The California Rules of Professional Conduct are not merely ethical guidelines but rather are intended to regulate the professional conduct of lawyers through discipline. Consequently, learning the California Rules of Professional Conduct is the best way to stay off the State Bar’s radar—and this session shows you how to do exactly that. Attend this engaging webinar by Ashod Mooradian, a former Senior State Bar prosecutor and leading expert in California legal ethics, to learn how to stay compliant and ethically confident in your practice. Ashod will break down the rules every California attorney needs to know—clearly, practically, and with real-world examples. Don’t wait for a problem to understand how to apply the Rules of Professional Conduct; learn them now and protect your license!

Speaker:

• Ashod Mooradian

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

After nearly a decade as a senior prosecutor with the State Bar of California, Ashod Mooradian founded a boutique practice exclusively focused on legal ethics, professional responsibility compliance, and State Bar matter representation in disciplinary, regulatory or admission- related cases. Ashod’s background as an ethics prosecutor gives him a unique and pragmatic perspective in the analysis of legal ethics issues and when representing clients in State Bar investigations. Currently, Ashod is a member of the standing ethics committees for the Los Angeles County Bar and the California Lawyers Association. 

Also, he is an active member of the Association of Disciplinary Defense Counsel, the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers and the American Bar Association’s Center for Professional Responsibility (CPR). In 2019, Ashod was awarded CPR’s Jeanne P. Gray Diversity Scholarship and worked on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for the legal profession nationwide. In August 2020, Ashod launched www.StateBarHelp.com to provide guidance and resources for California attorneys who have any type legal ethics or compliance issue pending before the State Bar of California. Ashod’s mission is to help attorneys practically and strategically incorporate considerations of ethics and professionalism into their daily practice and not just when a problem or crisis arises.

Attorneys Randy Pollak and Jody Kaufman will address common legal issues that arise in the workers’ compensation context, involving client interactions, Ex Parte communications, proceedings before the WCAB, and inappropriate courtroom behavior. The panel will also present various scenarios of ethical dilemmas related
to these issues and best practices on how they should be handled, and preferably how to avoid them all together.

Speakers:

• Randy Pollak
• Jody Kaufman

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

Randy H. Pollak is the Director, California Attorney, for WCF National Insurance Company. A Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation Law, Mr. Pollak is a widely known speaker for various organizations throughout California.  He is also the former Managing Editor of the Workers’ Compensation Quarterly, the official legal publication of the California Lawyers’ Association (formerly the State Bar), In 2016 he was recognized by the State Bar’s Workers’ Compensation Section with the “Young Attorney of Year” award for his advocacy for remote telephonic court appearances, years prior to the pandemic.  Mr. Pollak is also appointed as an arbitrator by the DWC to conduct arbitrations on insurance coverage, carve out, and contribution disputes.  He graduated Summa Cum Laude from UCLA and received his law degree from Loyola Law School, Los Angeles.

What ethical obligations arise when California attorneys use artificial intelligence in legal research, discovery, and client communications? When does reliance on AI implicate duties of competence, confidentiality, supervision, and informed consent, particularly in workers’ compensation matters involving medical records, discovery responses, and claim evaluation? This program examines emerging ethics issues through recent case law, regulatory guidance, and practical scenarios addressing inadvertent disclosure of privileged information, accuracy and bias in AI outputs, and professional accountability for AI-assisted work. Attendees will gain practical guidance from Judge Simbulan Beach and Professor Han on integrating AI responsibly into legal practice while complying with the California Rules of Professional Conduct and evolving professional standards.

Speakers:

• Hon. Cheryl Simbulan Beac
• Christopher Han

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

Your clients are already using AI to research legal questions before they call you. Most attorneys responding to this shift follow vendor marketing rather than evidence.

This session demystifies AI. You will discover why treating it like a human leads to mistakes, how it functions, and how to apply that knowledge for better results.

You will learn:

• How AI works: at its core, it is autocomplete, predicting the next word based on patterns rather than facts. This explains why it “hallucinates” citations that sound right but do not exist.
• How retrieval augmented generation (RAG) addresses this: by requiring systems to pull from actual legal databases and cite real sources before generating responses.
• How agents and personas function: the “method actor” architecture behind platforms that maintain context across complex tasks.
• What delivers results today: timeline generators, document analysis, and voice interfaces with memory.
• Where bias enters: algorithmic discrimination risks in AI-assisted research and decision-making.

You will leave knowing how to work with AI effectively, not as a magic solution, but as a tool you understand and control.

Speakers:

• Judge Todd Kelly
• Sean Richard Weber

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

In the first half of the presentation the speaker will examine potential racial and gender bias in apportionment.  We will discuss regulations and case law rejecting QME opinions based on risk factors related solely to the injured worker’s race or gender as well as strategies to mitigate bias in QME reporting.   In the second part of the presentation, we will discuss evaluating and rating permanent disability resulting from industrial breast cancer, taking into account the ways in which gender bias could potentially impact an assessment of the impairment that results from breast cancer and its treatment.

Speakers:

• Laura Rosenthal
• Hon. Therese Da Silva

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

Implicit Bias is an insidious work-place disease that can isolate, demean and undermine attorneys. The existence of subconscious and subtle forms of bias are antithetical to the tenants of the legal profession. Whether it be interactions with co-workers, opposing counsel, or injured workers, we all have a role to play in either proliferating or eliminating biases. This seminar will provide lessons in creating a legal community that embraces differences,  and fosters diversity and empathy.

Speaker:

• Lynette Hart

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

Ms. Lynette Hart has over 24 years of experience as a Human Resource professional. Ms. Hart has experience leading all aspects of Human Resources, including recruitment, personnel management, diverse workforce planning, classification and compensation, benefits, employee/ labor relations, training, workers compensation and succession planning.  While Ms. Hart has also worked for Fortune 500 companies, her most rewarding work has been at public sector organizations since 2002.  Just a sample of the agencies she has worked for are City of Antioch, Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART), City of Milpitas, City of San Bruno, City of Oakland and City of Berkeley. Most recently, Ms. Hart was the Human Resource Manager for the Oakland Police Department and managed the Professional Development and Wellness Unit for the department as well.  

Ms. Hart is skilled at teaching others how to develop relationships with internal and external customers and create a cohesive, highly productive work environment. Those who attend her trainings always comment her style is engaging, informative, fun, entertaining and interactive. Ms. Hart has experience leading all aspects of Human Resources, including recruitment, training, personnel management, diverse workforce planning, classification and compensation, employee/ labor relations, workers compensation and succession planning.   She is a well sought after subject matter expert in the field of recruiting. Her innovative approach at marketing and recruiting applicants has made her an asset at every agency she has worked for. 

Ms. Hart has a Bachelor of Science from University of San Francisco, Organizational Behavior & Leadership, Human Resource Generalist Certification from University of California at Berkeley; and, Leverage Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for Organizational Excellence Certification from Stanford Business School of Management.

The workers’ compensation system is made up of injured workers and the attorneys who litigate their cases.  The workers are in pain and the attorneys are stressed over time. Both are likely to be navigating financial concerns and an uncertain future.  This seminar will help attorneys identify the risks and warning signs of addiction in both themselves and injured workers, and identify resources for both prevention and healing.

Speakers:

• John Likens
• Pete Nielsen

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

The workers’ compensation system is made up of injured workers and the attorneys who litigate their cases.  The workers are in pain and the attorneys are stressed over time. Both are likely to be navigating financial concerns and an uncertain future.  This seminar will help attorneys identify the risks and warning signs of addiction in both themselves and injured workers, and identify resources for both prevention and healing.

Speaker:

• John Likens

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

Civility in the practice of law is more than a basic ethical obligation and required topic for MCLE compliance, it is an important tool in effectively representing your clients and securing favorable outcomes no matter the facts of a particular case.  Improve your practice with our California State Bar-Approved Civility Training Course designed to meet the State Bar’s MCLE requirements.  This webinar will use examples from case law and the presenters’ own combined experience over the course of five decades as lawyers to explore key concepts as to professional conduct, communication, courtroom etiquette, and the elimination of bias and incivility in the practice of law.  Though the basic tenets of civility in the practice of law are evergreen, with changing technological approaches to adjudication and the increased use of AI in research and discovery, the human elements involved in approaching disputes with civility are more important than ever to ensure that disputes are resolved based on their merits and that public trust is maintained in the legal profession.  One of a lawyer’s most important assets is their reputation, and this program will help to ensure that it isn’t your ill-advised email that makes the rounds as an object lesson in civility.

Speakers:

• Saro Kerkonian
• James M. Cotter

Moderators:

• Orlando Ruff
• Hon. Sharon Velzy
• Hon. James Finete

James M. Cotter represents injured workers as an Associate at the law firm of Boxer Gerson. He began practicing in civil litigation in 2007, but has been a dedicated workers’ compensation attorney since 2012. He previously represented self-insured employers and workers’ compensation insurance carriers and was a Senior Partner in one of the larger defense firms in the state. He is a member of the California Lawyers Association’s Workers’ Compensation Executive Committee and a Certified Specialist in Workers’ Compensation through the State Bar’s Legal Specialization program. He has presented case law updates for organizations such as the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, California Lawyers Association, and the National Business Institute.