Course1

Ethics of Shared Law Offices, Working Remotely & Virtual Offices

$79.00

Technology allows lawyers far more flexibility to practice law than ever before.  Lawyers can work in shared offices, splitting expenses with other small firms or solo practitioners. They can work remotely, from home or virtually anywhere, with basic computer and networking technology. But all these innovations come with ethics traps. These include issues of communications and confidentiality, supervising outsourced worked, multijurisdictional practice, and managing all the technology used to practice law from home.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when working from home or anywhere but a traditional office. Disclosure to clients of virtual nature of law office Duty of competence as a duty to understand technology Electronic communications, confidentiality, and ethical risks in virtual law offices How Web sites and a “virtual” presence implicate multijurisdictional practice issues Outsourcing work to paralegal services, including fee sharing issues Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 5/25/2025
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Course1

Ethics of Co-Counsel and Referral Relationships

$79.00

Co-counsel and referral relationships are common in law practice.  Lawyers associate with other lawyers on cases to gain specialized knowledge required for competent representation in a case.Litigation counsel may seek local counsel on a case in another jurisdiction.  Lawyers also refer out business for a variety of reasons, including overflow work or the work is outside of a lawyer’s core competencies.  These any many other co-counsel and referral relationships, however, raise substantial ethical and malpractice issues.  This program will provide you with a framework for understanding the ethical issues surrounding co-counsel and referral relationships.   Duty to supervise counsel to whom you have referred work Associating with other lawyers or firms to gain competence in specific areas Fee splitting in co-counsel or referral relationships Liability to co-counsel for breaches of fiduciary duty or malpractice Liability for errors of co-counsel Duty to inform of malpractice by co-counsel   Speakers: Brian S. Faughnan is special counsel in the Memphis office of Thomason Hendrix Harvey Johnson & Mitchell, PLLC, where he represents clients in a wide variety of matters at the trial level and on appeal.  He counsels lawyers and law firms on a wide variety of issues surrounding legal ethics and professional responsibility. He is the chair of the Tennessee Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, a reporter for the committee’s rules revision project, a member of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers, and a member of the Media Law Resource Center’s Ethics Committee. 

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 5/31/2025
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2023 Ethics in Civil Litigation Update, Part 1

$79.00

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.  The program will feature its annual tour of the waterfront of technology issues in litigation practice.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice.    Day 1: Ethics and technology in law practice review Ethics and settlement agreements Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 1   Day 2: Ethics, evidence and witnesses Developments in confidentiality and preserving the attorney-client privilege Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 2   Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 6/8/2025
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2023 Ethics in Civil Litigation Update, Part 2

$79.00

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.  The program will feature its annual tour of the waterfront of technology issues in litigation practice.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice.    Day 1: Ethics and technology in law practice review Ethics and settlement agreements Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 1   Day 2: Ethics, evidence and witnesses Developments in confidentiality and preserving the attorney-client privilege Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 2   Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 6/9/2025
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Course1

LIVE REPLAY: 2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 2

$79.00

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 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: Ethics and artificial intelligence Ethics and withness 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   Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

  • Teleseminar
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 6/20/2025
    Presented
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Ethics in Negotiations – Boasts, Shading, and Impropriety

$79.00

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   Speakers: Anthony Licata is a partner in the Chicago office of Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP, where he formerly chaired the firm’s real estate practice.  He has an extensive practice focusing on major commercial real estate transactions, including finance, development, leasing, and land use.  He formerly served as an adjunct professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University and at the Illinois Institute of Technology.  Mr. Licata received his B.S., summa cum laude, from MacMurray College and his J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School. Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 6/28/2025
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The Ethics of Representing Two Parties in a Transaction

$79.00

Representing two or more clients in a business or commercial transaction is full of potential ethical traps.  It’s essential that clients understand the potential for conflicts of interest, how confidential information is shared among the joint clients, how negotiating strategies may need to be altered because of the joint representation, and the real risk to the transaction itself if the clients eventually develop unresolvable disputes among themselves. Counseling clients about information flows and obtaining a written waiver of conflicts from all clients are essential first steps but not the end of the process. This program will provide you with a real world guide to representing two or more clients in a business or commercial transaction.   Information flows and potential conflicts of interest Counseling clients about sharing of confidential information – and its implications Drafting conflict of interest waivers Attorney-client privilege issues involved in joint representations Negotiation ethics when representing multiple clients What to do when jointly represented clients disagree   Speaker: William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.  Mr. Freivogel is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign), where he received his B.S. and LL.B.

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 7/7/2025
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Lawyer Ethics & Credit Cards

$79.00

Use of credit cards by law firms and lawyers is commonplace. Law firms may accept credit cards as means of payment for fees and expenses. This concession to the larger reality of the economy, however, raises many ethical issues. Can lawyers pass on credit card processing fees (which can be substantial) to clients?  What happens if a client’s credit card company does a chargeback of fees?  How does a lawyer maintain confidentiality when he or she has a dispute with a credit card company, or the client has a dispute with the credit card company?  These and many issues arise when lawyers accept credit cards from clients. This program will provide you with a guide to ethical issues when credit cards are accepted and used in law practice.    Passing on credit card processing fees to clients Truth-in-Lending issues and tax penalties Ethical issues when credit card companies chargeback funds paid to a lawyer or from a trust account Confidentiality when a client has a dispute with his or her credit card company Use of credit cards to fund a retainer and related trust fund accounting issues Creditor claims against trust fund accounts Leftover client funds and proper trust fund accounting   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 7/19/2025
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Ethics and New Clients: Inadvertent Clients, Intake, and more

$79.00

Getting a client relationship right from the outset – defining scope, setting reasonable expectations – greatly helps set up the relationship for success and helps avoid disputes with clients.  There are issues of identifying and clearing conflicts of interest, or getting them waived in writing.  There are issues of explaining billing policies to clients, ensuring they understand, and putting it in writing. There are issues of communication – explaining how and when you will communicate with clients about their case, and about decision-making.This program will provide you a practical guide to drafting engagement letters and best practices in new client intake.    Engagement letters – best practices in setting scope and expectations Explaining bill rates and practices – tips on avoiding disputes Conflict of interest clearance – current clients, past clients Drafting and obtaining conflict of interest waivers Attorney-client privilege considerations   Speakers: Matthew Corbin is Senior Vice President and Executive Director in the Professional Services Group of AON Risk Services, where he consults with the company’s law firm clients on professional responsibility and liability issues.  Before joining AON, he was a partner with Lathrop & Gage, LLP, where he was a trial and appellate lawyer handling professional liability, commercial, business tort, employment, construction, insurance, and regulatory matters. Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Mary Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.  Mr. Corbin earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law. Mark A. Webster is Vice President and Director in the Professional Services Group of AON Risk Services.  He consults with the company’s law firm clients on professional responsibility and liability issues.  Before joining AON, he was a partner with Lathrop & Gage, LLP, where he had an extensive real estate transactions practice.  Mr. Webster received his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University Law School.

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 7/21/2025
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Course1

Lawyer Ethics and the Internet

$79.00

The Internet is the uniform information appliance for communications, research, and marketing, for consumers and for lawyers.  You can easily research witnesses, parties, judges, and jurors with a simple Google search.  Add in social media searches – blogs, Facebook, Twitter and many other platforms – and you can develop a rich demographic profile of all of these individuals.  With a few keystrokes, you can pull down more information than ever before. You can also communicate freely, unmediated and unrestricted, with virtually anyone. All of these functions are valuable in litigation and transactional practice but also give rise to substantial ethics issues – not everything that the Web enables is proper. This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethics issues when lawyer engage in research and communication using the Internet.    Communicating with parties, opposing attorneys, and witnesses via email, social media, and texting Researching jurors, parties, witnesses and judges via social media Blogging or sending newsletters/law updates to clients Trends in texting, confidentiality, and discoverability Law firm marketing via the web   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 8/16/2025
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Course1

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

$79.00

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   Speakers: Elizabeth Treubert Simon is an ethics attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she advises on a wide range of ethics and compliance-related matters to support Akin Gump’s offices worldwide.  Previously, she practiced law in Washington DC and New York, focusing on business and commercial litigation and providing counsel to clients regarding professional ethics and attorney disciplinary procedures.  She is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline and the District of Columbia Legal Ethics Committee.  She writes and speaks extensively on attorney ethics issues.      Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee. 

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 10/25/2025
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Lawyer Ethics When Storing Files in the Cloud

$79.00

Most files are now stored in the “cloud,” a global network of servers that store files for organizations of every size, including law firms.  Many applications, including word processing, email and billing software packages that are used daily by lawyers and law firms, are also stored and used in the cloud.  This dramatic shift in the way files are created, modified, stored, and shared has substantial implications for law firms.   The first is a duty of competence requirement that lawyers understand how the technology they employ works and how it might impact client communications and confidentiality, among many other issues.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when lawyers and law firm store and create files in the cloud.   Technology competence as an ethical duty of competence Ethical benchmarks and diligence for ensuring file and communication confidentiality in the cloud Mobile access – issues when the cloud is used via smartphone or tablet What if your client uses the cloud but you do not? Attorney-client privilege issues when using the cloud to communicate Internal policies – ensuring law firm security supplements cloud security   Speakers: Matthew Corbin is Senior Vice President and Executive Director in the Professional Services Group of AON Risk Services, where he consults with the company’s law firm clients on professional responsibility and liability issues.  Before joining AON, he was a partner with Lathrop & Gage, LLP, where he was a trial and appellate lawyer handling professional liability, commercial, business tort, employment, construction, insurance, and regulatory matters. Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Mary Briscoe of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.   Mark A. Webster is Vice President and Director in the Professional Services Group of AON Risk Services.  He consults with the company’s law firm clients on professional responsibility and liability issues.? Before joining AON, he was a partner with Lathrop & Gage, LLP, where he had an extensive real estate transactions practice.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 11/15/2025
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Course1

Ethics for Transactional Lawyers

$79.00

Representing a client in a business, commercial or real estate transaction can get ethically complicated very quickly.  There is the question of who you represent.  In a closely held company, with multiple shareholders or members, this can be problematic if the officer or manager from whom you are taking instructions thinks you represent that person and not the entity.  The client may offer you the opportunity to buy into a transaction, which puts your role as lawyer in tension with your role as investor.  There are also substantial ethical issues involved in negotiations and whether a party on the other side of the transaction is represented by legal counsel or not. This program will provide you with a real world guide to the ethics of representing clients in business, commercial, and legal transactions. Representation – who is your client? The company’s board or its owners? Do they know that? Counter-parties – how do you negotiate on behalf of your client with unrepresented parties? Business with clients – can you buy into (or be given) a stake in a client’s business or a transaction? Serving on a client’s board of directors – how do you separate your legal role from your fiduciary obligation? Negotiations – how do ethics rules limit your flexibility to negotiate? Speakers: William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.   Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 11/22/2025
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Ethics & Artifcial Intelligence: What Lawyers Should Know

$79.00

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?   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 12/9/2025
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Ethics and Conflicts with Clients, Part 1

$79.00

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?   Speaker: William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 12/22/2025
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Ethics and Conflicts with Clients, Part 2

$79.00

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?   Speaker: William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.  

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 12/23/2025
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Ethics of Working with Experts and Witnesses

$79.00

Preparing witnesses – whether fact witnesses or experts – for deposition or trial or conferring with them during breaks in testimony fraught with ethical issues. Expert witnesses are paid for their time, not their testimony. Though they may be hired to support a client’s view of the facts, there are limits to how experts can be coached. There are also real limits to how attorneys can prompt fact witnesses, for instance to “not remember” unfavorable facts. There are also significant ethical issues involving how to handle inadvertently produced privileged documents and when testimony goes in an unexpected adverse direction. This program will provide you with a practical guide to the ethical issues and traps of working with witnesses.   Paying witnesses for their time versus their testimony Prompting a witness to “not remember” unfavorable testimony Conferring with witnesses during deposition breaks and the limits of what you advise Dishonest witnesses – what are your obligations to the court and your client? How to handle the inadvertent production of privileged documents Drafting witness affidavits without interviewing the witness   Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the Tysons Corners, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, where he advises firm clients on professional responsibility issues and properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  He has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and is a Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  He has written extensively on attorney-client privilege, ethics and other topics, and has spoken at over 1,800 CLE programs throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries.  Through links on his website biography, he has made available to the public his summaries of over 1,600 Virginia and ABA legal ethics opinions, organized by topic; a 300 page summary of his two-volume 1,500 page book on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; over 900 weekly email alerts about privilege and work product cases; and materials for 40 ethics programs on numerous topics, totaling over 9,000 pages of analysis.  Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. Elizabeth Treubert Simon is an ethics attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she advises on a wide range of ethics and compliance-related matters to support Akin Gump’s offices worldwide.  Previously, her practice focused on business and commercial litigation and providing counsel to clients regarding professional ethics and attorney disciplinary procedures.  She is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline and the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct Rules Review Committee.  She is the immediate past chair of the District of Columbia Legal Ethics Committee.  She writes and speaks extensively on attorney ethics issues.   She received her B.A. and M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Albany Law School.

  • MP3 Download
    Format
  • 60
    Minutes
  • 1/20/2026
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Lawyer Ethics of Using Paralegals

$79.00

Paralegals are often essential for lawyers to successfully practice law.  Paralegals conduct basic legal research, help review and prepare documents, and sometimes screen clients.  Still, they are not lawyers and not directly subject to the ethics rules applicable to lawyers. But the lawyers who supervise their work are responsible for their actions and liable for any improper conduct.  Lawyers are responsible for ensuring that their paralegals’ work conforms to ethics rules. If a paralegal’s actions breach client confidentiality, compromise the attorney-client privilege, or are otherwise improper, the supervising lawyer is ethically responsible for that misconduct.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to how ethics rules make supervising lawyers responsible for the actions of their paralegals.    Conflicts of interest and the attribution of paralegal knowledge about client matters Determining when paralegal research and document preparation becomes the unauthorized practice of law How paralegals must be instructed about client confidentiality – and lawyer consequences on breach Attorney-client privilege implications when clients communicate with paralegals – and risk of inadvertent disclosure Issues when paralegals participate in discovery Fee sharing with paralegals   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the Tysons Corners, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, where he advises firm clients on professional responsibility issues and properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  He has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and is a Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  He has written extensively on attorney-client privilege, ethics and other topics, and has spoken at over 1,800 CLE programs throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries.  Through links on his website biography, he has made available to the public  his summaries of over 1,600 Virginia and ABA legal ethics opinions, organized by topic; a 300 page summary of his two-volume 1,500 page book on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; over 900 weekly email alerts about privilege and work product cases; and materials for 40 ethics programs on numerous topics, totaling over 9,000 pages of analysis.  Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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  • 1/26/2026
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How Ethics Rules Apply to Lawyers Outside of Law Practice

$79.00

  Ethics rules are intended primarily to regulate lawyer acts when practicing law. But the rules do not always stop there. Lawyers can be held responsible and disciplined under ethics rules for things they do when acting outside of their practices. Lawyers may be disciplined under ethics rules for criminal conduct, including misdemeanors, entirely unrelated to their lawyerly conduct. They may be also be disciplined for any acts that involve dishonesty, misrepresentation, or any actions prejudicial to the judicial system. This program will provide you with a guide to circumstances in which ethics rules apply to lawyers when they act outside of law practice.   Dishonesty and misrepresentation when a lawyer is acting as a non-lawyer Lawyers as business people – how counter-parties can allege ethical misconduct Self-representation – when lawyers represent themselves in litigation, who can they communicate with? Violations of law, including misdemeanors, as ethics violations Restrictions on lawyers’ ability to market themselves in non-lawyer roles   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750-page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.    

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  • 2/6/2026
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2024 Ethics Update Part 1

$79.00

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 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: Ethics and artificial intelligence Ethics and withness 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   Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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  • 2/8/2026
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2024 Ethics Update Part 2

$79.00

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 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: Ethics and artificial intelligence Ethics and withness 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   Speakers: Lucian T. Pera is a partner in the Memphis office of Adams & Reese, LLP.  His practice includes professional malpractice litigation as well as counseling lawyers and law firms in the area of ethics and professional responsibility.  He was a member of the ABA’s Ethics 2000 Commission and is co-author of "Ethics and Lawyering Today," a national e-mail newsletter on lawyer ethics, which is accessible at: www.ethicsandlawyering.com.  Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Harry W. Wellford of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  Mr. Pera received his A.B. with honors from Princeton University and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law. William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for 20 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. and past chair of the ABA Business Law Section Committee on Professional Responsibility.  He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com.  Mr. Freivogel is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign), where he received his B.S. and LL.B. Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a broad complex commercial, business and securities litigation practice. He also has a substantial practice advising businesses on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 20 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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  • 2/9/2026
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Professionalism for the Ethical Lawyer

$79.00

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   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the Tysons Corners, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, where he advises firm clients on professional responsibility issues and properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  He has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility, and is a Member of the American Law Institute and a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation.  He has written extensively on attorney-client privilege, ethics and other topics, and has spoken at over 1,800 CLE programs throughout the U.S. and in several foreign countries.  Through links on his website biography, he has made available to the public his summaries of over 1,600 Virginia and ABA legal ethics opinions, organized by topic; a 300 page summary of his two-volume 1,500 page book on the attorney-client privilege and work product doctrine; over 900 weekly email alerts about privilege and work product cases; and materials for 40 ethics programs on numerous topics, totaling over 9,000 pages of analysis.  Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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  • 2/14/2026
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Lawyer Ethics in a Digital World

$79.00

Lawyer use of technology, in both their professional and personal lives, is inescapable, and frequently those two worlds blend and give rise to substantial ethical issues. It’s difficult to disconnect from constant digital communications. Lawyers talk to, email, text and otherwise communicate with clients on smartphones, tablets, and social media. Frequently these and laptops are connected to public or at best semi-secure networks, despite the fact they are used to carry sensitive and often confidential information.  The ease of technology obscures its complexity – a complexity lawyers are required, as duty of competence, to understand before they use it.  This program will provide you with a roadmap through the maze of ethical issues that occur when lawyers use technology in their lives and practices.   Lawyers and social media – obtaining information on clients, adversaries, jurors and others Ethics when you’re never unplugged from technology Traps for law firms when using the cloud Ethics and working remotely Lawyer ethics when texting clients, witnesses, and others   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

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  • 2/21/2026
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Lawyer Ethics in Real Estate Practice

$79.00

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 issues of 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. These and many other ethical issues arise in real estate practice.  This program will provide you with a real-world guide to common ethics issues in real estate practice. Joint representations of a business entity and its owners in a real estate transaction Representation of a client with adverse interests in unrelated transactions Exchange of legal services for transaction equity Communications with unrepresented parties – and with represented parties Inadvertent disclosure of confidential Transaction terms Special issues when client wrongdoing is discovered   Speakers: William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com .   Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

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  • 4/4/2026
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Drafting Waivers of Conflicts of Interest

$79.00

A bedrock principle of lawyer ethics is that lawyers owe their clients loyalty, free of conflicts of interest unless those conflicts are waived by a client in writing. Clients are entitled to zealous representation without the lawyer being conflicted by other representations or interests. When a conflict arises, the lawyer is required to decline the representation unless the conflict is waived by the client.  But waivers are not always easily accomplished.  They must be carefully drafted, particularly when it purports to be of an anticipated conflict, not an existing conflict. This program will provide you with a practical guide to the rules governing conflict waivers, types of waivers, and drafting tips. Key provisions of waivers and ensuring there is “informed” consent Advance waivers – drafting waivers for anticipated conflicts Types of advance waivers – stating subject area, adverse parties, neither or both Sources of rules and practical guidance on drafting waivers Common mistakes made in drafting waivers Consequences of ineffective waivers Speaker: Elizabeth Treubert Simon is an ethics attorney in the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where she advises on a wide range of ethics and compliance-related matters to support Akin Gump’s offices worldwide.  Previously, her practice focused on business and commercial litigation and providing counsel to clients regarding professional ethics and attorney disciplinary procedures.  She is a member of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Professional Discipline and the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct Rules Review Committee.  She is the immediate past chair of the District of Columbia Legal Ethics Committee.  She writes and speaks extensively on attorney ethics issues.   She received her B.A. and M.S. from the University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Albany Law School.

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  • 5/4/2026
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Lawyer Ethics and Email

$79.00

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 Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750-page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.      

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  • 5/23/2026
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2024 Ethics in Litigation Update, Part 1

$79.00

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and ethics in defense and common interest agreements.  The program will provide a wide-ranging discussion of the ethical issues that arise with the spread, use and development of technology in litigation.  Also, the panel will discuss ethical issues in discovery of digital files, records, and communications.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice.    Day 1: Generative AI and legal ethics Conflicts update, part 1 Witness preparation   Day 2: Deception in investigations Confidentiality and privilege update Conflicts update, part 2   Speakers: Lucian T. Pera is a partner in the Memphis office of Adams & Reese, LLP.  His practice includes professional malpractice litigation as well as counseling lawyers and law firms in the area of ethics and professional responsibility.  He was a member of the ABA’s Ethics 2000 Commission and is co-author of "Ethics and Lawyering Today," a national e-mail newsletter on lawyer ethics, which is accessible at: www.ethicsandlawyering.com.  He is the immediate past Treasurer of the ABA and currently serves as Vice President of the Tennessee Bar Association.  Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Harry W. Wellford of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.   Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

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  • 6/5/2026
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2024 Ethics in Litigation Update, Part 2

$79.00

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and ethics in defense and common interest agreements.  The program will provide a wide-ranging discussion of the ethical issues that arise with the spread, use and development of technology in litigation.  Also, the panel will discuss ethical issues in discovery of digital files, records, and communications.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice.    Day 1: Ethics and discovery Ethics and preparing witnesses – the limits of coaching Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 1   Day 2: Annual technology review – the many ways in which technology can cause ethical traps for lawyers in litigation Client confidentiality, the attorney-client privilege, and work product doctrine Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 2   Speakers: Lucian T. Pera is a partner in the Memphis office of Adams & Reese, LLP.  His practice includes professional malpractice litigation as well as counseling lawyers and law firms in the area of ethics and professional responsibility.  He was a member of the ABA’s Ethics 2000 Commission and is co-author of "Ethics and Lawyering Today," a national e-mail newsletter on lawyer ethics, which is accessible at: www.ethicsandlawyering.com.  He is the immediate past Treasurer of the ABA and currently serves as Vice President of the Tennessee Bar Association.  Before entering private practice, he served as a judicial clerk to Judge Harry W. Wellford of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  Mr. Pera received his A.B. with honors from Princeton University and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law. William Freivogel is the principal of Freivogel Ethics Consulting and is an independent consultant to law firms on ethics and risk management.  He was a trial lawyer for 22 years and has practiced in the areas of legal ethics and lawyer malpractice for more than 25 years.  He is chair of the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. He maintains the Web site “Freivogel on Conflicts” at www.freivogelonconflicts.com <http://www.freivogelonconflicts.com/> .  Mr. Freivogel is a graduate of the University of Illinois (Champaign), where he received his B.S. and LL.B. Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  He received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Yale University and his J.D. from Yale Law School.    

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  • 6/6/2026
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The Ethics of Bad Facts and Bad Law

$79.00

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? Speakers: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.  

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  • 6/28/2026
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2024 Ethics and Social Media Update

$79.00

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   Speaker: Thomas E. Spahn is a partner in the McLean, Virginia office of McGuireWoods, LLP, where he has a substantial practice advising clients on properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections.  For more than 30 years he has lectured extensively on legal ethics and professionalism and has written “The Attorney-Client Privilege and the Work Product Doctrine: A Practitioner’s Guide,” a 750 page treatise published by the Virginia Law Foundation.  Mr. Spahn has served as a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Legal Ethics Committee.      

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  • 7/11/2026
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