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Litigation Ethics with Tom Spahn (Live In-Person Program)



Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Product Code - LCON30
Speaker(s): Thomas E. Spahn, McGuireWoods LLP
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This program originally took place in a live format. It will soon be available in an OnDemand format in which you may participate at your convenience - check back soon!

Experience one of the nation’s leading experts on legal ethics present this interactive live program. Through the use of practical hypotheticals and case law examples, you will learn what you need to know regarding litigation ethics – and earn CLE ethics credit in the process!

In the first half of the program, Mr. Spahn uses hypotheticals to address topics of interest to litigators (and transactional lawyers whose clients might face litigation), including such issues as (1) lawyers' speech, including talking to the press about cases and criticizing judges; (2) aggressive and deceptive discovery tactics, including surveillance videotapes, use of body wires, tape recording telephone calls, use of admittedly deceptive tactics during public interest investigations such as housing discrimination tests, purely commercial investigations, and government investigations; and (3) dealing with fact witnesses, including the permissibility of paying fact witnesses for their time, preparing fact witnesses for testimony, and talking with fact witnesses during deposition breaks.

Hypotheticals are also used in the second half of the program, in which Mr. Spahn addresses three aspects of litigation ethics. First, he focuses on litigants' claims, including: the ethics implications of advancing frivolous factual and legal claims; lawyers' ability to "ghostwrite" pleadings for supposedly pro se litigants; and lawyers' filing of knowingly time barred claims. Second, settlements are discussed, including collaborative lawyering and aggregate settlements; acceptable levels of deception during settlement negotiations; silence about the law and facts; and the enforceability of settlement agreements. Third, Mr. Spahn moves to the subject of courts, including the duty to disclose unfavorable facts and law to tribunals; judges' disqualification based on personal relationships with litigants and lawyers; lawyers' ability to manipulate the choice of judges.

Educational Objectives:

• Understand litigation ethics in the context of communications, discovery, and witnesses.
• Understand litigation ethics pertaining to claims, settlements, and courts.
• Learn practical applications to use in your practice.

Who would benefit from attending this program?
Any attorney involved in litigation.

Program Level: Intermediate

Credit Offered: CLE

Thomas E. Spahn, McGuireWoods LLP

Thomas E. Spahn, McGuireWoods LLP
Thomas E. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and earned his J.D. from Yale Law School. He has practiced as a commercial litigator with McGuireWoods since graduating from Yale, trying cases involving such disparate matters as damage to James Madison's birthplace, the experimental nature of autologous bone marrow transplants for treating breast cancer, and easement rights over America's most popular walking and biking path.

Mr. Spahn regularly advises Fortune 500 companies on such issues as properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections when conducting corporate investigations, when hiring outside consultants, when dealing with the government, and during other daily and extraordinary situations. He has assisted in creating and defending privilege logs in many product liability and commercial litigation matters. He also advises in-house counsel on ethics issues, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, dealing with corporate wrongdoing, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Mr. Spahn has written and lectured widely on such topics as ethics, professionalism, attorney-client privilege, work product doctrine, defamation, and legal writing. He has written several editions of a book on the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine, a book on Virginia defamation law, and over 70 articles in Virginia and national publications. The ABA's General Practice Section honored Mr. Spahn's article on Litigation Ethics in the Modern Age as one of the "Best Articles Published by the ABA" in 2004. Since 1988, Mr. Spahn has spoken at more than 1,000 CLE programs throughout the United States and in several foreign countries.

Mr. Spahn has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility and has consistently been named one of the "Best Lawyers in America" for each of the past six years.

This program is CLE-credit eligible, including Ethics credit.

Hardship Policy
Bloomberg BNA offers a hardship policy for any attorney earning less than $30,000 per year. If an attorney wishes to take advantage of this option, he or she must do so in writing and also provide proof of hardship. If approval is granted, a discount of 50% off the full registration price of the program will be awarded.

Questions
For more information about Mandatory or Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) requirements, visit the American Bar Association website at http://www.abanet.org/cle/mandatory.html.

If you have further questions regarding a specific state or how to file for CLE credit, please contact Bloomberg BNA customer service at 800-372-1033.