Total Credits: 1.0 MCLE, 1.0 Ethics, 1.0 Kansas Credit-General, 1.0 Kansas Ethics
Sponsored by MoBarCLE and The Missouri Bar Young Lawyers' Section
Highlights:
Speakers: Dana C. Cutler, James W. Tippin & Associates, Kansas City; John E. Tyler; Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Kansas City; Donna C. Watson, Chinquapin Trust, Kansas City
| 06 YLS - Being a Board Member while Being a Lawyer (960.3 KB) | Available after Purchase | ||
| MOLAP Information (210.1 KB) | Available after Purchase | ||
| Important Information for Attorneys Seeking Kansas Credit (102.8 KB) | Available after Purchase | ||
With more than 30 years in the practice of law, Dana has served in several positions of bar
leadership during her career, including being the first woman of color elected as President of The
Missouri Bar, in 2016. Her numerous bar-related awards include the 2020 Eighth Circuit Richard
S. Arnold Award for Distinguished Service; three President’s Awards from The Missouri Bar; a
President’s Award from the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association; the Ronda F. Williams
Spirit of Diversity Award from; and the Sly James Diversity and Inclusion Award, just to name a
few. She has been recognized as one of the Top 30 Education Law attorneys in the State of
Missouri; a Missouri Super Lawyer since 2014 and was honored as the 2018 Woman of the Year
by Missouri Lawyers Weekly at their Annual Women’s Justice Awards Luncheon. Dana has tried
more than twenty bench and jury trials.
She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in English, with honors, from Spelman College in
Atlanta, Georgia, and her J.D. degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
When not practicing law, Dana, along with her husband and law partner Keith Cutler, are co-hosts
on a nationally syndicated daytime television courtroom show “Cutlers Court” which premiered
September 2023 after serving three years as co-judges on the two-time Emmy-nominated,
nationally syndicated daytime television courtroom show “Couples Court with the Cutlers” which
can still be seen on YouTube and other streaming services.
John Tyler has been general counsel and secretary for the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation since 1999 and its chief ethics officer since 2012. He also serves as a liaison to philanthropy generally, including by serving on boards such as The Philanthropy Roundtable, the co-chair of the Roundtable’s public policy working group, the Council on Foundations ethics task force, and formerly on NYU’s National Center on Philanthropy and the Law (advisory), and numerous tenures for Independent Sector’s Public Policy Committee, projects for the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, co-chair of the Policy Task Force of the Generosity Commission, the Council on Foundations Ethics Task Force, among others. The list of nonprofit boards on which he has served and/or been an officer is extensive.
John also is a regular author and frequent speaker and guest lecturer on topics relating to the charitable sector and philanthropy, including governance, compliance, transparency, public-private partnerships, impact investing, and distinctive aspects of social entrepreneurship/enterprise. In the latter categories are publications and presentations that address fiduciary duties, regulation, social impact, and clarity about priority of purpose and accountability. Many of John’s two dozen plus academic articles are available through SSRN https://ssrn.com/author=723109.
John also is a lecturer at Columbia University where he teaches two master’s level courses, both of which he designed, for its Masters in Nonprofit Management program in the School of Professional Studies: one on foundations and the other on social purpose businesses.
Before joining Kauffman, John was a partner with one of Kansas City's oldest and largest law firms, where his practice focused on commercial litigation. John received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Notre Dame. In 2018, Missouri Lawyers Media recognized John as an inaugural recipient of its Top Legal Innovations award for emerging practice areas.
Donna C. Watson is a graduate of St. Teresa’s Academy Rockhurst University, Kansas City, Missouri, where she earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. She received her Juris Doctor from Loyola University – Chicago. Donna is a licensed attorney in Illinois, Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas.
Donna recently joined Chinquapin Trust Company as a Relationship and Trust Officer. Donna is the owner and CEO of The Legacy Experience, LLC, a consulting firm that provides estate planning resources to the community. Established in 2017, The Legacy Experience, LLC was created to begin a dialogue in the community about estate planning. Donna’s life work and purpose is to normalize conversations surrounding death, estate planning, and generational wealth.
In 2018 Donna published her first book, My Legacy Experience, How My Mother’s Life Prepared Me For Her Death. The book chronicles her experience and lessons learned while administering her mother’s estate.
Donna is a national speaker addressing the necessity of estate planning. She is also the host of the podcast, My Legacy Experience – The Podcast, addressing estate planning topics in a conversational manner.
Mission – “I have the daily responsibility and privilege of helping individuals with the management and distribution of their financial resources.”
