Total Credits: 4.0 MCLE, 4.0 Ethics, 1.0 Elimination of Bias
Noon-1:50 p.m. | The practicalities and ethics of balance, bias, and boundaries (1.0 Bias)
Balance is both a myth and magic. Understanding the nuances of balance and bias identification is critical to setting boundaries, and ensuring compliance with ethical rules and guidelines as a lawyer “is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice.” Additionally, being mindful of how one conducts their personal affairs is the foundation of the legal profession and essential to building resilient communities.
Learning objectives:
Speaker: Laurel Stevenson, Director, Mediation and Assessment Program (MAP), U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri, Kansas City
1:50-2 p.m. | Break
2-2:50 p.m. | Better late than never: Embracing late-stage mental health diagnoses as an attorney
This presentation explores the challenges and opportunities attorneys face when receiving late-stage mental health diagnoses, including ADHD, anxiety, and depression. Many attorneys live undiagnosed for years, with the legal profession’s pressures worsening their condition. While a late diagnosis can feel like both a revelation and a burden, it offers an opportunity for self-awareness, healing, and growth.
Through personal insights and practical tools, this session will guide attorneys in reframing these diagnoses as pathways to success and well-being. It will also equip neurotypical attorneys with the knowledge and skills to collaborate effectively with colleagues facing these challenges.
Speaker: Karly D. Weigel, Flynn Group, Overland Park, KS
2:50-3 p.m. | Break
3-3:50 p.m. | You can't walk through water without getting wet
Most people don’t seek out a lawyer because they’re having the best day of their lives. Witnessing the suffering takes an emotional and physical toll that can’t be ignored. This session explores the impact of secondary trauma and generates discussion of what support can look like for individual lawyers and our profession. We’ll discuss topics like recognizing stressors and completing the stress cycle to combat burnout; how distressing events in the lives of your clients may show up as a trauma response for them and secondary trauma for you; and how mindfulness-based well-being practices increase resilience and support professional conduct.
Speakers: Loretta Oleksy, Mindful Life & Work Coach, Thought Kitchen LLC, Anderson, IN; Jill Carnell, Chief Contemplative Officer, Thought Kitchen LLC, Mooresville, IN
3:50-4 p.m. | Break
4-4:50 p.m. | Lawyers, Clients, and Risk Management Regarding Commerialized Gambling
This program will discuss often overlooked or misunderstood risks that lawyers and their clients face from the explosion of legalized commercial gambling, including surprisingly high rates of suicide and suicide ideation. Recent academic and public health studies data, conclusions, and recommendations will be covered and related civil and criminal litigation efforts mentioned. Responsible reactions and advice options for Missouri attorneys to consider will be proposed and invited.
Attendees will learn of gambling-related risks threatening client well-being as well as that of (some) fellow attorneys. Evidentiary-type data and information about those risks, and sites for further research will be presented. Resources regarding suicide prevention and behavioral addiction avoidance/treatment, in particular, will be made available.
Speaker: Michael K. Fagan, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis
4:50 | Adjourn
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.
Michael Fagan served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) and Special AUSA for the Eastern District of Missouri for twenty-six years, was an Asst. Circuit Atty, for five years, and now consults on domestic and transnational criminal law and procedure, anti-money laundering, counterterrorism, intelligence, corruption, and emergency planning issues. He teaches at Washingfton U. School of Law and the County and Municipal Police Academy, after over a decade of teaching at the USDOJ's National Advocacy Center. Earlier, he served as litigation counsel at (then-) Bryan Cave McPheeters and McRonerts.
Laurel Stevenson is the Director of the Mediation and Assessment Program (MAP) for the United States District Court, Western District of Missouri. She oversees approximately 1,000 civil cases annually and serves as a mediator, facilitator, and trainer. She is the Editor of The Resolver, a publication of the FBA’s ADR Section and the Section’s Treasurer. She served more than a decade as a Facilitator for the Missouri Bar Complaint Resolution Program and the Fee Dispute Resolution Program.
Karly Weigel is Counsel, Employment and Compliance at Flynn Group. Flynn Group is the world’s largest franchisee operator with a national and international portfolio of iconic brands like Applebee’s, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s, and others. With more than 3,000 locations and 75,000 employees, Karly handles employment and compliance initiatives nationwide. In her free time, Karly enjoys scuba diving, traveling both locally and internationally, and exploring new restaurants throughout Kansas City.
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