas for research, software packages that help complete forms or propose or assemble language, and discovery tools that sort through documents – are driven by artificial intelligence. These and other AI engineered legal tools raise substantial ethical issues. Are they the unauthorized practice of law? Have lawyers researched their capabilities such that they are competent to use them? How must lawyers supervise their use by non-lawyer staff?  This program will provide you with a guide to ethics issues when using software and other technology tools based on AI in law practice.

• What duties do lawyers have to investigate and understand AI in the tools they use?
• Does AI constitute the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) in a state?
• Do software packages that draft language and assemble forms violate ethics rules?
• What supervisory and training obligations do lawyers have for non-lawyer staff using these tools?
• Are there ethics concerns of using AI in discovery?
• Must lawyers warn clients that they use AI?

CLE Idaho: Lunch with the Judiciary – Boise

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Friday, May 17, 2024

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (MT)

Ada County Courthouse Public Hearing Room

200 W. Front St. – Boise

1.0 CLE credits – NAC Approved

In Person Only

Registration:
Standard: $40

Law Student: $20

Join Fourth District Magistrates Theresa L. Gardunia and Joanne M. Kibodeaux as they provide a judicial perspective on local court rules, share insight on new statewide rules and initiatives, and discuss other matters of interest to local practitioners.  Lunch will be provided with the cost of registration.

CLE Idaho: Lunch with the Judiciary – Coeur d’Alene

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Friday, May 17, 2024

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (MT)

Kootenai County Administration Building

451 N. Government Way – Coeur d’Alene

1.0 CLE credits – NAC Approved

In Person Only

Registration:
Standard: $40

Law Student: $20

Join First Judicial District Judge Rich Christensen and First District Magistrates John A. Cafferty and Destry W. Randles as they provide a judicial perspective on local court rules, share insight on new statewide rules and initiatives, and discuss other matters of interest to local practitioners.  Lunch will be provided with the cost of registration.

CLE Idaho: Lunch with the Judiciary – Jerome

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Friday, May 17, 2024

11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. (MT)

Jerome County Judicial Annex

233 W Main St. – Jerome

1.0 CLE credits – NAC Approved

In Person Only

Registration:
Standard: $40

Law Student: $20

Join Fifth Judicial District Magistrate Judges Jennifer L.K. Haemmerle and Blaine P. Cannon as they provide a judicial perspective on local court rules, share insight on new statewide rules and initiatives, and discuss other matters of interest to local practitioners.  Lunch will be provided with the cost of registration.

Ethics and Virtual Law Offices

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

October 23, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Technology allows lawyers far more flexibility to practice law virtually – from home or in shared settings – than ever before.  No longer must they maintain freestanding offices, support staff, and libraries. Lawyers can set-up offices in their homes, communicate with clients, adversaries and the courts electronically, outsource overflow work to co-counsel or vendors, and establish web sites that can reach potential clients. These “virtual” practices are increasingly commonplace, but the relative ease with which they are established obscures many significant ethical issues.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to significant issues when lawyers and law firms establish “virtual” law practices.

• Disclosure to clients of the virtual character of a law practice
• Electronic communications, confidentiality, and ethical risks in virtual practices
• Ethical issues when lawyers share office space or other resources but practice separately
• How Web sites and a “virtual” presence implicate multijurisdictional practice issues
• Outsourcing work to vendors or co-counsel, and ensuring its

Ethics for Business Lawyers

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

September 12, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Lawyers advising businesses on transactions or negotiating on their behalf often confront a range of important ethical questions.  The biggest is, who is your client?  Often a company’s owners or managers will not understand the distinction between representing them and representing the company? There are also issues of identifying and clearing conflicts among clients when they are negotiating transaction.  And what can a lawyer say or do when negotiating for a client? Also, lawyers are sometimes confronted with issues about what to do when clients are dishonest.  This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethical issues when representing clients in business transactions. 

• Ethical issues in business and corporate practice
• Identifying your client in a variety of transactional contexts – the company v. its managers?
• Conflicts of interest in representing both sides of a transaction
• Ethical issues in transactional negotiations and communications with represented parties
• Representing clients you know to be dishonest and reporting wrong-doing “up and out”

Ethics in Discovery Practice

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

November 1, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Discovery can be the most important phase of litigation, directing the course and outcome of the case.  How evidence is discovered, how it is used, and how mistakes in its handling are disclosed and remedied all raise very significant ethical issues. These issues – the risk of mishandling – are increased by the vast growth of ESI, electronically stored information. Litigators have certain obligations that their vendors comply with ethics rules. There are also issues surrounding the use of paralegals in discovery practice.  Failure to ensure ethics compliance during discovery can have a material adverse impact on the underlying litigation and draw an ethics complaint.  This program will provide you with a real-world guide to substantial issues ethical issues that arise in discovery practice and how to avoid ethics complaints. 

• Duty of candor to the tribunal during discovery
• Ethical issues when you learn that a client is dishonest
• Inadvertent disclosure privileged documents and their handling
• Ethics in depositions – conferring with witnesses, using video depositions and more
• Ethical issues in widespread data mining of discovery documents
• Issues involving metadata in electronic files – documents, email, text messages
• Attorney-client privilege and security issues of working with outside e-discovery vendors
• Ethics and social media discovery

Ethics in Trust and Estate Practice

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

November 13, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Trust and estate practice often sits at the intersection of money, aging clients, family drama, easy accusations of self-dealing and misdeeds, dispute – and anger.  This turbulent combination of circumstances can put attorneys in difficult ethical spots. Questions about the competence of aging clients in combination with family drama can easily lead to ethical complaints and eventually litigation. There are also issues of decision-making authority and confidentiality if someone other than the client is paying for the representation.  Conflicts of interest, especially where a longtime client may gift something to the attorney, are rife. This program will provide you with a practical guide to substantial ethical issues in trust and estate practice.

• Working with clients with diminished capacity and protecting against challenges
• Confidentiality – understanding what information is confidential and when and to whom it can be disclosed
• Conflicts of interest – joint and common representations, husbands and wives, multiple generations of a family
• Gifts from clients – what lawyers may accept, what should they decline?
• Special issues when someone other than the client pays for a representation

Evidentiary Issues with Text and "Chat" Messages

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

May 9, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Text messaging is mainstream. Clients generate virtual reams of data when they message with business partners, vendors, employees, and even public. This is a rich vein of electronically stored information that is potentially discoverable in formal litigation or pre-litigation.  Because texting is so convenient, casual and almost reflexive, the caution clients exercise in other forms of communication are often disregarded when texting, including when they text with their lawyers. This program will provide you with a practical guide to obtaining text messages, the risks of discovery in litigation, and related issues.

• Obtaining text messages – working with mobile carriers
• Timing – how long are texts kept and in what form?
• Discovery issues – obtaining texts from parties or other sources
• Issues related to encrypted messaging services
• How strategies differ for plaintiffs and defendants

Lawyer Ethics and Disputes with Clients

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

August 5, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Ethical tensions are perhaps never as great as when a lawyer is in dispute with a client. The dispute may arise over fees, communication, perceived conflicts of interest, or something else.  In these and other circumstances, the lawyer’s duties of loyalty, zealous representation and confidentiality are all brought into direct conflict with the lawyer’s interest in self-defense. In these extremely delicate circumstances, the lawyer must determine what information may disclosed in his or her self-defense, its impact on the attorney-client privilege, and what steps he or she can take to de-escalate the conflict.  This program will provide you with a real-world guide to the ethical issues for a lawyer when he or she is in conflict with a client.

• Disputes involving lawyers’ fees, communications, unfavorable result of representation, conflicts of interest, malpractice claims
• Confidentiality and self-defense – what disclosure of confidences is permissible?  
• Waivers and engagement letters to prevent dispute – or mitigate their damage
• Permissible and mandatory withdrawals from a representation
• Special attorney-client privilege issues in these disputes

Lawyer Ethics and Email

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

May 22, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Email has become essential to law practice.  Communications with clients and colleagues is practically impossible – and absolutely inefficient – without email.  But the ubiquity of email may obscure many important ethical issues that arise when it is used in law practice, including issues related to confidentiality, metadata, and the attorney-client privilege. These and other substantial ethical questions will be discussed in this practical guide to the ethical issues when lawyers use email in their practices.

• Beginning an attorney relationship via email – intentionally and inadvertently
• Security and confidentiality when email is exchanged in the Cloud
• Inadvertently sent email and metadata embedded in email
• Discarding/deleting email and working with outside vendors
• Ex parte communications with represented adversaries
• Attorney-client privilege issues

The Ethics of Bad Facts and Bad Law

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

June 27, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Every lawyer wrestles with how to handle facts or law that is unfavorable to a client. There is a natural tension between a lawyer’s duty to be honest, on the one hand, and the lawyer’s duty to provide zealous representation of a client.  In some instances, bad facts or bad law must be disclosed.  In other instances, disclosure is not required. How this tension is resolved involves substantial ethical issues.  This program will discuss the ethics issues involved and how they may be resolved in a practical setting. Ethical issues surrounding the representation of adverse facts to tribunals and adversaries

• Disclosure of adverse legal precedents
• Required discloses of bad facts or law
• Timing issues – when must the disclosure occur?
• Related issues of confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege
• Ex parte communications with the courts – what’s ethically permissible, what’s not?

Ethical Issues When You Have a Dishonest Client

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

November 27, 2024

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

**Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

One of the dangers of practicing law is that, now and again, you get a dishonest client.  Your client may be misleading you – and others – about the facts of their case, either through silence or affirmative misstatements.  Or they may be telling you one thing and others something else different.  You may discover proof of the dishonesty or just suspect it. Client dishonesty raises many ethical issues.  What must you do to ensure your client is telling you the truth? What if you discover a client is lying to a court or tribunal?  Are you allowed to disclose the dishonesty despite the duty of client confidentiality?  Are there degrees of client dishonesty – some acceptable, others not?  This program will provide you with a guide to the substantial ethical issues when client dishonesty is discovered or suspected. 

• Tension between the duty of confidentiality and the duty to be honest in communications
• Determining whether a client is lying – active v. passive, fact v. opinion, affirmative statements v. silence
• Unknowing attorney representations on basis of client dishonesty
• Duties of disclosure and to whom – the tribunal, third parties?
• Mandatory and permissive withdrawals from a case, including “noisy” withdrawals
• Discovery of dishonesty in closed matters

Ethics & Artificial Intelligence: What Lawyers Should Know 

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

August 23, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the heart of many software packages and other technology lawyers use to automate drafting of transactional, estate planning, and pleadings. When lawyers use these forms of AI and machine learning, it raises substantial ethical issues touching the core of what is giving legal advice and service to clients. This program will discuss these ethical issues and how they may expose lawyers to liability.

Ethics & Artificial Intelligence: What Lawyers Should Know 

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

August 23, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are at the heart of many software packages and other technology lawyers use to automate drafting of transactional, estate planning, and pleadings. When lawyers use these forms of AI and machine learning, it raises substantial ethical issues touching the core of what is giving legal advice and service to clients. This program will discuss these ethical issues and how they may expose lawyers to liability.

Ethics and Conflicts with Clients, Part 1

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

August 19, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Please Note: If you received credit for this course for December 21, 2023 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Despite best efforts, lawyers may develop ethical conflicts with their clients.  Sometimes these conflicts may initially seem like positive developments. The lawyer may seek to buy into a client’s business enterprise or participate in a transaction, be offered a gift by a client, or even develop a romantic relationship with a client.  But these and many others come with substantial ethical issues.  Sometimes these conflicts may be more immediately problematic, as when a lawyer leaves a law firm and wants to take his or her clients to the new firm, or when a client refuses to pay legal fees, or worse, as when the lawyer has a duty to disclose certain acts of his or her own malpractice.  This program will provide you with a real world guide to lawyer conflicts with their clients and how to avoid or resolve them.

Day 1:

• Gifts – can lawyers accept from clients?
• Business – can lawyers go into business with a client?
• Departure – can lawyers take their clients to a firm?
• Former clients – what duties does a lawyer have?

Day 2:

• Dishonest clients – what must you do?
• Lawyers as witnesses – how do you handle the conflict and privilege issues?
• Clients with diminished capacity – from whom do you take instructions?  What are the other issues?
• Settlements – what if a client’s tactics are improper?
• Malpractice – do you have a duty to disclose?

Ethics and Conflicts with Clients, Part 2

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc.

August 20, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Please Note: If you received credit for this course for December 22, 2023 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Despite best efforts, lawyers may develop ethical conflicts with their clients.  Sometimes these conflicts may initially seem like positive developments. The lawyer may seek to buy into a client’s business enterprise or participate in a transaction, be offered a gift by a client, or even develop a romantic relationship with a client.  But these and many others come with substantial ethical issues.  Sometimes these conflicts may be more immediately problematic, as when a lawyer leaves a law firm and wants to take his or her clients to the new firm, or when a client refuses to pay legal fees, or worse, as when the lawyer has a duty to disclose certain acts of his or her own malpractice.  This program will provide you with a real world guide to lawyer conflicts with their clients and how to avoid or resolve them.

Day 1:

• Gifts – can lawyers accept from clients?
• Business – can lawyers go into business with a client?
• Departure – can lawyers take their clients to a firm?
• Former clients – what duties does a lawyer have?

Day 2:

• Dishonest clients – what must you do?
• Lawyers as witnesses – how do you handle the conflict and privilege issues?
• Clients with diminished capacity – from whom do you take instructions?  What are the other issues?
• Settlements – what if a client’s tactics are improper?
• Malpractice – do you have a duty to disclose?

Ethics in Negotiations – Boasts, Shading, and Impropriety

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

November 26, 2024

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

**Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for June 27, 2023 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Lawyers must always be truthful in their representations. Yet they must be zealous in representing clients. The tension between these two principles is perhaps never as great as when the lawyer is negotiating for a client. The lawyer may make statements about the law or fact – or simply refrain from making statements because the lawyer knows certain facts or legal precedent are adverse to a client’s interest.   Lawyers may also boast, signaling that a client’s position is stronger than is, in fact, the case. Navigating these gray lines is the difference between ethical representation and impropriety. This program will provide you with a guide to ethical issues in negotiations. 

• Truthful representations v. zealous representations?
• Affirmative statements of fact, value or intent in settlements
• Silence about adverse law in negotiations
• Silence about facts unknown to an opponent or counter-party
• Silence about errors in settlement agreements or transactional documents
• Non-litigation work in another state – “temporary” practice

Ethics of Identifying Your Client: It's Not Always Easy

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

November 25, 2024

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

**Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for October 24, 2023 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

The first step in every ethics analysis is answering the question, who is your client?  It’s seemingly a very easy question to answer, but it’s not always 20/20 except in hindsight.  Representing multiple parties on the same matter, whether in litigation or on a transaction, may mean you have many clients, some or all with conflicts.   If you’re a private practitioner and you represent an organization, your client may be the entity, its officers from whom you are taking directions, or possibly both. If you’re an in-house attorney, the analysis – and its implications for the attorney-client privilege – becomes even more complex.  This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethics of identifying your client in a variety of settings avoiding conflicts of interest with the client. 

• Ethics and identifying your client and avoiding conflicts in transactions and litigation
• Representing businesses entities, nonprofit associations, and the government – client v. person giving directions
• Identifying clients in trust and estate planning – the testator or the person paying your fees?
• Special ethical challenges and ethical risks for in-house counsel and attorney-client privilege issues
• How to untangle clients and conflicts in joint representations – managing conflicts and information flows
• Best practices in documenting client representation to avoid later challenge

Lawyer Ethics in Real Estate Practice

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

October 4, 2024

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

**Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

The real estate industry is fiercely competitive as developers and contractors, investors and lenders, brokers and others—often with the aid of legal counsel—seek advantage. This can easily present real estate lawyers with ethical dilemmas. Conflicts of interest are rife. There are issues of communicating and negotiating with unrepresented parties. There are also concerns related to taking an equity stake in a real estate venture in lieu of fees. Sometimes, too, there is the discovery that a client is engaged in wrongdoing. This program provides you with a real-world guide to common ethics issues in real estate practice.

Program Topics

• Joint representations of a business entity and its owners in a real estate transaction
• Representation of a client with adverse interests in unrelated transactions
• Communications with unrepresented parties—and with represented parties
• Inadvertent disclosure of confidential deal terms
• Receipt of deal equity in exchange for legal services
• Special issues when client fraud is discovered

Professionalism for the Ethical Lawyer

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

December 5, 2024

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

**Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for February 13, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Ethics rules, the principles of professionalism, and sanctionable conduct are interrelated.  Lawyers have a duty to zealously represent their clients, but they do not have a duty to engage in offensive conduct that may be desired by clients. Lawyers have duties of confidentiality and honesty, but those duties do not always require pressing every advantage, such as when the lawyer knows that opposing counsel has made a material drafting error in a transactional document. In these and many other scenarios, ethics rules, professionalism, and potentially sanctionable conduct subtly interact.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to professionalism for the ethical lawyer. 

• Interrelationship of ethics rules, professionalism, and sanctions
• Zealous representation v. needlessly embarrassing an adversary or third-party
• Reacting to an adversary’s drafting errors in transactional documents
• Ethics, professionalism, and inadvertent transmission of communications
• Duty to supervise and train subordinate lawyers and staff, including to ensure courtesy to clients, opposing counsel, and courts
• Offering candid advice to clients and withdrawal when they demand offensive conduct
• Avoiding discrimination and bigotry