Minnesota State Law Library Continuing Legal Education Programs

From Isolation to Connection: Supporting Mental Health in the Legal Profession (webinar only)
  • Date/Time: Wednesday, April 29, 2026, noon - 1:00 pm 
  • Speaker: Jon Tynjala, Esq., Executive Director, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers
  • Description: This course is designed to educate attorneys about the interplay between isolation and loneliness in legal practice and mental health difficulties including substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an advisory identifying loneliness and isolation as an urgent public health challenge requiring immediate attention. This course examines the legal professional’s structures that support social connection, to wit, colleagues, firm co-workers, organizations, and the profession, and show how the structure, function, and quality of those connections work for or against attorney well-being. Notably, poor or insufficient social connection is associated with increased risk of anxiety, depression, substance use disorder, and suicide. This course will rely on studies that show that legal practice is the loneliest type of work, and this fact greatly increases the risk to lawyers of suffering from one of the identified disorders (as well as others). The statistics already put lawyers at much higher risk of problematic drinking, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and high levels of stress. Each of these factors will be discussed as it specifically relates to legal practice. In addition, numerous traits of lawyers fuel isolation including perfectionism, pessimism, skepticism, low resilience, secondary trauma, and low sociability. Each of these factors will be explored. The ethical impact of isolation will be set forth as well as the relationship between impairment and attorney discipline. Finally, a detailed discussion of the benefits of connection both professionally and personally will be set forth with strategies to enhance both workplace and personal connection. This includes consultation with LCL, EAPs and other resources that assist attorneys and their staff with these complicated issues.
  • CLE Credit: One mental health/substance use CLE credit has been applied for (#546634).
  • Registration: Please register using this webinar registration form. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 
Reversals of Fortune (webinar only)
  • Date/Time: Thursday, June 11, 2026, noon - 1:00 pm 
  • Speaker: Marshall Tanick, Meyer Njus Tanick
  • Description: The session focuses upon cases in which the U. S. Supreme Court and, more significantly, the Minnesota Supreme Court, and even the court of appeals have overturned precedents.
  • CLE Credit: One standard CLE credit will be applied for.
  • Registration:  Please register using this webinar registration form. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 
Understanding the Attorney Discipline Process in Minnesota (webinar only)
  • Date/Time: Thursday, June 25, 2026, noon - 1:00 pm 
  • Speakers: Xingdu (Maggie) Chen (moderator); Honorable Gordon Moore, III, Associate Justice, Minnesota Supreme Court; Susan Humiston, Director, Minnesota Office of Lawyers Professional Responsibility and Client Security Board; and Aram Desteian, Shareholder, Bassford Remele
  • Description: You may see the Supreme Court opinions on attorney discipline, but do you ever wonder how those cases get to the Court? This session will dive into the fascinating world of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction over attorney discipline just in time to help you obtain last minute ethics credits. With the help of fellow panelist, Justice Gordon Moore, III, will introduce you to the Court’s role and the role of various stakeholders in attorney discipline, and will explain how the Court applies its precedents to reach discipline decisions. The session will also cover the complaint handling and investigation process, and the various ways in which cases proceed through the discipline system. Finally, the session will provide advice for lawyers who receive a complaint and must navigate a process that is simultaneously unfamiliar and stress-inducing.
  • CLE Credit: One ethics CLE credit will be applied for.
  • Registration:  Please register using this webinar registration form. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. 

Recordings of past CLEs are available in our CLE Archive 

Please note: The views, opinions, and statements made at the CLE sessions are solely those of the speakers and do not reflect the views of the State Law Library or the Minnesota Judicial Branch. In order to provide these courses free of charge, the CLE speakers volunteer their time to prepare and present. They are not compensated by the State Law Library or Minnesota Judicial Branch.
Contact: Liz Reppe, State Law Librarian, 651-297-2089, liz.reppe@courts.state.mn.us.