Ethics for Good — This summer, join in honoring the creators; participate for your own benefit!

by Amy Fellows Cline

Choices are made in brief seconds and paid for in the time that remains.

– Paolo Giordana, The Solitude of Prime Numbers: A Novel

For several years now, the co-creators of the Ethics for Good CLE Program have used this quote to kick off their annual ethics CLE sessions. While I agree with their assessment of this statement as the “best ethics quote” they’ve seen, it is also a fitting description of the resounding “butterfly effect” success of the choices these men made, as a result of a lunch conversation more than twenty years ago.

During that fateful lunch, attorneys Mark Hinderks and Stan Davis, and then-Johnson County District Court Judge Steve Leben, were lamenting the “plethora of painfully poor and palpably putrid professional programs.”1 While we’ve all no doubt shared in those sentiments, these men decided to do something about it. The plan they hatched that day has not only vastly improved the options available to satisfy Kansas and Missouri attorneys’ annual two-hour ethics educational requirement, but it has raised more than $700,000 in donations to local charities.

The Ethics for Good CLE program has been one of the Kansas Bar Foundation’s most lasting and fruitful partnerships. Each June, two live, two-hour CLE sessions are offered in the Kansas City area. Touted as “Ethics CLE meets humor, for good,” these seminars are attended annually by about 600 attorneys. In addition to Hinderks, Davis and Leben, the current presenters of the Ethics for Good educational program include Kansas City area attorneys Todd LaSala, Jim Griffin, Jacy Hurst, and Todd Ruskamp, as well as Kansas Court of Appeals Judge Melissa Standridge. The Kansas Bar Foundation sponsors the program and assists with marketing, reservations, invoicing and preparing materials.

The Ethics for Good Program is the perfect intersection of philanthropy and professional development. Each year, the proceeds are donated to several charities, designated by the writers and presenters. Last year alone, nine organizations benefitted from over $42,000 in donations from this Program. This year, the selected charities include:

• CASA (Johnson/Wyandotte Counties)

• Safehome and Hope House (domestic violence programs)

• Metropolitan Organization to Counter Sexual Assault

• Kansas Bar Foundation

• FosterAdopt Connect

In addition, the proceeds from the EFG Program are used to fund annual scholarships at each of the KU, Washburn and UMKC Law Schools and the Johnson County Community College paralegal program.

The goal of the co-presenters is to make sure their EFG programs contain real substance, presented with humor, as appropriate. Described as a “continuing legal education stage show,” the program provides both an educational and entertaining opportunity for Kansas and Missouri attorneys to earn their two hours of ethics credit each year. Reminiscent of bar shows, the presenters explore their flair for drama, while discussing ethics opinions from both Kansas and Missouri, as well as American Bar Association ethics advisory opinions. One year, they incorporated a Wizard of Oz theme, while the 10th anniversary session was closed out with the co-creators dancing in tuxes and Styrofoam top hats.

The 2019 sessions are being held on June 26 (at the Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City) and June 28 (at the Polsky Theatre in Overland Park), both scheduled for 2:30- 4:10pm. The cost is $90, and you can register at https://www. ksbar.org/mpage/EthicsforGood. I encourage you to sign up to—as noted in one of the program’s slogans—“Get Ethics. Do Good. Get the Funny.”

In recognition of their 20-year commitment to serving the legal profession and funding charitable and educational projects, the Kansas Bar Foundation has selected the co-creators of the EFG Program as this year’s recipients of its Robert K. Weary award. This award was created in 2000 to recognize “lawyers or law firms for their exemplary service and commitment to the goals of the Kansas Bar Foundation.” The award will be presented at the Foundation’s Annual Dinner on June 20, 2019, which will be held at the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka. I can think of no better venue to honor these daredevils who dreamed up a program that does so much good, both professionally and philanthropically. I hope you will join me this summer in thanking them for their service at this dinner and at their entertaining CLE program. Registrations for the Annual Dinner can be made at https://www.ksbar.org/event/2019KBFAwardsDinner.

About the Author

Amy Fellows Cline is a partner of the Wichita law firm of Triplett Woolf Garretson, LLC. She handles a wide variety of commercial litigation matters, including employment, oil and gas, construction and consumer protection disputes. Ms. Cline has significant experience appearing before courts across Kansas, as well as the Kansas Corporation Commission, Kansas Human Rights Commission, Kansas Department of Labor and U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Footnotes

1. 2012 EFG Trailer https://youtu.be/HKAlz-Rgank.