The 2026 NJSBA Spring Conference – A Special One Day Virtual Event!
Date: Mar 19, 2026 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $203.00
Non-Member Price: $254.00
Section Price: $0.00
Areas of Law: For All Attorneys
Earn up to 8.4 credits, including 2.0 in Ethics! (More Information)
Keynote
Moderator
Presenters
- Gary R. Botwinick, Esq.
- Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost, Botwinick, Nunn & Musmanno, P.C., Denville
- Donald C. Cofsky, Esq.
- Past President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Cofsky & Zeidman LLC, Haddonfield - Bonnie C. Frost, Esq.
- Chair, Ethics Diversionary Program
Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost, Botwinick, Nunn & Musmanno, P.C., Denville - Debra E. Guston, Esq., C.A.E.
- Past President, Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys
Guston & Guston, LLP, Glen Rockis a Partner in Guston & Guston, L.L.P. in Glen Rock, New Jersey. She concentrates her practice in family formation through adoption and assisted reproduction, and family protection through estate planning, estate litigation administration and guardianship for elders and special needs children. She also represents non-profit organizations in formation and governance issues.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the American Academy of Assisted Reproductive Technology Attorneys, Ms. Guston is Past President of the Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys, serves as the Academy’s Adoption Director, and is a member of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Family Law Executive Committee, for which she has served as Chair of the Adoption and Reproductive Rights Subcommittee. She has served as President of the Board of Trustees of ACLU-NJ, where she has been Chair of the Nominating Committee, and has been a member of the Legal Professional Group of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Ms. Guston is Past President of the Lesbian and Gay Bar Association of Greater New York, a former Regional Board member and Board Secretary of the National Gay and Lesbian Bar Association, and has been a member of the National LGBT Association’s Family Law Institute. Past Chair of the NJSBA LGBT Rights Section, she has also been a member of the American, Bergen County and Passaic County Bar Associations and Women Lawyers in Bergen County. Ms. Guston has served as New Jersey local counsel for Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and worked on legislative issues involving the New Jersey Gestational Carrier Act, which was signed into law in 2018. She is a member of the Legal Professional Group of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine and a volunteer advocate for RESOLVE, the National Fertility Association. She has been appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Family Practice Committee, which evaluates rule changes and other issues for referral to the high court, and has also been appointed to the Advisory Committee on Access and Fairness, and Judiciary Working Group on Pro Bono Assignments.
A lecturer at Rutgers School of Law, Ms. Guston is a contributing editor to West Group’s Sexual Orientation and the Law and author of a portion of the Family Court Rules in LexisNexis’s New Jersey Court Rules Annotated 2008-2009. She is a frequent lecturer for community and professional groups, and has been an Associate Managing Editor of the New Jersey Lawyer. A CCAI Angel in Adoption recipient in 2017, she is the recipient of several other honors, including ICLE’s Distinguished Service Award, the E. Nathaniel Gates Award from the Cardozo School of Law, the Leading Practitioner Award bestowed by the National LGBT Bar Association and the Saul Tischler Award, the highest honor bestowed by the NJSBA Family Law Section for her work on behalf of families and service to the Bar.
Ms. Guston received her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Mount Holyoke College, her M.A. from Emerson College and her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. - Christopher W. Hager, Esq.
- Hager Law LLC, Morristown
- Barry E. Janay, Esq.
- The Law Office of Barry E. Janay, P. C., Livingston
- W. Lois Kahagi, Esq.
- W.Lois Kahagi Family Law Services, Iselin
- Peter Katz, Esq.
- Law Offices of Peter Katz, LLC, Princeton
- William A. Krais, Esq.
- Porzio Bromberg & Newman, Morristown
- Jeralyn L. Lawrence, Esq.
- Past President, New Jersey State Bar Association
Lawrence Law, LLC, WatchungCertified as a Matrimonial Law Attorney by the Supreme Court of New Jersey, is the Managing Member and founder of Lawrence Law in Watchung, New Jersey. She practices in all areas of matrimonial and family law including divorce litigation, mediation and arbitration, custody and parenting time issues, alimony and child support, separation and property settlement agreements, adoption and guardianship advice, domestic partnership matters under the Domestic Partnership Act, domestic violence and sexual abuse, and palimony. She is also a trained collaborative lawyer and divorce mediator, and has argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of the New Jersey State Bar Association and the New Jersey chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.
A Fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML), Ms. Lawrence is President of the Academy’s New Jersey Chapter and has been certified by the AAML as a Family Law Arbitrator. She is also a volunteer attorney with the New Jersey State Bar Military Legal Assistance Program, which provides pro bono legal assistance to New Jersey residents who have served overseas or in active duty of the armed forces after September 11, 2001. Past President of the New Jersey State Bar Association, she is Past Chair of the NJSBA Family Law Section, has served as a Trustee of the New Jersey State Bar Foundation and is Past President of the Somerset County Bar Association. Ms. Lawrence has served on the District XIII Attorney Ethics Committee and has been a member of the New Jersey Association for Justice, the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association, the New Jersey Collaborative Law Group, the New Jersey Association of Professional Mediators (NJAPM) and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. A Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, she was appointed to the Somerset County Domestic Violence Working Group as a Representative of the Somerset County Family Law Section and has also been a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the American Bar Association. She serves on the Matrimonial Certification Committee that oversees the statewide matrimonial attorney certification process and has been an attorney volunteer at Safe+Sound Somerset.
Ms. Lawrence is a frequent lecturer at divorce and family law programs and has been a senior editor of the New Jersey Family Lawyer. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and a member and Barrister of the Central New Jersey American Inns of Court. Ms. Lawrence is a recipient of the Young Lawyers Division Professional Achievement Award, the Carol Murphy Award bestowed by the Women’s Political Caucus of New Jersey, and is a 3-time recipient of the Annual Legislative Recognition Award from the New Jersey State Bar Association. She is also the recipient of the 2008 Outstanding Woman in Somerset County from the Somerset County Commission on the Status of Women, the 2009 Kean University Distinguished Alumna award and the Saul Tischler Award from the NJSBA Family Law Section in 2023.
Ms. Lawrence received her B.A. from Kean University and her J.D., summa cum laude, from Seton Hall University School of Law. While in law school, she was awarded the New Jersey Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers’ Award in addition to serving as the Student Director of the Family Law Clinic. - Matheu D. Nunn, Esq.
- Einhorn, Barbarito, Frost, Botwinick, Nunn & Musmanno, P.C., Parsippany
- Nicholas San Filippo, Esq.
- Lowenstein Sandler LLP, Roseland
8.4 credits including 2.0 ethics! The topics you want! The speakers you need to hear!
Spring into March with the NJSBA Virtual Spring Conference! Don’t miss this day long event on Zoom in which you can earn over 8 credits on topics that will help your practice bloom!
Go on a “Spring Fling” as you choose from multiple virtual conference rooms throughout the day, gaining proven strategies and practical tactics that deliver real results across today’s most critical practice areas.
Immediate Implementation, Immediate Impact
Our expert faculty doesn’t just teach theory, they share the exact strategies they use to win cases, protect clients, and build thriving practices. You’ll leave with practical frameworks to implement the next morning.
Master Your Area of Law or Sample Something New
Whether you’re navigating AI tools, improving your knowledge of your specific practice area or sampling some interesting seminars in new ones, you will see your career blossom!
The Faculty That Makes the Difference
These aren’t just speakers, they’re the attorneys judges cite, the partners BigLaw recruits, and the practitioners reshaping New Jersey law. When regulatory agencies need expertise, they call our faculty. When complex cases need solutions, clients call our faculty. Now they’re sharing their playbooks with you.
What You’ll Accomplish in One Power-Packed Day
By 4:30 p.m., you’ll have:
- Earned up to 8.0 credits including 2.0 ethics and professionalism credits
- Mastered practical strategies you’ll use in your next case or transaction
- Connected with hundreds of colleagues facing the same challenges
- Developed frameworks for navigating the profession’s biggest challenges
- Real results from real practitioners: This isn’t theoretical, it’s practical education that pays immediate dividends
Business
The Business Breakup – When Owners of a Closely-Held Business Are Far Apart
Partnerships can end faster than they form, and when they do, unclear documents cost fortunes. Obtain insights on how to anticipate ruptures before they happen and draft exit terms that protect relationships and enterprise value.
With today’s high employee mobility and investor volatility, every transactional lawyer needs to master the “business divorce.” The cost of one bad breakup can wipe out years of good work.
Estate Planning
23 and Who? Protecting Your Client’s Assets from Newly Discovered Heirs
Genetic testing companies offer an easy and entertaining way to check into your ancestry. However, what happens when a long-lost relative finds out you’re related and wants to stake a claim on your client’s estate?! This program will address estate planning in the 21st century with a view toward protecting your clients’ assets from newly discovered heirs.
Modern Love, Lasting Security: Legal Planning for Unmarried and Cohabiting Couples
Love may be timeless, but the law has not caught up. As cohabitation and non-marital partnerships become more and more popular, clients are discovering too late that common law protection does not fully protect them.
Acquire new insights on how to build airtight structures for property, finances, and health decisions –while preserving fairness and flexibility. Make sure you have the most up to date knowledge to help clients protect each other and boost your knowledge to help this growing client base.
Love After Life: Digital Memories, AI Legacies and Who Owns the Past
From photos and crypto to AI recreations of loved ones – digital life now outlasts physical life. Lawyers who understand how to manage, authorize, and ethically control digital remains are at the forefront of modern estate planning.
Discover how to design access clauses platforms will actually honor, guide clients on protecting data and dignity, and anticipate AI-era inheritance dilemmas before they explode publicly. Be the lawyer who can navigate the digital afterlife, before clients realize they need one.
Ethics and Professionalism
The Complicated Ethics of Representing Family, Friends and People You Thought Were Friends
Connection can inspire great advocacy, or lead to ethical disaster. In an era where personal and professional lines blur faster than ever, lawyers must protect judgment, fairness, and reputation without losing empathy.
Explores real-world situations where attraction, familiarity, or power dynamics challenge even seasoned professionals. Understand how to set clear limits, preserve trust, and model integrity in every relationship. Mastering this balance isn’t optional, it’s what keeps good lawyers great.
Reputation and Judgment: Ethical Lessons from the Epstein Legacy
When reputation collapses, lawyers are rarely far away. The Epstein case exposed how association, silence, and judgment can define careers. Our expert faculty will help you understand how to evaluate reputational risk, document advice, and disengage from clients who could take you down with them.
Pinpoint when to draw firm ethical lines and keep both your license and your legacy intact. Because one client’s scandal should never become yours.
Labor and Employment
Negligent Hiring, Training and Supervision Claims for Plaintiffs and Defendants
As an employer, your client is a paragon of work ethic and virtue. However, that doesn’t shield them from acts of fraud, negligence or criminal acts perpetrated by their employees. Because employers are responsible for exercising a duty of reasonable care in the selection or retention of its employee under certain circumstances, an employer can be sued for negligence associated with the hiring of the employee.
This program will address negligent hiring, training and supervision claims for both plaintiffs and defendants.
Litigation
Keeping Your Expert under the Privilege Umbrella - Kovel Agreement Must Haves for You, Your Experts and Your Clients
Kovel agreements are designed to keep client information confidential throughout the legal process. We need our clients to be completely honest, even when communicating with our experts. A Kovel Agreement provides that essential protection by extending attorney-client privilege protections to accountants and other professionals.
This program will provide you with essential clauses and considerations when drafting Kovel agreements so you can keep your experts under the privilege umbrella.
Important Information About Our Events, Meetings, and More:
To secure your spot and receive important updates about our events, meetings, and other gatherings, such as schedule changes, remember to register in advance.
Digital Materials & Environmental Commitment: As part of our commitment to environmental sustainability, unless otherwise noted, all seminar materials are provided as digital downloads. You can access these materials through:
- The “My Links” section at the top of our website for in-person or online events
- Or, for online programs, the event access link included in your joining instructions
Cancellation and Refund Policy:
If you need to cancel your registration and are not transferring to another program or date, please submit a written request to us at least three business days before the event, meeting, or gathering. You will receive a refund minus a $20.00 cancellation fee. No refunds or registration changes will be issued within three business days of the event, meeting, or gathering.
Professional Conduct:
All attendees and participants are expected to conduct themselves professionally and treat others with respect at NJSBA events, meetings, and gatherings. This includes courteous communication, respecting perspectives, and creating a welcoming environment for all. Failure to adhere to this policy may result in removal from the event.
Stay Informed:
Registered participants will be notified of any schedule changes. For updates regarding inclement weather, please check your email or visit NJSBA.com.
Media Consent:
By participating in our events, meetings, or other gatherings, you agree to be photographed and/or recorded. Additionally, all media content captured during these gatherings will become the property of NJSBA. This content, including your image and name, may be used in our future promotional materials without additional consent or compensation.
Scholarship & Financial Assistance Policy:
Read our Scholarship & Financial Assistance Policy and submit an Application here: https://njsba.com/njicle/cle-programs/scholarship/