Events

COVID-19 placed unprecedented demands and challenges on everyone and in a variety of ways. This program focuses on the impact it has specifically had on the mental health and well-being of lawyers. Common reactions are discussed and explained, with strategies given to help put these reactions into perspective. Various tools, coping methods, suggestions, and guidelines are provided to assist in managing the impact on lawyers’ health and well-being and boosting their emotional resiliency.

This CLE is designed to help prepare attorneys by thinking through their cases: from the start with case selection through the logistics of the trial. The topics provide a comprehensive overview of every stage of the litigation process in the state and federal courts of North Carolina. The seminar is directed at younger lawyers who are beginning to handle personal injury and wrongful death cases, as well as more seasoned attorneys who are looking for new ideas, strategies, and words of wisdom. We will also receive an update on ethics developments affecting the plaintiff’s civil litigation bar.

NCAJ is partnering with the North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center to provide a Driver’s License Restoration Virtual Clinic. Attorneys and paralegals who are interested in volunteering will learn how to help those who have had their drivers’ licenses indefinitely suspended due to an inability to pay traffic fees and court costs. These suspensions often result in dire consequences for drivers and their families.

During the clinic, volunteers will earn 1.0 hour of CLE- or CPE-qualified training and participate in a two-hour workshop. Participants will be trained to read driving records, identify the cause of a client’s license suspension from the DMV record and use the DMV record to create advice letters via template.

This year’s conference will highlight the good works and efforts of the NCAJ Diversity & Inclusion Committee, along with presentations by local and nationally renowned speakers on topics related to the important issue of diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

The Fall Conference for Paralegals is designed for anyone on the legal support staff and provides 6.0 CPE hours (including 1.0 ethics)—the annual requirement for the paralegal certification.

Join NCAJ for its Diversity and Inclusion free member webinar for October on Understanding Victims of Trauma in Your Cases. Leto Copeley, NCAJ member and the past President of the National Crime Victim Bar Association and a Governor’s appointee to the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission will speak on the effects of trauma on our clients, especially clients of color. Leto has vast experience representing children and adults who were sexually abused against the institutions that failed to protect them. She will walk us through how these traumas effected the cases and the clients and help us get a better understanding of the best practices for representing these clients.