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Continuing Legal Education

 

Seminar in Professionalism and Ethics

 

In the spring of 1995, Executive Committee member Harvey Bernard Rubenstein suggested that the Society consider developing and sponsoring a program of continuing legal education (CLE) for lawyers that focused on professionalism and ethics. The idea had both an inspirational aspect (fostering the ideals of St. Thomas More) and a practical aspect (raising money for the Society).  A committee of Mr. Rubenstein, Matthew Boyer and Geoffrey Gamble was appointed and planning was begun for a seminar to be held in 1996.  Co-chairs of the seminar were to be Mr. Rubenstein and former Society president Joseph T. Walsh, a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court. The Society decided to co-sponsor the event with the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA), the premier provider of CLE to lawyers in Delaware.  

The first seminar was held in January 1996, and seminars have been held each year since.  Mr. Rubenstein and Justice Walsh (now retired) have been co-chairs of every seminar. The DSBA has co-sponsored every seminar.  The Society and DSBA have shared the net proceeds of the seminar, which is more popular now than it ever has been.  In fact, it is widely regarded as one of the premier annual CLE events in Delaware.

The seminars have been financially rewarding to the Society.  When it appeared that the seminars would deliver on the hoped-for aim of raising money, the Executive Committee determined to create a reserve fund for the proceeds of the seminar, with the goal being to create a fund that could generate income that could be used for the purpose of securing the best speakers possible at the Red Mass, at the annual dinner, and at the lecture series.  That goal has been reached.

In January 2009, at the fourteenth annual seminar, the Society and the DSBA permanently renamed their joint program the Rubenstein Walsh Seminar in Professionalism and Ethics.

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