Past CLS Event
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Thank you!
Thank you for participating in the 2020 CLS National Conference. We have received many inquiries about session recordings. If you registered for the event the recordings have been sent to you via email.
As always, we welcome your continued partnership with Christian Legal Society. Thank you.
Below you will find the videos from our main sessions and select workshops. As always, we appreciate your support of Christian Legal Society and our life-changing ministries.
Professor Helen Alvare
Rod Dreher
Os Guinness
Os Guinness Essay: 1776 v. 1789
Pastor Dexter Nutall
Racial Justice Workshop
Legal Hotspots and Risk Management for Churches and Nonprofits Workshop
Schedule
*Schedule subject to change. All times are Eastern. All events are virtual. Registration is required.
Thursday, October 15
12:00 – 3:00 p.m. Christian Legal Aid Summit
Workshop CLAS 1 (CLE)
Where Family Law, Domestic Violence, and Immigration
Intersect – Alissa Baier
12:00 – 5:00 p.m. Anglican Legal Society
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Baptist Lawyers’ Fellowship
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 1 (CLE)
Legal Hotspots – Rob Showers and Justin Coleman
7:00 – 7:45 p.m. Main Session I – Helen Alvare
Getting Beyond Moralism in our Demands for Religious Freedom
7:45 – 8:30 p.m. Main Session I – Discussion/Breakouts
8:30 – 9:00 p.m. Law Student Fellowship
Friday, October 16
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Main Session II –
Religious Freedom Plenary Workshop (CLE)
Hon. Kenneth Starr, Moderator
Prof. Thomas Berg
Kim Colby
Prof. Carl Esbeck
Prof. Douglas Layock
Prof. Michael McConnell
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 2 (CLE)
Ethics 2020 – Natt Gantt
7:00 – 7:45 p.m. Main Session III – Rod Dreher
Living In Truth: The Challenges To Christians In The
Emerging Soft Totalitarianism
7:45 – 8:30 p.m. Main Session III – Discussion/Breakouts
9:00 – 10:00 p.m. Women in the Law Gathering
Saturday, October 17
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Workshop 3 (non-CLE)
Racial Justice
Michael Hernandez, moderator
Panelists: George Martin, Gov. Bob McDonnell,
Monique Miles
1:00 – 4:00 p.m. Orthodox Christian Attorney Network
2:00 – 3:00 p.m. Guest Speaker: Judge Stephanos Bibas
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 4 (CLE)
ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) – Reed Smith
7:00 p.m. Main Session IV – Os Guinness
1776 vs. 1789:
A Tale of Two Revolutions and America’s Present Crisis
8:00 p.m. Main Session IV – Discussion/Breakouts
9:00 – 10:00 p.m. Law Student Session
Sunday, October 18
12:00 – 1:00 p.m. Main Session V – Pastor Dexter Nutall
The Gift of Kingdom Influence
Workshops
CLS is pleased to offer free CLE credit. Please note that this year, CLS is applying for course accreditation only in an handful of states and, as always, CLEs are subject to state CLE approval. Please click here to find the current status of CLE approval by the states and other important CLE information.
All workshop attendees seeking CLE credit must join the Zoom workshop session using the Zoom client app, which is free and easy to use. If you do not already have the app and need to download it, click on this link: https://us02web.zoom.us/download. If you already have the app on your computer or smartphone or other device, then there is no need to download it again.
Schedule subject to change. All times are Eastern. All events are virtual. Registration is required.
Thursday, October 15
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 1 (CLE): Legal Hotspots and Risk
Management for Churches and Nonprofits
H. Robert Showers and Justin Coleman
This fast-paced and interactive workshop will take you on whirlwind tour of some of the top legal issues that your church or nonprofit should think about in the next year. If you sit on a church or nonprofit board, or if your church or nonprofit board is asking you legal questions that are not in your area of practice, this workshop is for you. The workshop will address topics including security issues, foreign grants, good governance, regulating electronic use by employees, implementing meaningful child protection and sex offender assimilation policies, protecting and registering trademark and intellectual property, COVID-19, and hot employment issues. The workshop will also cover some of the trending legal cases in the church/nonprofit legal arena, such as new youth sport legislation, same-sex marriage issues, and the ministerial housing allowance cases, and will discuss what their impact is and could potentially become in the near future.
Friday, October 16
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Religious Freedom Plenary Workshop (CLE)
The Honorable Kenneth Starr, Moderator
Thomas Berg
Kim Colby
Carl Esbeck
Douglas Layock
Michael McConnell
Click here to see the full Bios of the workshop speakers
This session will showcase a panel discussion featuring six religious freedom experts who routinely file briefs in the United States Supreme Court in religious freedom cases. The speakers will review the Supreme Court’s 2019 Term in which the Court delivered a number of critical decisions regarding religious freedom, as well as the Court’s docket for the 2020 Term. Attendees will gain an understanding of the Court’s decisions in key areas of religious freedom, including the ministerial exception, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses.
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 2 (CLE): Ethics 2020: Current Threats to
Lawyers’ Ethical Conduct
L.O. Natt Gantt, II
The impact of technology on the legal profession continues to grow, and lawyers face increasingly complex ethical issues from their use of technology in practice. In this session, Natt Gantt will begin by discussing lawyers’ basic ethical duty to be technologically competent and will then explore how that duty affects lawyers’ use of specific technologies—from social media to cloud computing to artificial intelligence. He will also explore how lawyers’ use of technology affects their wellness.
Saturday, October 17
12:00 – 1:30 p.m. Workshop 3 (non-CLE): Racial Justice
Michael Hernandez, Moderator
George Martin
Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell
Monique Miles
This timely session will showcase a panel discussion featuring experts in the field of race and the law. Panelists will discuss historical and contemporary racial issues and a Christian perspective on pursuing justice, equality, and reconciliation. Specific areas of focus will include the ongoing effects of historic racial injustices; current efforts at reform, including the work of Virginians for Reconciliation, unique challenges faced in the practice of law and legal system; and the vital role attorneys play in addressing these issues.
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. Workshop 4 (CLE): ABA Model Rule 8.4(g)
Reed Smith
In August 2016, the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates adopted a new disciplinary rule, Model Rule 8.4(g), making it professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct the lawyer “knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination” in conduct related to the practice of law on the basis of eleven protected characteristics. In adopting the rule, the ABA largely ignored over 450 comment letters, most opposed to the rule change. The ABA’s own Standing Committee on Professional Discipline questioned whether there was a demonstrated need for the rule change and raised concerns about its enforceability. Since the ABA’s adoption, several states have considered whether to follow the ABA lead and make changes to their rules of conduct. This workshop will discuss the new rule and the serious concerns it poses for attorneys’ First Amendment rights, among its other problems. The workshop will also provide an update on how states and commentators have reacted to the new rule and will offer suggestions for how concerned lawyers might respond.
2020 National Conference Special Events:
Anglican Legal Society
Contemporary Issues in Canon Law
Thursday, October 15
12:00 pm – 5:00 pm ET
If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, and He has led you to serve as an attorney or chancellor among Anglicans in North America, or if you simply have an interest in canon law, this track is for you! This annual gathering of the Anglican Legal Society (ALS) aims to build a network of biblically-faithful attorneys to serve the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) and its congregations, facilitate communication between members, share best practices, and develop strategies for protecting our religious freedoms at every level of the Church.
Participants are encouraged to “bring” their lunch to the introductory breakout sessions with like-minded attorneys on Zoom. Other sessions will include panel presentations on Title IV Ecclesiastical Discipline, the implications of the ABA Model Rule 8.4(g) for Christian attorneys, and presentations on selected papers in canon law.
Click here to find out more about this free event and register today.
(All who wish to attend this event must register with the ALS. CLS will forward those names who register for the CLS National Conference and indicate they will attend this event, but all interested parties must register directly with them.)
Baptist Lawyers’ Fellowship
Thursday, October 15
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET
Join us to fellowship with Baptist and other Christian attorneys. Travis Wussow, the vice president for public policy and general counsel of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) in Washington, D.C., will be our keynote speaker in an interactive format. Travis will discuss the work of the ERLC and current initiatives that impact ministries and everyday believers. It will also be a great opportunity to be encouraged and to begin some new relationships.
Women in the Law Gathering
Friday, October 16
9:00 pm – 10:00 pm ET
Overwhelmed? Discouraged? Uncertain? You aren’t the only one! InterVarsity’s Women in the Academy and Professions invites you to join us as we gather women lawyers and law students to process some of the challenges and some of the joys of the recent months. There will be lots of interactive discussion and some encouragement from the Scripture. We hope to see you there!
Orthodox Christian Attorney Network
Saturday, October 17
1:00 pm – 4:00 pm ET
Join us for the fourth national gathering of the Orthodox Christian Attorney Network (OCAN). This event is a chance for fellow Orthodox attorneys to build relationships across jurisdictions and learn how to serve our Lord together through the legal profession. This year we are pleased to have the Honorable Stephanos Bibas, U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge, back by popular demand. All are welcome!
Check out the Orthodox Christian Attorney Network 2020 Conference webpage for more details.
For more information on past OCAN events, visit the main OCAN webpage at www.orthodoxattorneys.org.
Questions? Please contact one of our conference co-chairs: Monica Youssef at myoussef186@gmail.com or Matthew Namee at mfnamee@gmail.com.
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