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Total Credits: 3 Virginia
Tags: Virginia CLE
“Ethics Tonight – Season 2021” is a 3-hour CLE Ethics Program offered free for Virginia attorneys in partnership with the Virginia State Bar. Three video vignettes in the style of a late-night talk show shed light on ethical issues that many attorneys face daily. A group of panelists will apply the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct to the analysis of the issues presented.
During the panel discussions, attendees will be encouraged to ask questions and share comments. The intent is to emphasize that attorneys should take time to identify and reflect upon the ethical issues that arise in the day-to-day practice of law on a more frequent basis. Ultimately, the desire is to have attendees leave the program with greater sensitivity to the many ethical issues that can be in play any day of the week, be better prepared to view these issues as learning opportunities and be more willing to take advantage of these opportunities in order to see that the issues are responsibly addressed and resolved.
The issues raised in Vignette One, “Friendships,” include the types of costs and expenses that can be passed along to clients, for example, convenience fees for processing credit cards and technology fees to cover the costs of enhanced firm cybersecurity efforts; ethical issues that arise as a result of attorneys and staff working remotely; confidentiality concerns that arise out of the personal relationships attorneys are involved in; and what the term “personal interests of the lawyer” means in the context of conflicts of interest.
In Vignette Two “She’s Good,” the panel will have the opportunity to discuss an attorney’s obligations upon learning that a client intends to commit fraud, to include the meaning of the term “know” in this context; to do a deep dive on the ins and outs of withdrawing from a matter; and to explain how to ethically respond to a negative online review.
Finally in Vignette Three “It’s Getting Late” the program will conclude with a discussion on harassment in the workplace, the duties owed to prospective clients, the ethical boundaries of an attorney or firm offering various types of ancillary services, and the boundaries of non-lawyer ownership of a law firm in your jurisdiction.
| General Credits | Ethics Credits |
| 3 | 3 |
Since 1998, Mark Bassingthwaighte, Esq., has been a Risk Manager with ALPS, the nation’s largest direct writer of lawyers’ malpractice insurance. In his tenure with our company, Mr. Bassingthwaighte has conducted over 1200 law firm risk management assessment visits, presented over 600 continuing legal education seminars throughout the United States, and written extensively on risk management, ethics, and technology. Mr. Bassingthwaighte is a member of the State Bar of Montana as well as the American Bar Association where he currently sits on the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility’s Conference Planning Committee. He received his J.D. from Drake University Law School.
James M. McCauley is the Ethics Counsel for the Virginia State Bar. He serves as staff liaison to the Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics and manages the staff in the Legal Ethics Department and the Legal Ethics Hotline. Mr. McCauley served on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar’s Mandatory Professionalism Course from 2004-2010. For 15 years Mr. McCauley taught Professional Responsibility at the T.C. Williams School of Law in Richmond, Virginia and served on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics and Professionalism from 2008-2011. In 2018, Mr. McCauley was elected “Leader of the Year” in the Virginia Lawyers Weekly “Leaders in the Law” awards program. He serves on the Planning Committee for the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility Annual Conference and the Lawyer Advertising Committee for the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. Mr. McCauley is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and American Bar Foundation. From 2014-2020, he served on the Board of Directors for the Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (VJLAP).
Mary Morgan is the managing partner of the Hampton Roads office of Infinity Law Group PLC, where she focuses on professional liability defense and defense of bar complaints and handles general civil litigation matters. She also handles a small number of criminal defense cases in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Ms. Morgan is a graduate of the University of Richmond School of Law and has practiced in both the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas. She is admitted to practice in all of the state courts of Virginia, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Western District of Virginia, the United States Bankruptcy Court and the United States Tax Court and has tried numerous cases in the General District Courts, Circuit Courts and the United States District Court. Ms. Morgan is the current President of the James Kent American Inn of Court, a past President of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Bar Association, a member of the Board of Directors for the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, a past Chair of the Professional Liability Section of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, and a Past President for the Hampton Roads Chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association. Ms. Morgan also serves on the Board of Directors for Edmarc Hospice for Children, and served for two years as the Chairman of the Board. She frequently lectures on prevention of legal malpractice claims.
