Practice and Procedure

The pandemic taught us all how to work remotely and divide our tasks to get the job done. This panel is comprised of both virtual and in-office paralegals who understand how their role between attorney and client operates, as well as what they can bring to improve the experience for both you and your clients. Understanding the paralegal perspective provides greater insights into how you can use their knowledge and abilities to accelerate your practice and increase your bottom line.

This panel will feature a conversation on what we have learned about remote and hybrid practice, and what could use some improvement. The panelists will discuss staffing an office in a virtual environment, retaining talent, the expectation for flexibility, best practices for training new team members and maintaining office morale.

This panel will discuss mindfulness to control runaway mind moments and center your thoughts. Learn skills so that you are in control of your thoughts and not your thoughts controlling you.

This panel will cover how to serve notice in a bankruptcy proceeding and will explain the difference between a contested proceeding and a simple notice under Rule 2002. The panelists will discuss how a notice can also become a contested proceeding by virtue of notice. Sounds confusing? It isn’t, yet it is incredibly important to ensure that due process is followed. You may have a lengthy list of creditors in your client’s chapter 13 case, but if only 15 creditors file claims, why should the remaining creditors be noticed after the claims deadline has passed? The panelists also will discuss the rules we now have that allow for limited noticing and limited titling under Rule 7004(b)(3).

Advances in technology are changing how law is practiced. Online research databases, digital contracts, expert systems and document automation all help make lawyers’ routine tasks easier and more efficient. All lawyers must make informed decisions about what technology tools to acquire, develop or leverage. While lawyers’ use of technology is not an end unto itself, it is providing a catalyst for the transformation of the legal profession. Moreover, in a world of rapidly advancing technologies, data breaches and increasingly sophisticated uses of artificial intelligence, lawyers are now ethically required to understand the benefits and risks of technology. Intractable barriers to access to justice also remain a perennial concern. This panel discusses new developments in legal technology and ethics, and explores the ways in which technology can scale the provision of legal assistance, as well as examines how new developments in attorney regulation have expanded the definition of who can “practice law.” It also considers, despite people’s strong preference for maintaining the status quo, how understanding and adopting technology tools will optimize lawyers’ abilities to provide services to clients more effectively and efficiently.

This panel explores the realities, misconceptions and interpretations of the “business case” vs. the “values case” for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in this interactive session. The panelists highlight the gaps created when the business case for DEI is prioritized over values and organizational culture, and examine metrics that can measure and evaluate the progress of values around DEI.