2024 Headline News – Boise (Boise/Live Webcast)

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

Thursday, December 12, 2024

9:00 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. (MT)

Hyatt Place Boise/Downtown

1024 W. Bannock St. – Boise

*Live Webcast Available

5.0 CLE credits of which 1.0 is Ethics – NAC Approved

Registration:
Standard: $175
Day of Event: $200

Join the Idaho Law Foundation for 2024 Headline News!  Brush up on a vast array of areas of law from some of Idaho’s best and brightest attorneys. 

Program Agenda

9:00 a.m.      Criminal Law Update

                   Kiley A. Heffner, Idaho State Appellate Public Defender’s Office

10:00 a.m.    Health Law Update

                   Hannah Andazola, Smith & Malek, PLLC

11:00 a.m.    Morning Break

11:15 a.m.    Business Law Update        

                   Marta M. Horton, Fisher Hudson Brown Horton

12:15 a.m.    Hosted Lunch

1:15 p.m.      Family Law Update

                   Katherine A. Meier, Cosho Humphrey, LLP

2:15 p.m.      Ethics Update

                   Joseph N. Pirtle, Idaho State Bar Counsel

3:15 p.m.       Program Adjourns

2025 AI Year in Review: Everything You Should Know When Advising Clients

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

January 24, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

2025 Commercial Code Update: Navigating New Business Law Frontiers

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

January 10, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

The overlapping articles of the UCC impact most business, commercial and real estate transactions.  From the perfection of security interests to the enforceability of promissory notes and investment contracts to equipment leases and the sale of goods, the UCC plays a role in most significant transactions. This program, led by one of the nation’s leading authorities on the UCC, will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of developments under the many articles of the UCC, including secured transactions, investment notes, sales, and equipment leasing.

• Recent UCC developments for transactional attorneys
• Developments impacting commercial, business and real estate transactions
• UCC Article 9, asset-based transactions and secured transactions
• Sales of goods contracts
• Equipment leases, including computer equipment and capital equipment
• Notes, guarantees and letters of credit

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 1

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

February 11, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 2

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

February 12, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

Cybersecurity Breaches: How to Advise Clients When the Inevitable Happens

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

January 16, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

Ethics of Beginning and Ending Client Relationships

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

February 28, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Substantial ethics issues flow from the moment an attorney-client relationship is formed, whether it is formed intentionally or through inadvertence.  Determining when a relationship commences and the scope of the representation has dramatic implications for issues related to confidentiality, conflicts of interest, the attorney-client privilege and more. Ending an engagement is nearly as complicated. When are you allowed to end an engagement?  And how must you go about it without prejudicing a client’s interest in a transaction or in litigation? This program will you provide a real-world guide the ethical issues of beginning and ending an attorney client relationship.

• Determining when and how a relationship starts – including through inadvertence
• Email and technology issues – how unsolicited communications may trigger ethical obligations
• Joint representation issues – unsorting the confidentiality and privilege issues
• End a relationship – when are you allowed to end an engagement?  How do you do it ethically?
• Circumstances when you might be required to end a relationship

Litigation Ethics: Disqualification and Sanctions

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

January 14, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Disqualification standards have their roots in conflicts of interests. When an attorney has a conflict that rises to a certain level, he or she is disqualified from representing a certain party in litigation. Though ethics rules substantially overlap with disqualification standards, those standards do not follow traditional conflicts analysis in every detail.  Indeed, the relationship between conflicts of interest (and related confidentiality concerns) and disqualification is highly nuanced, varying depending on facts of each case.  There are also substantial issues in the context of joint representations, including whether the disqualification of one attorney necessarily disqualifies co-counsel.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to attorney ethics rules and their relationship to disqualification in litigation.

• Attorney ethics, conflicts of interest, and disqualification standards
• How ethics rules and disqualification standards overlap and vary from each other
• Ethics standards and tests for obtaining – or defending against disqualification
• Joint representations and disqualification – if co-counsel is disqualified, are you?
• Screening for conflicts of interest and the risk of imputation of conflicts/disqualification to other attorneys
• Ethical sanctions and their relationship to disqualification

When the Law or Facts Are Against You: Ethical Considerations for Lawyers

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

February 26, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

2024 Ethics and Social Media Update

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

January 27, 2025

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 July 10, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Lawyers use social media technology to collect and share information, and communicate with others, not only personally but also when acting as lawyers. Important and probative information about a case can be more easily found on social media than elsewhere. Social media is also easily used to communicate with existing or potential clients, colleagues or opposing lawyers, and the public. These and other uses of social media raise substantial ethical issues for lawyers – competence, confidentiality, preservation of the attorney-client privilege, and honesty.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when lawyers use social media for communication purposes in law practice.

• Communicating with parties, opposing attorneys, and witnesses via social media
• Researching jurors, parties, witnesses and judges via social media
• Ethical issues with blogging, e-newsletters/law updates to clients, posting video
• “Friending” or otherwise connecting with judges, witnesses and others on social media
• Trends in texting, confidentiality, and discoverability
• Using web sites, online advertising and social media for client development

2024 Ethics Update, Part 1

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

December 16, 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 February 7, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attoarney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1 – December 16, 2024:

• Ethics and technology: A Potpourri
• Ethics, competence, and AI: What are competence and the unauthorized practice of law in a specialized world?
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2 – December 17, 2024:

• Ethics of firing a client
• Ethics and client development
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

2024 Ethics Update, Part 2

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

December 17, 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 February 8, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attoarney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1 – December 16, 2024:

• Ethics and technology: A Potpourri
• Ethics, competence, and AI: What are competence and the unauthorized practice of law in a specialized world?
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2 – December 17, 2024:

• Ethics of firing a client
• Ethics and client development
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

Ethical Issues When You Have a Dishonest Client

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

January 13, 2025

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 November 27, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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 and Virtual Law Offices

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

December 30, 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 October 23, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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 competently performed
• Requirements and risks when offering legal advice across state lines
• Duty to understand law office technology as a duty of competence

Ethics for Business Lawyers

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

February 25, 2025

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 September 12, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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 Negotiations - Boasts, Shading, and Impropriety

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

December 26, 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 June 27, 2023, or November 26, 2024 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

Lawyer Ethics and Disputes with Clients

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

January 21, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for August 5, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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.

December 31, 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 May 22, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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

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

Lawyer Ethics and Email

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

February 27, 2025

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 May 22, 2024 or December 31, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

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

Practical Lessons in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in Law Practice

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

December 19, 2024

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for January 22, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

This program will provide you with a practical guide to diversity, inclusion, and equity in law firms and in clients. The program will discuss the value of diversity and inclusion, including how it fosters collegiality, greater client value, and organizational and personal growth.  The panel will look at real world case studies of what types of diversity training work and help law firms – and also review those types of training that do not work. The program cover best practices not only for law firms but also for advising clients on developing diversity, inclusion, and equity training and practices.

• Types of diversity – internal, external, organizational, and worldview
• Racial and ethnic, generational and age, gender, socio-economic diversity
• Training to raise awareness of unconscious bias v. promoting allyship and inclusivity
• What types of diversity training work – and what types do not work?
• Best practices in helping law firms and their clients grow in diversity, inclusion and equity

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