Course List

Generative AI is a game-changing technology – but it also comes with ethical risks for attorneys and law firms. Developing an AI policy for your law firm is now crucial and involves addressing ethical considerations and ensuring compliance with legal standards while leveraging the benefits of AI.

This CLE explores the ethical, practical and regulatory implications of integrating artificial intelligence into legal practice. It covers core technologies like machine learning and generative AI, their application in law firms and the ethical responsibilities attorneys under the ABA Model Rules and various state bar ethics opinions. Attorneys will learn how to assess confidentiality risks, ensure transparency in billing, combat AI bias and develop firm-wide AI policies that uphold professional conduct and client trust.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify key AI technologies used in legal practice and their core functions.

2. Understand the ethical rules and responsibilities triggered by AI use, including competence, confidentiality, and candor.

3. Evaluate the risks of AI bias, misinformation, and data security breaches.

4. Develop a compliant AI policy aligned with ABA Model Rules and state bar guidance.

5. Communicate transparently with clients about AI use and its implications for fees, privacy, and case strategy.

Desire'e Martinelli is an attorney and the Director of Marketing & Analytics of Esquire Interactive LLC. Jeff Lantz is an attorney, entrepreneur, and the CEO of Esquire Interactive LLC, an interactive digital marketing agency for attorneys and law firms.

If you’ve seen Blade Runner, you know all about the Turing Test that was established in 1950. The test measures a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent behavior equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a human. Well, ChatGPT broke the Turing Test.

Unfortunately, this new AI technology thinks like humans just a little too much – AI can produce results that promote bias and discrimination. The question now becomes how can attorneys harness this revolutionary new technology while remaining ethical in their legal practice. Presented by Amanda M. Blair of Fisher Phillips, this CLE will highlight some of the common pitfalls associated with attorneys using generative AI, show you how AI can be subject to biased & discriminatory results, provide steps for attorneys to avoid biased results and conclude with best practices for attorneys when using AI in their legal practice. Additional topics: Work Trend Index Annual Report, document & contract review, legal research & analysis, predicting case outcomes & litigation support, Westlaw Precisions with CoCounsel, risks & ethics of AI use, hallucinations & bias, data privacy & security, discrimination litigation involving AI bias, Automated Employment Decision Tools (AEDTs), EEOC guidance, sources of bias in AI systems and laws & policies addressing AI & Bias.

Amanda Blair is an associate in the firm’s New York office, focusing her practice on complex employment issues. Amanda’s experience as an assistant corporate counsel in the New York City Law Department has her well equipped to handle cases involving Title VII, ADA, the First Amendment, ADEA, FMLA, Section 1983, and State and City Human Rights Laws.

True liberty means enjoying fruits of your labor and maximizing the profit made from your hard work — even student athletes. And for years, student athletes were forbidden from pursuing endorsement offers, even though schools & business are making billions broadcasting their games.

Now, recent state legislation allows student athletes to profit from their fame & notoriety while still maintaining their athletic eligibility. You can be a star female college basketball player — and still get paid for doing some commercials for the local pizza shop. Unfortunately, the patchwork of state legislation & hands off approach by the NCAA has left the legal landscape in chaos. Brian Brunkow will try to clear things up by explaining the rules around Name Image Likeness (NIL), boosters & collectives and the transfer portal. Additional topics in this CLE: the NCAA Interim Policy, NIL activity & impact, the NIL deal process, 3rd parties & booster status, the Quid Pro Quo requirement, fair market value for endorsements, pay for play (PFP), NCAA Hypos and Q&A, undue benefits and notice of transfer “Impact.”

Brian Brunkow is a Seattle-area lawyer focused on negotiations, dispute resolution and NCAA compliance. In addition, he teaches lawyers about sports agency law and speaks at West Coast coaching clinics on student-athlete development.

If you are an attorney, you’ve probably been asked to serve on a Board. However, if you do agree there are numerous legal & ethical pitfalls that you must avoid as an attorney.

In this CLE, Nikki Semanchik will teach you what you need to know about serving on a Board, from your initial homework & due diligence to your ethical duties & avoiding conflicts of interest. The course is broken into three main parts, with Nikki first providing background on the key points of Nonprofit Law, she will then take a deep dive into your fiduciary duties and conclude by detailing the risks of serving as Director & legal counsel. Additional topics: entity type, public transparency, Board Committees vs. Advisory Boards, the duties & role of Directors, the Articles of Incorporation, reviewing bylaws & internal policies, Duty of Care, Duty of Inquiry, Duty of Loyalty, Duty to Follow Investment Standards, conflicts of interest, director protections, the Business Judgment Rule, volunteer immunity, Indemnification, Directors & Officers (D&O) Insurance, Nonprofit Compliance, the loss of the attorney-client privilege and your liability exposure.

Nikki Semanchik is the Founding Attorney of Semanchik Law Group, a business and nonprofit firm located in San Diego, California. In addition to assisting nonprofits with formation, compliance and governance, she also represents for profit businesses on a wide variety of matters.

Choice of Law, Prevailing Party, Forum Selection, Force Majeure. “Boilerplate” refers to the standard clauses that typically appear at the end of a contract.

These provisions are often pulled from templates and frequently overlooked by the parties and the attorneys tasked with drafting the agreements. However, these clauses establish essential rights for the parties and warrant careful consideration – especially in the front-end drafting stage of the agreement so you can avoid trying to enforce or fight these common clauses on the back end in litigation. In this CLE, Shannon Bell will delve into these common boilerplate clauses: choice of law, arbitration, forum & venue selection, amendment & modification, force majeure, jury waiver, prevailing party, merger and survival. Shannon will dissect key case law from around the country and provide practical tips & suggestions for drafting better boilerplate clauses in your contracts.

Shannon M. Bell has years of trial experience in state and federal courts and litigates a wide variety of complex business disputes, construction disputes, fiduciary claims, employment issues, and landlord/tenant issues, with a specialization in construction.

There are many reasons why shareholders fight and small businesses break up – differences in business vision & strategy, disagreements over financial decisions, conflicts of interest & personality clashes are some of the main ones. When shareholders fight, legal advisors must quickly assess available rights, remedies, and the trajectory of any potential resolution or litigation.

In this CLE, Brandon M. Schwartz will mainly explore fiduciary duties owed among shareholders in closely held corporations, detail the types of disputes that frequently arise and highlight the strategies available to resolve them effectively. The program highlights both substantive and procedural fiduciary obligations, including duties of loyalty, candor, and fair dealing. Attendees will also gain insights into majority vs. minority shareholder dynamics, shareholder oppression and deadlock scenarios. Finally, the session focuses on dispute resolution options — from mediation and arbitration to full-scale litigation and the use of Special Litigation Committees (SLCs). By the conclusion of the session, attorneys will be better equipped to advise clients on preventative measures, evaluate risks, and select dispute resolution strategies that protect shareholder rights and preserve business value.

Learning Objectives

- Identify fiduciary duties owed among majority and minority shareholders in closely held corporations.

- Differentiate between common types of shareholder disputes, including deadlock, oppression, and breach of shareholder agreements.

- Analyze risks and consequences of shareholder disputes, including operational, financial, and reputational impacts.

- Evaluate dispute resolution options, including mediation, arbitration, and litigation.

- Understand the role of Special Litigation Committees (SLCs) in resolving shareholder disputes and the standards courts apply to review their decisions.

- Develop strategies for advising clients proactively to minimize disputes and preserve business relationships.

Brandon M. Schwartz, Esq., is a Board-Certified Civil Specialist by the Minnesota State Bar Association, a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate and Family Trial Law Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and has received recognition from peers and clients alike for his thorough, zealous and ethical representation.

Plaintiffs' lawyers now need to write more than ever. Unfortunately, courts are slammed with heavy caseloads and you are competing against other litigants for what little time the judge has to analyze the claims & merit of your case. How can you avoid the dreaded MTD??

Join professional brief writer Jonathan Hilton as he explains how to craft legal briefs that judges will want to read. He will present & explain his top ten tips: five practice points to help the judge spot your best arguments in less time and five practice points on how to make your clients more likable & your clients’ stories more compelling. The ten points: (1) Start with first principles, (2) Create an alternate storyline, (3) Show why you state a claim — don’t just defend, (4) Plant the emotional facts in the Complaint, (5) Dumb Cases Die, (6) Use notice pleading to build your story, (7) Distinguish Civ. R. 8 from Civ. R. 9(b), (8) Use the right theory to hook in the big pockets, (9) Handle SOLs carefully and (10) To amend… or not to amend? Jonathan will round out the hour by looking at resources that will help you become a better brief writer moving forward.

Jonathan Hilton became the youngest-ever Cincinnati Chess Champion at age 15, and he earned the National Master in chess title the following year. At Hilton Parker LLC, Mr. Hilton now advisies other attorneys on how to best navigate through their most difficult cases. As a consultant and brief writer, he designs novel legal theories in courts across the country.

Getting 8 or 9 figure settlements for your clients is not from luck, an accident, or magic. It is not a talent you are born with or a gift that is given to you. It comes from learning the science of persuasion and then discovering how to deploy it in the courtroom.

R. Rex Parris obtained an historic $370 million defamation verdict for his clients against the founder of Guess jeans. He gets up at 4:00 a.m. every morning to study cognitive science & the irrational way jurors make decisions so he can achieve the best results for his clients. In this CLE, he will share his knowledge of persuasion & how to change minds by covering: behavioral decision making & how jurors think, keeping things simple and “priming” your jury to get the best results. Further topics: how decisions are affected by heuristics, biases & other influences, the SIMPLEST case wins, how to control fear in the courtroom, smiling & making eye contact, proximity, unconscious competence, attorneys are wordsmiths, trimming the fat & cutting extra words, visual priming, obsessing over the results, living life with laughter turned off and reversals. The following books are discussed, Click: Ten Truths for Building Extraordinary Relationships, The Power of Eye Contact, Start With Why, The Influentials and Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst.

R. Rex Parris, Esq. has achieved outstanding results in the courtroom over the span of his career – including an historic, record-breaking defamation jury verdict in Los Angeles for $370,000,000. Rex has also been the mayor of Lancaster, California, since 2008.

The latest fad in the tech revolution is AI (Artificial Intelligence). Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are transforming industries from healthcare to finance and everything in between.

But we are at the infancy stages of AI and utilizing this new tech also comes with risks that could harm your clients’ business interests or expose them to legal liability. In this CLE, Jeremy Kahn will provide an overview of the benefits & risks of generative AI and the legal implications across several practice areas to enable you to confidently advise your clients about this transformative technology and run a more efficient & profitable law practice. Topics discussed: creative content generation, text generation & natural language processing (NLP), predictive modeling & forecasting , improving accessibility, HIPPA & PIH implications, IP issues (trade secrets & copyright), three instances of Samsung employees unintentionally leaking sensitive information to ChatGPT, “Hallucinations” (inaccuracies & defamation), latest guidance from the Copyright Office, biases & Employment Discrimination, best practices to help protect your clients and 6 key questions to ask clients.

Jeremy L. Kahn is a thoughtful and strategic litigator, with a creative approach. He enjoys crafting strategies to resolve difficult and legally challenging problems, always seeking to achieve his clients’ desired results in an efficient manner.

The BTK killer operated for 25 years before being apprehended. His undoing was in 2005 when he sent a taunting floppy disk to a Wichita TV station. This allowed police to find metadata embedded in a deleted Microsoft Word document that was (unknown to Dennis Rader) still stored on the floppy disk & led police to uncover his identity at the church he worked at.

Twenty years later and the amount of electronic devices has exploded – and so has digital evidence – from Apple watches & cloud data to CPAPs & home security systems. But do you know where to look for it and how to analyze the digital evidence once you get it? Lars Daniel will explain why the field of digital forensics has become essential to attorneys because almost every civil & criminal case now hinges on data and digital evidence generated from electronic devices. Case examples presented: Distracted Driver Case (Cell Phone Forensics), Wearable Technology Forensics (Cyclist & Trucking Accident), Kidnapped!! (Apple Watch & iPhone evidence), Snapshot in time: User Actions, Video Forensics (Arson & Burglary), In-Vehicle Infotainment Forensics, Computer Forensics, Call Detail Records (CDRs): Arson, Lyft driver assault accusation and Audio Forensics (domestic violence & assault). Topics: structured data, semi-structured data, unstructured data, metadata, encrypted data, archival & backup data, system generated data, deleted data and the digital forensics method (Identification, Preservation & Acquisition, Examination & Analysis, Presentation & Reporting).

An expert, author and frequent speaker, Lars Daniel has attended over 300 hours of forensic training and has worked on over 500 cases involving murder, child pornography, terrorism, rape, kidnapping, intellectual property, fraud, wrongful death, employee wrongdoing & international e-discovery collections, among other case types.

Most clients want everything in a contract negotiation. Unfortunately, the other side probably wants everything too. The real question for practitioners is: which clauses are truly worth the fight? The answer, of course, is…. it depends.

In this CLE, Kristi Zentner and Heather Marx — a seasoned transactional attorney & an experienced commercial litigator — share insights drawn from daily practice on both sides of the negotiating table. They explore the most common flashpoints in contract drafting and negotiation, from indemnification and limitation of liability to representations, warranties, and confidentiality provisions. The dynamic duo also provide practical strategies for recognizing which provisions merit aggressive advocacy, show you how to tailor clauses to a client’s risk profile, and drafting the contact with enforceability in mind. Attendees will also gain tools for memorializing the negotiation: ensuring that contracts clearly reflect agreed terms, avoid ambiguities and reduce the risk of costly disputes down the road.

Learning Objectives

* Identify key contract clauses — such as indemnification, limitation of liability, and representations and warranties — that most often become points of contention and potential litigation.

* Evaluate negotiation dynamics, including leverage, market conditions, and counterparty risk, to determine which provisions are worth pressing and which can be compromised.

* Draft clear and enforceable risk-shifting provisions tailored to the transaction, including defining scope, triggers, exceptions, and remedies.

* Recognize common mistakes in contract drafting and negotiation that create ambiguity or weaken enforceability, and implement strategies to avoid them.

* Apply effective review techniques to ensure that contracts accurately memorialize negotiations, reflect agreed business terms, and align with preliminary documents such as term sheets or letters of intent.

* Integrate practical drafting tips—such as consistency of defined terms, clarity of structure, and avoidance of boilerplate legalese—into daily practice to improve contract quality and reduce litigation risk.

Kristi Zentner, Esq., is a transactional attorney who represents clients in general business, supply chain management, as well as tariff, customs, and trade matters. Heather Marx. Esq., applies her experience in the areas of complex business and commercial litigation to represent a variety of clients.

Nathan Osborn frequently works with clients to buy investment properties on the ski slopes of Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Aspen and more. These clients buy these properties as VRBOs (Vacation Rental By Owner) to generate revenue – but what they fail to realize is that one accident on their property could put their personal assets at risk. Nate Osborn often recommends a very practical solution that offers asset protection & tax benefits – the LLC. In this CLE he provides practical guidance on how to draft a real estate limited liability company (LLC) operating agreement. Nate will provide a plethora of practical guidance on: asking the right questions, determining whether an LLC is the appropriate entity for your client, selecting a member or manager managed LLC, maximizing personal asset protection through the LLC, drafting capital contribution provisions, drafting real estate profit distribution provisions, drafting dispute resolution provisions and tax implications & how to maximize tax benefits. Specific topics covered: vacation rentals & investors, understanding the client’s business, the advantages of LLCs in real estate, putting title to real estate into an LLC, potential LLC liability, piercing the corporate veil, structuring capital calls, provisions to share real estate profits, incorporating IRAs, holding strategies & double FICA taxes and utilizing 1031 like-kind exchanges.

Nathan G. Osborn, Esq., focuses on real estate litigation, real estate transactions and commercial litigation. Mr. Osborn effectively uses his significant trial experience to help transactional clients avoid situations that often end up in court.

Our adversarial legal system is full of angry & emotional people – from clients and judges, to court personnel and opposing counsel. As a Divorce Coach, India Kern knows this all too well and she helps emotional clients and angry attorneys in her everyday practice.

By analyzing her own clients and studying some of the top resources in the field, India has developed a framework for dealing with attorneys & clients that would be considered High Conflict Personalities (HCPs). She will introduce you to these concepts by mainly covering: understanding the client’s mental & emotional state, client triggers & practicing self-awareness and cultivating effective communication strategies. Additional topics: managing client expectations, communication barriers, the reptilian brain, how the Amygdala hijacks logical thought, using B.I.F.F. statements (Brief, Informative, Friendly & Firm), 6 key triggers (competence, autonomy, fellowship, status, reliability & integrity), Lenski's Conflict Pivot, Transactional Analysis Overview: Parent | Child |Adult, Critical Parent (CP), Nurturing Parent (NP), 3 steps to deescalate angry clients & emotional people, empathy vs. sympathy and affect labeling.

As a Certified Divorce Coach, India Kern specializes in working with clients who are stuck in the divorce process. I assist attorneys in understanding the client and facilitating communication to achieve the best possible divorce outcome for clients and make it a smooth resolution for the attorney.

Data privacy stands at the forefront of eDiscovery, bearing significant legal and ethical implications for attorneys. A failure to uphold stringent data privacy standards – especially Internationally – can lead to ethical violations, breach of sensitive data and hefty fines.

This CLE will teach attorneys the best ethical practices when managing U.S. eDiscovery of data that is stored abroad. Main topics covered: U.S. matters & cross-border legal considerations, international requirements, international technology & collection strategies, using eDiscovery & forensics technology in cross-border reviews and data disposition & reuse. Additional topics: FRCP Rule 1 – Cooperation, Form of Production – FRCP 34(b)(2)(E), data sources, ESI Orders/Stipulations, evolving data laws, global geopolitical factors & economic drivers, cultural differences, understanding data flows, legal hold best practices & scoping, data reservation strategies and collection considerations. The following ABA Model Rules are implicated: Rule 1.1 – Technological Competence, Rule 3.4 – Fairness to Opposing Party & Avoiding Spoliation, Rule 1.15 – Safekeeping Property and Rule 5.1 – Responsibilities of a Supervisory Lawyer.

Panelists include: Carolyn Bigg of DLA Piper (Global Co-Chair of Data Protection, Privacy & Security), Matthew Krengel of Cooley LLP (Discovery & Information Governance (IG) Counsel) and Alex Marjanovic & Chris Marks of Ankura Global Consulting (Senior Managing Director).

This CLE program provides attorneys with critical guidance on navigating the increasingly intertwined worlds of legal ethics, malpractice risk & cybersecurity. As law firms become prime targets for cyber threats, ethical responsibilities under the ABA Model Rules demand heightened awareness and action.

Led by attorney Jeff Cunningham — who defends lawyers and firms in malpractice and ethics cases — this course explores the blurred lines between ethics violations and cyber negligence. Through practical strategies and real-world examples, the course offers attorneys actionable methods to build ethical “guardrails” that protect both client data and professional reputations. Topics include vendor due diligence, cyber infrastructure, legal tech trends, client counseling on cyber duties, and enhancing law firm security teams. Participants will gain a deeper understanding of key ethics rules, including Competence (Rule 1.1), Confidentiality (Rule 1.6), Communication (Rule 1.4), and Supervision Responsibilities (Rules 5.1–5.3), as applied in the digital age. Attorneys will walk away with a playbook for proactive compliance — ensuring they meet ethical obligations while mitigating malpractice and cyber liability in a high-risk environment.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and interpret key ethical rules—including ABA Model Rules 1.1, 1.4, 1.6, and 5.1–5.3—as they apply to cybersecurity responsibilities in legal practice.

• Distinguish between ethical violations and legal malpractice in the context of cyber risk, and recognize how blurred boundaries create new areas of liability.

• Develop practical strategies for cyber compliance, including building secure infrastructure, conducting vendor due diligence, and training legal staff and nonlawyer personnel.

• Evaluate their firm's current cyber readiness and implement “ethics guardrails” to proactively reduce exposure to cyber threats and ethics grievances.

• Advise clients effectively on their own cybersecurity obligations, enhancing client service and meeting ethical duties under communication and competence rules.

Jeff Cunningham, Esq., actively defends lawyers and acts as outside General Counsel to small and mid-sized law firms across the United States, while also serving as this firm’s General Counsel. Jeff defends industry professionals in a wide range of professional liability, ethics and professional disciplinary matters. With an emphasis on simple systems of risk management, Jeff brings a holistic approach of protecting our clients before problems occur.

Presented by renowned CLE presenter & seasoned trial attorney Michael DeBlis III, this second part of a four-part series continues to focuses on one of the most challenging & crucial areas of law for trial attorneys – the Federal Rules of Evidence and its application in the courtroom.

In this installment of Mike’s comprehensive Evidence series, he finishes discussing relevance, covers competence and begins discussing witness & testimonial evidence. The main topics covered will be: character evidence in criminal cases, tips for approaching MIMIC evidence, writings & the Best Evidence Rule (BER), competency and lay opinion testimony & expert opinion testimony. Mike will delve into these specific topics: the victim’s character in self-defense & sexual misconduct cases, specific instances of prior misconduct by the accused, MIMIC Evidence (Motive, Intent, Modus Operandi, Identity, Common Plan), the definition of a "writing," legally operative documents, the approach for analyzing a BER question, public records, voluminous documents, duplicates, FRE 601, the Minimum Competency Test, personal knowledge & oath, leading questions, witness use of writings in aid of testimony, refreshing recollection, recorded recollection, admissibility & scope of lay opinion testimony, the 4 requirements for expert opinion and learned treatises.

Michael is a partner in the boutique law firm of DeBlis Law where he specializes in tax compliance and entertainment law. As a former public defender, he has spent nearly eight years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases to pass through the state courts of New Jersey.

Presented by renowned CLE presenter & seasoned trial attorney Michael DeBlis III, this is the first part of a four-part series that focuses on one of the trickiest & most important areas of law for trial attorneys – the Federal Rules of Evidence.

Judges apply the rules of evidence to determine whether to admit or exclude physical evidence, oral testimony & exhibits, and if admitted the jury decides how much weight to afford the evidence. As a starting point, the rules of evidence permit only relevant and trustworthy evidence to be make it in front of the jury. This CLE will focus on specific problems involving logical relevance, character evidence in civil cases and character evidence in criminal cases. Topics also discussed: direct evidence vs. circumstantial evidence, logical and discretionary or policy-based relevance, similar occurrences, prior accidents or claims, intent/state of mind, habit evidence, subsequent remedial measures, settlements, determining the purpose for which the evidence is being offered, specific acts of conduct, opinion (personal opinion), reputation in the community, admissibility and bad character in criminal cases. Mike provides numerous memorable hypotheticals so you can think fast on your feet in the courtroom and practically apply the rules to your advantage, both before and during trial.

Michael is a partner in the boutique law firm of DeBlis Law where he specializes in tax compliance and entertainment law. As a former public defender, he has spent nearly eight years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases to pass through the state courts of New Jersey.

Presented by seasoned trial attorney & noted CLE speaker Michael DeBlis III, this third part of our four-part Evidence series will focus on witnesses and testimonial evidence.

Mike will begin the program by detailing the highlights of cross-examination and then drill down to the core of impeachment & the credibility of witnesses. These specific topics are addressed: the Sixth Amendment right to cross-examination, the limits of cross, questions or issues addressing the scope of direct examination, leading questions, impeachment & the attacking the credibility of the witness, intrinsic & extrinsic impeachment, the Collateral Matter Rule, accrediting your own witness, impeaching your adversary’s witness, sensory defects of the witness, demonstrating a showing of bias, interest, or motive to misrepresent or to exaggerate, character evidence, Prior Inconsistent Statements, felony convictions not involving dishonesty, remote convictions (more than 10 years), specific acts of deceit or lying, bad reputation, rehabilitation after impeachment and prior consistent statements.

Michael is a partner in the boutique law firm of DeBlis Law where he specializes in tax compliance and entertainment law. As a former public defender, he has spent nearly eight years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases to pass through the state courts of New Jersey.

In the last installment of his comprehensive evidence series, Michael DeBlis takes a deep dive into every attorney’s favorite subject – out-of-court statements other than the one made by the declarant while testifying at a trial or hearing that is offered into evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.

Yes, hearsay. Mike will mainly cover the following points on hearsay: Rule 801 & hearsay definitions, forms of non-hearsay and the hearsay exceptions. Specific topics: determining who the declarant is, the 4 point hearsay checklist, verbal acts, non-assertive conduct, state of mind, prior inconsistent statements, prior consistent statements, prior identifications, direct admissions, transactional words, witness unavailability, present sense impression, excited utterance, statement of present mental or physical condition, past recollection recorded, business records, public records, hearsay exceptions dealing with records, learned treatises, hearsay catch-all exceptions, dying declaration, declaration against interest, hearsay exceptions under 804. Mike will also provide numerous memorable hypotheticals so you can think fast on your feet during the trial and practically deploy the Rules of Evidence to your advantage.

Michael is a partner in the boutique law firm of DeBlis Law where he specializes in tax compliance and entertainment law. As a former public defender, he has spent nearly eight years cutting his teeth on some of the most serious felony cases to pass through the state courts of New Jersey.

The Founding Fathers thought so highly of robust public discussion, they added the freedom of speech to the 1st Amendment to the Constitution — right after the freedom of religion. Unfortunately, many colleges do not place this same value on the right to free speech.

One junior college student was barred from passing out pocket Constitutions — on Constitution Day. Emory University told students they can’t hang Christmas decorations. And Syracuse University charged a student orientation leader with hazing & suspended her — because she helped organize an optional campus scavenger hunt. There are countless tales of colleges impermissibly chilling speech on campus and punishing students for legally exercising their free speech rights. In this CLE, Zach Greenberg will mainly cover: hate speech vs. free speech, the more speech approach, college standards & regulations, speech codes and free speech zones. Additional topics: public vs. private colleges, harassment policies, the “true threat” standard, thought reform at the University of Delaware and dealing with hateful speech. Zach will also discuss numerous case examples where colleges overstepped their bounds and trampled on student’s First Amendment rights.

A native New Yorker, Zach graduated from Binghamton University in 2013 and Syracuse Law in 2016. Zach developed an appreciation for free speech while leading the College Libertarians and the Federalist Society.