DaveShearon

"Danger, Will Robinson!"

This ABA CLE appeals to my geekier side!

A Discussion of Cutting-Edge Issues in AI and Robotics Law

Date: Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Format: Teleconference and Live Audio Webcast

Duration: 60 minutes

I am grateful for opportunities to apply positive psychology!

I have had wonderful opportunities to apply positive psychology in recent months, and the schedule ahead suggests those opportunities will continue:

Culver Academies Faculty Workshop, Culver, IN, 6/11-13, 2007 (Workshop)

Culver Summer Camps Staff Workshop, Culver, IN, 6/13-15, 2007 (Workshop)

The Lawrenceville School Positive Psychology Conference, Lawrenceville, NJ, 6/16-18 (Participant)

United Kingdom Teacher Training, Penn Resiliency Program, Philadelphia,  PA, 7/21-8/3/2007 (Facilitator)

Tennessee District Attorney Generals Conference, Capital Case Litigation Conference, Nashville, TN, 8/6/2007 (Speaker)

Penn Center for School Study Councils, South Jersey Superintendents Study Council, Sewell, New Jersey, 9/11/2007(Workshop)

"Positive Psychology and the Law",  Nashville School of Law,  6:30 pm, 9/26/2007 (Speaker)

Coaches Workshop, Culver Academy, Culver, IN, 10/3-4/2007 (Consulting)

"Getting to 'Why?'"  TBA Young Lawyers Division seminar, 10/25/2007

Victim/Witness Services Retreat, Nashville DA's Officce, 10/19/2007 (Workshop)

"Lawyers as Peacemakers, Lawyers as Problemsolvers", Memphis, TN, 10/28-29/2007 (Speaker)

"Government Lawyers CLE", Nashville Bar Association, 11/30/2007 (Speaker)

Penn Center for School Study Councils, South Jersey Superintendents Study Council, Sewell, New Jersey, 12/11/2007(Workshop)

Wellbeing at Geelong Grammar School, Australia, 1/21-31/2008 (Facilitator for faculty training)

Penn Center for School Study Councils, South Jersey Superintendents Study Council, Sewell, New Jersey, 2/12/2008 (Speaker)

"A Great Start", TBA Young Lawyers Seminar Nashville, TN (webcast to Memphis and Knoxville)2/15/2008 (Speaker) 

Penn Center for School Study Councils, South Jersey Superintendents Study Council, New Jersey, 5/13/2008 (Workshop)

What CLE is most important?

Recently, I have asked the following question of a number of attorneys in CLE programs and at a meeting of MCLE regulators from around the country.  Each time, I've gotten similar responses.  Overwhelmingly, lawyers, and those who regulate CLE, recognize that it is NOT lack of substantive knowledge and it is NOT poor legal management skills that most often cause poor results for clients.  Rather, poor results most frequently result when a lawyer's commitment, energy, and engagement are too low.

Positive psychology offers some avenues to address this situation.  Positive emotions, according to Barbara Fredrickson's research, broaden our thought/action repretoire and help us build social and psychological capitol for the future.  Happiness, as measured by the Authentic Happiness Index (check yours at www.authentichappiness.org) includes engagement and meaning.  Engaged individuals who experience flow in their day-to-day activities have energy.  Individuals who feel connected to something bigger and greater than themselves have commitment to carry through. 

We need CLE that focuses on helping lawyers develop commitment, energy, and engagement.  And we need to accredit such CLE.  Unfortunately, most MCLE regulators indicate that such programs would have difficulty getting accredited in their states.  That needs to change.

From Moral Partners to a Moral Firm

A Google News Alert I have set for MCLE matters brought this Law.com article to my attention.

From Moral Partners to a Moral Firm

Gregory S. Gallopoulos
Special to Law.com
May 2, 2007

Here’s the link:

http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1178010280159

The article deals with what law firms can learn from the struggles of accounting firms to maintain ethical awareness and action as the controlling metaphor and structure of the firm moves from a group of individual partners to an integrated enterprise.  The author notes the long-observed effect where indivduals with personally high ethical standards can learn to behave in ways that transgress those standards within a group context.  Thus, the “ethical standard” of a firm may be significantly less than the personal ethical standards of the members of the enterprise.

Here’s the key paragraph for those involved in MCLE:

“Second, the firm needs to establish a formal educational program to ensure that all attorneys fully understand the ethical standards to which they are expected to adhere by both the firm and the profession. Participation in the program should be mandatory. The best programs are customized to suit the particular needs of attorneys at various levels and in various practice areas. In setting up a program, a firm can draw on both internal and external resources. For example, a firm could ask its in-house counsel to conduct seminars on some issues while arranging for legal ethics experts from academia or government to present on other issues. As a side benefit, a firm's program can be operated so as to satisfy mandatory CLE requirements.”

Note that under Tennessee's current approach, such “in-house” CLE would not be accredited.  However, given the underlying purpose of CLE – to promote more competent and more ethical attorney performance – our prohibition would seem to work against our purpose.  Of course, there are other considerations in removing in-house CLE from the minimum requirements of MCLE.  One such concern is that attendance reporting may be less honest.  Does the MCLE Director in the firm tell a senior partner that she cannot claim the full credit when she was out for over an hour on a client matter?  What if the partner is at the deadline and will be fined or her name will appear as in default?  But is this really that much different from outside CLE?  After all, we do not require sponsors to serve as hall monitors on attorneys.  There is also a concern about removing attorneys in firms from the marketplace for CLE and the effect of such a change on the availability, cost, and quality of CLE available to other attorneys.  While these may be appropriate concerns about in-house CLE in general, they seem less compelling when juxtaposed against a particular need for ethics education that may well be only possible if it is done within the firm.  It seems to me fairly likely that, if this choice were put before a representative sample of clients, they would choose “C” from the choices below:

A.      Continue to deny all in-house CLE.

B.      Allow all in-house CLE.

C.      Allow in-house CLE clearly tailored to the unique needs and demands of firms if it meets more stringent standards of development, presentation, and evaluation.

I am not arguing one way or another on this.  But I do think that in this matter, as in some other areas, it is appropriate and responsible for decision makers to revisit from time-to-time long-past decisions to see if they still seem to be the most appropriate compromises in light of the current structure, role, and public standing of the profession.

When war stories made great CLE

Last Tuesday, the 10th, I participated in a CLE program that was the exception to the rule that "war stories" are not good CLE.  "War stories" are anecdotes about a trial or other experience in representing a client.  Often, these stories, while entertaining, primarily serve to make the storyteller look good.  They lack educational value.

This program, "To Do Justice", was different.  It was put together by Douglas Bates, III, a Centerville, TN, lawyer whose father, Douglas Bates, II, was defense counsel for the 40 defendants in the first American war crimes trial of Nazis after World War II.  Joshua Greene, author of the book shown at the right, and producer of the acclaimed "Voices from the Holocaust" documentary, contacted Doug Bates on 9/11/2001 to ask him about his dad.  Professor Greene had just finished reading the transcript of the first Dachau trial at the invitation of the widow of the prosecuting attorney, Bill Denson, and wanted to know what Doug knew of his father's role in that trial.  Greene and Bates became friends, and Doug Bates conceived the idea of bringing Joshua Greene to Nashville for a CLE program built around the Dachau trial.  Monday evening (the 9th) and Tuesday saw the fruition of that dream.

Louisiana State Bar Association

I was contacted several weeks ago about consulting on a contract through the National Center for State Courts with the Louisiana State Bar Association.  It was to entail five days or so on-site, hopefully in August, but there was a re-work of the team that delayed the contract.  I think it's finished now, but since the bar center is right in downtown New Orleans, we obviously won't be down there anytime soon. 

My counterpart in Louisiana sent got an e-mail out that she had safely evacuated to Houston.  That's good news, but it's hard to grasp the pictures I'm seeing of the devastation to that beautiful city.  Here's hoping they can get the water out soon and that recovery won't be as difficult as it now appears.  They're saying two months before schools can re-open!

And thanks to all the disaster workers headed that way.  The beautiful and patient Teresa asked me if, when Patrick's off to college, if I'd join her in volunteering for a disaster recovery team.  She's always wanted to do that.  Absolutely.  With her people skills, organizational ability, and level headedness, she'd be great, and I'd certainly do whatever I could.