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2006 News Articles › CLE Targets "Renaissance of Professionalism"
CLE Targets "Renaissance of Professionalism"
Article Date: Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Written By: Russell Rawlings
When President Mike Colombo of the North Carolina Bar Association declared a “Renaissance of Professionalism” as his theme for 2005-06, the NCBA Professionalism Committee took it to heart.
In addition to establishing a new annual award, the committee took on the broader task of organizing a continuing legal education program geared specifically toward encouraging an ongoing emphasis on a renaissance of professionalism.
Those efforts have come to fruition in the form of an NCBA Foundation CLE program, The Renaissance of Professionalism, scheduled Friday, Oct. 13 at the N.C. Bar Center in Cary.
The live program will provide 4.0 CLE credit hours, ethics/professionalism.
A stellar lineup will be featured in the CLE, which begins at 9:50 a.m. and concludes at 3:10. Registration opens at 9:25 a.m.
The opening presentation, “Counselor, Defender and Friend: The Lawyer’s Relationship with the Client,” includes a panel discussion on the lawyer’s relationship with clients from the point of view of the plaintiff’s attorney, the defense attorney, a business/transactional attorney and a general practitioner.
Intake procedures, billing issues, client communication, dealing with a difficult client and conflicts of interest will be discussed.
Greensboro attorney Doris Bray will moderate a panel comprised of Fayetteville attorney H. Gerald Beaver, Goldsboro lawyer Tommy W. Jarrett, NCBA Past-President J. Norfleet Pruden III of Charlotte and Asheville attorney John W. Russell.
In the second presentation, “The Worthy Adversary: Professionalism as it Relates to the Lawyer’s Relationship with Other Lawyers,” each panelist will address a separate hypothetical problem involving the lawyer’s relationship with adversaries from the point of view of the plaintiff’s attorney, the defense attorney, in-house counsel and mediator, followed by question and answer.
Winston-Salem attorney Erna A. P. Womble will moderate this panel discussion. Charlotte attorneys Edward G. “Woody” Connette III and E. Osborne “Ozzie” Ayscue, NCBA past-president, Lynn G. Gullick of Mediation, Inc., in Greensboro and General Counsel Sheena E. Poe of GMAC Insurance Management Group in Winston-Salem comprise the panel.
The afternoon agenda kicks off with “One-Way Traffic, or Two-Way Street? The Lawyer’s Relationship with the Court.” Superior Court Judge Joe Craig of High Point will provide reflections on his own professionalism on the bench, followed by a panel discussion on professionalism in the courtroom moderated by retired Superior Court Judge Russell G. Walker Jr. of Asheboro.
Serving on the panel will be U.S. District Court Judge James C. Dever III of the Eastern N.C. District and Superior Court Judge Howard E. Manning Jr., both of Raleigh, District Court Judge Denise S. Hartsfield of Winston-Salem, Morganton attorney Samuel E. Aycock, Greensboro attorney Walter Kirkwood Burton and Judge Craig.
The CLE concludes by mid-afternoon with “Getting Involved: Professionalism as it Relates to the Lawyer’s Relationship with Society. Focusing on the lawyer’s role in the community as a key component of professionalism, panelists will address pro bono litigation, career in public interest law, service in the General Assembly and service as a local elected official.
Robin M. Hammond of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund in Raleigh will moderate a panel that includes Derb S. Carter Jr. of the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, Greensboro attorney Alan W. Duncan who chairs the Guilford County Board of Education and Fayetteville lawyer and N.C. Rep. Richard B. Glazier.
Completing the panel will be Raymond E. Owens Jr. of Charlotte who, on behalf of Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman, has participated in the firm’s pro bono representation of Beaufort and Washington counties in their fight against a proposed Navy practice landing field on 30,000 acres straddling the two eastern N.C. counties.
The North Carolina State Bar’s Rules define continuing legal education courses in Professionalism as “courses or segments of courses devoted to the identification and examination of, and the encouragement of adherence to, non-mandatory aspirational standards of professional conduct which transcend the requirements of the Revised Rules of Professional Conduct. Such courses address principles of competence and dedication to the service of clients, civility, improvement of the justice system, advancement of the rule of law, and service to the community.”
The NCBA, in conjunction with the Chief Justice’s Commission on Professionalism, is encouraged by the increasing attention paid to professionalism by North Carolina’s attorneys. It is intended that CLE programs such as this will further encourage a Renaissance of Professionalism.
Members of the Professionalism Committee comprising the planning committee for this CLE, in addition to program participants Womble, immediate past chair, Bray, co-chair of the CLE Subcommittee and Hammond, are CLE Subcommittee Co-Chair Daniel S. Johnson of the N.C. Department of Justice, James Kenneth Butler III of N.C. Prisoner Legal Services and Charlotte attorneys Jason D. Evans and Eric M. D. Zion.