Here’s what is on the calendar for February at the ACBA

Case Interrupted: What to Do When Your Client Dies

Trusts & Estates Section co-sponsored with CEB
Date: February 20, 2014 Time: 11:30 AM – 1:15 PM 

Although you hope that it never happens, clients do die unexpectedly during the course of litigation. In the event that a client dies, a multitude of issues arise, some quite complex. In this hour-long legal ethics program designed for the general civil litigator, trusts and estates litigator Mark Schmuck from Temmerman, Cilley & Kohlmann, LLP will take you step by step through what to do when your client dies unexpectedly. Mark will discuss what your ethical and legal responsibilities are as the attorney of record and, because the death of a client triggers numerous other considerations, he will also address:

• Who is the client?
• Who makes the decisions now?
• Continuing obligations as counsel for a deceased client
• Applicable provisions of the Rules of Professional Conduct, Code of Civil Procedure and Probate Code
• Privilege issues
• Procedural requirements in the underlying litigation
• Substitutions of parties in the underlying litigation
• Statutes of limitation
• How does the attorney for a deceased client get paid?

This program assumes some experience in litigation.

SPEAKER: Mark Schmuck

Mark Schmuch is an attorney for the law firm of Temmerman, Cilley & Kohlmann, LLP, in San Jose, California, where his practice focuses on trust and estate litigation, including will and trust contests, fiduciary accounting and surcharge actions, contested and non-contested conservatorship appointments, elder abuse litigation, and probate and trust-related civil litigation, including disputed property claims, as well as related appeals.  Prior to his current employment, Mark’s practice was focused primarily on general civil litigation, including business and employment disputes.  Mark has been listed as one of Northern California Super Lawyers’ Rising Stars from 2009 through 2012.  Mark received his BA in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley in 1995 and his JD from Santa Clara University School of Law in 1999.

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From Stressed to Sensationally Calm

Attorneys are under constant pressure: multiple clients with challenging cases, deadlines, delays, changes in the law, new technologies, competing work/life priorities. In the face of all this, how do you stay clam? Whether you react from anxiety or respond from resilience is highly dependent upon how you perceive the inputs of our life. In this seminar we will delve into the concepts of mindfulness, and the ability to witness ourselves. Rather than advocating traditional meditation, with closed eyes and perhaps a cushion, you’ll learn practices for focusing awareness on sensation, to create shifts in perception and response.

This experiential presentation will support you to: cope with stressors; understand how perceptions impact pressures, and how different mindsets affect your mental activity, physical well-being, and ability to respond; learn how to turn down the pressure, using the simple tool of sensory awareness; practice using sensory awareness to shift your physiology and perception, to rapidly generate greater resilience and productivity.

SPEAKER: Susan Bernstein, MBA, PhD

Susan Bernstein empowers smart, high-achieving professionals to step into their most sensational performance levels. She blends MBA strategic sensibilities with PhD psychological tools for overcoming internal and external roadblocks. Prior to becoming a career empowerment and leadership coach, she held roles in executive development, marketing and management consulting at companies including Franklin-Covey, Intel, and Accenture.

Her unconventional approach to personal and professional development is fueled by powerful mind/body transformational processes that have catapulted her clients to success. Dr. Bernstein earned an MBA at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and a PhD in Somatic Psychology at the Chicago School for Professional Psychology’s Santa Barbara campus.