eCourses

THIS MONTH: When is Ticketing Like Pork Bellies? Current Legislation on Speculative Tickets and Resale Royalties • War Stories, Trial Tips, and Trial Skills Comparison • Key Trends in Private Company Mergers and Acquisitions • Mortgage Concepts for Family Lawyers • Drafting Contracts to Protect Your Company

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: Client Selection, Contracts and Handling Complaints - During a long career, almost no lawyer can completely avoid conflicts and complaints from Clients. The nature of our adversary system provides many opportunities for stress, misunderstandings and disagreements about how the legal system works – or the client’s expectations.  Many times, these matters can be avoided in the intake process. But when a complaint arises, lawyers need to know how to respond and handle those attorney client disagreements in ethical and empathetic ways. This course takes you through the interview process, the execution of clear attorney fee agreements, maintaining clear communications, and ultimately handling an attorney client dispute. Dozens of great tips, sound advice, and reminders of our fiduciary duty under the Disciplinary Rules. Session 2: Protecting Privilege? The Evolving Role of Attorney-Client Privilege in Cybersecurity Incidents and Responses - This session analyzes the advantages and limitations of including outside counsel during incident response. Session 3: Tales from Trial: The Boeing Case is Shot Down - Defense attorneys for the Boeing test pilot, the only individual indicted in connection with the Boeing 737 Max crashes, discuss details of the trial and their successful defense strategy. Session 4: Employee Mental Health: What Response is Required - In the aftermath of COVID and with increased visibility of mental health issues, districts must consider a more holistic plan for addressing the concerns related to employee well-being. This session combines a discussion of the legal requirements of dealing with employee mental health challenges along with best practices in prevention and intervention.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: A Lawyer's Duty in a Democracy Under Attack - An examination of lawyers' duty to support the Constitution and democratic principles when they are being challenged.  Session 2: What the Surviving Spouse Needs to Do, and What to Do if They Don’t - A practical discussion of the steps a surviving spouse can or should take when their spouse dies and what to do later if those steps are not taken. Session 3: Medical Staff, Nursing Staff, and Patient Rights in a Post-COVID World - As we move past the pandemic into a post-public health emergency world, hospitals are contending with physician and nursing staffing shortages, changing trends in the use of physicians and advanced practice professionals on medical staffs, increasing violence by patients, and regulatory pressures. The speakers discuss these issues and options for responding to them. Session 4: Artist Rights: The Future of the Copyright Royalty Board for Songwriters - ​This panel discusses the history and future of the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board, the federal agency that sets the royalty rate for the government’s compulsory licenses for songs and webcasting among other. Session 5: Workers’ Comp 101: The Basics of the Workers’ Compensation System in Texas - An overview of the Workers’ Compensation System outlining the responsibilities of insurance carriers, employers, and self-insureds in the administration of work injuries in Texas.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

THIS MONTH: Geopolitics and Extreme Weather Impacts on the Energy Markets • Bow Your Head and Play: A Discussion on Kennedy v. Bremerton • Sign Right Here: A Survey of Provisions for Your Attorney-Client Agreements • Defensive Documentation from Hiring to Firing • Estate Tax: Best Strategies for Estates and Gifts Leading Up to 2026

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: Culture Wars in the School District: Censure - A look at the availability of, and limitations on, censure as a tool of governance in the schools. Session 2: Culture Wars in the School District: Employees - Whether it's about books, CRT, religion, sexual identity policies, or other controversial issues, principals, librarians, teachers and other school employees can be easy targets for the culture wars. What defenses do they have when grievances are aired out on social and mainstream media, or before the school board? What will be the school employee’s response when they find themselves in a battle they did not choose?

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: Hot Button Boards: Representing School Districts Addressing Controversial Political Issues - School boards are increasingly addressing hot-button political topics such as critical race theory, transgender student rights, and library book disputes. Trustees often disagree with one another on these issues, and may even disagree with key district administrators. This presentation examines the attorney’s role in these situations, including when to consider hiring independent counsel, how to address conflicting views on litigation strategy, and how to answer the question: Who is the client?  ​Session 2: War of the Words: Public Comment at Open Meetings - An overview of current law, a few practical considerations, and real-life reflections on the mandatory agenda item behind the Stifle-Your-Laugh School Board Challenge.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: The Bible Tells Me So? - Do school employees have a religious (or even free speech) right to refuse to refer to a transgender student by the name or pronoun that is consistent with the student’s gender identity? The presentation provides an overview of what the courts are telling us about that issue, and how those cases might be incorporated into practice. Session 2: Bow Your Head and Play: A Discussion on Kennedy v. Bremerton - Two old coaches square off over employee religious expression in light of the recent Supreme Court decision. Join us for an in depth look into the First Amendment and how it relates to a public school employee’s right to pray at school.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

This presentation includes an overview of the grievance system in Texas, an overview of common reasons for grievances, and guidance on how to avoid grievances.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

An overview of the Workers’ Compensation System outlining the responsibilities of insurance carriers, employers, and self-insureds in the administration of work injuries in Texas.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Need ethics credit? We’ve got you covered! UT Law CLE’s First Friday Ethics streams live every first Friday of the month, and features some of our best ethics speakers and presentations for a total of 3.00 hrs ethics credit. Fulfill your entire annual ethics requirement in Texas in one day!   This month includes: How to Ethically and Legally Represent a Business Organization in Crisis: Client Confidences, Reporting Up the Ladder or Out to Third Parties (REPLAY) William D. Elliott, Elliott, Thomason & Gibson, LLP, Dallas, TX   Do You Know What Your Outside Counsel is Doing to Protect Client Information? (REPLAY) Robert L. Levy, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Houston, TX   Emergency Toolkit for Grievances and Sanctions Orders (REPLAY) Scott Rothenberg, Law Office of Scott Rothenberg, Bellaire, TX Managing Generational Differences (REPLAY) Rebecca S. Bradley, Abernathy, Roeder, Boyd & Hullett, P.C., McKinney, TX Deron T. Robinson, Denton ISD, Denton, TX Jim Whitton, Brackett & Ellis, P.C., Fort Worth, TX

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

THIS MONTH: Employee Raiding: The Evolving Standard • ESG Investing • Last Chance Tax Planning: The Golden Age of Estate Planning Won’t Last Forever (If You’re Not Doing Estate Planning Now, What Are You Waiting For?) • Managing Generational Differences • Drafting Contracts to Protect Your Company

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

THIS MONTH: Guardianships: Ripped from the Headlines • Title IX: The First 50 Years • When the FBI Comes Knocking (or No-knocking) • Beyond Contract Negotiation: Assessing Risk and Asking the Right Questions • ​Initial Client Meeting Guidance and Resources

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: Lessons From the Kennedy Assassination for Cross-Examination - If ever there was an event about which witnesses should have agreed, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy was that event, but the eyewitnesses could not agree about even the most basic details of what happened in plain view in Dealey Plaza. Why and how do eyewitnesses fail to remember correctly even the most basic details of what they observed? What can trial lawyers learn from discrepancies in witness accounts of famous historical events, including the Kennedy assassination and the sinking of the Titanic?  Session 2: Texas’ Mental Health System: Overview and Local Solutions to Address Gaps - Hear an overview of the public mental health system in Texas and programs developed through the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council’s Crisis Collaborative. Examine the legal basis for this system, the roles of each type of facility, points of access, and funding. Learn how efforts to implement collaborative, local solutions at the cross-payor level have addressed crisis responses and are now attempting to move upstream to address access to care before mental health crises arise. Session 3: Insights into Cryptocurrency for Nonprofits - Join Armanino’s digital assets and nonprofit experts to learn about market trends in cryptocurrency; Bitcoin and how it can diversify your organization’s investment portfolio; and cryptocurrency opportunities for nonprofit organizations. Session 4: Gun Rights: An Overview of the Rights of Landlords and Tenants -  Session 5: Approaches to Privilege During Deposition Breaks - In an age of Zoom depositions, it is more important than ever to understand that different jurisdictions take different approaches the question of privilege during deposition breaks, with some disallowing any privilege at all once the deposition commences and others taking a more nuanced approach. Join Jason Boulette as he explores these different approaches, what they share in common, and where they differ sharply.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 1: The FLSA and School Districts - Explore the application of the FLSA to school districts including misclassification of exempt employees, calculating overtime for dual employment, and compensatory time.  Session 2: The Changing Landscape of Contract Abandonment and Resignation from a Chapter 21 Contract - The passage of HB2519—as well as proposed amendments to the State Board for Educator Certification's disciplinary rules related to good cause or mitigating factors to resign from a teacher contract—have sparked a debate within the education community about when a teacher should be permitted to resign mid-year from a Chapter 21 employment contract. This presentation considers the background of that discussion and examines the new legislation and status of SBEC's rules related to enforcement of contract abandonment.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

The mentorship of young attorneys is an ethical obligation of the supervising attorneys and is critical for the retention of good attorneys. Communication, clarity, and leadership/culture sharing are all critical to bridging the generational divide. This is true for law firms that represent school districts, law firms that represent the employees of school districts, and general/in-house counsel for school districts.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

Communities with divided political views are experiencing unusually high interest in board meeting public comments and other feedback from citizens near and far. School boards now need strategies to give each person a fair opportunity to speak while also dealing with unruly participants. Meanwhile, many school officials have been targeted by threats or verbal attacks—and when things get personal, we attorneys have to keep calm and remember our ethical obligations, too.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Drawing on two recent ABA ethics opinions, this presentation explains the ethical pitfalls of practicing law remotely as they apply to school law attorneys and discusses strategies for avoiding them.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Join Kayleigh as she explores how to advise teachers and parents about navigating contact with students during virtual and in-person instruction. It will include a discussion on relevant laws and rules with examples of recent cases and notes on best practices.

Includes: Video Slides

An overview of the basics and possible issues surrounding the purchase and/or sale of real property or entering into mineral or cell tower leases.  

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

If you've handled a departing employee lawsuit, you’re probably familiar with the typical legal issues such as non-competes and trade secrets, but do you know how to address the typical ethical issues? Join Zach Wolfe In this one-hour course, as he provides practical guidance on dealing with recurring ethical issues in departing employee litigation.

Includes: Video Slides