The College of Law is offering a number of continuing legal education events this spring. Learn more about them here.
Healing Appalachia: The Role of Professionals in Solving the Opioid Crisis
Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, Noon – 4:15 p.m., College of Law, Room 132
This three and one-half hour CLE program presents information regarding the opioid crisis in the Appalachian region of the United States. The CLE will contain a presentation by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Eric Eyre, panels composed of expert attorneys, and a documentary discussing opioid issues involving pregnancy and addiction.
The keynote speaker, Eric Eyre, has written several articles regarding the rampant opioid epidemic in West Virginia. He based these articles on information received when his employer, the Charleston Gazette-Mail, intervened in a lawsuit and had the information unsealed. Eyre will discuss how journalists, attorneys, and other professionals could work together to find solutions to the opioid epidemic. Eyre graduated from Loyola University of New Orleans and University of South Florida.
The keynote address will be facilitated by moderator Pat McGinley, Professor of Law at West Virginia University College of Law. McGinley has represented newspapers and other media in litigation involving access to public information and government transparency. He represented the Charleston-Gazette Mail in several cases supporting Eyre’s efforts to document the sources of the opioid epidemic that devastated West Virginia Communities. McGinley and Eyre will discuss the investigation and litigation that informed Eyre’s reporting.
In addition to Eyre’s presentation, two panels of professors and attorneys will discuss the use of litigation, regulations, and statutes to curb the epidemic. Wendy Bach, Zack Buck, Tricia Herzfeld, Barry Staubus, and J. Gerard Stranch, and Suzanne Weise have been directly involved with the pharmaceutical industry or legal issues regarding the opioid epidemic.
The CLE will also include a showing of the documentary “Reaching Recovery: Pregnancy and Addiction in East Tennessee” which discusses a Tennessee law that criminalized ingesting opioids during pregnancy and other hardships faced by mothers and babies affected by opioid use.
The program is $50, includes lunch which will be served at 11:30 a.m., and offers 3 hours and 30 minutes of general CLE credit. Find additional information about the schedule and speakers here.
The Law & The Brain: Accurate, Efficient, & Strategic Decision-Making in the Practice of Law
Friday, Feb. 23, 2018, Noon – 3:15 p.m., College of Law, Room 237
In this highly interactive course participants will explore emerging research in neuroscience and how it affects decision-making in the practice of law. Neurophysiologic studies will be used to explain what keeps us from designing effective strategies for cases and solving problems. Functional magnetic resonance imaging, or functional MRI, studies will be used to show what motivates us, scares us, and fools us. Participants will learn how attorneys make decisions in litigation and transactional law. The course will explore how reactions in our brains affect our assessments of threat, intelligence, veracity, and competence in a diverse environment. The course will identify ways to increase fairness guided by science.
Kimberly Papillon is a nationally recognized expert on the subject of decision-making in law, education, business and medicine. She has served as a member of the faculty at the National Judicial College since 2005. She holds a bachelor’s degree from U.C. Berkeley and a Juris Doctor degree from Columbia University School of Law.
The event is presented by the University of Tennessee College of Law Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice.
This program is $40 and offers 3 hours of general CLE credit.
Combatting Bias
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, Noon – 1 p.m., College of Law, Room 132
Speakers Judy Shepard, mother of the martyred Matthew Shepard, and Cynthia Deitle, Esq. will discuss the elements of bias and teach lawyers how to combat bias and take into account client identities in providing the best representation possible.
After her son Matthew’s death, Judy Shepard was determined to prevent other mothers from losing their children to bias-motivated violence. She and her husband Dennis Shepard lobbied Congress and worked with the Department of Justice and other non-profit organizations to advocate for a new federal hate crime law that would authorize the FBI to investigate bias-motivated violence against members of the LGBT community. In 2009, her efforts paid off when President Barack Obama signed into law the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act. This historic legislation has been successfully applied by the FBI and Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute dozens of hate crimes across the country. Since then Judy Shepard has continued to advocate on behalf of the LGBT community for equality, inclusion, and acceptance in all walks of life.
Shepard will be joined by facilitator Cynthia Deitle, a retired FBI special agent who works as the Program and Operations Director for the Matthew Shepard Foundation. Deitle is licensed to practice law in Florida, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., and Tennessee.
The event is presented by the University of Tennessee College of Law Student Council on Diversity and Inclusion and the Scripps Foundation.
This program offers 1 hour of general CLE credit. Those seeking CLE credit must register in advance.
To register for any of our CLE events, send your BPR number and contact information, including e-mail, to Micki Fox: MFox2@utk.edu. Be sure to include the name of the CLE program for which you are registering.