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The 2010 Symposium on Legal Malpractice & Professional Responsibility

You can receive up to 5 Hours of MCLE Credit for this symposium

This program will address a variety of topics in the areas of ethics and malpractice, including judicial recusal, breach of fiduciary duty by associates, sanction opinions in bankruptcy courts, and appellate ethics.

Speakers

Reclaiming the Nobility of the Legal Profession: A Call to Action

Lee Cusenbary is the General Counsel at Mission Pharmacal Company in San Antonio, Texas. He is a former partner at Cox Smith Matthews, where he practiced in the area of transactional health care. He was also a trial lawyer defending health care providers and pharmaceutical companies while he was a partner at Clemens & Spencer. Mr. Cusenbary attended The University of Texas at Austin and St. Mary’s University School of Law, where he was the Executive Editor of the St. Mary’s Law Journal. He is the creator of Ethics Follies, an annual musical ethics conference, which is produced at the Empire Theatre in October of every year. He also writes a weekly business and legal ethics blog for MySA.com.

Leaks, Lies, and the Moonlight: Fiduciary Duties of Associates to Their Law Firms

Susan Saab Fortney serves as the Paul Whitfield Horn Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development at Texas Tech University School of Law. Professor Fortney has conducted various empirical studies on law firm ethics and liability. She also works with numerous bodies including THE PROFESSIONAL LAWYER and the Supreme Court of Texas Task Force on the Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. Professor Fortney has earned recognition for her contributions as a teacher, scholar, and public servant. Last year, TEXAS LAWYER selected her as one of the Thirty Extraordinary Women in Texas Law.

The Proposed Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct: How We Got There

Lillian B. Hardwick holds a political science degree from the University of Houston, a Ph.D. in English from The University of Texas at Austin, and a J.D. from the University of Houston School of Law. In 2002, she and co-author Bob Schuwerk published their initial volume of the Handbook of Texas Lawyer & Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West), with extensive yearly supplements since then. She became a member of the State Bar of Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct Committee in 2001 and was co-chair in 2006-2007 and chair in 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010. She now serves as a consultant and expert witness in the areas of attorney and judicial ethics, attorney breach of fiduciary duty, and judicial recusal and disqualification.

Through Gritted Teeth and Clenched Jaw: Court-Initiated Sanctions Opinions in Bankruptcy Courts

Nancy B. Rapoport is the Gordon Silver Professor at the William S. Boyd School of Law, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her specialties are bankruptcy ethics, ethics in governance, and the depiction of lawyers in popular culture. Among her published works is ENRON AND OTHER CORPORATE FIASCOS: THE CORPORATE SCANDAL READER (Nancy B. Rapoport, Jeffrey D. Van Niel & Bala G. Dharan, editors.; Foundation Press 2d ed. 2009), which addresses the question of why we never seem to learn from prior scandals. She is a member of the bars of California, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas, and Nevada and of the United States Supreme Court. In 2001, she was elected to membership in ALI, and in 2002, she received a Distinguished Alumna Award from Rice University. She is also a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy, and she received the Association of Media and Entertainment Counsel’s 2008 Public Service Counsel Award.

If One Is Good, Two Must Be Better: Comparing the Texas Standards for Appellate Conduct and the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct

Edward L. Wilkinson is an Assistant Criminal District Attorney with the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office, Fort Worth, Texas. He has written two books on ethics in criminal law, Legal Ethics in Texas Criminal Law: Prosecution and Defense (2006) and Texas Prosecutorial Ethics (2001), as well as numerous law review and journal articles on ethics issues. He has been a speaker at programs sponsored by the National District Attorney’s Association, American Bar Association, State Bar of Texas, Texas District and County Attorneys Association, the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, local bar associations, district attorneys’ offices, law enforcement agencies, and law schools. He received his J.D. from The University of Texas School of Law and is board certified in criminal law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. He is a graduate of Georgetown University (A.B.) and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (M.A.).

What Makes a Campaign Contribution Extraordinary? Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co: The Texas Implications

Chief Justice Catherine M. Stone received her bachelor of arts degree, magna cum laude, in foreign affairs from Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts. She attended St. Mary’s University School of Law, where she served on the St. Mary’s Law Journal and the legal research board. She served as a briefing attorney at the Fourth Court of Appeals for Justice James Baskin and Justice Pete Tijerina in 1982-1983. Justice Stone practiced trial and appellate law for eight years prior to being appointed by Governor Ann Richards to fill a vacancy on the Fourth Court of Appeals in 1994. Justice Stone has since been elected three times to serve six-year terms on the court. Justice Stone served on the Texas Supreme Court Task Force on Foster Care from 1994 through 2007, and currently serves as a member of the Texas Multidistrict Litigation Panel. Justice Stone was named a San Antonio Woman to Watch and a Texas Woman to Watch in 1997.

Cost:

$100 Early Registration Before February 12th

$150 After February 12th

$50 Students and Government Employees

For more information download the full brochure here.

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