BarbriSFCourseDetails
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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    On-Demand

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Beginner

  • work Practice Area

    Ethics

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, October 29, 2024

  • schedule Time

    1:00 PM E.T.

  • timer Program Length

    60 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 60-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.0 CLE credits.

$0.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will guide counsel on recognizing the impaired professional and will offer resources and wellness tips. The panel will also discuss potential disciplinary actions the impaired professional's conduct may trigger.

Faculty

Tracy L. Kepler
Risk Control Consulting Director, Global Specialty, Lawyers Professional Liability
CNA Insurance

Ms. Kepler designs and develops content and distribution of risk control initiatives relevant to the practice of law. She collaborates with the underwriting and claims teams to develop and execute strategies for the profitable growth of the program. Ms. Kepler lectures frequently at CNA-sponsored events and at state and local bar associations and national seminars hosted by industry-leading organizations. She also writes articles focusing on law firm risk control and professional responsibility issues. Prior to joining CNA, Ms. Kepler served as the Director of the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility, providing national leadership in developing and interpreting standards and scholarly resources in legal and judicial ethics, professional regulation, professionalism, client protection, professional liability and attorney well-being. Ms. Kepler is a former Associate Solicitor in the Office of General Counsel for the USPTO, where she concentrated her practice in the investigation, prosecution and appeal of patent/trademark practitioner disciplinary matters before the Agency, U.S. District Courts and Federal Circuit, provided policy advice on ethics and discipline related matters to senior management, and drafted and revised Agency regulations. Ms. Kepler has served in various volunteer capacities, including as President, on the Board of the National Organization of Bar Counsel, a nonprofit organization of legal professionals whose members enforce ethics rules that regulate the professional conduct of lawyers who practice law in the U.S. and abroad.  She is Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law School, Loyola University Chicago School of Law, and American University Washington College of Law.

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Description

Substance use disorders and mental health challenges can affect any attorney regardless of gender, culture, ethnicity, age, or socioeconomic status. This program, taught by seasoned attorneys Laurie Besden and Tracy Kepler, instructs attorneys on how to recognize the impaired professional, provides various resources to assist in the recovery and identifies the possible disciplinary implications of impaired attorneys' conduct. Ms. Besden will share her personal journey from the darkness and depths of despair in struggling with a substance use disorder as a licensed attorney, to her path of long-term recovery, where she received a full Governor's Pardon in 2020.

Specialty credit information:

  • This webinar qualifies for an ethics credit in Alaska, Connecticut, Guam, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and the Virgin Islands.
  • This webinar qualifies for a professional responsibility credit in Arizona.
  • This webinar qualifies for a competence - prevention and detection credit in California.
  • This webinar qualifies a mental health/substance abuse credit in Illinois.


Outline

I. The road to redemption

II. The data

III. General do's and don'ts

IV. What can firms do?

V. What can one person do?

Benefits

The panel will review these and other important issues:

  • Explore substance use disorders and mental health challenges as medical diagnoses and how their prevalence rates affect the legal professional - as told by one of the presenters, who is in long-term recovery, herself
  • Identify warning signs of, and learn how to begin the conversation with an impaired attorney
  • Discern the interface between potential attorney disciplinary action and impairment as well as possible reporting obligations
  • Identify confidential, safe, free, and supportive resources available to the impaired legal professional, their family members, and their colleagues
  • Apply wellness tips that attorneys can apply in daily life, without much effort, that will positively impact mental health, in both the personal and professional realms