2024 Annual Government Practice Institute

Join us for the Annual Government Practice Institute
December 6, 2024
In-person | The Missouri Bar Center | 326 Monroe St. | Jefferson City
or Virtual

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:

• 2024 session review.
• Bills impacting governmental practice.
• Preview of the 2025 session.

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:

• Overall trends toward less public information. 
• Missouri State Highway Patrol's decision to stop providing names in online crash reports.
• Weaponization" of Missouri Sunshine Law. 

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:

• Appearance and body language matter – and are things that we can evaluate and improve.
• Knowing the physical situation for the argument can help the speaker prepare.
• Openings should balance summarizing principal arguments, setting out structure, and catching attention. 
• Vocabulary matters, especially using words that fit the standard of review and are not confusing.
• Practice arguments – even to yourself or a nonlawyer – can help you learn how to articulate complex issues.

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:

• Understand the current attorney mental health and well-being landscape.
• Learn the relationship between stress and peak performance in legal practice.
• Consider practical strategies for managing stress and building resilience.
• Make your new stress mastery habits stick using evidence-based habit-formation strategies.

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:

• The history of public access to court proceedings and records;
• Circumstances in which courts historically allowed for the redaction of certain information;
• How courts and attorneys have understood the new redaction requirements;
• The arguments for and against the constitutionality of the new redaction requirements;
• The current status of the litigation.

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.