Educational Programming

For more than 100 years, Smith Anderson’s client-centered culture has sought to add value for our clients in ways that are not always about the billable hour.

With this goal in mind, we offer complimentary seminars, workshops and on-demand webinars where we share our experience and knowledge on particular subjects of interest. In this CLE syllabus, there are many opportunities for continuing legal education programs. As part of this complimentary service, our firm will seek CLE credit on your behalf, subject to certain requirements from the state in which accreditation is being sought. We hope our CLE programs will be of service to you and your business and we invite you to inquire about subject areas which might not be listed.

CLE Syllabus

General

1. Protecting the Attorney-Client Privilege: They Can’t Find Out What We Tell Our Lawyers, Can They?
2. Estate Planning – The Basics Everyone Should Know
3. Document Retention and eDiscovery: Why You Should Care and What You Should Be Doing
4. Basics of Insurance Coverage – What Everyone Needs to Know

Employment

1. Diversity, Inclusion and Employee Engagement: Two Birds, One Stone
2. Equal Employment Opportunity Update
3. Religion at Work: Best Practices for Avoiding Claims of Discrimination and Handling Requests for Accommodation
4. Be Careful What You Ask For: Recent Developments on Background, Criminal History and Credit Checks
5. Gender-Based Discrimination in Compensation Claims: Do You Have a Bull’s Eye on Your Forehead?
6. Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs: Final Vets and Rehab Rules Compliance Checklist (2 parts)
7. Non-Union Workplaces: New Attacks on Common Practices and Policies
8. Back Home from Down Range: A Refresher on Employers’ Obligations to Returning Service Members
9. Health in the Workplace: What’s Hot Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and More
10. Applying the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act to Employee Health Issues: Navigation Tips for Smooth Sailing
11. Americans with Disabilities Act: Responding to Requests for Reasonable Accommodations
12. When Performance is Impacted by Health: Understanding When and How an Employer May Obtain Health Information Under the Americans with Disabilities Act
13. Effectively Managing Absences Under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act
14. Time and Money: Avoiding Common Mistakes Under the Fair Labor Standards Act and NC Wage and Hour Act
15. What is “Work Time” under the Fair Labor Standards Act?
16. Are Your Employees Properly Classified?
17. North Carolina Unemployment Insurance Reform (various presentations)
18. Conducting Internal Investigations: Tips and Pitfalls for Investigating Misconduct in the Workplace
19. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Workplaces: Dealing with the Inevitable
20. Protecting Your Business from Unfair Competition by Former Employees: A Roadmap of Tools and Enforcement
21. Defense of Marriage Act and Your Benefit Plans 
22. Best Practices for Internal Employee Stock Ownership Plan Trustees
23. Domestic Violence in the Workplace
24. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)
25. Restrictive Covenants in Employment Agreements: Best Practices in 2015

Corporate

1. Public Company Director Duties and Sources of Liabilities
2. Stock Option Decisions
3. M&A Trends
4. Best Practices in the Due Diligence Process
5. Drafting Acquisition Agreements
6. Introduction to Conducting Due Diligence
7. Corporate Governance Overview (DE)
8. Role of the Board of Directors in Mergers and Acqusitions
9. Dealing with the Board: Understanding the Role of the Board Versus Officers, Including an Overview of Fiduciary Duties
10. Best Practices in Corporate Minute-Taking
11. Understanding and Documenting Board Actions
12. To Trade or Not to Trade: Lessons Learned from Insider Trading Cases
13. Securities Trading Policies – Best Practices
14. How to Respond to Acquisition Proposals/Takeovers
15. Compliance Update: Regulation FD and Form 8-K Triggers
16. When the SEC Calls
17. Majority Versus Plurality Shareholder Voting – What Works Best for You?
18. Legal Issues to Consider When Incorporating a Delaware Subsidiary to do Business in North Carolina
19. Choice of Entity Considerations for Privately-Held Business
20. Legal Issues to Consider When Doing Business in North Carolina
21. Conducting Board Self-Assessments
22. Addressing Environmental Issues in Mergers and Acquisitions
23. Accessing the Debt Markets
24. Mezzanine Financing
25. Private Equity Financing 
26. Legal Considerations in a Private Equity Sale

Commercial

1. Drafting Contract Boilerplate
2. Overview of Software Licensing
3. Protecting Company Interests: Non-Competes and Other Tools
4. Commercial Contracting: Landmines, Pitfalls and Risk Management
5. Drafting and Enforcement of Contracts – Controlling and Limiting Risk
6. Analyzing the Prime Lease
7. The Leasing Process – Essentials of Office and Retail Leases

Litigation

1. Handling the Challenging Case
2. Bringing Your Case Alive to Judge and Jury
3. Cost-Effective Litigation: Winning the Case Without Breaking the Bank
4. eDiscovery Part I: The Initial Stages
5. eDiscovery Part II: Principles and Protocol
6. eDiscovery Part III: Defensibility and Efficiency
7. Hot Topics in Contract Litigation; Commercial Contracting – Top 10 Landmines for Litigation
8. Summary Judgment and Contract Litigation: The Why, When and How
9. Real Estate Litigation
10. Blackwater: War of Wars, a Comprehensive Journey into Media Shenanigans, Congressional Inquiry and Bet-The-Company Litigation
11. Anti-Patent Troll Law
12. The Lifecycle of an Insurance Claim (With a Focus on D&O Insurance)
13. Building Better Bylaws
14. So You've Been Sued, Now What?

Data Use, Privacy and Security

1. Primer on Privacy and Confidentiality
2. The High Cost of Cyber Crime: Protecting Yourself, Your Business and Your Clients
3. Data Breach – Prevention, Preparation and Response
4. Grid Modernization & Emerging Technologies: Privacy and the Smart Grid
5. Protecting Against Insider Threats
6. You Will be Hacked!
7. Threats to Confidential Data on Mobile Devices
8. Protecting Proprietary Business Assets: Strategies to Safeguard Your Company
9. Social Media: How Your Company, Customers, Competitors, Shareholders and Others are Using It and the Legal Pitfalls and Current Best Practices You Need to Know

Regulatory

1. Overview of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act
2. What To Do When the OSHA Investigator Knocks
3. OSHA Recent Developments: Back in the Enforcement Business

Government Contracts

1. Teaming Arrangements (teaming agreements, joint ventures and subcontracts)
2. New Developments in Government Contracting
3. Bid Protest and Debriefings

On-demand Webinars

Please note that according to the State Bar, CLE credit is not available for on-demand, pre-recorded webinars.

You may access our full list of on-demand webinars by clicking here.