2025 AI Year in Review: Everything You Should Know When Advising Clients

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

January 24, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This program provides a comprehensive overview of the most significant legal developments in artificial intelligence throughout 2025. Participants will explore key cases, new legislation, and evolving regulations that impact how attorneys advise clients on AI-related issues. The program will address topics such as intellectual property, data privacy, and  liability concerns related to AI. By the end of the session, attorneys will have the knowledge they need to navigate the rapidly changing AI legal landscape and effectively counsel their clients.

• Key legal developments in AI from 2025, including landmark cases and legislative updates.
• Guidance on advising clients regarding AI-related intellectual property, data privacy, and liability concerns.
• Ethical considerations for attorneys working with clients utilizing AI technologies.
• Insights into emerging AI regulations and their implications for businesses and legal practice.

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 1

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

February 11, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 2

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

February 12, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

Co-Council Ethics in Civil Litigation

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

August 1, 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

Course Description:Communicating to Opposing Counsel & the Courts: Professionalism and Ethics

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

April 29, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

Cybersecurity Breaches: How to Advise Clients When the Inevitable Happens

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

January 16, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

This program will provide you with critical guidance on advising clients who experience a cybersecurity breach resulting in the release of sensitive information. Participants will learn best practices for assessing the scope of a breach, complying with notification laws, and mitigating potential legal and reputational risks. The program will cover key topics such as regulatory requirements, breach response planning, and strategies for minimizing liability. By the end of the session, attorneys will be equipped to effectively counsel clients through the legal and practical challenges of a data breach incident.

• Strategies for securing trade secrets from departing employees through contracts and legal safeguards.
• Addressing cybersecurity risks in networked systems to prevent unauthorized access and theft.
• Understanding the impact of artificial intelligence on trade secret protection and potential misappropriation risks.
• Practical tools and legal frameworks to help clients proactively safeguard proprietary information.

Drafting Waivers of Conflicts of Interests

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

July 22, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

A bedrock principle of lawyer ethics is that lawyers owe their clients loyalty, free of conflicts of interest – unless those conflicts are explicitly waived by a client in writing.  Clients are entitled to zealous representation without the lawyer being conflicted by other representations.  When a conflict arises, the lawyer is required to decline the representation causing the conflict or withdraw from an ongoing matter – unless the conflict is explicitly waived by the client.  But waivers are not always easily accomplished.  They must be carefully drafted – particularly when it purports to be of an anticipated conflict. This program will provide you with a real-world guide to the rules governing conflict waivers, types of waivers, and how to draft them to avoid future dispute and ethical sanction.

• Drafting effective waivers of conflicts of interest
• Key provisions of waivers and ensuring there is “informed” consent
• Advance waivers – drafting waivers for anticipated conflicts
• Types of advance waivers – stating subject area, adverse parties, neither or both
• Sources of rules and practical guidance on drafting waivers
• Common mistakes made in drafting waivers
• Consequences of ineffective waivers

Ethics and Changing Law Firm Affiliation 

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

March 28, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

When a lawyer moves from one firm to another, it can be a fairly dramatic event.  The ethical issues for the lawyer and for his or her prior firm and new firm are substantial.  There are issues of when and how to communicate to clients and whether it’s done by the lawyer or the firm. There are issues of ongoing matters and what to do with client files.  In ongoing litigation or transactional matters, do lawyers withdraw pending a client decision about whether to move the matter to the lawyer’s next firm?  Is withdrawal even permitted?  There are also issues of conflicts of interest and how they are managed – for the lawyer who is changing law firm affiliation and for the firms involved. This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when lawyers change law firm affiliation.

• Ethical issues when lawyers change law firm affiliation
• Propriety and timing of communications with the departing lawyer’s clients – by the lawyer or the firm?
• Ownership and transfer of client files among law firms
• Ongoing litigation or transactional matters – is withdrawal permissible?
• Diligence for the new firm– conflicts, confidentiality, and screening
• Issues when a solo practitioner joins a multi-lawyer firm

Ethics of Beginning and Ending Client Relationships

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

February 28, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Substantial ethics issues flow from the moment an attorney-client relationship is formed, whether it is formed intentionally or through inadvertence.  Determining when a relationship commences and the scope of the representation has dramatic implications for issues related to confidentiality, conflicts of interest, the attorney-client privilege and more. Ending an engagement is nearly as complicated. When are you allowed to end an engagement?  And how must you go about it without prejudicing a client’s interest in a transaction or in litigation? This program will you provide a real-world guide the ethical issues of beginning and ending an attorney client relationship.

• Determining when and how a relationship starts – including through inadvertence
• Email and technology issues – how unsolicited communications may trigger ethical obligations
• Joint representation issues – unsorting the confidentiality and privilege issues
• End a relationship – when are you allowed to end an engagement?  How do you do it ethically?
• Circumstances when you might be required to end a relationship

Generative AI in Law Practice: Opportunities and Ethical Perils

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

February 21, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

The use of artificial intelligence and machine learning in law practice are not far off prospects, but rather accomplished realities. Many of the tools lawyers use today – online research platforms that suggest other areas for research, software packages that help complete forms or propose or assemble document language, and discovery tools that sort through documents – are driven by artificial intelligence and machine learning. These and other AI engineered legal tools raise substantial ethical issues. Are they the unauthorized practice of law? Have lawyers researched their capabilities such that they are competent to use them? How must lawyers supervise their use by non-lawyer staff? This program will provide you with a practical guide to the substantial ethical issues arising from the use of common law practice tools that use artificial intelligence and machine learning.

• Ethical issues in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning in law practice
• What duties do lawyers have to investigate and understand AI in the tools they use?
• Does AI constitute the unauthorized practice of law (UPL) in a state?
• Do form assembly and language drafting software packages violate ethics rules?
• What supervisory and training obligations do lawyers have for non-lawyer staff using these tools?
• Are there ethics concerns of using AI in discovery?
• Must lawyers warn clients that they use AI?

Handling Your First or Next Wrongful Death Case

Sponsored by the Idaho Law Foundation

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (MT)

The Law Center
525 W. Jefferson St. – Boise

*Live Webcast Available

 2.0 CLE credits

Registration Cost: 

Standard Registration:                                 $75.00

Day of Registration:                                     $85.00

Law Student/General Public:                     $20.00

Check-in begins at 8:30 a.m.

Join the Idaho Law Foundation and experienced practitioner Jason Monteleone, Monteleone Law Offices, PLLC, as he covers several topics on wrongful death cases, including: Who CAN Make Claims and Who SHOULD Make Claims; Damages to be Claimed; How to Prove Damages at Trial; Representing Minors or Disabled Beneficiaries and/or Multiple Claimants; Conflicts and Ethical Considerations; and Dealing with the Cap on Non-Economic Damages.

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

Lawyer Ethics When Clients Won't Pay Your Fees

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

April 3, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

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

Course Description: TBD

Litigation Ethics: Disqualification and Sanctions

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

January 14, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Disqualification standards have their roots in conflicts of interests. When an attorney has a conflict that rises to a certain level, he or she is disqualified from representing a certain party in litigation. Though ethics rules substantially overlap with disqualification standards, those standards do not follow traditional conflicts analysis in every detail.  Indeed, the relationship between conflicts of interest (and related confidentiality concerns) and disqualification is highly nuanced, varying depending on facts of each case.  There are also substantial issues in the context of joint representations, including whether the disqualification of one attorney necessarily disqualifies co-counsel.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to attorney ethics rules and their relationship to disqualification in litigation.

• Attorney ethics, conflicts of interest, and disqualification standards
• How ethics rules and disqualification standards overlap and vary from each other
• Ethics standards and tests for obtaining – or defending against disqualification
• Joint representations and disqualification – if co-counsel is disqualified, are you?
• Screening for conflicts of interest and the risk of imputation of conflicts/disqualification to other attorneys
• Ethical sanctions and their relationship to disqualification

Shared Spaces: Ethics of Remote and Virtual Offices

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

May 30, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

Texting While Practicing Law: Ethical Risk

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

June 27, 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

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

The Unauthorized Practice of Law: New Frontiers

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

March 18, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

When Lawyers Make Mistakes: Ethical & Disciplinary Issues

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

May 20, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Course Description: TBD

When the Law or Facts Are Against You: Ethical Considerations for Lawyers

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

February 26, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

Every lawyer wrestles with how to handle facts or law that is unfavorable to a client. There is a natural tension between a lawyer’s duty to be honest, on the one hand, and the lawyer’s duty to provide zealous representation of a client.  In some instances, bad facts or bad law must be disclosed.  In other instances, disclosure is not required. How this tension is resolved involves substantial ethical issues.  This program will discuss the ethics issues involved and how they may be resolved in a practical setting. Ethical issues surrounding the representation of adverse facts to tribunals and adversaries

• Disclosure of adverse legal precedents
• Required discloses of bad facts or law
• Timing issues – when must the disclosure occur?
• Related issues of confidentiality and the attorney-client privilege
• Ex parte communications with the courts – what’s ethically permissible, what’s not?

2024 Ethics and Social Media Update

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

January 27, 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 10, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Lawyers use social media technology to collect and share information, and communicate with others, not only personally but also when acting as lawyers. Important and probative information about a case can be more easily found on social media than elsewhere. Social media is also easily used to communicate with existing or potential clients, colleagues or opposing lawyers, and the public. These and other uses of social media raise substantial ethical issues for lawyers – competence, confidentiality, preservation of the attorney-client privilege, and honesty.  This program will provide you with a practical guide to ethical issues when lawyers use social media for communication purposes in law practice.

• Communicating with parties, opposing attorneys, and witnesses via social media
• Researching jurors, parties, witnesses and judges via social media
• Ethical issues with blogging, e-newsletters/law updates to clients, posting video
• “Friending” or otherwise connecting with judges, witnesses and others on social media
• Trends in texting, confidentiality, and discoverability
• Using web sites, online advertising and social media for client development

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.

Course Description: TBD

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.

Course Description: TBD

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 1

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

June 19, 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 February 11, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

2025 Ethics Update: Navigating New Challenges, Part 2

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

June 20, 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 February 12, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

This annual ethics program will provide you with a round-table discussion of practical ethical issues important to your practice. The program will provide you with an engaging discussion of ethics developments involving technology and law practice, conflicts of interest, and attorney-client communications in a digital world where no one is truly unplugged. The panel will also discuss the ethics of withdrawing from a matter and firing a client and the ethics of developing new business.  This program will provide you with a wide-ranging discussion of practical ethics developments important to your practice.

Day 1:

• Ethics and artificial intelligence
• Ethics and witness prep
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 1

Day 2:

• Office sharing and imputed dq issues
• Protection for data
• Emerging issues in conflicts of interest, part 2

Ethical Issues When You Have a Dishonest Client

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

January 13, 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 November 27, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

One of the dangers of practicing law is that, now and again, you get a dishonest client.  Your client may be misleading you – and others – about the facts of their case, either through silence or affirmative misstatements.  Or they may be telling you one thing and others something else different.  You may discover proof of the dishonesty or just suspect it. Client dishonesty raises many ethical issues.  What must you do to ensure your client is telling you the truth? What if you discover a client is lying to a court or tribunal?  Are you allowed to disclose the dishonesty despite the duty of client confidentiality?  Are there degrees of client dishonesty – some acceptable, others not?  This program will provide you with a guide to the substantial ethical issues when client dishonesty is discovered or suspected. 

• Tension between the duty of confidentiality and the duty to be honest in communications
• Determining whether a client is lying – active v. passive, fact v. opinion, affirmative statements v. silence
• Unknowing attorney representations on basis of client dishonesty
• Duties of disclosure and to whom – the tribunal, third parties?
• Mandatory and permissive withdrawals from a case, including “noisy” withdrawals
• Discovery of dishonesty in closed matters

Ethics for Business Lawyers

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

February 25, 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 September 12, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Lawyers advising businesses on transactions or negotiating on their behalf often confront a range of important ethical questions.  The biggest is, who is your client?  Often a company’s owners or managers will not understand the distinction between representing them and representing the company? There are also issues of identifying and clearing conflicts among clients when they are negotiating transaction.  And what can a lawyer say or do when negotiating for a client? Also, lawyers are sometimes confronted with issues about what to do when clients are dishonest.  This program will provide you with a real world guide to ethical issues when representing clients in business transactions. 

• Ethical issues in business and corporate practice
• Identifying your client in a variety of transactional contexts – the company v. its managers?
• Conflicts of interest in representing both sides of a transaction
• Ethical issues in transactional negotiations and communications with represented parties
• Representing clients you know to be dishonest and reporting wrong-doing “up and out”

Ethics in Discovery Practice

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

April 7, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for November 1, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Discovery can be the most important phase of litigation, directing the course and outcome of the case.  How evidence is discovered, how it is used, and how mistakes in its handling are disclosed and remedied all raise very significant ethical issues. These issues – the risk of mishandling – are increased by the vast growth of ESI, electronically stored information. Litigators have certain obligations that their vendors comply with ethics rules. There are also issues surrounding the use of paralegals in discovery practice.  Failure to ensure ethics compliance during discovery can have a material adverse impact on the underlying litigation and draw an ethics complaint.  This program will provide you with a real-world guide to substantial issues ethical issues that arise in discovery practice and how to avoid ethics complaints. 

• Duty of candor to the tribunal during discovery
• Ethical issues when you learn that a client is dishonest
• Inadvertent disclosure privileged documents and their handling
• Ethics in depositions – conferring with witnesses, using video depositions and more
• Ethical issues in widespread data mining of discovery documents
• Issues involving metadata in electronic files – documents, email, text messages
• Attorney-client privilege and security issues of working with outside e-discovery vendors
• Ethics and social media discovery

Ethics of Beginning and Ending Client Relationships

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

May 28, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for February 28, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Substantial ethics issues flow from the moment an attorney-client relationship is formed, whether it is formed intentionally or through inadvertence.  Determining when a relationship commences and the scope of the representation has dramatic implications for issues related to confidentiality, conflicts of interest, the attorney-client privilege and more. Ending an engagement is nearly as complicated. When are you allowed to end an engagement?  And how must you go about it without prejudicing a client’s interest in a transaction or in litigation? This program will you provide a real-world guide the ethical issues of beginning and ending an attorney client relationship.

• Determining when and how a relationship starts – including through inadvertence
• Email and technology issues – how unsolicited communications may trigger ethical obligations
• Joint representation issues – unsorting the confidentiality and privilege issues
• End a relationship – when are you allowed to end an engagement?  How do you do it ethically?
• Circumstances when you might be required to end a relationship

Evidentiary Issues with Text and "Chat" Messages

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

April 28, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 CLE credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for May 9, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Text messaging is mainstream. Clients generate virtual reams of data when they message with business partners, vendors, employees, and even public. This is a rich vein of electronically stored information that is potentially discoverable in formal litigation or pre-litigation.  Because texting is so convenient, casual and almost reflexive, the caution clients exercise in other forms of communication are often disregarded when texting, including when they text with their lawyers. This program will provide you with a practical guide to obtaining text messages, the risks of discovery in litigation, and related issues.

• Obtaining text messages – working with mobile carriers
• Timing – how long are texts kept and in what form?
• Discovery issues – obtaining texts from parties or other sources
• Issues related to encrypted messaging services
• How strategies differ for plaintiffs and defendants

Lawyer Ethics and Disputes with Clients

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

January 21, 2025

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

*Live Audio Stream Only

1.0 Ethics credit

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for August 5, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Ethical tensions are perhaps never as great as when a lawyer is in dispute with a client. The dispute may arise over fees, communication, perceived conflicts of interest, or something else.  In these and other circumstances, the lawyer’s duties of loyalty, zealous representation and confidentiality are all brought into direct conflict with the lawyer’s interest in self-defense. In these extremely delicate circumstances, the lawyer must determine what information may disclosed in his or her self-defense, its impact on the attorney-client privilege, and what steps he or she can take to de-escalate the conflict.  This program will provide you with a real-world guide to the ethical issues for a lawyer when he or she is in conflict with a client.

• Disputes involving lawyers’ fees, communications, unfavorable result of representation, conflicts of interest, malpractice claims
• Confidentiality and self-defense – what disclosure of confidences is permissible?  
• Waivers and engagement letters to prevent dispute – or mitigate their damage
• Permissible and mandatory withdrawals from a representation
• Special attorney-client privilege issues in these disputes

Lawyer Ethics and Email

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

February 27, 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 22, 2024 or December 31, 2024 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Email has become essential to law practice.  Communications with clients and colleagues is practically impossible – and absolutely inefficient – without email.  But the ubiquity of email may obscure many important ethical issues that arise when it is used in law practice, including issues related to confidentiality, metadata, and the attorney-client privilege. These and other substantial ethical questions will be discussed in this practical guide to the ethical issues when lawyers use email in their practices.

• Beginning an attorney relationship via email – intentionally and inadvertently
• Security and confidentiality when email is exchanged in the Cloud
• Inadvertently sent email and metadata embedded in email
• Discarding/deleting email and working with outside vendors
• Ex parte communications with represented adversaries
• Attorney-client privilege issues

Lawyer Ethics and Email

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

May 9, 2025

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (MT)

*Live Audio Streaming Only

1.0 Ethics credit

Registration Fee:  $55.00

*Please Note: If you received credit for this course for May 22, 2024, December 31, 2024, or February 26, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Email has become essential to law practice.  Communications with clients and colleagues is practically impossible – and absolutely inefficient – without email.  But the ubiquity of email may obscure many important ethical issues that arise when it is used in law practice, including issues related to confidentiality, metadata, and the attorney-client privilege. These and other substantial ethical questions will be discussed in this practical guide to the ethical issues when lawyers use email in their practices.

• Beginning an attorney relationship via email – intentionally and inadvertently
• Security and confidentiality when email is exchanged in the Cloud
• Inadvertently sent email and metadata embedded in email
• Discarding/deleting email and working with outside vendors
• Ex parte communications with represented adversaries
• Attorney-client privilege issues

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.

Course Description: TBD

Small Firm Ethics: Tech, Paralegals, and Remote Practice Challenges

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

August 7, 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 30, 2025 you will not be able to receive credit for attending this replay.  This replay will count as live CLE credit.

Course Description: TBD