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Course Details

Course Information
  • smart_display Format

    Live Online with Live Q&A

  • signal_cellular_alt Difficulty Level

    Beginner

  • work Practice Area

    Ethics

Date & Time
  • event Date

    Tuesday, May 27, 2025

  • schedule Time

    1:00 p.m. ET./10:00 a.m. PT

  • timer Program Length

    90 minutes

Credit Information

  • This 90-minute webinar is eligible in most states for 1.5 CLE credits.

  • An excellent opportunity to earn Ethics CLE credits. Note: BARBRI cannot guarantee that this course will be approved for ethics credits in all states. To confirm, please contact our CLE department at pdservice@barbri.com.

$197.00
CLE
ALL

This CLE webinar will discuss critical issues relating to legal ethics in estate planning, probate, and administration. The panel will explore applicable rules and provide attorneys a deeper understanding of key ethical challenges in estate planning and probate law as well as provide practical tools for navigating these issues in their practice.

Faculty

David Fowler Johnson
Managing Shareholder/Fort Worth Office
Winstead PC

Mr. Johnson is widely recognized as one of the go-to fiduciary litigators in Texas. His practice focuses on trust, estate, and closely-held business disputes. A frequent writer and speaker, David is known around the state as a thought leader in the fiduciary area. Mr. Johnson’s experience in trust and estate disputes includes will contests, elder abuse, mental competency, undue influence, trust modification/reformation/clarification, breach of fiduciary duty and related claims. Additionally, he has a transactional practice for trust departments in providing legal opinions on the construction of trust documents, documenting release and consent agreements, resignations, successor appointments, modification of trusts, trust mergers, trust severances, etc.

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Description

Estate planning, probate, and trust administration is a complex field of law involving high stakes decisions that affect individuals and families. Factors such as unforeseen life changes, the involvement of multiple jurisdictions, and vulnerable clients pose unique ethical challenges for trusts and estates counsel and litigators.

When it comes to estate planning and probate, a variety of factors can raise ethical issues such as joint representation, attorneys acting as fiduciaries, and conflicts of interest. Other key ethical issues include confidentiality and privilege, document preparation, and any continuing obligations, which can be particularly challenging.

Counsel must balance zealous representation with the ethical requirement to avoid frivolous claims or misrepresentation, ensuring that their actions align with legal standards while protecting the rights and dignity of their clients.

Listen as the panel discusses applicable rules of professional conduct and provides an in-depth analysis of key ethical challenges in estate planning, probate, and trust administration.

Outline

  • Sources of ethical guidance and rules
  • Common ethical issues in estate planning and probate
    • Determining who is the client
    • Joint representation
    • Client communications and confidentiality issues
    • Conflicts of interest
    • Diminished capacity and competency
    • Other issues
  • Best practices for counsel


Benefits

The panel will discuss these and other key issues:

  • Guidance from Model Rules and navigating ethical issues in an estate planning practice
  • Determining who the client is and establishing an attorney-client relationship
  • The ethical concerns probate attorneys often face
  • Understanding the ethical risks associated with attorneys acting as fiduciaries
  • Handling confidentiality issues and conflicts of interest