Total Credits: 3.0 including 3.0 Ethics
“Nobody Told Me There’d Be Days Like These!:”
Stress, Pressure and Ethical Decision-Making in the Practice of Law
3.0 Ethics CLE Credits | CLE #2020-007
Registration Fee: $115
Presented by: Michael Kahn, JD, LPC, ReelTime CLE
With Phil Shanahan, Alaska Bar Counsel
Most serious legal malpractice claims and problematic bar disciplinary actions are brought not for debatable violations of arcane, ambiguous, provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, but, in fact, for clear breaches of obvious, well-defined ethical obligations. (Don’t take money from the client trust account. Keep clients reasonably informed about the developments in a case or a transaction—even when it’s bad news. Don’t sleep with the attractive domestic client you are representing in an ongoing divorce proceeding. Be candid with the court., etc..) It’s not rocket science—in fact, anyone who has sat in on a basic Professional Responsibility class would know such conduct is ethically problematic. And yet it happens. A lot. Even to our own friends and colleagues at the bar.
This engaging, highly interactive CLE workshop provides a fresh and practical perspective on the fundamental question, “Why do ‘good’ lawyers ‘go bad’?” Vignettes from an engaging original short film, written and co-produced by ReelTime CLE founders Michael Kahn and Chris Osborn, serve as the catalyst for a practical and informative consideration of the intersection of ethical decision-making and the manifold sources of stress encountered by lawyers in managing the day-to-day practice of law.
ReelTime CLE is a nationwide provider of dynamic, interactive workshops, conferences, law firm retreats, and professional development training programs, committed to using the most proven and effective methods of adult learning to help professionals work (and interact with one another) more productively and sustainably. Michael Kahn, with his business partner Chris Osborn, began providing their CLE workshops on ethics, professional responsibility, diversity and inclusion and mental health/substance abuse awareness in 2007. Since January 2010, their workshops have been enjoyed by hundreds of participants throughout the US, as well as Australia and Canada. In August 2012, their program, “Practicing Dirt Law and Keeping Your Nose Clean”- Stress and Ethical Decision-Making for Real Estate Attorneys, received an Award of Outstanding Achievement in Programming from ACLEA, the Association for Continuing Legal Education Professionals.
Michael holds a J.D. from the Dickinson School of Law, and practiced law with the Attorney General’s Office for the State of New Jersey for 6 years. Although he left the practice of law in 1991, his work thereafter has kept him involved in the lives of lawyers in various capacities. Following a stint as Assistant Director of Career Services with the Tulane University School of Law, Michael obtained his M. Ed. in Counseling from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro in 1994, and shortly thereafter became a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of North Carolina. Michael’s areas of focus in his psychotherapy practice have included anxiety, depression, grief/loss, career satisfaction, and men's issues. In 2012, he relocated to Oregon, where, in addition to continuing his speaking career, he served as an Adjunct Professor at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education & Counseling. He currently resides in Vancouver, BC, where he facilitates grief groups for lawyers. He continues to present training seminars and workshops on ethics, grief, wellness, diversity and inclusion, and other topics for lawyers and mental health professionals throughout the U.S. and abroad, including for the U.S. military in Germany and Japan.