2025 Bench & Bar CLE & Reception

Featuring Author & Film Producer Jonathan Shapiro

Sponsored by the Idaho State Bar & the Idaho Judicial Branch

 

Tuesday, September 9, 2025
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm (MT)

Jack’s Urban Meeting Place (JUMP) – Pioneer Room

1000 W. Myrtle Street - Boise

*Webcast Available 

1.5 CLE credits

 

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration              $75.00

Law Clerks                                   $25.00

 

The Idaho State Bar and Idaho Law Foundation are proud to continue their anniversary celebration with this special event in collaboration with the Idaho Judicial Conference.  The event will kick off with presentation by attorney author and film producer, Jonathan Shapiro.  A reception sponsored by the Idaho Women Lawyers will immediately follow.  During the reception we will present the 2025 Distinguished Jurist Award to Justice Cynthia K.C. Meyer.

This event is truly one for the record books as the Idaho State Bar and the Idaho Judiciary have not held a combined event in over 10 years.

Agenda

3:30 pm       How To Be Abe Lincoln – Seven Steps to Leading a Legendary Life

                     Presented by: Jonathan Shapiro

                     More than any time except Abe Lincoln’s own, we need his help, and not just to inspire us. What we need is a practical guide to being Lincoln, one that shows us how to survive in a fractious age.  Former federal prosecutor, law professor, author, playwright, and television writer Shapiro identifies the seven steps that made Lincoln legendary and teaches us how to follow them.

4:30 pm        Reception - Sponsored by the Idaho Women Lawyers

5:30 pm        2025 Idaho State Bar Distinguished Jurist Award Presentation

                      Honoring Justice Cynthia K.C. Meyer, Idaho Supreme Court

7:00 pm        Reception Concludes

2025 Estate Planning Conference (Sun Valley)                                                   

Sponsored by the Idaho State Bar Taxation, Probate & Trust Law Section

 

Thursday, October 2, 2025 – 8:00 am to 5:30 pm

Friday, October 3, 2025 – 8:00 am to 3:15 pm

 

Sun Valley Inn

Kitzbuhler Strasse – Sun Valley

12.25 CLE credits including 1.5 Ethics credits

*In Person Attendance Only

 

Registration: 

Taxation, Probate & Trust Law Section Member          $300.00

Non-Section Member                                                            $350.00

New Attorney – Admitted in Past 5 Years                       $300.00

Law Students                                                                           No Cost

 

Program Agenda

Wednesday, October 1

6:00 p.m.                    Welcome Get-Together – Sponsored by Becker Capital Management 

                                    No Host – Duchin Lounge at Sun Valley Lounge

 

Thursday, October 2

8:00 a.m.                     Hosted Breakfast – Sponsored by Washington Trust Bank

8:30 a.m.                     Local Economic Update

                                    Steve Scranton, Washington Trust Bank

9:00 a.m.                    Charitable Planning 101 – Sponsored by University of Idaho Foundation

                                    Phoebe A. Stone, WealthCounsel, LLC – Los Angeles

10:30 a.m.                   Break

10:45 a.m.                   AI and Estate Planning

                                    Mary E. Vandenack, Duggan Bertsch - Chicago

12:00 p.m.                   Hosted Lunch – Sponsored by Ferguson Wellman Capital Management

                                    National Economic Update

                                    Jason Norris, Ferguson Wellman Capital Management 

1:15 p.m.                     A Non-Medicaid Planner’s Approach to Estate Planning within the Context

                                    of Long-Term Care

                                    Joshua C.P. Reams, Ahrens DeAngeli Law Group LLP

2:45 p.m.                     Break

3:00 p.m.                     Undue Influence – Sponsored by Boise State University Foundation                                   

                                    Michaelina B. Murphy, Murphy Law Offices, PLLC

4:00 p.m.                     Reception & Trivia – Sponsored by the Idaho Community Foundation

 

Friday, October 3

8:00 a.m.                     Hosted Breakfast - Sponsored by Northwest Trustee & Management

                                    Services

8:30 a.m.                     Estate Plans That Don’t Work: Clauses, Considerations and Things to Avoid

                                    Greg Bowman, Northwest Trustee & Management Services

9:00 a.m.                     Estate Planning Strategies for Unmarried Individuals

                                    Rachel A. Murphy, Shaila Buckley Law

10:00 a.m.                   Drafting Software and Practice Considerations for Its Use

                                    Shaila D. Buckley, Shaila Buckley Law

                                    David J. Wilson, Ahrens DeAngeli Law Group LLP

                                    Kara M. Gleckler, Canyon River Law LLP

11:15 a.m.                   Break

11:30 a.m.                   Significant Planning Issues for Ranchers and Farmers – Sponsored by

                                    River's Edge Mediation

                                    James R. Walker, Womble, Bond, Dickinson – Denver

12:45 p.m.                   Hosted Lunch – Sponsored by Idaho Trust Bank

                                    Fiduciary Update

                                    David Cooper, Idaho Trust Bank

1:45 p.m.                    The Life-Changing Magic of Grantor Trusts – Sponsored by Legacy Wealth

                                    Management

                                    Samuel A. Donaldson, Georgia State University College of Law

3:15 p.m.                     Conference Adjourns

 

Lodging:

Sun Valley Inn

222 S. Broadway Ave. – Sun Valley

 

Call the Sun Valley Resort at (800) 786-8259 or email reservations@sunvalley.com by Monday, September 1^st to take advantage of the negotiated lodging rates of $285 and $300/night plus 6% resort fee and 12% tax on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Be sure to mention “ISB 2025 Annual Estate Planning Conference.”  Group rates will be honored three days prior and three days following the conference based upon availability. Lodging Deadline Monday, September 1st.

 

There are a limited number of rooms available so book as soon as possible for the best options.

2025 Fall New Attorney Program

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc.

 

Friday, September 26, 2025
8:00 am to 12:30 pm (MT)

 

Boise Centre East

195 S. Capitol Blvd., Boise

*In-Person Attendance Only* 

4.0 CLE credits of which 1.0 is Ethics – NAC Approved

 

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration   $120.00

Day of Registration        $150.00

 

The New Attorney Program consists of an introduction on Idaho practice, procedure, and ethics. This course meets the CLE requirements of Idaho State Bar Commission Rule 402(f)(3).  Participants must be admitted and sworn into the Idaho State Bar for this course to count toward the New Admittee CLE requirement. If a participant will not be sworn in on or by September 26, 2025, they will have to wait until May 2026 to take this course. * 

 

Agenda

8:00 am      Lawyering Skills        

9:30 am      Break

9:45 am      Federal & State Judiciary Panel 

11:15 am    Break

11:30 am    Idaho Lawyer Assistance Program

12:00 pm    Idaho State Bar & Idaho Law Foundation Potpourri

12:30 pm    Program Concludes

Crafting Contracts: Ethical Issues for Drafters

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 1, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

 

Negotiating, drafting and reviewing contracts are processes fraught with ethical issues.  Negotiations sometimes require zealous advocacy, taking maximal positions; other times, they require delicacy and balance. Reviewing and drafting complex contracts is a similar ethical minefield. If you discover that the draft of a contract contains materially incorrect assumptions about the law but which will benefit your client, do you have the duty to disclose or correct the error?  In the same way, if the contract contains faulty assumptions about material facts, must you disclose those faulty assumptions?  And how do these rules apply when drafting a contract?  This program will provide you with a real world guide to the ethics of negotiating, drafting and reviewing contracts.

 

• The law – when you know a counterparty has made faulty assumptions benefiting your client, must you say?
• The facts – when a counterparty makes faulty factual assumptions, must you correct?
• Ethics and rescission – are you ever ethically obligated to rescind or restate a contract?
• Ethics in negotiations – what’s the line between zealous representation and deception? 

History Recreated - Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Idaho State Bar Where It All Began

Sponsored by the Second District Bar Association

 

Friday, September 5, 2025
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm (PT)

The Lewis-Clark Hotel

111 Main Street - Lewiston

*Live Webcast Available 

2.0 CLE credits

 

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration     $20.00

Law Clerks                          $15.00

 

The first meeting of the Idaho State Bar was held at The Lewis Clark Hotel in Lewiston, Idaho on September 5, 1925. One hundred years later to date, members of the Idaho State Bar and the Second District Bar will again gather to celebrate Idaho’s rich legal history at the historic hotel.

This momentous event will kick off with a legal history presentation highlighting Idaho’s most famous trials by Christopher P. Graham from the Idaho Legal History Section followed by a presentation from Lewiston’s own historian and author, Steven D. Branting on the history of the legal profession in Lewiston.  A reception will follow.

 

Agenda

3:00 pm        A Century of Service: Idaho’s Most Famous Lawyers and Trials

                      Presented by Christopher P. Graham, Brassey Crawford

4:15 pm        Counselors, Crooks and Courthouses

                      Presented by Steven D. Branting, Institutional Historian for Lewis-Clark State College

5:15 pm        Cocktail Reception

How Ethics Rules Apply to Lawyers Outside of Law Practice

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 15, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

 

Ethics rules are intended primarily to regulate lawyer acts when practicing law. But the rules do not always stop there. Lawyers can be held responsible and disciplined under ethics rules for things they do when acting outside of their practices. Lawyers may be disciplined under ethics rules for criminal conduct, including misdemeanors, entirely unrelated to their lawyerly conduct. They may be also be disciplined for any acts that involve dishonesty, misrepresentation, or any actions prejudicial to the judicial system. This program will provide you with a guide to circumstances in which ethics rules apply to lawyers when they act outside of law practice.

 

• Dishonesty and misrepresentation when a lawyer is acting as a non-lawyer
• Lawyers as business people – how counter-parties can allege ethical misconduct
• Self-representation – when lawyers represent themselves in litigation, who can they communicate with?
• Violations of law, including misdemeanors, as ethics violations
• Restrictions on lawyers’ ability to market themselves in non-lawyer roles

Internet Ethics: Navigating Lawyer Responsibilities Online

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

September 4, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

 

The Internet is the uniform information appliance for communications, research, and marketing, for consumers and for lawyers.  You can easily research witnesses, parties, judges, and jurors with a simple Google search.  Add in social media searches – blogs, Facebook, Twitter and many other platforms – and you can develop a rich demographic profile of all of these individuals.  With a few keystrokes, you can pull down more information than ever before. You can also communicate freely, unmediated and unrestricted, with virtually anyone. All of these functions are valuable in litigation and transactional practice but also give rise to substantial ethics issues – not everything that the Web enables is proper. This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethics issues when lawyer engage in research and communication using the Internet. 

 

• Communicating with parties, opposing attorneys, and witnesses via email, social media, and texting
• Researching jurors, parties, witnesses and judges via social media
• Blogging or sending newsletters/law updates to clients
• Trends in texting, confidentiality, and discoverability
• Law firm marketing via the web

The Privilege: Exactly What Communications Between Attorney and Client are Protected?

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

November 19, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

 

Course Description: TBD

2025 Civil Litigation Ethics: Navigating New Challenges, Part 1

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 8, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for June 10, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

 

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.  The program will feature its annual tour of the waterfront of technology issues in litigation practice.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice. 

 

Day 1:

• Ethics and technology in law practice review
• Ethics and settlement agreements
• Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 1

 

Day 2:

• Ethics, evidence and witnesses
• Developments in confidentiality and preserving the attorney-client privilege
• Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 2

2025 Civil Litigation Ethics: Navigating New Challenges, Part 2

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 9, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for June 11, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

 

2025 Civil Litigation Ethics: Navigating New Challenges, Part 1

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 8, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for June 10, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

 

This annual ethics update will cover a wide range of ethical developments important to your civil litigation practice.  The program will provide detailed coverage of developments in conflicts of interest in litigation, confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege, and drafting and negotiating settlement agreements.  The program will feature its annual tour of the waterfront of technology issues in litigation practice.  Please join for this annual program which will provide you with a lively discussion of ethical developments important to civil litigation practice. 

 

Day 1:

• Ethics and technology in law practice review
• Ethics and settlement agreements
• Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 1

 

Day 2:

• Ethics, evidence and witnesses
• Developments in confidentiality and preserving the attorney-client privilege
• Recent developments in conflicts of interest, part 2

Lawyers Supervising Lawyers: Navigating Ethical Responsibilities

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

November 12, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for July 31, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Lawyers are not only responsible for their own ethical conduct and decision making but also for the ethical practice of lawyers they supervise.  Whether it’s a partner supervising the work of an associate or the lead lawyer on a case supervising a group of partners and associates, the supervising lawyer has responsibilities to ensure that the lawyers he or she is supervising are ethically compliant. When subordinate lawyers violate ethics rules, supervising lawyers are potentially liable for that misconduct. This program will provide you with a guide to ethical issues when lawyers supervise other lawyers and non-lawyer support staff.

 

• Standards for ensuring compliance by subordinate attorneys and potential liability when they act improperly
• Lawyer supervision of paralegals and other non-lawyer staff
• Responsibilities of subordinate lawyers who rely on judgment of supervising lawyers
• Special issues involved in billing the work of subordinate and co-counsel attorneys, and paralegals
• In-house counsel of outside counsel

Shared Spaces: Ethics of Remote and Virtual Law Offices

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation, Inc. in partnership with Freestone and WebCredenza, Inc. 

 

October 2, 2025

11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for May 30, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

 

Technology allows lawyers far more flexibility to practice law than ever before.  Lawyers can work in shared offices, splitting expenses with other small firms or solo practitioners. They can work remotely, from home or virtually anywhere, with basic computer and networking technology. But all these innovations come with ethics traps. These include issues of communications and confidentiality, supervising outsourced worked, multijurisdictional practice, and managing all the technology used to practice law from home.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when working from home or anywhere but a traditional office.

• Disclosure to clients of virtual nature of law office
• Duty of competence as a duty to understand technology
• Electronic communications, confidentiality, and ethical risks in virtual law offices
• How Web sites and a “virtual” presence implicate multijurisdictional practice issues
• Outsourcing work to paralegal services, including fee sharing issues