Basic Skills for the Illinois Newly Admitted Attorney

The Basic Skills for the Illinois Newly Admitted Attorney program helps bridge the gap between education and real world application.  

Every session is curated to provide engaging content featuring examples and scenarios applicable to daily life for law practitioners including attorney professionalism, mental health in the legal profession, and client trust accounts.

Session 1: "I Don't Belong" - Imposter Syndrome in the Legal Profession - Brian S. Quinn (60 Minutes)

"What am I doing here? I don't belong." "I'm a total fraud and, sooner or later, everyone's going to find out." Sound familiar?

Imposter syndrome, also called perceived fraudulence, involves feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence that persist despite your education, experience, and accomplishments. While early studies focused on highly successful women, it is now clear that it can affect anyone in the legal profession – from law students to Big Law executives.

Living in constant fear of discovery, attorneys strive for perfection in everything they do. Attorneys might feel guilty or worthless when they can't achieve perfection on the job, not to mention burned out and overwhelmed by their continued efforts. The results can be devastating.

True imposter feelings involve self-doubt and uncertainty about talents and abilities. But what about when attorneys find themselves in an environment where their peers fail to make room for them or imply they don't deserve their success? Along with the more traditional factors, gender bias and institutionalized racism can also play a significant part in imposter feelings. Even if only perceived, they can surely reinforce the feeling of not belonging.

In addition to a survey of imposter syndrome in the legal profession, Brian Quinn, of Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers of Pennsylvania, Inc., discusses a personal story highlighting these very concerns. He shares the impact of the untimely death of his mentor and how trying to "fill his shoes" became more than a job - it took over his life. The consequences were a decades-long effort to cope with and then conceal those feelings with alcohol and drugs. 

Session 2: Professionalism and Ethics: Two Sides of the Same Lawyer Obligations -  Joseph Corsmeier (60 Minutes)

Understanding how professionalism implicates and affects ethics and understanding how to act professionally and ethically, and handling unprofessional conduct by other lawyers is extremely important in the lawyer's daily practice. This webinar, presented by Joseph A. Corsmeier, Esq, Founder and President of The Law Office of Joseph A. Corsmeier, P.A., will provide guidance and best practices and ensure viewers gain an understanding of the fundamentals of professionalism to help avoid legal and ethical scenarios. 

Session 3: Inclusive Professionalism: The Power and Purpose of Belonging in Legal Organizations -  Ryann Peyton (60 Minutes)

In today's diverse legal workplaces, the pursuit of "belonging" begins with ensuring that your attorneys and legal support staff are (1) able to bring their whole selves to work for themselves and clients, and (2) provided with tools to support their emotional, mental, and physical well-being. Inclusive legal organizations successfully mitigate the social forces and structural disadvantages caused by racism, gender bias, ageism, and other discriminatory factors to create a legal workspace that recognize and celebrate unique perspectives while creating a collaborative environment where everyone feels they truly belong. This seminar will provide practical ways to move your law firm or legal organization from good intentions to a concerted belonging initiative to attract and retain talented legal professionals through a discussion of:

• what it means to create "inclusion" rather than "assimilation" in legal organizations  

• the ways in which mentoring is a pathway to belonging

• the role of inclusion in cultivating lawyer well-being

• leader behaviors that drive belonging and inclusion

• strategies to generate inclusive policies and systems to improve morale and reduce professionalism missteps

Session 4: A Whole New World: The Evolving Mental Health Dialogue in the Legal Profession -  Mark S. Goldstein (60 Minutes)

This program will benefit associates at large law firms and will discuss the issue of mental health in the legal profession. In particular, the program will address key statistics and issues concerning lawyers' mental health and how large law firms can help support the same. It will also feature a first-person narrative of the presenter's own mental health journey.

Session 5: Attorney Licensure and the Impaired Professional (Update) -  Laurie J. Besden and Tracy Kepler (60 Minutes)

Substance use disorders and mental health challenges can affect any attorney regardless of gender, culture, ethnicity, age, or socioeconomic status. This program, taught by seasoned attorneys Tracy Kepler and Laurie Besden, instructs attorneys on how to recognize the impaired professional, provides various resources to assist in the recovery and identifies the possible disciplinary implications of impaired attorneys' conduct.

Ms. Besden will share her personal journey from the darkness and depths of despair in struggling with a substance use disorder as a licensed attorney, to her path of long-term recovery, where she received a full Governor's Pardon by Governor Wolf in 2020.

Session 6: Navigating Client Trust Accounts in a Challenging Banking Climate -  Robert J. Ambrogi, Jonathan Grabb, Jordan Turk, and Paul Garibian (60 Minutes)

Attorneys' responsibilities to manage client accounts got a lot riskier in the wake of recent bank failures and the threat of additional instability. This program will briefly cover the current banking environment, but the greater focus is on equipping attorneys to address and mitigate the ongoing risks bank choice may create, both regarding compliance with state bar rules around client trust accounts, as well as potential civil liability.