Professionalism: The rules and some new ideas (2024 Edition)

Anne Hamer | Taylor, Bean & Hamer

Anne Hamer focuses her divorce practice on high asset, high conflict cases. She believes that divorce should be handled with professionalism and discretion, and works to diffuse destructive, expensive tactics from overly aggressive opposing counsel, always aiming to maintain the clients’ privacy while preserving assets for settlement. Anne draws from her extensive litigation experience, as well as her work as a trained mediator, to obtain results her clients can not only live with, but live well.

In 2022, Anne was elected to SuperLawyers in Tennessee. According to SuperLawyers.com, “Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The patented selection process includes independent research, peer nominations and peer evaluations.” Raising her two children as a single mother has taught her many life lessons that go beyond traditional legal services. When it comes to parenting, winning an argument or dispute is not always the most important goal. Serving a child’s best interest can require standing up for what is right or reaching a smart compromise. Either way, guiding parents through these mine fields is very rewarding. Anne works with her clients to develop parenting plans that allow the children to thrive in a new family structure.

A nationally recognized speaker for family lawyers, Anne was recently invited to present to the ABA Family Law Section Spring Conference. She currently practices law in Memphis and Nashville. Anne is a Rule 31 trained civil and family law mediator and has also completed domestic violence mediation training. A leader in the legal community, Anne is past chair of the Family Law Committee of the Memphis Bar Association and is an active member of the American Bar Association, the Nashville Bar Association, and the Association of Women Attorneys. Anne has successfully completed the prestigious ABA Family Law Trial Advocacy course at the National Institute of Trial Advocacy and was a member of the inaugural class of Tennessee Leadership.

She is active in her community as well, serving on the board of the Tennessee Shakespeare Company, and as a volunteer fundraiser for The Children’s Museum of Memphis, Hutchison School, and St. George’s Church. She has served as a room mom, PTO Treasurer, and a member of the Diversity Committee at her children’s schools, as well as their soccer and basketball coach, and Sunday School teacher.

Before becoming a family law attorney, she practiced with Bass, Berry & Sims, PLC in Nashville and Wolff Ardis, P.C. in Memphis, handling complex commercial litigation. Anne graduated from New York University School of Law in 1996 and with high honors from the University of Tennessee in 1989, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. For fun, Anne travels with her two daughters, both of whom are adopted and Hispanic. They travel to Mexico annually to foster the girls’ relationships with their birth families, practice Spanish and experience the rich Mexican culture.

Ronald C. Minkoff | Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

Ronald C. Minkoff is a partner in the Litigation Group and Chair of the Professional Responsibility Group. Mr. Minkoff is one of New York State’s leading practitioners in the field of attorney ethics and professional responsibility, representing attorneys in a wide variety of matters including law firm partnership agreements, attorney departures and lateral hires, attorney discipline cases, legal fee disputes and legal malpractice and professional liability cases on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. He also provides ethical opinions and advice to a wide variety of law firm clients. He often serves as an expert witness in legal malpractice lawsuits and attorneys’ fees disputes.

Mr. Minkoff is a member of several Bar Ethics Committees, including the Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct (COSAC) and the Committee on Attorney Professionalism of the New York State Bar Association. He is also the Treasurer of the New York County Lawyers’ Association, Co-Chair of NYCLA’s Task Force on Professionalism, a member of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on the Delivery of Legal Services, and a past President of the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. He has written extensively for the New York Professional Responsibility Report, The Professional Lawyer, The New York law Journal, and other publications. Mr. Minkoff is the former co-Managing Editor of the New York Legal Ethics Reporter and author of Lexology’s New York Professional Negligence Navigator. He has taught Professional Responsibility at Columbia University School of Law, New York University School of Law, Fordham Law School, Brooklyn Law School and Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. He is a frequent lecturer on the law of lawyering.

In addition, Mr. Minkoff represents businesses and individual professionals and executives in a wide variety of commercial litigation, including business break-ups, securities lawsuits, and domestic and international trade disputes. He has over 30 years of experience representing law firm partners and law firms in partnership formations, partnership disputes, lateral transitions and law-firm dissolutions. And he represents an internationally known petrochemist in an oil and gas venture dispute. Mr. Minkoff was a member of Chief Judge Lippman’s Task Force on Commercial Litigation in the 21st Century. He is on the Executive Committee of the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Minkoff was named Best Lawyers in America’s 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in Legal Malpractice Law – Defendants and 2011 and 2024 “New York Ethics and Professional Responsibility Lawyer of the Year.” He is also recognized by Best Lawyers for his work in Commercial Litigation. He has been named a New Yorkarea “Super Lawyer” for Professional Liability: Defense Work and Business Litigation by Super Lawyers magazine for eighteen consecutive years. Mr. Minkoff is a graduate of Columbia Law School (J.D., 1980). He was an attorney at the Nassau County Legal Aid Society (1980-83), and was associated with Obermaier Morvillo & Abramowitz, P.C. (1983-85) and Owen & Fennell (1985-87). Mr. Minkoff was a member of Fennell & Minkoff (1987-94) and Beldock Levine & Hoffman (1994-2001) before joining Frankfurt Kurnit. He is admitted to practice in New York and local federal courts.

John B. Harris | Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz PC

John B. Harris is a partner in the Litigation Group with more than 25 years of experience representing clients in high-stakes civil matters and white-collar criminal cases. He is a recognized leader in the professional responsibility and white-collar defense bars.

In his legal ethics and professional responsibility practice, Mr. Harris defends law firms, lawyers, and other professionals against claims of legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty and fraud. He frequently represents law firms in disputes with current and former partners.

A central part of Mr. Harris’ practice is the representation of individuals and entities who are the subjects of either criminal or regulatory investigations. He has represented public figures, corporate executives and securities industry professionals against allegations involving collateralized debt obligation and mortgage fraud; anti-money laundering investigations; insider trading; securities and accounting fraud; and mutual fund pricing violations. In addition, he has advised clients on research analyst independence issues, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act cases, and “spy shop” matters. Mr. Harris understands that his clients are best served when charges are not filed by prosecutors and regulators, and he has had substantial success for his clients in accomplishing this result.

Mr. Harris was the Chair of the Professional Responsibility Committee of the New York City Bar Association and is a former member of the New York City Bar’s Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics, Committee on Professional Discipline, Judiciary Committee, and Task Force on Multi-Disciplinary Practice. He has served as a delegate to the New York State Bar Association House of Delegates and currently serves as a member of the State Bar Professional Discipline Committee. He acts as a mediator for the US District Court for the Southern District of New York and has served as an expert witness.

Mr. Harris is also a member of the American Bar Association and the New York State Bar Foundation; served as Chair of the New York Regional Board and the National Civil Rights Committee of the AntiDefamation League; serves as a member of the New York University Law Alumni Association; and serves on Law360’s 2022 Legal Ethics Editorial Board. He has been recognized in Super Lawyers magazine as a New York-area “Super Lawyer” for seventeen consecutive years.

Mr. Harris has litigated matters in New York State and federal courts (Southern and Eastern Districts), and appeared in numerous SEC, FINRA and Departmental Disciplinary Committee proceedings. Before joining Frankfurt Kurnit, he was a partner at Stillman & Friedman, P.C. and Ballard Spahr LLP. Previously, Mr. Harris was a reporter for The Hartford Courant. Mr. Harris is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut. Mr. Harris graduated from New York University School of Law (J.D., 1985), where he was a member of the Annual Survey of American Law, and Yale University (B.A., cum laude, 1978).

Jayne R. Reardon | FisherBroyles, LLP

Jayne provides ethics and regulatory advice to lawyers, law firms, and legal service providers and serves as Deputy General Counsel to FisherBroyles LLP, a distributed global law firm. An experienced commercial trial lawyer, Jayne also serves as a neutral in mediation and arbitration proceedings.

Jayne is a nationally renowned expert on legal and judicial ethics and professionalism. Prior to joining FisherBroyles, she served as Executive Director of the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and as disciplinary counsel for the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Jayne draws on her extensive experience as trial lawyer, legal ethics expert, and professionalism advocate as she advises, writes, and speaks on lawyer and judicial ethics, professional responsibility, and effectiveness and efficiency in the legal system.

Jayne is active in many bar associations, including the Association for Professional Responsibility Lawyers and the American Bar Association. She has been recognized nationally for her work in professional responsibility, including by three consecutive appointments to Chair the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professionalism, by receiving the ABA’s Center for Innovation Legal Rebel Award, and by receiving the Center for Professional Responsibility’s highest lifetime honor: The Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award.

Session I – Maintaining Professionalism in the Face of Adversity: Strategies for dealing with difficult clients and lawyers | 11:00am – 12:00pm

• Identifying and Assessing Difficult Clients
• Managing Client Expectations and Relationships
• Dealing with Difficult Opposing Counsel
• Maintaining A Positive and Respectful Approach

Break | 12:00pm – 12:10pm

Session II – Enforcing and Inspiring Civility: Why should lawyers care? | 12:10pm – 1:10pm

• Enforceability Of Civility Codes
• Dealing With Difficult Adversaries
• Inadvertent Disclosure and Clawback Agreements
• Coming Into Possession of The Other Side’s Privileged or Proprietary Information