October 2009
By Kathryn Alfisi
American Inns of Court Celebrates Excellence at Awards Dinner
United States Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia will host
the American Inns of Court’s annual Celebration of Excellence
on October 17 at the Supreme Court, 1 First Street NE.
The event pays tribute to individuals who have given their time, energy,
and resources to support the American Inns of Court in elevating the
level of excellence, professionalism, and ethical awareness among the
bench and bar.
This year’s honorees are Oklahoma Child Support Services attorney Catina R. Drywater, Sandra Day O’Connor Award for Professional Service; former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth V. McGregor, A. Sherman Christensen Award; Judge Louis H. Pollak of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics; and Drake University Law School professor Melissa Weresh, Warren E. Burger Prize.
For more information, contact Cindy Dennis at 800-233-3590, ext. 104, or info@innsofcourt.org, or visit www.innsofcourt.org.
Equal Justice Works Gears Up for Two Annual Events
Equal Justice Works will hold in October two of its annual events: the
conference and career fair and the awards dinner.
The conference and career fair takes place on October 24 and 25 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, 2500 Calvert Street NW, while the awards dinner will be held at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, on October 29.
At the awards dinner, D. Bruce Sewell, Intel Corporation senior vice president and general counsel, will be honored with the Scales of Justice Award, and Stanford Law School professor Larry Kramer will receive the John R. Kramer Outstanding Law School Dean Award.
For more information about either event, visit www.equaljusticeworks.org; for more details about the awards dinner, contact Sarah Brooks at 202-466-3686, ext. 116, or events@equaljusticeworks.org.
New CLE Course Identifies Pitfalls in ‘Commercial Divorce’
On October 7 the D.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program will
hold the new course “Commercial Divorce: Techniques to Help Clients
Avoid and Confront the Demise of Their Business Relationships,”
which clarifies transactional issues for litigators.
Covering topics from business “prenup” to “divorce” and anywhere in between, the course also aims to help business/transactional lawyers understand the litigation perspective.
Faculty includes Cary M. Feldman, a partner at Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP; Susan B. Hepner, a partner at RAFFA, P.C.; and Richard A. Levie, special master and case evaluator at JAMS, The Resolution Experts.
The course takes place from 6 to 9:15 p.m. at the D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1101 K Street NW, first floor. It is cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Section and Litigation Section.
For more information, contact the CLE Office at 202-626-3488 or visit www.dcbar.org/cle.
Employment Law Series Tackles Hiring and Firing Issues
The D.C. Bar Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Program will hold the
new, two-part “Fundamentals of Employment Law Series” in
October, focusing on the hiring and firing of employees.
Part one, “Establishing the Employment Relationship” on October 20, will discuss the hiring of employees, specifically the legal guidelines on interviewing prospective employees, classification of workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the implications and limitation of the employment-at-will doctrine, and the drafting of effective employment agreements and noncompetition covenants.
This session will be led by Christine Nicolaides Kearns, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, and R. Scott Oswald, a principal at The Employment Law Group.
Part two, “Terminating the Employment Relationship” on October 27, will discuss issues relating to the firing of employees, including the importance of progressive discipline of employees, checklists for termination, knowing the critical questions to ask, constructing a reduction in force, and drafting and negotiating resignation agreements.
Debra S. Katz, a founding partner at Katz, Marshall and Banks, LLP, and Edward Lee Isler, a founding partner at Isler Dare Ray Radcliffe & Connolly, P.C., will serve as faculty.
The series is cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Labor and Employment Law Section and Litigation Section. Both sessions take place from 6 to 9:15 p.m. at the D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1101 K Street NW, first floor.
For more information, contact the CLE Office at 202-626-3488 or visit www.dcbar.org/cle.
Three Ethics Courses Lined Up for October
As many D.C. Bar members face ethics compliance deadlines in Virginia
and other states at the end of October, the D.C. Bar Continuing Legal
Education (CLE) Program is offering several courses to help attorneys
meet their ethics requirements.
The course “Avoiding Malpractice and Bar Complaints” will kick off the list on October 1, exploring daily practice and risk prevention techniques to help reduce the possibility of a Bar complaint and related malpractice claim from being filed.
Participants will hear from faculty experts Elizabeth Francis, an associate at Carr Maloney, P.C.; Julia Porter, senior assistant Bar Counsel; and Dennis Quinn, a member at Carr Maloney.
The course takes place from 6 to 9:15 p.m. and is cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice Section; Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section; Law Practice Management Section; and Litigation Section.
On October 13, the course “Selling Your Law Practice: Ethical and Practical Imperatives” will look at the repercussions of a provision in recent amendments to the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct that allows attorneys in the District to sell their law practices outright.
The course offers practical solutions to preserve and capture the value of an attorney’s practice. It will also look at why a practice may have a substantial selling value even if the attorney has always been the sole point of contact for his or her clients or the sole billing attorney.
Faculty Daniel Schumack of Schumack Ryals PLLC will discuss the ethics requirements imposed by Rules 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.15, and 1.17. He also will provide guidance, consistent with the ethics rules, on valuation and pricing issues, mitigating potential postsale malpractice risks for seller and buyer, how to enable a trusted person to sell a law practice without court intervention after the attorney becomes incapacitated or dies, and how a law practice purchase agreement varies from the sale of other service industry businesses.
The course will compare sale of practice ethics rules in Maryland and Virginia, including pending changes in Virginia.
The course takes place from 6 to 9:15 p.m. and is cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Corporation, Finance and Securities Law Section; Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice Section; Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section; Family Law Section; Labor and Employment Law Section; Law Practice Management Section; Litigation Section; and Real Estate, Housing and Land Use Section.
The final ethics course, “Lawyer Marketing: An Ethics Guide,” will run from 6 to 8:15 p.m. on October 29.
Thomas Spahn, a partner at McGuireWoods LLP, will use hypotheticals to cover various topics involved in lawyer marketing.
This class will explore constitutional issues; the risks of law firms “associating” with other firms, engaging in referral arrangements, or creating law-related subsidiaries; permissible law firm names; advertising using new technology; the use in law firm advertisements of fictional depictions, testimonials, and comparisons with other firms; individual lawyer marketing issues; different state rules governing direct mail marketing and solicitation; and the applicability of solicitation rules to online marketing.
The course is cosponsored by the D.C. Bar Courts, Lawyers and the Administration of Justice Section; Law Practice Management Section; and Litigation Section.
All ethics courses take place at the D.C. Bar Conference Center, 1101 K Street NW, first floor.
For more information, contact the CLE Office at 202-626-3488 or visit www.dcbar.org/cle.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer Kathryn Alfisi at kalfisi@dcbar.org.
