The American Bar Association has an on-demand video library, which includes 500+ past CLE webinars.
This page was last updated 12/03/2024.
Drafting Client Engagement Letters in Trust and Estate Planning
December 4/10:00 AM–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Client engagement letters are the foundation of a successful representation in trust and estate planning, administration or fiduciary litigation. It’s where expectations are set – about fees, timelines, and who you are representing. Difficult issues involving conflicts of interests and decision-making can also be framed and addressed. These letters clarify goals and substantially reduce the risk of later dispute. This program will provide you a practical guide to using client engagement letters to provide the foundation of a successful relationship in trust and estate planning, administration and litigation.
Solo & Small Firm Workshop: Marketing 102
December 5/noon–1:00 PM
Remote attendance only via Zoom
Online marketing is not for the faint of heart. This CLE is a continuation of the wildly successful Law Firm Marketing 101, first presented on May 21, 2024. In this introductory CLE, Steven Leskin, Leskin Law & Mediation, and Robert Wilkinson, Vulin Wilkinson LLC, two longtime Portland practitioners, will cover the basics of having an online presence, Google, and social media. This CLE will briefly touch on the differences between paid online advertising and generating organic search results, Google Analytics, the importance of content, Google and AI, and other social media platforms.
Buying, Selling and Exchanging Partnership and LLC Interests
December 6/10:00 AM–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
As LLCs have become the default choice of entity for most businesses, sales and exchanges of LLC membership interests are commonplace. Despite the frequency of sales and exchanges, exactly what rights of the seller the buyer succeeds to is often mistaken and these mistakes can lead to dispute and litigation. By default, transferees succeed only to the economic interests of the transferor. They do not succeed to the transferor’s governance rights. If governance rights are part of the underlying bargain, the consent of the LLC’s other members generally must be sought. This program will provide you with a practical guide to drafting and planning for the sale and exchange of LLC interests.
Rights of First Offer, First Refusal in Real Estate
December 9/10:00 AM–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Rights of first refusal and rights of first offer are frequently used in commercial real estate transactions, establishing rights to acquire property from a seller before it hits the market. The practical effect of these tools is often to exert downward pressure on the price of the property and hamper development of a third-party market. Rights of first refusal can help hasten a deal among buyers and sellers or landlords and tenants, thereby reducing costs, or they can be a costly waste of time. There are many subtle differences between rights of first refusal and rights of first offer, each with subtle tradeoffs for counter-parties that must be considered in context of a particular transaction. This program will provide you with a practical guide to drafting rights of first refusal and rights of first offer in real estate.
Ethics of Beginning and Ending Client Relationships
December 10/10:00 AM–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
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.
Selection and Preparation of Expert Witnesses in Litigation
December 11/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Experts play a vitally important role in civil litigation, whether they act as consulting experts or also as testifying experts. The complexity of modern litigation has substantially increased the pressure on attorneys to carefully evaluate the suitability of experts for a particular case and prepare them for testimony. Approaching, evaluating and preparing witnesses, however, is as much an art as science or database search. Furthermore, once an expert is selected, there are substantial risks surrounding discovery and preserving the attorney-client privilege. This program will provide you with a practical guide to selecting and preparing experts in civil litigation.
Mediator Obligations: Come On and Get Ethical!
December 11/1:00 PM–2:30 PM
Remote attendance only via Zoom
This fast-paced session explores the mediator’s ethical obligations under ORS Chapter 36, the Uniform Trial Court Rules, and The OMA Standards of Practice… all just in time for your New Year’s Resolution! The training objectives are:
- Understand the various ethical frameworks,
- Define the mediator’s role (what it is and what it is not,
- Appreciate the ethical ramifications of mediator approaches,
- Explore the ethical challenges with several mediator techniques, and
- Learn from war stories.
But wait, there’s more: a bonus section on confidentiality is included for the holidays. Come and get ethical!
Piercing the Entity Veil: Individual Liability for Business Acts
December 12/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
One of the bedrock principles of business law is limited liability. The individual owners of an entity – shareholders of a corporation or members of a limited liability company – cannot be held personally liable for the debts or liabilities of the entity. But the doctrine is not absolute. There are many common law fact patterns that allow courts to pierce the entity veil – co-mingling of funds, using an entity as an alter ego, among others – and reach an individual person’s assets. There are also several sources of statutory authority allowing veil piercing. This program will provide you with a practical guide to common law, equitable, and statutory theories of piercing entity veils.
Lawyer Well-Being: Leading with Values & Compassion in the Legal Field
December 12/noon–11:00 AM
Remote attendance only via Zoom
One of the bedrock principles of business law is limited liability. The individual owners of an entity – shareholders of a corporation or members of a limited liability company – cannot be held personally liable for the debts or liabilities of the entity. But the doctrine is not absolute. There are many common law fact patterns that allow courts to pierce the entity veil – co-mingling of funds, using an entity as an alter ego, among others – and reach an individual person’s assets. There are also several sources of statutory authority allowing veil piercing. This program will provide you with a practical guide to common law, equitable, and statutory theories of piercing entity veils.
Letters of Intent in Business Transactions
December 13/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Letters of intent frame the material terms of business and commercial transactions. They outline with considerable detail the substantive terms of the underlying agreement – price, reps and warranties, closing conditions, etc. They also provide a process by which a definitive underlying agreement will be finalized. But they are not, generally, intended to be definitive agreements themselves; not enforceable, only a substantial starting point. There is, however, a certain point at which the detail in these letters becomes so extensive that they become enforceable. This program will provide you with a practical guide to the most important substantive and process aspects of letters of intent, their uses and traps, including unexpected enforceability.
The Art and Science of Conditional Gifts in Estate Planning
December 18/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
In formulating their trust and estate plans, clients often want to set up benchmarks of achievement before distributions or gifts are made. These benchmarks often involve educational attainment – i.e., that a child obtain a college degree by a certain. But they may involve more difficult to measure benchmarks or life goals that are arguably not appropriate – i.e., that a child marry or have children of their own by a certain age. Conditional gifts can easily lead to resentments among beneficiaries, questionable enforceability, disputes, and fiduciary litigation. This program will provide you with a practical guide to conditional gifting using incentive trusts and other mechanisms, and counseling clients about the real limits and risks of conditional gifting.
Guarantees in Real Estate Transactions
December 20/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Guarantees undergird most real estate transactions. Lenders, investors and others are often unwilling or unable to finance or otherwise support a real estate transaction without certain substantial guarantees. These guarantees may concern repayment of loan proceeds or performance of other services – construction, maintenance and waste prevention, environmental indemnity, etc. The scope of guarantees is highly negotiated, particularly whether the guarantee is recourse or non-recourse and the scope of carve-outs from the guarantees. This program will provide you with a practical guide to negotiating and drafting guarantees in real estate transactions.
Drafting Indemnity Agreements in Business and Commercial Transactions
December 23/10:00–11:00 AM
Audio webcast
Indemnity agreements are central to the risk allocation and limitation of liability system built into most transactional arrangements. The indemnitor agrees to indemnify the indemnitee on the occurrence of certain events. The scope of liability in these agreements is very carefully defined, often including actual costs but excluding consequential damages or any damages arising from third-party claims. All of the pieces of the indemnity puzzle – scope, measure of damages, exclusions and procedures for cost recovery – must be very carefully considered, negotiated and drafted. This program will provide you with a practical guide to drafting key provisions of indemnity agreements in transactional agreements.