12:55 Welcome and Introductions
1:00 Ethics of Law Firm Cybersecurity: The Rules Have Changed*‡
Sharon Nelson, Sensei Enterprises Inc., Fairfax, VA
John Simek, Sensei Enterprises Inc., Fairfax, VA
Twenty-five percent of law firms now acknowledge that they have been breached. Notoriously, law firms are a one-stop shop for cybercriminals because, unlike most businesses, they hold the data of many companies and individuals. Ethics rules require that lawyers take "reasonable" steps to protect their confidential data. But what's reasonable? That changes over time. Our experts offer the most current advice on how you can shore up your defenses, identifying specific budget-friendly steps you can take.
2:00 Break
2:10 The Duty of Lawyers to Support and Defend the Rule of Law Administered by a Fair and Impartial Judiciary*
Chief Justice Mark Martin (Ret.), Supreme Court of North Carolina; High Point University School of Law, High Point
Justice Robin E. Hudson (Ret.), Supreme Court of North Carolina, Raleigh
Justice Robert H. "Bob" Edmunds Jr. (Ret.), Supreme Court of North Carolina; Fox Rothschild, Greensboro
Justice Sam J. Ervin IV (Ret.), Supreme Court of North Carolina; Brooks Pierce, Greensboro
Ellen Murphy, Wake Forest Law, Winston-Salem
Hank Van Hoy, Martin Van Hoy & Raisbeck LLP, Mocksville (Moderator)
This session enables the development of a more complete understanding of the terms "rule of law" and "judicial independence," both decisional and institutional, to provide attorneys with ethical ways and means for holding judges properly accountable, and to emphasize why this so important to preserving our democracy. Panelists discuss some of the threats to judicial independence and explore how lawyers have an ethical duty under the Rules of Professional Conduct to support, maintain, defend, promote and uphold the aforementioned fundamental principles.
3:10 Break
3:20 Calm in the Midst of Chaos: Resilience Training†
Benjamin G. "Ben" Brown Jr. Law Office of Benjamin G. Brown Jr., Raleigh
Practicing law is stressful, often chaotic. Many more factors are out of our control than we care to admit. The more energy we exert trying to control the uncontrollable, the more chaotic and unmanageable our internal thoughts and feelings can become. There is hope! The good news is that resilience is a learned skill, not an innate quality. There are dozens of resilience tools, backed by scientific research, that we can practice and use to return to ourselves and a calmer state of mind and body. This session spotlights resilience tools that the speaker has actively used in life and law practice.
4:20 Adjourn
* Indicates portion providing Ethics/Professional Responsibility credit
† Indicates portion providing Substance Abuse/Mental Health credit
‡ Indicates portion providing Technology Training credit
Thank you for joining us for The Changing Rules of Law Firm Cybersecurity, Judicial Independence and Staying Calm in the Midst of Chaos.
Satisfy your ethics/professional responsibility, technology and substance abuse/mental health CLE requirements with this convenient three-hour compliance bundle.
Benjamin G. "Ben" Brown Jr. is an attorney at the Law Office of Benjamin G. Brown Jr. in Raleigh. His primary concentration is in the area of criminal defense at the State and Federal level. He handles felonies, misdemeanors, DWIs and traffic citations and also has extensive experience in assisting people in reinstating their driving privileges. He also has experience in personal injury cases.
Ben has been a trial lawyer in Wake and surrounding counties since 1993.
Ben is admitted to the North Carolina Bar, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. He is an active member of the Wake County Bar Association, Tenth Judicial District Bar, and Wake County Association of Trial Lawyers.
Click here for more information about Ben.
Justice Robert H. "Bob" Edmunds Jr. (Ret.) served as an appellate judge for 18 years, most recently as Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina. He now serves clients with that same dedication as part of the Fox Rothchild's Appellate group in Greensboro.
Justice Edmunds began his legal career as an assistant district attorney in Greensboro, and later was an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. In 1986, he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina by President Ronald Reagan and was retained by President George H. W. Bush. Justice Edmunds entered private practice in 1993. In 1998, he was elected to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and served on that court until his election to the Supreme Court.
Justice Edmunds reentered private practice in 2017, practicing appellate law in the Greensboro office of Fox Rothschild LLP. He is board certified as a specialist in appellate practice and in state and federal criminal law. He is president of the Appellate Judges Education Institute, has chaired the American Bar Association's Appellate Judges Conference, has chaired the North Carolina Bar Association's Judicial Independence and Integrity Committee, and is on the Education Committee of the National Judicial College. He has served as an adjunct professor at Campbell University School of Law and Regent University School of Law.
Justice Edmunds earned his B.A., with honors, from Vassar College, his J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law and his LL.M. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Click here for more information about Justice Edmunds.
Justice Sam J. Ervin IV (Ret.) is Of Counsel with Brooks Pierce McLendon Humphrey & Leonard LLP in Greensboro. He waas an associate justice on the state's high court from 2015 to 2023. At the firm, he now assists on matters statewide in areas including litigation, appeals and utilities.
Justice Ervin brings his nearly 18 years in private practice and more than 23 years' experience as a public servant to his work in assisting clients with a variety of regulatory and litigation-related matters.
Before joining Brooks Pierce, Justice Ervin served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina for eight years, as a Judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals for six years, and as a Commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission for nine and a half years. During his time as a Utilities Commissioner, he served as Chair of the Subcommittee on Nuclear Issues and the Committee on Electricity of the National Association of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and as a member of the board of the Organization of PJM States.
During his time in private practice, Justice Ervin handled a wide variety of civil, criminal, and administrative matters and participated in many civil and criminal jury trials and numerous civil and criminal appeals to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and the North Carolina Supreme Court.
Justice Ervin is a Board Certified Specialist in Utilities Law from the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization.
Justice Ervin earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Davidson College and J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School.
Click here for more information about Justice Ervin.
Justice Robin E. Hudson (Ret.) served on the Supreme Court of North Carolina From 2007-2022.
Justice Hudson was admitted to the North Carolina Bar in 1976 and practiced law in Raleigh and Durham until elected to the Court of Appeals in November 2000. She is the first North Carolina woman elected to the appellate court division without having been appointed first. She served on the NC Court of Appeals from January 2001 through December 2006. During that time, she helped organize and coordinate the Court of Appeals voluntary mediation program. She was elected to the North Carolina Supreme Court and began her first 8-year term in January 2007. In 2014, she was re-elected to her current term, which ran through 2022.
Except for 3 years as assistant appellant defender in the mid 1980's, Justice Hudson practiced law in the private sector and handled a variety of trials and appeals, but concentrated on workers' compensation and tort litigation, with particular emphasis on occupational disease and products liability, as well as criminal law. She practiced extensively before the Industrial Commission, as well as in all levels of State and Federal courts. From 1994 until she began serving on the Court of Appeals, she was certified to mediate cases from Superior Court and the Industrial Commission.
Justice Hudson was a member of the steering committee that founded the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys in 1978, and has been a member of the organization ever since. She has served on the Family Court Advisory Committee since 2001. She has been a member of the National Association of Women Judges since 2003; since 2015 she has served as national co-chair of its Judicial Independence Committee, which oversees the award-winning "Informed Voters Project (IVP)".
Justice Hudson earner her undergraduate degree from Yale University and her J.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Law.
Chief Justice Mark Martin (Ret.) is the Founding Dean and Professor of Law at High Point University Kenneth F. Kahn School of Law in High Point.
Chief Justice Martin successful career includes previously serving as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina, as an Associate Judge on the North Carolina Court of Appeals, and most recently as dean and professor of law at Regent University School of Law.
During his 26-year judicial career, Chief Justice Martin served at every level of the court system and ultimately as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of North Carolina from 2014- 2019. He advocated for judicial reform by expanding juvenile court jurisdiction through a program called "Raise the Age." In addition, he established a pro bono resource center in North Carolina to improve access to justice. The Chief Justice of the United States appointed Martin to the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the United States Judicial Conference. Martin also served on the board of directors of the Conference of Chief Justices, an influential organization with a direct influence on the development of codes of ethics and legal best practices nationwide.
Chief Justice Martin previously served as chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute Board of Directors. He chaired the Commission on Professionalism and Equal Access to Justice Commission. He is also a member of the American Law Institute, where he assisted with the Third Restatement, Conflict of Laws, and served on the Region 15 Advisory Committee. He also chaired the Commission on the Future of the North Carolina Business Court.
During his service on the Supreme Court of North Carolina, Chief Justice Martin served on the adjunct faculties at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, and University of North Carolina law schools. He also served as a founding board member of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.
Chief Justice Martin's lifetime of public service and devotion to the rule of law has been recognized by many organizations. In 2011 Martin was inducted into the Warren Burger Society of the National Center for State Courts. He is a recipient of the Patriotic Employer Award of the United States Department of Defense. Martin has received the ABA Robert Yegge Award for Outstanding Contribution in Judicial Administration, the Liberty Bell Award of the North Carolina Bar Association, and the Order of the Long Leaf Pine (which is the highest award given to a civilian in North Carolina). He is an honorary member of the American Counsel Association.
Click here for more information about Chief Justice Martin.
Ellen Murphy is a Professor of Practice at Wake Forest Law in Winston-Salem. She teaches legal ethics, including Professional Responsibility courses for J.D. students and Unauthorized Practice of Law courses for nonlawyer professionals.
Ellen is a co-author on several legal ethics texts, a member of the NC State Bar Ethics Committee, and a subject-matter expert for the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. She also serves on the ABA's Standing Committee for the Public Protection in the Provision of Legal Services.
Ellen served as Wake Forest Law's first Associate Dean of Strategic Initiatives and first Assistant Dean of Instructional Technologies and Design. An online teacher since 2009, she was the chief administrative and curricular architect of the school's online Master of Studies in Law, the law school's first fully online degree.
Prior to joining Wake Forest Law, Ellen was a United States federal appeals court clerk (The Honorable Frank J. Magill, 8th Circuit), a corporate lawyer, and the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Lawyer Assistance Program. She is a 2002 graduate of Wake Forest Law, where she served as Editor in Chief of the law review.
Ellen earned her B.S. in Agribusiness from North Carolina State University, J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law and her M.Ed. in Instructional Technology from North Carolina State University. She is currently studying for her LLM in Agriculture and Food Law at the University of Arkansas (Fayetteville).
Ellen is a board member at Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture (BRWIA), a nonprofit that serves the North Carolina High Country.
Click here for more information abot Ellen.
Sharon D. Nelson is the President of Sensei Enterprises Inc. in Fairfax, VA, a national digital forensics, cybersecurity and information technology firm.
Sharon is the author of the noted electronic evidence, cybersecurity and future of law blog, Ride the Lightning and is a co-host of the Legal Talk Network podcast series called "The Digital Edge: Lawyers and Technology" as well as "Digital Detectives." She is a frequent author (eighteen books published by the ABA and hundreds of articles) and speaker on legal technology, cybersecurity and electronic evidence topics. She was the President of the Virginia State Bar June 2013 – June 2014 and a past President of the Fairfax Law Foundation and the Fairfax Bar Association.
Sharon became Chair of the American Bar Association Law Practice Divisions Professional Development Board in August 2015 and served as the former Chair of its Publishing Board. She served three years on the ABA's Cybersecurity Legal Task Force and has served on the ABA's Standing Committee on Technology and Information Systems since 2012. From 2012-2014, she served in the ABA's House of Delegates. She was inducted into the College of Law Practice Management in 2014. She is also a graduate of Leadership Fairfax, a past chair of the American Bar Association's TECHSHOW, the Chair of VSB TECHSHOW 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, and Co-Chair 2019, and served for many years on the Virginia State Bar Governing Council and on its Executive Committee, on its Standing Committee on Budget and Finance, and was the former Chair of the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee. She was Chair of the Virginia State Bar's Future of Law Practice Committee and its Better Annual Meeting Committee (2016-2019). She served on the Virginia State Bar's President's Committee on Lawyer Wellness (2018-2019). She is a member of the Virginia Women's Attorneys Association, the Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Virginia Trial Lawyers' Association.
She is a co-author of The 2008-2020 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guides (American Bar Association, 2008-2020), Locked Down: Practical Information Security for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2016), Encryption Made Simple for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2015), Locked Down: Information Security for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2012), The Electronic Evidence and Discovery Handbook: Forms, Checklists and Guidelines (American Bar Association, 2006) and Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms (American Bar Association, 2006), as well as How Good Lawyers Survive Bad Times (ABA, 2009).
Sharon graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and has been in private practice ever since, now focusing on cybersecurity, data privacy and related ethical issues.
Click here for more information about Sharon.
John W. Simek the Vice-President of Sensei Enterprises Inc. in Fairfax, VA. Sensei is a national managed IT service provider, digital forensics and managed cybersecurity firm. He currently provides information technology support to hundreds of Washington D.C. area law firms, legal entities and corporations. He has a national reputation as a digital forensics technologist and has testified as an expert witness throughout the United States.
John holds the prestigious Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and EnCase Certified Examiner (EnCE) certifications. He is also a Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Certified Handheld Examiner, Certified Novell Engineer, Microsoft Certified Professional + Internet, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, NT Certified Independent Professional, and a Certified Internetwork Professional.
John is a co-host of the Legal Talk Network podcast "Digital Detectives", with Sharon Nelson, and a co-author of Locked Down: Practical Information for Lawyers 2nd Edition (American Bar Association, 2016), Encryption Made Simple for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2015), Locked Down: Information Security for Lawyers (American Bar Association, 2012), The Electronic Evidence and Discovery Handbook: Forms, Checklists and Guidelines (American Bar Association, 2006), Information Security for Lawyers and Law Firms (American Bar Association, 2006), The 2008-2020 Solo and Small Firm Legal Technology Guides (American Bar Association, 2008-2020) and a contributing author of eDiscovery, 3rd Edition (Pennsylvania Bar Institute, 2014). He is a frequent author and speaker on cybersecurity, legal technology and electronic evidence throughout the country.
John earned a degree in engineering from the United States Merchant Marine Academy and an M.B.A. in Finance from Saint Joseph's University.
Click here for more information about John.
Henry P. "Hank" Van Hoy is an attorney with Martin Van Hoy & Raisbeck LLP in Mocksville. Following graduation from law school, he began the practice of law with George Martin, and has occupied the same office at 10 Court Square for 46 years and counting.
For over three decades Hank served as the Mocksville Town Attorney. During his professional career, he has been listed in "Best Lawyers in America" in the areas of Commercial Litigation, and Estate Planning and Probate. He is also listed as a "North Carolina Super Lawyer" in the area of Estate Planning and Probate.
In 2009 Hank was selected to the North Carolina General Practice Hall of Fame, and later received the NCBA Citizen Lawyer Award in 2019. In 2013 he was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine. He has served on numerous committees of the North Carolina Bar Association, and served as President from 2001 - 2002, following a term of service on the NCBA Board of Governors from 1997 - 2000. He has also served in various capacities with the North Carolina State Bar, including nearly 40 years of services on the Bar Candidate Committee, which is involved in the licensing approval of new attorneys.
In addition to his contributions to the legal profession, Hank has been active in the Davie County community. He was a longtime member of the Mocksville Rotary Club, and served as President. He also served as a founding Board of Directors member of the Davie Family YMCA, is a past Chair of the Uwharrie Chapter of the Boy Scouts of America, past board member of the Davie Community Foundation, and past Chair of the Davie High School Advisory Board. For 38 years he served on the Davie County Board of Elections, and was the longest continuous serving Elections Board member in the State of North Carolina.
Hank graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a degree in political science and earned his J.D. UNC School of Law.
Click here for more information abot Hank.
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