8:30-9 a.m. | Registration and continental breakfast
9-9:50 a.m. | Legislative update
This session will provide an update on the 2024 legislative session, highlighting any bills that passed impacting governmental practice. Additionally, discussion will focus on what lies ahead in the 2025 legislative session.
Focus Points:
Speaker: Andy Briscoe, The Missouri Bar, Jefferson City
9:50-10:05 a.m. | Break
10:05-10:55 a.m. | Missouri Sunshine Law: Trends from the media's perspective
This session will examine recent developments in Missouri Sunshine Law practices among state bodies, including the Missouri State Highway Patrol's decision to stop providing names in online crash reports.
Focus Points:
Speaker: Dan Curry, Brown, Curry & Duggan, Kansas City
10:55-11:10 a.m. | Break
11:10 a.m.-noon | Say it out loud! Oral argument in trial and appellate courts
Much of a litigator's work is written and judges often make decisions based on filings alone. But oral argument still plays an important part in prosecuting and defending ligation. This session will present tips for preparing for and presenting oral argument in trial and appellate courts.
Focus Points:
Speaker: James R. Layton, Tueth Keeney Cooper Mohan Jackstadt P.C., St. Louis
Noon-1 p.m. | Lunch (provided)
1-1:50 p.m. | Stress mastery: Harnessing pressure for peak performance in legal practice
Studies have shown that attorneys tend to encounter mental health challenges like depression, anxiety and substance misuse at disproportionately high rates. For many attorneys, it can be challenging to know how to fit well-being into their bustling schedules.
In this program, Stinson’s Director of Well-Being Krista Larson will explore some of what the science says are the simple-yet-meaningful ways we can boost well-being, rethink stress, and cultivate resilience. In addition to describing practical strategies, Krista will suggest evidence-based tips for turning those strategies into habits that stick.
Focus points:
Virtual speaker: Krista Larson, Stinson LLP, Minneapolis, MN
1:50-2:05 p.m. | Break
2:05-2:55 p.m. | The past, present, and future(?) of redaction requirements under section 509.520
The nation's courts have historically been the most transparent branch of government, allowing ordinary citizens and journalists alike to discern what disputes are being adjudicated, who has made what claims against whom, and also upon whose testimony the courts were relying to resolve those disputes. Despite this presumption of openness, Missouri courts have long provided that certain sensitive information related to cases should be sheltered from public view. But in 2023, the state legislature passed a bill prohibiting the inclusion of certain information in documents filed with - or issued by - this state's courts. The categories of prohibited information included the names and contact information for victims and witnesses. For the past year, courts and practitioners alike have struggled to comply with this requirement, but in May a handful of plaintiffs filed a case arguing that these discrete restrictions - as well as the bill whose passage imposed them - violate the U.S. and Missouri Constitutions. This session will discuss the past, present, and potential future of these redaction requirements.
Focus points:
Speaker: David Roland, Freedom Center of Missouri, Mexico
2:55-3:10 p.m. | Break
3:10-4 p.m. | Conflicts of interest, nepotism, and misuse of government resources
This presentation will focus on key constitutional provisions, statutes, and case law that govern conflicts of interest, nepotism, and misuse of resources for governmental entities.
Speaker: Jason Lewis, Office of the Attorney General, Jefferson City
4 p.m. | Adjourn
Moderator: Eric D. Jennings, Supreme Court of Missouri, Jefferson City
Opinions and positions stated by presenters of MoBarCLE programs are those of the presenters and not necessarily those of The Missouri Bar. This program is intended as information for lawyers in Missouri, in conjunction with other research they deem necessary, in the exercise of their independent judgment.