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Webinar: Houston, We Have a Problem: NASA Disasters and Legal Ethics

December 14 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm

1 Participatory MCLE Credits

NASA’s greatest tragedies share a common thread: smart people ignored warnings under pressure. The Apollo 1 fire killed three astronauts after known safety issues were dismissed to meet deadlines. Challenger exploded when engineers’ O-ring warnings were overruled by “go fever.” Each disaster offers stark lessons for lawyers facing identical pressures—client demands, court deadlines, firm culture pushing you to cut corners or ignore red flags. Professional legal educator, Stuart Teicher, Esq. (known as The CLE Performer) examines how these tragedies illuminate the path from small ethical compromises to catastrophic failures, and provides tools to prevent disasters in your own practice.

Learning Objectives:

  • Implement speak-up procedures when observing ethical concerns, drawing from engineer Roger Boisjoly’s ignored Challenger warnings to fulfill duties under RPC 5.1 (Supervisory Responsibilities) and RPC 8.3 (Reporting Professional Misconduct) despite career risks
  • Recognize “go fever” and deadline pressure that compromises competence, applying Challenger’s lessons about schedule-driven decisions to maintain standards required by RPC 1.1 (Competence) and RPC 1.3 (Diligence) when clients or courts demand speed over thoroughness
  • Identify normalization of deviance patterns where repeated small violations become accepted practice, using Apollo 1 and Columbia disaster analysis to strengthen compliance with RPC 1.7 (Conflict of Interest) and RPC 8.4 (Misconduct) before ethical drift becomes catastrophic

Speakers: Stuart I. Teicher

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Non-Member Price
$75

Member Price
$55

Stuart I. Teicher, Esq. is a professional legal educator who focuses on ethics law and writing instruction.   A practicing attorney for nearly 3 decades, Stuart’s career is now dedicated to helping fellow attorneys survive the practice of law and thrive in the profession.   Mr. Teicher teaches seminars, provides in-house training to law firms and legal departments, provides CLE instruction at law firm client events, and also gives keynote speeches at conventions and association meetings.
 
Stuart helps attorneys get better at what they do (and enjoy the process) through his entertaining and educational CLE Performances.  He speaks, teaches, and writes— Thomson Reuters published his book entitled, Navigating the Legal Ethics of Social Media and Technology.

For well over a decade Mr. Teicher was a Supreme Court appointee to the New Jersey District Ethics Committee where he investigated and prosecuted grievances filed against attorneys.  Mr. Teicher continues to work with the New Jersey Office of Attorney Ethics as a Supreme Court appointee to the Fee Arbitration Committee. Mr. Teicher is an adjunct professor of law at Georgetown Law where he teaches Professional Responsibility, and he is an adjunct professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick where he teaches undergraduate writing courses.

We are committed to accessibility! Virtual events are equipped with closed captioning. To request an in-person accommodation, send us a note at accessibility@calawyers.org or contact us at 916-516-1760 for assistance.