Should be a good program. Jim Brosnahan will give the keynote. Held in San Francisco. Details here. Program:
Schedule of Events
8:30 - 9:30 a.m.
Registration
9:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Wendy Wen Yun Chang: Chair, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct
Rachel Van Cleave: Dean, Golden Gate University School of Law
Luis J. Rodriguez: President, State Bar of California
9:45 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.
Defending a Charles Ponzi or Bernie Madoff
This panel explores ethical issues that arise when lawyers represent clients alleged to be involved in financial fraud or other illegal behavior. Panel attorneys litigate actions brought against lawyers accused of participating in or aiding and abetting their clients’ activities. Ethical issues include client confidentiality, the duty to withdraw, options to report up or out, and conflicts between individuals acting for the client.
Scott B. Garner: Moderator; Vice-Chair, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Partner, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP, Irvine
Jennifer A. Becker: Member, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Partner, Long & Levit LLP, San Francisco
Joy A. Kruse: Partner, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, San Francisco
Sean SeLegue: Partner, Arnold & Porter LLP, San Francisco
John R. Sheller: Partner and Leader of Lawyers for Professionals Department, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Los Angeles
11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Complex Conflicts Issues Deciphered
This panel will examine complicated questions confronting lawyers in scenarios involving advance consents and non-waivable conflicts. Both subjects arise in various contexts, including conflict clearance in obtaining and retaining clients, potential discipline, disqualification, and claims for malpractice or breach of fiduciary duty, and require thoughtful and deliberate navigation.
William K. Mills: Moderator; Member, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Partner, Parker Shumaker Mills LLP, Los Angeles
Dan L. Carroll: Partner, Downey Brand LLP, Sacramento
Robert K. Sall: Shareholder, Sall Spencer Callas & Krueger, Laguna Beach
Michele K. Trausch: Partner, Hanson Bridgett LLP, San Francisco
1 p.m. - 2 p.m.
Lunch & Keynote Address
Lunch: 1 p.m. - 1:40 p.m.
Keynote Address 1:40 p.m. - 2 p.m.
"Utopian Legal Ethics in 2020"
James J. Brosnahan, Senior Trial Counsel, Morrison & Foerster LLP
2 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Trial Ethics: Don't Risk Your Soul to Win a Point
This panel of seasoned trial attorneys will examine ethics issues that are unique to trial. Those issues include identifying the sometimes fuzzy line between ethical and not when: dealing with witnesses; producing (or not producing) evidence; jury selection (including discrimination and the use of social media); references to non-existent or inadmissible evidence; asserting an unsupported position; client perjury; appealing to the jury’s passions and prejudices and other issues for closing argument; and communicating with jurors before, during and after trial.
Alison P. Buchanan: Moderator; Member, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Shareholder, Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, Inc., San Jose
Wendy Wen Yun Chang: Chair, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Partner, Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP, Los Angeles
James J. Brosnahan: Senior Trial Counsel, Morrison & Foerster LLP, San Francisco
Hon. Peter H. Kirwan: Judge, Santa Clara County Superior Court, Complex Civil Department
Allen J. Ruby: Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, Palo Alto
3:45 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.
"Disruptive" Ethics? Innovative Models of Providing Legal Services
This panel will examine the ethical issues that arise as the practice of law takes new forms and expands traditional boundaries. Innovative models for providing legal services blur the lines between law firms and their clients, or challenge the very idea of what a law firm is and how legal services should be provided. Outsourced legal services, national virtual law practices, companies offering online legal forms and “panel attorney” consultations, and online crowd-sourced legal directories that match up potential clients and lawyers all pose new ethical questions for lawyers to consider and issues to deal with.
Merri A. Baldwin: Moderator; Member, Committee on Professional Responsibility and Conduct; Shareholder, Rogers Joseph O’Donnell, San Francisco
Chas Rampenthal: General Counsel, LegalZoom, Los Angeles
R. Amani Smathers: Innovation Counsel, ReInvent Law Laboratory at Michigan State University
John J. Steele: Sole Practitioner, Palo Alto