– IN-FIRM ETHICS CLE PROGRAMS –

If you are responsible for planning educational programs for your firm or organization, I highly recommend Chuck Lundberg’s presentations on ethics. We have used Chuck on several occasions and he has always provided a professional performance that is well received. You can use his preplanned programs or work with him to prepare specific content. Chuck has both the subject matter expertise in ethics and malpractice, and the skills of a professional performer. He leaves the audience laughing and informed. Our attendee’s evaluations of Chuck’s presentations are always high. That is true whether the attendees are from small firms, large firms, new lawyers or more experienced attorneys.

Chuck Lundberg regularly presents his interactive ethics CLE programs to the Douglas K. Amdahl Inn of Court. His most recent presentation (May 2016) was his seventh appearance in the past ten years, making him by far one of our most frequent speakers.

The Amdahl Inn can be a formidable audience, consisting of some of Minnesota’s leading trial lawyers and judges, as well as a number of younger up and coming attorneys. When Chuck addresses the Inn, we usually have a full house, and we always get favorable reviews from our members.

Chuck uses a series of realistic hypotheticals and the Socratic method to prompt spirited participation and interaction by the audience. He leads the discussion to a higher level of thinking as audience members analyze and argue about the conflicting ethical issues raised by each scenario. He then gradually moves the discussion to the “correct” ethical answer, and summarizes the key points of professional conduct addressed.

Chuck’s programs are always entertaining and enlightening — that’s why we keep asking him back. His extensive knowledge of the subject matter, and his mastery of the communication medium, consistently provides an engaging and thought-provoking experience for our members – a truly top notch presentation.

Chuck worked with us to select discussion scenarios that rang true to our firm’s practice and got everyone participating in the give and take. He directed discussion with knowledge and wit, but let us work out the answers. I can’t imagine a more effective, engaging or enjoyable way to learn about ethics.

Chuck’s half-day seminar for all of the lawyers in our firm was very well received. His video hypotheticals were selected to fit our practice specialities and our requested areas of emphasis. His advice was practical. His good humor and deep knowledge of the subject matter combined to make him a very effective teacher. I highly recommend Chuck to any firm looking for personalized, efficient, high-quality ethics training.

Getting a group of lawyers (with different levels of experience) to enthusiastically participate in a three-hour discussion of the Rules of Professional Conduct is no easy task. The ability of a presenter to create an atmosphere in which the lawyers want to participate and enjoy doing so is very unique. When it is done well, learning becomes interesting and fun. With thorough preparation, keen intelligence, and quick wit, Chuck makes it look easy.

Chuck’s seminar made learning the rules of ethics engaging, interesting, and even fun. We especially appreciated the real-life focus on how the rules can and do directly affect actual cases. I know our attorneys who attended the seminar will be better equipped to recognize and deal with a potential ethical dilemma the next time one arises. The CLE credit was just icing on the cake.

Chuck Lundberg presented an Ethics program for our firm that covered recent developments in the law of Professional Conduct and tailored specific issues for discussion that applied to our firm’s areas of practice. The presentation was well-prepared, insightful, entertaining, and fostered very productive discussions among our lawyers. Chuck has presented Ethics programs three times for our firm, and each time we received many favorable comments from all those who attended.

The evaluations from our attorneys uniformly praised the program, particularly the way Chuck specifically focused the scenarios and discussion on the unique ethics issues that can arise in our firm’s intellectual property practice. The presentation techniques, involving all of the attendees in the discussion, and the video clips were all very well-received. Several of our attorneys noted that your in-house training format was much more relevant and interesting than a standard CLE program.

Chuck’s seminar received excellent marks from the over 80 attorneys in our firm who attended. In particular, the method of using hypotheticals and audience participation was very effective in raising the awareness level of ethical issues encountered in our everyday practice–both litigation and transactional.

By encouraging and eliciting a lively discussion of the nuances involved in the practical application of the ethics rules, and coupled with Chuck’s sense of humor, the seminar was much more effective than the typical lecture on the rules of professional conduct. The audience was engaged for the entire three hours and the universal conclusion was “this was great, let’s do it again sometime!” Now, when was the last time you heard that from your partners about an ethics seminar?

Chuck Lundberg presented his interactive Ethics CLE program to 120 Faegre & Benson lawyers on May 19, 2005. The event was an unqualified success. Our lawyers found the format of hypotheticals followed by audience-participation discussion to be thought-provoking and entertaining. We were very impressed with the content and quality of Chuck’s presentation, and plan to have him back in the future. We highly recommend the program.

Our firm was one of the first to sponsor one of Chuck’s in-house ethics programs several years ago. His thought-provoking hypothetical-based approach and his entertaining and challenging delivery were uniformly well-received by our attorneys, and we have had him back several times since. We are now sending him out to present similar programs at our other offices across the country. The opportunity to get all of our lawyers together in one room to talk about ethical issues peculiar to our practice is well worth it; the fact that we can also satisfy everyone’s need for CLE ethics credits in one program is even better.

Chuck did a fantastic job of moderating a fast-paced, engaging, and extremely informative discussion about the ethics issues that affect the attorneys in our firm every day. Afterward, I got email after email, from both partners and associates, thanking the firm for inviting Chuck to present his in-house ethics seminar. We will definitely have Chuck back in the future.

Chuck has presented his in-house ethics program to our firm twice over the past six years. Both times he tailored the program to our firm’s unique specialty areas. The give-and-take with the audience while analyzing how the rules applied to the hypotheticals was both entertaining and insightful. Our lawyers found this to be one of the best and most practical CLE ethics programs they had ever seen. We especially appreciated the flexible scheduling options available: as a trial law firm, it was easier for us to break up the three hour program into two 1½ hour lunch sessions.

We have had several in-house ethics programs over the years, and Chuck’s was by far the most well-received, most effective and most enjoyable. In addition to the superlative written evaluations that our attorneys gave Chuck, several of them approached me afterward to tell me this was our best ethics program ever. Typical of the written comments was the following: “This was fantastic! The best I’ve ever seen.” I concur!

We really appreciated the way you worked with us to develop a program of interest to our law firm. The topics and presentations were quite relevant to our practice. Your hypothetical format, and the opportunity to work with you to craft additional scenarios of interest to our lawyers, were invaluable.

Need Ethics Training for your Firm? Start with a very good lawyer with lots of experience and a sixth sense for integrity, mix in a remarkable command of Ethics law, a knack for framing issues that your lawyers encounter, add irony and a sense of humor, ask him to speak to your firm’s lawyers, together as colleagues in one setting, on a subject that is, all at once, demanding, rewarding, interesting, and absolutely essential to every lawyer, and get CLE credits to boot. That’s Chuck Lundberg. You get more than you pay for.

I would highly recommend Chuck’s customized ethics presentation to any law firm. The presentation and the response by my colleagues exceeded my expectations. Although it is an obvious advantage to purchase everyone’s CLE credits at the same time, the greatest benefit was to have all of our firm attorneys in one room collectively discussing relevant ethical issues for half a day.

One of the difficult tasks facing law firm management is ensuring that the firm’s attorneys learn, discuss, and implement legal ethics. But ethics training frequently is expensive and cumbersome and often is ineffective. Chuck Lundberg’s approach to teaching ethics stimulates learning and discussion in a most effective way. At his seminar, everyone participates. He doesn’t lecture. He doesn’t necessarily have all of the answers. He does, however, effectively engage all of the participants in thought-provoking and entertaining ways.

At his seminar, all attorneys in the firm are present for one seminar during which there is wide-open discussion about ethical rules. It soon becomes evident how even lawyers at the same firm have different opinions about ethical rules that need to be discussed. Chuck’s hypothetical format – with participation by all of the attorneys – confirmed for our firm the importance of a law firm philosophy regarding ethical standards, of the need for professional relationships with other professionals, and of our duties as officers of the Court.

The program was a huge success. I have heard nothing but positive comments, especially from my often hard to please partners. Thanks for an informative and entertaining presentation.

We chose the ethics program offered by Chuck Lundberg because we knew that each and every discussion point would be pertinent to our firm’s unique practice areas (family, juvenile, and adoption) and challenging to our lawyers and staff. The presentation was engaging and stimulating, never pedantic. This is money well spent for a specialty firm like ours.

We’ve had Chuck present his full three-hour ethics program twice over the past few years. Both presentations received excellent reviews from our attorneys. Learning ethics through discussion of “real-life” ethics scenarios, focused on our intellectual property practice, was not only informative but highly engaging. In the future, we are considering bringing Chuck back to do some shorter, more focused advanced presentations for our specific practice groups in which we will work with him in crafting some hypotheticals to address our specific and ongoing needs.

Chuck presented his risk management program for our annual risk management seminar. This seminar can be particularly challenging for speakers as the audience includes our insureds (many of which have no experience with legal malpractice claims), and our defense counsel (who are highly skilled and sophisticated in this area). Chuck was able to present material that met the needs of all the participants. The advice he gives is practical and easy to integrate into the daily practice of law. In addition to being informative, the information was delivered in an entertaining and engaging manner. The interactive presentation was well-received and got outstanding feedback from our attendees. I would highly recommend Chuck as a presenter on ethics or risk management tools to help guide any practitioner in the practice of law.

Chuck recently presented his seminar for our Claim Unit attorneys, whose responsibilities include adjusting legal malpractice claims. Chuck’s presentation was excellent, using hypothetical situations to engage us in a lively discussion of ethical issues confronting attorneys and the legal malpractice implications they engender. As important from our perspective were the practical suggestions Chuck offered for dealing with ethical dilemmas, thereby reducing an attorney’s exposure to a malpractice claim. I think Chuck’s program is an invaluable risk management tool for every law firm practicing in Minnesota. I wish all our insureds would take advantage of this great opportunity to be reminded of the many pitfalls in the everyday practice of law and the practical steps you can take to protect your professional interests.