Featured Philadelphia Bar Association CLE
CLE - Mindful Decision-Making July 14
Day-to-day decision-making can be stressful. For an attorney, the stress of decision-making is complicated by several factors: the legal issues themselves, the reactions of the involved parties, and the non-legal ramifications of any particular decision. Sometimes an attorney's healthy concern for the client's emotions and reactions can snowball into anxiety. All of this competition for mind share can stymie decision making. The challenge of decision-making may lead to delays in action, which can have worse consequences than a bad decision itself. It is said that "Mindful decision-making begins with the recognition of our need to act."
This program -- the second CLE course in the Business Law Section Mindfulness Series -- examines mindful decision-making and how a mindful approach leads to ethical decision-making. Our faculty will provide a mindfulness foundation, offer a definition for mindful decision making, and walk you through a process for making decisions mindfully and ethically. This interactive program will enable you to incorporate mindfulness into your decision-making process, apply the tools of mindful decision-making to a current decision you face, and leverage the skills of mindfulness to represent your clients ethically and zealously.
Mindfulness is an awareness of life in the present moment creating the opportunity to pause, breathe, and connect with oneself so that we may be able to moderate our reaction and respond thoughtfully to our clients and colleagues. For the same reasons, practicing mindfulness in law enhances our capacity to be more genuine and present for what arises in our interactions.
In this program, faculty will highlight:
- Definitions of Mindful Decision-Making
- A Process of Making Decisions Mindfully
- Practical examples, resources and tips
Allow mindfulness to be an everyday tool to enable better focus in your practice of law and bring an enjoyment into your work environment.
Mindful Decision-Making
1 ETH
8:30 a.m. Registration begins at 8 a.m.
CLE - Mitigation and Reentry Planning In Juvenile Life Without Parole Resentencings July 19
Responding to Montgomery v. Louisiana
This afternoon CLE program provides training on sentencing mitigation and reentry planning in the wake of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Montgomery v. Louisiana, that called for the resentencing of over 300 Philadelphia men and women who were sentenced to life in prison without parole before their 18th birthdays.
ACCR and YSRP have previously hosted 2-day training sessions for mitigation specialists and volunteers who are interested in serving as mitigation specialists. They, along with the Legal Rights of Children Committee, have developed this condensed program to provide an overview of the fundamentals of mitigation and reentry as they relate to an attorney preparing for and presenting a resentencing hearing.
This three-hour CLE program will highlight the following:
- Introduction & What is Mitigation?
- Mitigation Toolkit
- Records Collection
- Witness Interviews
- Signs & Symptoms of Mental Health
- Preparing for Reentry
- Q & A
Join your colleagues for a step-by-step overview of sentencing mitigation and reentry planning.
Mitigation and Reentry Planning In Juvenile Life Without Parole Resentencings
3 SUB
12 p.m. Lunch and registration begin at 11:30 a.m.
CLE - Nursing Home Litigation 101 Aug. 4
As the aging population in our country continues to grow at a steady pace, many of us will have family members living in nursing homes or other long-term care facilities because of their physical or mental condition.
This CLE presentation will cover the basics of nursing home litigation from both the plaintiff and defense perspective. Expert practitioners will offer guidance regarding documentation issues that are unique to nursing home litigation, common themes and defenses in typical nursing home litigation and a discussion of strategy concerning expert retention.
This program will outline the following topics:
Pre-Suit/Documentation
- Documents to request/preserve
- Hybrid electronic/paper charts
- Incident reports, 24 hour reports, staffing documents
- Admissions documents, including arbitration agreement and power of attorney
- Powers of attorney, raising estates
Arbitration Agreements
- Are they enforceable?
- Authority
- Wrongful death
Common Claims
Wound case
- Practice standards
- Interventions
- Significant co-morbidities and unavoidable wounds
Fall case
- Interventions
- Recovery/Impact on Quality of Life
Corporate negligence
- Staffing claims
- State regulation regarding staffing, 2.7 PPD
Expert Retention
- Nursing experts
- Geriatrician
- Specialist?
- Economist
Distribution of funds from recovery
- Medical and Estate liens
- Death petitions and special needs trusts
This program will provide attendees with basic tools to successfully litigate these challenging cases.
Nursing Home Litigation 101
2 SUB
12-2:15 p.m. Lunch and registration begin at 11:30 a.m.
CLE - Avoiding Legal Malpractice Aug. 24
Second FREE CLE for Philadelphia Bar Association Members in good standing.
This 2-hour ethics CLE will feature Shelly Lawson, vice president at USI Affinity and the head of Lawyers Professional Liability (LPL) claims for CNA. Learn why lawyers are being sued for malpractice. What are the areas of practice where suits are most common? Are letters of disengagement really that important? Why shouldn't lawyers handle a real estate settlement for a friend who needs just a little bit of help? Using your cell phone and iPad for communications with clients is certainly convenient but does it expose you to liability? This two-hour ethics program will delve into the who, what, where and why of being sued for malpractice and how best to avoid it.
Avoiding Legal Malpractice
2 ETH
9 a.m. Registration begins at 8:30 a.m.