Wrestling with Stress and Ethical Challenges
Date: Aug 25, 2023 9:00 a.m. – 12:35 p.m.
Location: Online
Member Price: $172
Non-Member Price: $215
Section Price: $172
Areas of Law: Ethics
Earn up to 3.4 credits, including 3.4 in Ethics! (More Information)
Keynote
Moderator
- Michael Kahn, Esq., LPC
- ReelTime CLE, Vancouvera former attorney-turned counselor, is a co-presenter and co-founder of ReelTime CLE in Charlotte, North Carolina, which provides engaging and practical workshops, CLE seminars, law firm retreats and other training programs for attorneys on ethics and professionalism. The company presents training seminars and workshops on ethics, grief, self-care, diversity and inclusion, and other topics for attorneys and mental health professionals throughout the United States and abroad, including the United States Army.
A documentary filmmaker, Mr. Kahn has also worked with Cristina Cassidy Productions, which offers filmmaking as a team-building program and facilitates a discussion after the making of a film to help the staff transfer their observations from the experience to their day-to-day work life. After serving as Assistant Director of Career Services with the Tulane University School of Law, he became a Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of North Carolina. Mr. Kahn’s areas of focus in his psychotherapy practice have included anxiety, depression, grief/loss, career satisfaction and men's issues, and he has worked with adolescents and adults in individual and group therapy settings. In addition to continuing his speaking career, he served as an Adjunct Professor at the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education & Counseling and also practiced law with the Attorney General’s Office for the State of New Jersey for six years.
Mr. Kahn received his B.A. from Emory University and his J.D. from Dickinson School of Law, Pennsylvania State University. He received his M. Ed. in Counseling from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
(8/23) - Chris Osborn, JD
- ReelTime CLE, Charlotteis a co-founder of ReelTime CLE in Charlotte, North Carolina. In addition to his ongoing work with ReelTime CLE, he is the founding Principal of Osborn Conflict Resolution, which provides Superior Court mediation, pre-litigation conflict coaching and dispute resolution, and Christian conflict conciliation services throughout North Carolina. He has been certified as a Superior Court mediator by the North Carolina Dispute Resolution Commission since 2009, and has assisted the majority of his legal clients over the years to reach amicable resolutions in a wide variety of litigation matters, including business breakups, construction and employment law disputes, and Will caveat disputes.
Mr. Osborn joined Horack Talley Pharr & Loundes, PA, in 2001 and during his 11 years as an associate and Shareholder with the firm, handled construction and real estate litigation, business litigation and employment disputes. As the former Chair of the Mecklenburg County Bar “Professionalism, LawyerLife, and Culture” Committee, he helped lead the Bar’s efforts to support its members in times of personal or professional crisis, and its proactive promotion of good mental health practices and substance abuse awareness.
Mr. Osborn served as an Assistant Professor at the Charlotte School of Law, where he taught “Interviewing, Client Counseling, and Negotiations,” Civil Procedure,” “Contracts,” “Problems in Practice: Commercial Transactions,” and “Intro to the Study of Law.” While on the faculty, his scholarly research focused on ethics and professional responsibility, and particularly the interrelationship of both with mental health and substance abuse issues. He has been a frequent speaker at CLE seminars on construction disputes and mechanics’ lien law, and on several topics in employment law, in addition to the seminars on professionalism and legal ethics that he has helped develop and present through ReelTime CLE.
Mr. Osborn received his B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a law clerk to former United States Magistrate Judge Carl Horn III.
(8/23)
Presenters
- Hon. Julio L. Mendez, A.J.S.C. (Ret.)
- Stockton Universityis Senior Contributing Analyst for the Hughes Center, Stockton College, in Galloway Township, New Jersey. In 2022 he retired as Assignment Judge for Atlantic and Cape May Counties (Vicinage 1), where he oversaw the efficient operation of the courts in those counties and sat in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The State’s first Hispanic Assignment Judge, Judge Mendez was first assigned to the Vicinage 15 Criminal Division for 2 years, then spent 7 years in the Family Division and in 2005 was assigned as the Family Part’s Presiding Judge for the Cumberland/Gloucester/Salem vicinage. He was appointed Assignment Judge effective November 1, 2011.
Judge Mendez is Past Chair of the New Jersey Municipal Court Regionalization Subcommittee of the Supreme Court Municipal Court Working Group and Past Chair of the Supreme Court Committee on Municipal Court Operations, Fines, and Fees. Having served as Chair of the Drug Court Working Group, he has been a member of the New Jersey Judiciary Judicial Council, the Judiciary’s Management and Operations Committee, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges and the Board of the National Association for Presiding Judges and Court Executive Officers (NAPCO). Judge Mendez has been Chair of the Children in Court Committee of the Conference of Family Presiding Judges and a member of the Supreme Court Family Practice Committee and a number of other state-wide conferences and committees. He has also been an instructor at the Judicial College.
Judge Mendez received his B.A. from Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) and his J.D. from Rutgers School of Law-Camden.
(8/23) - Debra A. Allen, Esq.
- Deputy Attorney General, Division of Law, Trentonis a Deputy Attorney General, Department of Law and Public Safety, State of New Jersey, in Trenton, New Jersey. With a focus in regulatory enforcement, public records, housing, employment and election litigation, she serves as General Counsel to the New Jersey Government Records Council and as Lead Counsel to the Middlesex, Somerset and Union County Boards of Elections.
Ms. Allen received her J.D., with honors, from Temple University’s James E. Beasley School of Law.
(8/23) - Catherine Finnerty, Esq.
- Goldman & Beslow, LLC, East Orangeis an associate with Goldman & Beslow, LLC with offices in East Orange, Newark, Paterson and Jersey City, New Jersey. She devotes a substantial portion of her practice to bankruptcy and debtor-creditor negotiations and handles all issues pertaining to Chapter 7, Chapter 13, foreclosure defense and mediation, debt collection defense, debtor-creditor negotiations and consumer representation. In addition to bankruptcy and debtor-creditor law, Ms. Finnerty has experience in real estate matters, simple Wills, powers of attorney, living wills, and municipal court matters involving traffic tickets, disorderly persons offenses, and violations of municipal ordinances. She also represents clients in residential real estate transactions, and has experience helping property owners who desire to sell their property via short sale, are at risk of foreclosure, or who cannot make their mortgage payments.
Admitted to practice law in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, Ms. Finnerty has been a member of the American and New York State Bar Associations and the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association. She has been a member of the NJSBA Bankruptcy Law and Women in the Profession Sections, and is Secretary of the Solo and Small Firm Section. Ms. Finnerty is a member of the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys and the American Bankruptcy Institute. She has also volunteered with South Jersey Legal Services, Legal Services of New Jersey and the Volunteer Lawyers for Justice, and represents clients throughout their entire bankruptcy cases.
Ms. Finnerty received her undergraduate degree, cum laude, from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she was the recipient of the New York Building Industry Scholarship and the Eugene Raskin Prizer for Spanish. She received her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a member of the Law Review and the recipient of the American Jurisprudence Award in Torts.
(8/23) - Leonard V. Jones, Esq.
- Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC, Newarkis a civil litigation attorney and associate with Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney P.C. in Newark, New Jersey, and New York City, where he focuses his practice in complex civil and employment litigation, including representing individual, business and public entity clients in state and federal courts. He has also served as an Assistant Prosecutor with the Union County Prosecutor's Office, prosecuting cases involving narcotics, violent crimes and economic crimes.
Admitted to practice in New Jersey and New York, and before the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Mr. Jones was appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to a four-year term as a Member of the District XII Fee Arbitration Committee and is a member of the New Jersey State, Garden State and Union County Bar Associations. He is a member of several sections and committees of the New Jersey State Bar Association, including the Diversity Committee, Minorities in the Profession Section, Civil Trial Bar Section and Federal Practice and Procedure Section, as well as the Young Lawyers Division. He is also a member of the Union County Bar Association Diversity, Inclusion & the Elimination of Bias Committee and the Program Committee of the Sidney Reitman American Inn of Court.
Mr. Jones received his B.A., magna cum laude, from Seton Hall University, his Masters in Public Administration from Seton Hal University and his J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, where he was the recipient of the Eagleton Institute of Politics Governor’s Executive Fellowship. He clerked for the Honorable James P. Wilson, J.S.C., Superior Court of New Jersey, Family Division, Union Vicinage.
(8/23)
This program is for anyone struggling with mile-long “to do” lists, demanding schedules and stress from over commitment.
Join popular presenters Michael Kahn and Chris Osbourn of Reel Time CLE along with a panel of respected NJSBA members for this unique, highly interactive program built around the critically acclaimed film “Win Win” starring Paul Giamatti. Giamatti plays Mike Flaherty, an attorney trying to juggle the demands of a struggling law practice, his young family and the hapless high school wrestling team that he coaches. We’ll explore how Mike’s efforts to navigate the many challenges he faces on all three fronts, while often well-intentioned, ultimately lead him to an ethical compromise that could have devastating consequences for his practice, his client, and the people he loves most.
Attendees will leave encouraged and reinvigorated and better equipped to:
- Understand the interrelationship between stress and ethical decision-making
- Learn to recognize and better understand the warning signs of stress overload
- Understand the link between the ethical and professional demands of a law practice and an attorney’s personal commitments and pressures
- Recognize the importance of identifying and utilizing available resources to avoid isolation
- Identify and implement practical ways to manage professional pressures and stress, as encountered every day and during “crunch time.”
Program Agenda
- Juggling the Manifold Demands of Your Time and Energy
- Win Win, Scene I: “Hey, You Okay” - Knowing When You’re Outmatched: The Interplay of Stress, Mental Health, Ethical Dilemmas and Professional Responsibility
- Win Win Scene II: “What Are You So Stressed About?” - Strengthening Your Core: The Importance of Working Out Your Core Values
- Win Win Scene III: “Did we win?” - When to “Tap Out” and When to “Go to the Mat” – the Cumulative Effect of Every Day Choices
- Win Win Scene IV: What’s Your Play? - We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us: Practical Tools for Stress Management to Maintain Your Ethics Before You Go Down for the Count
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