Upcoming DRI Webinars

Sponsored by Envista Forensics

Join this webinar with Melissa Simpson, PE with Envista Forensics for a detailed framework of what is used during loss investigations and considerations that go into root cause analysis to determine what the cause of a specific failure was.

Presenter:
Melissa Simpson, PE, Envista Forensics

Mock trying a case is a powerful tool that can show you how a jury may respond to your themes, arguments, and witnesses at trial. With courts anticipating a backlog of trials due to COVID-19, there will be an added push to resolve cases and virtual mock trials can be used to assist in settlement efforts.  Hear from a panel of seasoned attorneys/industry professionals about deciding which cases to mock try, effective ways to prepare for and present evidence and witnesses to a mock jury (both in person and virtually), and how you can use the information gleaned from your mock trial to either settle or prepare your case for trial.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Sponsored by Exponent

Accidental fires happen in every industry and every setting. They can be the most destructive and therefore the most difficult type of loss to investigate, because the fire has often destroyed the evidence necessary to conclusively determine the cause. The average person is very familiar with piloted ignition as a fire cause (lit match plus gasoline equals fire), but there is another lesser known fire cause to consider in many situations: spontaneous combustion. Spontaneous combustion involves a material generating and accumulating enough heat internally that it eventually ignites itself without the application of an outside ignition source. This presentation introduces the concepts underlying spontaneous combustion, such as self-heating, exothermic reactions, and thermal runaway. Spontaneous combustion is an often overlooked and poorly understood pathway to ignition for an accidental fire. The session will cover multiple materials such as residential laundry, hazardous waste, and industrial chemicals to give the attendees the understanding necessary to ask the right questions in fire, explosion, and reactive chemical incident investigations.

Presenters:
Dr. Delmar "Trey" Morrison, III, Ph.D., P.E., CCPSC, FAIChE, CFEI | Principal Engineer | Exponent
Dr. Sean J. Dee, Ph.D., P.E., CFEI | Managing Engineer | Exponent

This Webinar will explore legal theories and standards that courts may employ when considering torts occurring during gig-economy transactions. The use of gig economy platforms, markets in which individuals obtain services or rent assets from each other using technology platforms, has grown at an explosive rate. Torts arising during gig economy transactions are becoming a regular occurrence. It will be essential that litigators and risk managers understand the legal theories that may be used to allocate tort liability in the event of an accident or injury.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Sponsored by Reputation Ink

When law firms invest in media relations, they are investing in growth. How does this work? How can a bylined article, TV or podcast interview or quote in an article lead to more clients?

In this webinar by Reputation Ink’s Principal & President Michelle Calcote King, law firm leaders will learn about the latest research behind brand visibility and firm growth, as well as the science behind business to business (B2B) decision-making. They will also learn the strategies that leading law firms use to regularly achieve media coverage and position themselves as thought leaders in their fields.

Sponsored by S-E-A

The presentation will explore the tactics, benefits, and hurdles of performing electrical testing to defend a product manufacturer in a subrogation suit. We’ll look at proper methodology, governing scientific principles, the lack of standards and protocols, testing data collection, and testing documentation. Lastly, defensive testing case studies will be shared and discussed.

Presenter:
Michael K. Rupp, P.E., CFEI, CVFI, S-E-A

What’s the difference between a copyright and a trademark? What types of patents exist, and what rights do they convey? What is a trade secret, and how can I make sure my clients take the right steps to protect information they want to keep secret? This webinar will answer these questions, and provide additional practical information about the basics of intellectual property law.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

The final judgment rule is a well-accepted tenant of appellate procedural law. Federal courts of appeal have appellate jurisdiction over only “final decisions of the district courts. A final decision is one which ends the litigation on the merits and leaves nothing for the court to do but execute the judgment. In multi-party cases, it is not uncommon for orders on dispositive motions to adjudicate fewer than all pending causes of action. Such orders can tempt litigants and attorneys into the procedural trap of “manufactured finality”: the decision to dismiss by voluntary stipulation outstanding claims as a way to make an “end-run” around the final judgment rule. The problem arises where parties attempt to have their appeal heard while simultaneously saving for another day, post-appeal, the adjudication of other issues and claims in the case. Engaging in this "procedural sleight-of-hand" creates a dangerous situation where a litigant can lose both the right to appeal and the right to pursue further proceedings in the district court, thereby being deprived of any remedy at all.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Sponsored by S-E-A

A revolution in transportation has started as autonomous features are introduced and new technologies emerge. As vehicle takes control of driving tasks, the safety systems are recording data. Understanding these new Advanced Driver Assistance Systems and the electronic records will provide valuable data to the crash analysis. We will explore what is available, how to use it, and what is coming next.

Presenter:
Shawn P. Ray, P.E., ACTAR, ASE, CFEI, CVFI, CFII | Senior Mechanical Engineer | S-E-A

For more than a year the workforce has been in a crisis mode and employers are ready to get back to normal, but what will normal look like in a post-pandemic world? Are we able to go back to pre-pandemic operations? Do we want to? This session will look at what we learned in the pandemic, both internally and from groups like the EEOC and OSHA, and what steps we should consider when trying to get back to normal.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

The Aviation Law Committee, Aviation Products SLG, and the Women in the Law Committee are pleased to propose a webinar of all women litigators that explores how to try a products case in the new COVID/virtual world. This webinar will explore how to handle both a virtual trial or an in-person trial that requires social distancing and masks. Our esteemed panelists have experience in this new world of trials and will provide experience and insights to help defense counsel as well as in house attorneys structure their arguments and presentations to get the most benefit and biggest impact to the jury. Our panelists have experience with aviation, automotive, and premises liability so this webinar should appeal to many members. Further, we have secured a jury consultant that will be able to provide her real-world experience and recommendations.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Sponsored by LawyerGuard

If you haven’t been already been hacked, defrauded, deceived, victimized, socially engineered, or otherwise targeted, you will be. What can and should you do to protect yourself and your clients against malicious actors? How can you recognize the latest scams and exploits designed to separate you from the money in your business and trust accounts? What are your ethical obligations when you’ve been the target of, or victimized by, fraud? What are the insurance implications of falling for a scam? Join us to discuss loss-prevention strategies to keep you, your clients, and your money safe.

Presenters:
Noah D. Fiedler is the managing partner of Hinshaw's Milwaukee office and a member of the firm's Lawyers for the Profession^® practice group. He has extensive experience defending lawyers in malpractice claims, as well as counseling individual lawyers, law firms and legal departments on risk management and ethics issues. With his vast knowledge on the subject, Noah has been vital in developing a variety of risk management resources, including Hinshaw's Safety Net^®. He is also the co-editor of Hinshaw's Lawyers' Lawyer Newsletter and Cyber Alerts.

Kevin J. Sullivan is the Senior Vice President - Program Manager for the LawyerGuard Program, which provides lawyers professional liability insurance to law firms on a nationwide basis. He has over 35 years of professional liability underwriting/management experience, focusing on lawyers professional liability since 1995.

Do you ever wonder how in the world other lawyers seem to draw in one new client after another? If so, you’re not alone. It’s never too early (or too late) to start thinking about business development. For some, business development comes easy, but others have no idea where to start. Hear from two resourceful, ambitious, and self-made lawyers about the steps they took to establish their unique brand, develop a marketing strategy aimed at attracting a specific type of client, attract and pitch to prospective clients, and keep new clients happy.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

This program will discuss the increasing problem of data breaches in the healthcare industry and the most common and costly type of litigation brought in response – a class action initiated by affected individuals or entities.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Alternative fee arrangements provide opportunities to achieve budget certainty, promote efficiency, and better align the incentives of in-house legal departments with their outside counsel. They have been used successfully in complex litigations of all kinds, from high stakes trials to major deals to years-long multi-district litigation. But, challenges may still arise. This presentation will give in-house legal counsel an overview of alternative fee arrangements, and an introduction to how and when to successfully use alternative fee arrangements.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Plaintiffs are slowly turning away from Reptile Theory and adopting a new approach focusing on company safety policies and CDL manuals to establish a “duty” the motor carrier or driver violated. Join two seasoned trucking attorneys as they delve into just how these policies/manuals are being used to establish liability in trucking cases and what defense attorneys can do from the pre-suit stages through trial to prevent a violation of a policy or manual from increasing the value of your case or the verdict award.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Medicare and Medicaid now cover about 140 million Americans and the cost of those services in 2021 will be about $1.5 trillion, and both systems are getting aggressive about protecting their interests! The topics to be addressed include rule changes made and being proposed by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the SMART Act of 2019, the PAID Act of 2020, and the litigation being filed to recover funds due Medicare and Medicaid. Discussion will include what Responsible Reporting Entities (RRE’s), the attorneys representing them, and the attorneys representing injured workers and plaintiffs in liability cases, must do to appropriately address Medicare’s and Medicaid’s interests when handling a claim.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

This webinar will provide general guidelines and strategies for effectively deposing an opposing parties’ expert(s). Specifically, it will provide an overview of expert depositions, why they are important, the reasons for taking an expert deposition, how to prepare for them, an overview of Duces Tecum’s and obtaining discoverable documents, strategies for eliciting favorable testimony, important case law for precluding/limiting expert testimony, as well as other practical tips.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.

Distracted driving is the largest contributing factor to motor vehicle accidents and can significantly impact the value of a case. If you’re a motor carrier, driver, or represent motor carriers and drivers, this webinar is for you. Come listen as a trucking industry professional, a human factors expert, and a seasoned trucking attorney discuss how distracted driving can cause avoidable accidents, what motor carriers and drivers can do to prevent distracted driving accidents, and how distracted driving can alter your litigation strategy and impact the valuation of your case.

The registration rate is $75 for DRI members and $150 for non-members.