Seminar Title: Riveting Legal Ethics Issues and the Law
Instructor: William D. Brown, Ph.D.
2012 Seminar offered on site in Washington, DC: August 15
The City Club at Columbia Square, 555 13th Street NW, (202) 347-0818; 1:00pm – 5:15pm; refreshments provided; business attire is required by this club.
2012 seminar offered live, on site/various locations:
Washington, DC: April 11, August 15, October 26
Wilmington, DE: April 13, August 17
Tysons Corner, VA: October 24
Description:
Economic effects on professionalism aren’t often addressed, but this seminar examines class action suits filed against law schools and whether the role for unaccredited law schools is expanding. An examination of legal ethics and constitutional issues focuses attention on the Westboro cause (sect demonstrations at military funerals), with a particularly close examination of the dissent in Snyder v. Phelps (US, 2011) and UPL challenges to Legal Zoom.com. Interplay between legal ethics and ethics is explored in jury nullification and the profession’s response to life sentences for juvenile killers. Consequences of acting out by addictive personalities within the profession is considered, with an examination of addictive personalities and the reasons lawyers are prone to develop the classic addictive personality.
Credit Hours: 4 CLE Hours (Ethics/Professionalism/Elimination of Bias/Substance Abuse depending on jurisdiction)
Accreditation:
AL, AR, DE, IN, MS, NM, NV, NY, PA, TX, WA, WI: 4 hrs. ethics/general
CA: 2 ethics/1 substance abuse/1 elimination of bias
OH: 2 ethics/1 substance abuse/1 professionalism
NC, SC: 3 ethics/1 substance abuse
GA: 3 ethics/1 professionalism
TN: 4 hrs. dual credit
CO, MO, WV: 4.8 hrs. ethics/general
OK: 5 hrs. ethics/general
VA: 3 hrs. ethics/1 hr general
VT: 2 hrs ethics/2 hrs general
Canada – not approved for CPD
Materials: Cases, Opinions and articles relating to seminar topic, please appropriate correlating selections from:
The Ethics of Legal Ethics (Vol. I)
William D. Brown, Ph.D
Washington: The Wayne Smith Company, 1995
Board of Directors – Lapdog or Watchdog?
William D. Brown, Ph.D.
Leesburg, VA: Wycliff Publishing, 2007
Dissemination: Materials distributed on-site
Seminar Content:
1.0 Hr. Economic effects on professionalism
· Class action suits filed against law schools
· Court personnel reduction and freezing judges pay
· Expanding role for unaccredited law schools?
· ABA/BNA 21:101 – Admissions
· MR 8.1: Bar admission and Disciplinary Matters
1.0 Hr. Legal ethics and constitutional issues
· Westboro cause (Snyder v. Phelps et al., 09-751, US, March 2, 2011)
· Majority’s opinion or Justice Alito’s dissent more in line with legal ethics?
· Accommodating blind bar applicant’s request for special equipment
· Modern Rules Preamble and Scope sections – expanded lawyer role
· Legal Zoom and UPL – a potentially imminent collision with MR 5.5
1.0 Hr. Interplay of legal ethics and ethics for practitioners
· Jury refuses to convict murderer of criminal homicide
· Grand jury indicts jury nullification advocate
· Revisiting Alexander Hamilton’s role in the trial of John Peter Zenger (1735) – when jury nullification was first addressed here
· Weighing profession’s response to life sentences for juvenile killers
· MR 1.4: Communication [Comment 7 – Withholding Information]
1.0 Hr. Consequences of acting out by addictive personalities
· Exploring addictions and lawyer culpability
· Traits of addictive personalities
· MR 8.3c: Reporting Professional Misconduct role
· Lawyer intervention; family first intervention program
________
4.00 Hrs. = Total CLE Credit
Presenter:
William D. Brown, Ph.D.
mailto:wdb@trtcle.com
Education
Ph.D. - Florida State University
M.Th. - Texas Christian University
B.D. - Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University
B.A. - Lynchburg College
Positions
Chairman and presenter, TRT, Inc. (1990 - present)
President, The Ethics Institute (1992 - present)
Private Practice (Clinical Psychology) (1970 - present)
Academic Appointments
Chair, Dept. of Family Psychology and Community Development, University of
Maryland
Department Head, Dept. of Child Development & Family Relations, and
Associate Professor, Human Factors Research Laboratory, Colorado State University
Professor of Family Life, Stephens College
Psychology Instructor, United States Armed Forces Institute
Publishing/Writing
Brown, Dr. William D.
Board of Directors – Corporate Governance Lapdog or Watchdog?, Leesburg, VA;
Wyclliff Publishers, 2007
The Ethics of Legal Ethics (Vol. 1), Washington: The Wayne Smith Company, 1995
The Right Thing: ethics inaction/ethics in action, Washington: The Wayne Smith Company, 1991
Welcome Stress! It Can Help You be Your Best, Minneapolis: CompCare Publishing Co., 1983
Families Under Stress, Washington: Prentice Hall (Brady Division), 1977
“A Social-Psychological Conceptual Framework of the Family” (Chapter VIII) in Emerging Conceptual Frameworks in Family Analysis, F. Ivan Nye and Felix M. Berardo (eds.) New York: The MacMillan Company, 1966
Affiliations
American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility
American Psychological Association
Potpourri
Married to Nett Brown
Two children
Seven grandchildren
Veteran, United States Navy (Submarines)
