Ethics Update for Virginia Lawyers 2025

Why Attend?

• Stay up to date on the latest changes and case law affecting the practice of law, including the use of generative AI, confidentiality, and the rise in legal practice by non-lawyers.
• Get guidance on fee agreements that attempt to limit a client’s right to settle a case or terminate representation.
• Learn confidentiality requirements applicable to writing an article about a former client’s legal matter (NYSBA Opinion 1268).
• Examine some recent ABA Formal Opinions and how they may affect you.
• Gain an understanding of the disciplinary process from intake and investigation to proceedings and discipline.
• Explore real-world examples of ethical missteps in trust accounting, fees, conflicts of interest, competence, and communication, and learn how to avoid these situations.

Legal ethics is now one of the most dynamic and difficult areas of law. Every year brings significant changes to and new interpretations of existing ethics rules, all of which can profoundly affect your daily practice. Additionally, emerging technology continues to shape the practice of law, but it needs to be used correctly and in compliance with the rules. Hear from the people who run Virginia’s system to help you keep up to date and avoid potential ethics traps.

Topic Agenda

Hot Topics in the Law of Ethics

• Continuing discussion of generative AI in legal practice
• Business and employment relationships with non-lawyers and the continued rise in legal practice by non-lawyers
• Guidance on fee agreements that attempt to limit a client’s right to settle a case or terminate representation
• ABA Formal Opinion 514 on a lawyer’s obligations when advising an organization about conduct that may create legal risks for the organization’s constituents
• Prospective client conflicts and ABA Formal Opinion 510
• Confidentiality when writing an article about a former client’s legal matter (NYSBA Opinion 1268)

Review of the Most Significant Disciplinary Cases from the Past Year, Plus Rule and Procedural Changes

• Disciplinary statistics
• Competency, neglect and abandonment of client matters, failure to communicate
• Fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation
• Trust account and fee issues
• Conflicts of interest
• Candor toward the tribunal
• Diligence
• Noncompliance with terms
• Criminal conduct and convictions

Registration Deadlines:

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE^®.

Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.

Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email deanna.mcglothlin@vacle.org.

Inclement Weather Policy and Updates

MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.

Private recording of this program is prohibited.

Can’t Attend?

E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.

Course Schedule

• Q&A will be handled via chat room for Webcast attendees.
• Q&A will be handled via e-mail for telephone seminar attendees.

About the Speaker

Renu M. Brennan, Bar Counsel, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

Emily Hedrick, Ethics Counsel, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

Elizabeth K. Shoenfeld, Senior Assistant Bar Counsel, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

About the Speakers

Renu M. Brennan, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

Renu Brennan is the Bar Counsel for the Virginia State Bar. She served as Deputy Executive Director of the VSB from 2016 to 2018, and as Assistant Bar Counsel for the Bar from 2008 to 2016. Ms. Brennan is Secretary of Lawyers Helping Lawyers and is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection. She was a faculty member for the Virginia State Bar Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course from 2008 to 2011, and she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia since 2007. She also served as co-chair of the Judicial Nominations Committee of APABA-VA from 2009 to 2011. She participated as an instructor in the Virginia Bar Association’s Rule of Law program.

Prior to coming to the VSB, Ms. Brennan was a partner with the firm of Vandeventer Black, LLP, where she handled professional malpractice and commercial litigation. From 1998 to 2004, she was with the firm of Wright, Robinson, Osthimer & Tatum in Richmond, Virginia. She is licensed in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and California, where she practiced in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Boston University School of Law.

Emily Hedrick, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

Emily Hedrick is Ethics Counsel for the Virginia State Bar and has been at the VSB since 2011. She currently serves as a staff liaison to the Standing Committee on Legal Ethics, the Special Committee on Technology and the Future Practice of Law, and recently concluded work with the Practice Management Task Force. She also drafts advisory ethics opinions and provides informal ethics advice to members of the bar through the ethics hotline.

Before joining the VSB, Ms. Hedrick was a law clerk fellow at the Supreme Court of Virginia Office of the Chief Staff Attorney. She has a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Elizabeth K. Shoenfeld, Virginia State Bar / Richmond

Elizabeth Shoenfeld is a Senior Assistant Bar Counsel for the Virginia State Bar, where she investigates and prosecutes ethical misconduct complaints against attorneys practicing in Virginia. Prior to joining the bar in 2015, she had a national litigation practice, focusing on defending automotive manufacturers in product liability actions. Since joining the bar, she has spoken throughout the Commonwealth on a number of ethics-related issues.