The Six "C"s of Professionalism

This course is designed for attorneys who want to enjoy an intellectually stimulating and (perhaps) entertaining seminar on what many lawyers may deem to be a quite dull subject: "Professionalism." Even though standards for what the CLE-Mandating/Approving Authorities deem to be "Professionalism" are "aspirational" in contrast to the mandatory legal-ethics standards (i.e., the Rules of Professional Conduct), they are nevertheless quite important despite the absence of enforceability in the same way in which legal-ethics standards are enforced.

The format of this program is a blend of the lecture method with the Socratic method, extensively involving a high degree of interactive participation and critical analyses of a wide range of issues relevant to the subject of the seminar in a manner not limited to mere chronological description of particular topics and sub-topics. In other words, the content of each seminar (and the order and extent of emphasis upon particular topics and sub-topics) will be substantially influenced by the nature and extent of interactive participation regarding particular aspects thereof. Depending on the number of participants in a particular seminar, the format usually results in most, if not all, participants verbally engaging in conversational-styled interactive discussion and/or analysis of particular topics in the seminar and also permits interruptions, questions, challenges, etc. throughout the seminar. Think of collegially enjoyable and enlightening round-table discussions. It's a form of learning by thinking in the course of interactively participating rather than learning solely by listening (the latter of which is the lecture method).

This course is suitable for attorneys at any level seeking to support advocacy for the aspirational standards for "professionalism." Even attorneys deeming "professionalism" standards to be idealistic notions resting on a presumption that legal professionals are snowflakes easily melted by the heat of the adversarial system absent of what advocates of "professionalism" deem to be the refrigerating effects of civility, courtesy, collegiality, clarity, cooperativeness, and circumspection are encouraged to attend.

Learning Objectives:

• Refresh attorney common knowledge of unique aspects of the legal profession in contrast to all other professions, occupations, etc.: It's the effect of the Constitution's (and each state constitution's) vesting of "the judicial power" of the sovereign in its "Supreme Court" and its thereby incorporation of the evolutionary nature of the judiciary's common law inherent judicial power (i.e., sui generis power) to define, prescribe, and enforce educational, moral, ethical and civil standards for the practice of law and the status of lawyers as officers of the courts.
• Examine how exercising such common law inherent judicial power (sui generis power) in an adversarial system created under common law, the supreme court of the sovereign (i.e., the U.S. Supreme Court and each state supreme court) creates structural and functional tools for the administration of justice -- i.e., rules of evidence, burdens of proof, procedural rules, and regulatory control over the conduct of attorneys. 
• Review how the judiciary generally encourages lawyers to participate actively in the regulatory control over the legal profession and the conduct of lawyers individually. Therefore, each attorney must keep abreast of such disciplinary and regulatory activities and, as much as possible, actively participate (pro bono) in supporting such activities.
• Assess how and why what CLE authorities describe as "professionalism" is vital as a factor likely to increase, rather than diminish, the public's confidence in the justice system.
• Explore the variety of ways in which a variety of states (but not all states) have formally promulgated rules describing behavioral attributes of conduct by lawyers evincing "professionalism" even though a number of such states have declined to use "professionalism" as the proper description of the mode of behavior – to learn that there's no one-size-fits-all definition of such behavior. 
• Differentiate among the many duties imposed on attorneys; one of them is to apply critical analysis to all of the legal ethics standards as well as the procedural standards for their enforcement to perhaps motivate legal professionals to try harder to comply, to understand better the "spirit" (rather than merely the "letter") of such standards, and to be willing to serve on Bar committees to study (and potentially propose modifications of) such standards.

                   
Course Time Schedule:

Eastern Time: 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Central Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Mountain Time: 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Pacific Time: 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Alaska Time: 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Hawaii-Aleutian Time: 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

This course is also being presented on the following dates:

Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Wednesday, March 12, 2025