The Missouri Supreme Court recently amended its Rule 15 to require Missouri attorneys to report two hours of Professionalism, Ethics, and Malpractice prevention on an annual basis.  The amended rule replaces the previous requirement of three hours every three years.  The amended reporting requirements are effective for the current reporting year that runs from July 1, 2009-June 30, 2010.

As The Bar Plan Foundation has been doing for more than two decades, we will once again be traveling throughout the state to assist lawyers in satisfying this new ethics requirement with high-quality, economical, and timely CLE ethics seminars.   

For further information on the our seminar series, please contact Chris Stiegemeyer or Christina Lewis Abate at (314) 965-3333 ext. 121.

For information on the Missouri Minimum Continuing Legal Education requirements, click here.  

Every Lawyer Wants the Case (But No Lawyer Wants to be the Case)

This seminar is for every lawyer who wants to avoid ever being used as an example in a legal malpractice risk management seminar.  Using case studies of actual malpractice claims against lawyers, this seminar will explore processes and techniques that can be utilized by lawyers to avoid malpractice. We will highlight circumstances that arise as cases progress, and lawyers’ reactions to them, that, while not in and of itself malpractice, can result in adverse consequences to clients’ cases.

Christian A. Stiegemeyer

Executive Vice President, The Bar Plan Foundation, and Director of Risk Management, The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company. Chris received his B.A. in Communications from Southeast Missouri State University and his J.D. from The Saint Louis University School of Law. Prior to joining The Bar Plan, Chris was in private practice concentrating in the areas of domestic relations, criminal law, and appellate practice.

Christina Lewis Abate

Christina Lewis Abate is a Risk Manager for The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company in St. Louis, Missouri.  She received her J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law in 2004 and her B.A. from the University of New Mexico in 2000.  Christina is a member of the Missouri Bar, the American Bar Association and the Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis.

Prior to joining The Bar Plan Mutual Insurance Company in 2007, Christina was employed as a trial attorney with the Missouri State Public Defender System.

Christina currently serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Ethics and Professionalism Committee. Christina was recently appointed to serve as Chair of this Committee and her year-long term officially begins August 1, 2010.