3rd Annual Advanced Appellate Conference (Civil) (CA) (2018) (OnDemand Streaming or Recorded Packages)

What You Will Learn

• Statements of Decision: The Ideal and the Reality
• Why you need a statement of decision
• Getting trial lawyers and trial judges to do it right
• Objections to proposed statements of decision
• Handling appeals with defective or missing statements of decision
• Effect of F.P. v. Monier

Update on E-filing

The Appellate/Public Interface

• Judges using social media
• Litigating appellate cases in the press

The Effect of Appellate Decisions on Subsequent Litigation

• Remand and remittitur issues
• Using and avoiding the law of the case
• Update on issue and claim preclusion
• How electronic research has affected stare decisis

Appellate Strategy for Repeat Commercial and Institutional Litigants

• Addressing the client’s big picture
• Briefs as announcements
• Keeping friends close and amici closer

Stays, Bonding, and Supersedeas

• Stays without bonds
• What is “embraced in the judgment or affected thereby?
• Money judgments
• When appellant wrongly insists there is an automatic stay
  • Sections 917.75,  923,  917.6 and other discussions
• Setting bonds in other situations
• Bonds from insurance companies
• Alternatives to corporate undertakings
• Petitioning for supersedeas
• Enforcing undertakings

 

Testimonials

“Excellent content, expertly presented, excellent program! I’m trying to resume active appellate practice after years of preoccupation with family care issues – this program was a great start!” – Bruce Finch, Esq.

“Still one of the best CLE programs.” – Joshua R. Furman, Esq.

“Justice Rivera was very good, detailed, and interesting. Harry Chamberlain was a very good speaker. This was a terrific panel!” – Steve Mayer, Esq.

“Second year taking this course. Great information, speakers, and lots of ideas, tips and suggestions. Thanks, I’ll be back next year!” – John Stobart, Esq.

“Much better than the average MCLE courses. It was well thought out and well-presented. I look forward to taking more Pincus courses.” – Earl L. Roberts, Esq.

“It was an informative seminar, full of practical information. Excellent program.” – John Yasuda, Esq.

“This is a great advanced seminar. Very high-level, informative presentations.” – Tom Freeman, Esq.

“I attended last year’s appellate conference. It was so helpful and informative that I wanted to attend this year’s conference.” – Linda N. Wisotsky, Esq.

“Broader (and better) scope than expected. Another excellent program.” – Marisa Janine-Page, Esq.

“Having a ‘behind-the-scenes’ perspective on the appellate courts’ workings is very valuable. I handle 2-3 writs/appeals per month and this subject matter is useful. Very engaging speakers. The judicial perspective is highly informative.” – Sean Collins, Esq.

“The topics were interesting and helpful to my practice.” – Jessica Simon, Esq.

“All presenters are great. There were a lot of good nuggets that I will use in my practice.” – Linda Conrad, Esq.

“Excellent seminar. It’s one of the best I have attended.” – Bob Lucas, Esq.

“The program was excellent.” – Tom Freeman, Esq.

“A very good panel of speakers with good diversity in topics.” – Robert Mata, Esq.

“Thank you. The program, panelists, and participants were excellent.” – Teresa Stinson, Esq.

“Very useful, informative program. Every speaker was excellent!” – Kevin Meek, Esq.

“Great program.” – Sara Birmingham, Esq.

“Very satisfied with the program.” – Dennis Beaty, Esq.

“What I appreciate the most from these trainings is the multiple perspectives from various justices and practicing attorneys.” – Cynthia Vargas, Esq.

“A fast-moving program – covered a lot of ground.”  – Lisa Ungerer, Esq.

“This was an excellent program. Speakers did a great job.” – Christopher Johns

“Very thorough. Well done.” – Eric Troff, Esq.

“The opportunity to speak with justices is very helpful.” – Deborah Bull, Esq.

“All great topics.” – Richard P. Fisher, Esq.

“Excellent speakers…Great handouts.” – Ira Salzman, Esq.

“It’s great to have presentations targeting experienced appellate lawyers.  Tremendously useful.” – Tom Freeman, Esq.

“Wonderful!” – Chris Lim, Esq.

“I’m glad I came and definitely glad I joined the networking lunch.” – Rochelle Wilcox, Esq.

“Learned some good and valuable things.”  Lawrence P. Hellman, Esq.

“I liked hearing from the judges – it’s always interesting to hear their points of view.”

“I love Pincus-produced lectures and seminars. Excellent appellate information, very thorough handouts and materials.”

“I am a practicing appellate attorney and I heard good things about this seminar. All the speakers were very knowledgeable and presented well and kept my interest – and the materials in the appendix were very useful.”

“Great use of knowledgeable and credible presenters. Truly an excellent program; well-thought out with valuable information.”

“I chose this program because I’m a previous attendee and have enjoyed it.”

“Excellent program!”

“I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion during ethics, regarding plagiarism and ghost writing. I think it was the most interesting conversation all day.”

“Program was excellent – good speakers.”

“Really great presenters.”

“Excellent, informative, enjoyable – all of the speakers did a great job.”

“Another great program – you never disappoint.”

“Very good materials.”

“Excellent presentations.”

“Subject matter was great.”

“Excellent!”

“This program was great.”

“Really good, varied program.”

“Excellent program. I’ve just started appellate work and wanted to learn more. This program was quite good. Thank you!”

“Addressed the ‘advanced’ issues facing appellate attorneys. And, as always, presenters were knowledgeable.”

“Great seminar!! So much great, practical information I can use.”

“I love the format and the pace!”

“This was an excellent program. All speakers did a great job!”

“Very practical and would definitely attend again and recommend to others.”

“Very current and useful information.”

“Organization and administration were excellent and very efficient.”

“Organization and administration of program was excellent – very efficient.”

“Greg Wolff was worth the price of admission on his own.”

“All of the speakers were great.”

“Good, vigorous discussion.”

“Great program and location. The lunch itself was great, as was the opportunity to network.”

“Great seminar.”

Faculty

Los Angeles Faculty (Scroll down to see the San Francisco Faculty):

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Hon. Samantha Jessner
Assistant Supervising Judge, Civil Division
Superior Court of California, Los Angeles

Judge Jessner was appointed to the Los Angeles Superior Court in 2007.  She currently sits in Dept. 31 in the Stanley Mosk courthouse where she presides over an Unlimited Jurisdiction Independent Calendar courtroom.  She is the Assistant Supervising Judge of the Civil Division and the Coordinating Judge of the Hub courts (small claims, collections, and unlawful detainer).  She served as the Supervising Judge of the Mental Health courthouse and also served in the criminal division.

Judge Jessner is the Co-Chair of the Technology Committee for the Los Angeles Superior Court.  Judge Jessner also serves on the Civil subcommittee of the Operational Planning Committee, the governing committee of the Judicial Education Committee, the Civil subcommittee of the Judicial Education Committee, and she is Vice-Chair of the Civil and Small Claims Committee.

Judge Jessner serves on the Supreme Court committee on Judicial Ethics Opinions.  She also is a member of the Information Technology Advisory Committee (“ITAC”) of the Judicial Council and the Projects subcommittee.  Judge Jessner is a New Judge Orientation Instructor for CJER.  She is also an instructor for CJER’s QE6 ethics curriculum.  In addition, Judge Jessner teaches the Civil Law Update seminar for the Rutter Group.

Prior to joining the court, Judge Jessner was an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California (Los Angeles) for approximately 11 years.  Judge Jessner started her legal career as a litigation associate with the Los Angeles Office of Sheppard Mullin.  In between two tenures at the United States Attorney’s Office, she was in-house counsel for The Boeing Company and an Assistant Inspector General for the Los Angeles Police Commission.  Judge Jessner earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law.

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Hon. Kira L. Klatchko
Judge and Certified Legal Specialist in Appellate Law
Superior Court of California, Riverside County

Judge Kira Klatchko was appointed to Riverside County Superior Court in 2016. She currently sits in Palm Springs in an unlimited civil department.

Before joining the bench, Judge Klatchko was a Civil Appellate Law Specialist, certified by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization and handled both state and federal appeals arising from all areas of civil practice for clients as varied as cities, businesses and families. Judge Klatchko was a partner at Lewis Brisbois, and served as was vice chair of the firm’s national Appellate Practice Litigation group. Prior to joining Lewis Brisbois, Judge Klatchko was a partner at Best Best & Krieger where she served as chair of the firm’s appellate group. She served for six years on the State Bar of California’s Standing Committee on Appellate Courts, including a term as its chair.

Judge Klatchko is co-author of the “California” chapter of the “Appellate Practice Compendium” (ABA 2012), an insider’s guide to appellate practice. She is co-contributing editor of “California Civil Appeals and Writs” (Matthew Bender 2014), a comprehensive two-volume practice guide for appellate counsel and general litigators. Judge Klatchko was repeatedly named to the list of Super Lawyers for Southern California in Appellate Law. She is a former president of the Riverside County Bar Association, and previously served five terms as chair of the Riverside County Bar Association Appellate Section. Judge Klatchko was also a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers.

Judge Klatchko has served as an adjunct professor at La Verne College of Law, teaching legal research and writing. She has also lectured on appellate ethics and practice at numerous conferences and seminars, including the California State Bar Annual Convention, the State and Local Legal Center Supreme Court Practice Seminar, and Pincus Professional Education’s Annual Advanced Appellate Conferences in Los Angeles.  

In 2014, Judge Klatchko was inducted into the Desert Bar Association Hall of Fame, as Outstanding Young Attorney of the year. In 2010, Judge Klatchko was recognized by the City of Palm Springs and Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce with the Athena International Award for Young Professional Leadership, recognizing her professional success and work in the community. 

Judge Klatchko received her bachelor’s degree in political science, with distinction, from the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her master’s degree in business administration from the Executive Management Program at the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. She earned her law degree at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the U.C. Davis Journal of Juvenile Law & Policy.

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Honey Kessler Amado, Esq.
Certified Specialist: Appellate Law
Law Offices of Honey Kessler Amado

Honey Kessler Amado is a Beverly Hills-based certified appellate law specialist and legal consultant. She has been practicing law since 1977, and has beeen certified as an appellate law specialist, by the State Bar of California, since 1997.

She represents clients in family law appellate cases before the intermediate Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. In cases before the Courts of Appeal and California Supreme Court, she prepares all appellate briefs and pleadings and presents the oral argument. At the conclusion of the appeal, the case returns to trial counsel for any further trial court proceedings.

Although she does not represent clients before the trial-court, Honey Kessler Amado is often part of litigation teams in the trial-court to assist in identifying issues, in creating a sufficient record of appeal, in drafting memoranda on evolving or complex legal issues, or in writing or helping to draft post-judgment pleadings and motions.

She has also written and lectured extensively on issues of concern to family law or appellate law practitioners in general. She have been a Guest Adjunct Professor at the University of Osijek and a Guest Lecturer at California State University Northridge.

She enjoys an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell and is honored to have been named as a Super Lawyer of Southern California in appellate law each year since 2005.

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Pablo Drobny, Esq.
Counsel
Complex Appellate Litigation Group, LLP

Pablo Drobny served as a lead appellate research and writs attorney for more than 36 years. Assigned to Division Seven of the California Court of Appeal’s Second District, Pablo analyzed thousands of appeals and writ petitions, in every conceivable area of law and at every stage of civil and criminal litigation.

He personally played a pivotal role in the development of writ practice in California appellate courts. Alone responsible for handling all writ petitions assigned to Division Seven for much of his career, Pablo gained a deep understanding of extraordinary writ relief and innovated creative procedural devices to streamline writ procedures in California appellate courts. One of those devices is now commonly known as the “suggestive Palma” practice, which was approved by the California Supreme Court and is currently utilized statewide as a method of granting expeditious writ relief to litigants. Pablo also routinely advised justices about complex appellate motions and orders, including motions to dismiss appeals, view sealed transcripts, take judicial notice, augment the appellate record, and file amicus briefs.

Pablo is also heavily involved in judicial education, and taught many California appellate justices the approaches they still use to decide cases. He has served on dozens of planning committees for the courts’ annual Judicial Attorney Institutes, chaired the statewide Appellate Judicial Attorneys Education Committee, developed broadcasts for judicial attorneys and non-attorney staff with the Center for Judiciary Education and Research, and regularly gave educational presentations to Supreme Court and Court of Appeal justices and their staff. Pablo is a frequent lecturer and panelist on the writ process and on other facets of civil and criminal appellate law and procedure. His presentations include programs at annual meetings of the California State Bar, the California Judges Association, the California Public Defenders Association, the Lawyers’ Club of Los Angeles, The Rutter Group, Pincus Professional Education, and other bar associations and Inns of Court statewide. He has been guest lecturer at Loyola Law School and annual lecturer for the law school extern program at the Second District.

Pablo received his J.D. with honors from Harvard Law School. Before commencing his career at the Court of Appeal, he practiced with Perkins Coie LLP and as corporate counsel for U.S. companies doing business in developing countries. He earned his B.A. with highest honors from Johns Hopkins University, where he captained the soccer team, was selected as an All-American, and was later admitted to the Johns Hopkins Athletic Hall of Fame. He also received an NCAA postgraduate scholarship, awarded to just 22 scholar-athletes nationwide.

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Wendy C. Lascher, Esq.
Partner/Certified Legal Specialist in Appellate Law
Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLP

Though Wendy Lascher is one of California’s best-known appellate lawyers, her work on behalf of clients often begins well before an appeal. By crafting motions and consulting on trial strategy, Wendy helps clients either avoid appeals in the first place, or to be well-positioned to win cases on appeal. 

After nearly four-decades at her appellate-focused boutique, Lascher & Lascher, Wendy brought her practice to Ferguson Case Orr Paterson in 2011. She brought with her a California State Bar-certified appellate specialty in which she has represented clients in front of the United States Supreme Court, many times before the California Supreme Court, multiple U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, and in every California Court of Appeal district. She has also handled cases in state and federal trial courts. 

Wendy has handled a wide range of appeals involving multinational corporations, municipalities and other government entities, complex family law, Death Row and other criminal cases, employment, real estate development, bankruptcies and other matters. 

Previously a president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers and of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, she regularly features in Los Angeles Magazine’s "Super Lawyers" roundups of top lawyers as well as its listings of the "Top 100 Southern California Super Lawyers" and "Top 50 Women Super Lawyers," and she is Av-Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbard. She also regularly lectures at the Ventura and Santa Barbara Colleges of Law and regularly speaks about appellate law and other matters for a variety of legal organizations. Widely published in legal journals, she is also the long-time editor of CITATIONS, the newsletter of the Ventura County Bar Association. 

Wendy has been a mentor with the Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Ventura County since 2008. She has also served as a board member at First National Bank of Ventura, Channel Counties Legal Services, the KCLU advisory board, and the Planned Parenthood Ventura Advisory Council. When not working or volunteering, Wendy enjoys gardening, early morning workouts, hiking, and spending time with her family. She is also a student pilot and expects to acquire her private pilot’s license in 2017. 

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Robin Meadow, Esq.
Partner/Certified Appellate Specialist
Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP

Few appellate specialists have successfully tried a jury case.  Robin Meadow tried jury cases for over 20 years at a major commercial firm, while also handling appeals, in many fields of law.  Over time, he realized that it’s nearly impossible to excel at both trials and appeals, because the skill sets and practice rhythms differ completely and often clash. Concluding that his greatest strengths lay in appellate work, Robin joined GMSR in 1994, handling his last trial late that year.

Robin’s trial-court experience gives him a unique perspective on appellate work.  He understands the demands and pressures trial lawyers face and the many ways that things can go wrong in the trial court.  And he is very much at home consulting with trial lawyers during trial, helping them protect their appellate record so they’re well positioned to either preserve a victory or overturn a defeat.

Robin’s practice at GMSR continues the substantive focus he developed in his earlier years—business disputes, real estate, partnerships, and probate and entertainment law.  But, like most appellate lawyers, he is a generalist and at GMSR has also handled multiple significant appeals involving healthcare, family law, personal injury and bankruptcy.

He is also an expert in technology for appellate lawyers and courts.  A pioneer in the use of electronic records and briefs, Robin co-authored the California Second District Court of Appeal’s first protocol for electronic briefs (since adopted by other California Courts of Appeal), and he filed the first electronic brief ever accepted by a California appellate court.

When he isn’t practicing law, he enjoys spending time with his family, reading about history and playing bass guitar in a rock band.

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Lisa Perrochet, Esq.
Partner
Horvitz & Levy, LLP

Lisa Perrochet is a partner at Horvitz & Levy, the largest firm in the nation specializing exclusively in civil appeals.  She has been a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist since the first year the State Bar offered certification in 1996.  Ms. Perrochet has represented clients in hundreds of appeals and writ proceedings, and has argued before the California Supreme Court and intermediate appellate courts throughout the state. She has also handled matters in other jurisdictions, notably Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Hawaii. 

Ms. Perrochet is active in the legal community, including as a Fellow of the prestigious American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, as the longest tenured board member of the Association of Southern California Defense Counsel, and as a decades-long member of the Los Angeles County Bar Appellate Courts Section.  She is the head of her firm’s professional responsibility and conflicts programming, and has built a reputation for creativity and success in high stakes appellate litigation in a variety of practice areas, including  defense against toxic tort and product liability claims; punitive damages claims; consumer claims against banks and other institutions; insurance coverage and bad faith litigation; as well as professional liability (medical and legal malpractice) and ethics matters.

 

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Kent L. Richland, Esq.
Founding Partner
Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP

Kent Richland has been an appellate lawyer since he graduated from UCLA Law School in 1971.   In 1983, Kent was one of the founding partners of Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland, LLP.

Kent has been lead appellate counsel in hundreds of appeals.  He has argued in state and federal appellate courts across the country, including many high-profile cases in both the California Supreme Court and the United States Supreme Court.  He gained national prominence in 2006 for his United States Supreme Court argument in Marshall v. Marshall, in which he successfully represented the late Anna Nicole Smith.

Kent is a frequent lecturer and author on appellate law topics and is co-author, with Presiding Justice J. Anthony Kline of the California Court of Appeal, of West’s California Litigation Forms B Civil Appeals and Writs.  He has served as president of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and multiple terms as president of the California Supreme Court Historical Society.  He was selected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation and the Litigation Counsel of America.

Among the honors he has received are the California Lawyer Magazine’s California Lawyer of the Year award in both 2007 and 2010, Best Lawyers’ Los Angeles Appellate Lawyer of the Year Award in 2015, multiple years’ recognition by the Los Angeles Daily Journal as one of the top 100 lawyers in California, multiple years’ recognition as one of the top 100 Southern California Superlawyers and recognition by Chambers USA as one of five “Band One” appellate lawyers in California.

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Benjamin G. Shatz, Esq.
Partner, Certified Legal Specialist in Appellate Law
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP

Ben Shatz is a certified specialist in appellate law who has briefed hundreds of civil appeals, writs and petitions in state and federal courts covering areas of law including employment, entertainment, copyright, trademark, land use, banking, insurance, product liability, professional liability, wrongful death, punitive damages, class actions, anti-SLAPP and unfair competition. Before private practice he served as law clerk to Robert J. Johnston, United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Nevada, and as extern to Dorothy W. Nelson, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Ben is Editor-in-Chief of California Litigation, the journal of the State Bar’s Litigation Section, chairs the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s State Appellate Judicial Evaluations Committee and serves on the executive committee of LACBA’s Appellate Courts Section. He is a past Chair of the State Bar Committee on Appellate Courts and the LACBA Appellate Courts Committee.

Since 2005, Ben has coordinated lawyer volunteers for the ACE (Appellate Court Experience) program, in which high school students visit the Second District Court of Appeal, for which he was honored as Lawyer of the Year (Private Sector 2008) by the Constitutional Rights Foundation. He has been named a Southern California Super Lawyer in Appellate Practice (2004-2015); listed in Best Lawyers in America for appellate practice (2012-2015); and is AV-Preeminent rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Ben is a frequent lecturer and publisher of articles on appellate practice, is an editorial consultant for the Matthew Bender Practice Guide on California Civil Appeals & Writs, and blogs at Southern California Appellate News (http://socal-appellate.blogspot.com).

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John A. Taylor, Jr., Esq.
Partner, Certified Legal Specialist in Appellate Law
Horvitz & Levy LLP

John Taylor is a partner at Horvitz & Levy, where he has been practicing since 1993.  He is a California State Bar Certified Appellate Specialist.

Mr. Taylor has been lead appellate counsel in dozens of appeals in a wide variety of areas (his name currently appears on over 40 published opinions and many more unpublished opinions), including matters involving entertainment law, the right of publicity, the Unfair Competition Law (UCL), breach of contract, insurance coverage, wage and hour law, employment discrimination, personal injury, California’s “lemon law,” arbitration awards, and trusts and estates.

In 2012, Mr. Taylor was lead counsel in Don Johnson Productions, Inc. v. Rysher Entertainment, obtaining a million reduction of a million judgment against his client.  Mr. Taylor has also participated in numerous cases before the California Supreme Court, and in 2009 was lead counsel in obtaining a closely watched decision overturning a million judgment against a coffee manufacturer for the unauthorized use of the plaintiff’s photograph on the label of its coffee jar. In addition, he has authored amicus curiae briefs in the California Supreme Court on issues such as evidentiary requirements in product liability and wage and hour litigation; the scope and application of Proposition 64’s amendments to the UCL; public policy issues arising out of subcontractor indemnity provisions in residential construction contracts; the constitutionality of Proposition 5, the Indian gaming initiative; and the validity of the Seaman’s tort. 

Mr. Taylor is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers and the Los Angeles County Bar Appellate Courts Section. In 2007, Mr. Taylor was appointed by Chief Justice Ronald George to serve on the Judicial Council Appellate Advisory Committee of California, as one of the three private civil attorneys on the committee, and in 2010 was reappointed to a second term.

In 2009, Mr. Taylor was named to the Top 100 list of leading lawyers in California by the Los Angeles & San Francisco Daily Journal. He is “AV Preeminent” rated by Martindale Hubbell, has been listed every year since 2006 as a Super Lawyer and as a “Best Lawyer” by The Best Lawyers in America, and was included among the overall Top 100 Southern California lawyers for 2011 by Super Lawyers magazine. In 1994, Mr. Taylor was honored as the “Outstanding Young Lawyer” of the year by the Los Angeles Chapter of the J. Reuben Clark Law Society.

Mr. Taylor received his Bachelor of Arts from Brigham Young University (summa cum laude) and his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School (magna cum laude). Following law school, he held a judicial clerkship with the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham, U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. Before joining the firm, Mr. Taylor was a litigation associate with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP. He is admitted to practice in the California and Utah state courts, the United States Supreme Court, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

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Greg E. Wolff, Esq.

Complex Appellate Litigation Group, LLP

Greg spent nearly three decades in the chambers of four different California Supreme Court justices, analyzing thousands of petitions for review, evaluating hundreds of Supreme Court briefs, and helping the justices draft scores of opinions and orders. He served as a Senior Judicial Attorney for retired Chief Justice Ron George for 10 years, the Head of Chambers for Justice Carlos Moreno for 10 years, the same role for Justice Goodwin Liu for 3 years, and then again for Justice Leondra Kruger for 4 years. All told, over 27 years, Greg gained deep insight into how the Court functions as an institution and how its individual justices reach decisions — along with how best to persuade them. Greg also served for four years as a research attorney at the California Court of Appeal.

He became the Supervisor of the Appellate Section of the Criminal Branch and handled appeals for the Civil Liability Section. In those roles, Greg argued before the California Supreme Court in Serna v. Superior Court (1985) 40 Cal.3d 239, and obtained nine published opinions from the California Courts of Appeal, as well as 12 by the Appellate Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Greg has given dozens of continuing education programs on persuasive writing and the inner workings of the California Supreme Court. As an Adjunct Professor at Hastings College of the Law for 18 years, Greg taught Moot Court as well as Legal Research and Writing, helping students to understand how to analyze complex legal issues and express themselves clearly orally and in writing. 

Greg is a former Executive Committee-member of the CLA Litigation Section’s Committee on Appellate Courts. He also was on the Board of Directors of the Marin County Bar Association. Greg is a graduate of Southwestern Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA.

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San Francisco Faculty:

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Hon. Elena J. Duarte
Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal
Third Appellate District

Justice Duarte was unanimously confirmed by the Commission on Judicial Appointments on December 10, 2010, as an Associate Justice on the Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District.  Before she was elevated to the Court of Appeal, she was a Judge of the Sacramento County Superior Court from June 2008 to December 2010, and also a Judge of the Los Angeles County Superior Court from April 2007 to June 2008.  Before becoming a judge, she was a federal criminal prosecutor for 14 years in Sacramento, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C.

Active in her community, Justice Duarte regularly presides over local and national mock trial and moot court competitions for students from eighth grade through law school. She has mentored law students and young lawyers through her membership in various organizations and regularly visits high school classrooms to support government and civics education. She is a member of the steering committee of Operation Protect and Defend, a Sacramento-based organization of judges, lawyers, and teachers dedicated to promoting civics education for high school students. She is the immediate past President of the Anthony M. Kennedy American Inn of Court, an organization of judges, attorneys, and law students dedicated to promoting civility, ethics, and professionalism in the legal community, and continues as a member of the Inn’s Executive Committee.

In May 2015, Governor Brown appointed Justice Duarte to the Commission on Uniform State Laws.  She is also currently a member of the Judicial Council Advisory Committee on Civil Jury Instructions (CACI), the State-Federal Judicial Council, and the Center for Judicial Education and Research (CJER) Criminal Curriculum Committee. She is on the Third Appellate District’s Technology and Outreach Committees, and was on the Board of Directors for the California Bar Foundation from 2013 through 2015.

Born and raised in San Jose, California, Justice Duarte attended the Conservatory of Music at the University of the Pacific from 1984-1986. After receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Southern California (USC) in 1989, she obtained her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1992.

Upon graduation from Stanford, Justice Duarte moved from California to Washington, D.C., as one of 12 graduating law students selected nationwide to participate in the Attorney General’s Honor Program, Criminal Division, at the United States Department of Justice. While at the Department of Justice in Washington, she served as a Special Assistant United States Attorney, where she prosecuted criminal cases in the District of Columbia Superior Court.

In 1994, Justice Duarte returned to California as an Assistant United States Attorney in Sacramento from 1994-2000, prosecuting a wide variety of federal crimes from investigation through appeal. In 2000, she relocated to the Los Angeles Office of the United States Attorney, where she worked as an Assistant United States Attorney, first in the Major Frauds Section and later in the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section, becoming Section Chief in 2005. During her time in the Los Angeles office, she prosecuted complex fraud cases as well as all types of cyber and intellectual property rights crimes from investigation through appeal. While a federal prosecutor, she received numerous awards and commendations, including her September 2005 selection by the Daily Journal as one of the top 75 female litigators in California.

Justice Duarte has been an instructor of judicial education and has taught, lectured, and presented alone or as a panel member at Stanford Law School, San Francisco School of Law, University of Southern California Law Center, Santa Clara Law School, Loyola Law School, Southwestern Law School, King Hall at U.C. Davis, and Pacific McGeorge Law School, where she was an adjunct professor 2009-2010.

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Hon. Daniel H. Bromberg
Justice
California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District

Daniel H. Bromberg was appointed to the Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, by Governor Gavin Newsom in January 2023. 

From 2019 to 2021, Justice Bromberg served as a Deputy Secretary for Legal Affairs in the Governor’s Office, where he supervised lawyers in the California Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resource Agency, Department of Transportation, and Department of Food and Agriculture. During this period, Justice Bromberg also supervised litigation concerning, among other things, the border wall and COVID-19 restrictions. 

Both before and after serving in the Governor’s Office, Justice Bromberg was in private practice. He began his career as an associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel in New York, working primarily on First Amendment matters. He subsequently moved to JonesDay in Washington, D.C., where he became a partner in the appellate practice. In 2005, he moved to California to join Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, where he helped found the appellate practice group and remained until joining the Governor’s Office. After leaving the Governor’s Office, Justice Bromberg joined Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in San Francisco as the head of the firm’s appellate practice. 

Mr. Bromberg graduated summa cum laude with a B.A. in history from Yale University and magna cum laude with a J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review. He clerked for the Honorable Louis F. Oberdorfer on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia Circuit and then for the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph on the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

Justice Bromberg has taught continuing legal education classes on writing and appellate practice. In addition, in 2021 and 2022, he was a senior research fellow at the California Constitution Center at the Berkeley School of Law. During the same period he was a senior appellate practice fellow in the Center for Litigation and the Courts at UC College of the Law, San Francisco and the founding director of the California Appellate Advocacy Project. 

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Efrat M. Cogan, Esq.
Of Counsel
Buchalter

Efrat M. Cogan is certified as an Appellate Specialist by the California State Bar of Legal Specialization. As detailed below, she has handled appeals before a variety of courts and on a wide range of subjects, including land use, real estate disputes, probate matters, sports law, commercial law, products liability and employment law.

In addition to appellate work, Ms. Cogan’s practice involves litigation in various areas, including the following:  land use disputes, real estate litigation, including construction litigation, nuisance litigation, and easement litigation.  Having previously represented both municipalities and developers, she has experience in governmental and constitutional law.  She also has experience with commercial litigation, sports law, copyright litigation and class action litigation.

Ms. Cogan has written “Executive Nonacquiescence: Problems of Statutory Interpretation and Separation of Powers,” 60 Southern California Law Review 1143, 1987. She has contributed to the California Municipal Law Handbook, published by the California League of Cities, and has co-authored “The ‘Empire’ Strikes Back: Effective Use of the False Claims Act” (2005).  She has written articles for the Business Law News relating to unfair competition claims, and health law.

Ms. Cogan has been selected by Super Lawyer Magazine as one of Southern California’s Super Lawyers from 2004-2006 and 2008-2021 and was included in “Top 50 Women in Law” of Southern California. She was also recognized by Super Lawyer Magazine as a Southern California Super Lawyer, Corporate Counsel Edition from 2009 to 2010. Ms. Cogan currently serves on the California State Bar’s Advisory Commission.

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Laurie Hepler, Esq.
Partner/Certified Appellate Specialist
Greines, Martin, Stein & Richland LLP

Laurie Hepler is a leading San Francisco appellate lawyer, who collaborates with clients to address all aspects of the appellate process objectively and strategically.  For over two decades, Laurie has helped trial counsel, corporate counsel, insurers and individuals keep their wins, reverse their losses, and develop the law.  Successful first- and second-chair trial experience back up her appellate expertise.

Clients retain Laurie as their appellate lawyer in state and federal courts throughout California and the U.S.  Her clients’ appellate matters span a wide range of subjects, including product liability, insurance coverage, contract disputes, construction defect, errors and omissions, and unfair competition.  But the subject counts less than the forum: appellate courts know Laurie, and she knows them.

Laurie has been honored with two prestigious California Lawyer Attorneys of the Year (“CLAY”) Awards, for two California Supreme Court wins.  She is a member of the highly selective California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, and is certified as an Appellate Specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.

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Susan Horst, Esq.
Counsel
Complex Appellate Litigation Group, LLP

Susan Horst is a specialist in writs of mandamus and prohibition in the California appellate courts. For more than 31 years, Susan served as the writ attorney for the California Court of Appeal for the First District, Division One, in San Francisco. Susan is one of the only practicing attorneys in California to have devoted virtually her entire career to appellate writs. As writ attorney in the First District, Susan evaluated thousands of pre- and post- trial writ petitions in all types of civil and criminal matters. In the process, she learned precisely what the justices on the Court of Appeal look for before taking the extraordinary step of granting writ relief — and what an opposing party needs to highlight to have the best shot at getting a petition denied.

Susan’s three decades at the Court of Appeal gave her both extensive writing experience and a wide-ranging knowledge of substantive law. Susan’s casework ran the gamut from business and commercial litigation, to personal injury and employment matters, to real estate, insurance, and products liability cases, to professional negligence, disqualification, and privilege issues. The procedural postures of the writ petitions she handled were equally wide-ranging, and included pleading defects and class certification, sealing of court records, discovery disputes, summary judgment, settlement, and enforcement of judgments.

Her practice today focuses on writ petition consulting in the appellate courts and trial court work in anticipation of writ relief. Susan also lectures widely on writ practice and procedure. She has presented seminars to the San Francisco City Attorney, District Attorney and Public Defender Offices, the State Bar of California, California Continuing Education of the Bar, The Rutter Group, PINCUS Professional Education, bar associations across California, and the Center for Judicial Education and Research. She is the co-author of Chapters for Continuing Education of the Bar publications, as well as training materials for numerous continuing education lectures.

Susan’s career at the Court of Appeal followed motion and jury trial skills she developed early on as an Assistant District Attorney in San Francisco. She holds her J.D. from the Santa Clara University School of Law, where she graduated summa cum laude — even though she attended law school part-time at night, while working as a full-time administrator at Stanford University during the day. She also has her B.A. in English from Stanford.

In her spare time ,she also volunteers on the Advisory Board of Advokids, a foster children’s advocacy group, and provides pro bono advice and representation through the Advokids Appellate Project.

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Anna-Rose Mathieson, Esq.
Partner
Complex Appellate Litigation Group, LLP

Anna-Rose served as a law clerk to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, taught appellate writing at Stanford Law School, is certified as an appellate specialist by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California, and is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers. The Daily Journal named her one of the Top Women Attorneys in California three times.

Her appeals have ranged across topics as varied as employment law, jurisdiction, antitrust, products liability, and constitutional law. She understands cutting-edge technology issues, having litigated significant copyright and trademark appeals. She has worked on numerous criminal cases and taught criminal law at the University of Michigan Law School. And she knows how to obtain review at the highest level, authoring U.S. Supreme Court petitions for certiorari and merits briefs on a wide range of issues.

Anna-Rose frequently works with trial counsel to brief critical motions, advise on jury instructions, and preserve arguments for appeal. She also helps obtain appellate review of interlocutory issues before a trial court case is final, and often works closely with the firm’s writ specialists on California writ petitions. 

Anna-Rose is also known for her robust amicus practice. Her recent amici briefs include an in-depth empirical examination of patent inter partes review for national health insurance companies (brief available here), a historical analysis in the Trump travel ban case (brief here), and a law and economics brief in a union fees case (brief here). Several of Anna-Rose’s amicus briefs have received substantial news coverage, including one discussed and quoted by The Economist (see the brief here) and another discussed in The New York Times (click here for article).

Anna-Rose serves on a number of legal committees and appears often in the press. She is on the Board of Directors of the Family Violence Appellate Project, on the Amicus Committee of California Women Lawyers, and on the Executive Committee of the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Appellate Section. She previously served as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the American Bar Association’s Appellate Practice Journal and President/Board Chair for the Family Violence Appellate Project. She appears on radio, television, panels, and podcasts to discuss breaking issues of appellate and constitutional law, and writes articles for The Recorder, Daily Journal, California Litigation Review, and other legal publications.

Anna-Rose graduated first in her class at the University of Michigan Law School. She was a Darrow Scholar and won more than a dozen awards in law school, including the school’s highest honor (the Bates Scholarship). She also served as Articles Editor and Symposium Coordinator for the Michigan Law Review. After law school she clerked for Chief Judge Michael Boudin of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and then for Justice Ginsburg.

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T. Peter Pierce, Esq.
Certified Appellate Specialist
Richards, Watson & Gershon

T. Peter Pierce is a shareholder specializing in writs and appeals. Mr. Pierce, a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, is certified as a specialist in appellate law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He has been recognized as a Southern California Super Lawyer in appellate law in seven of the eight years from 2009 to 2016. 

Mr. Pierce represents public agencies and private clients across a broad range of cases involving business disputes, land use and zoning, inverse condemnation, constitutional law, telecommunications law, fair housing law, redevelopment dissolution, elections law, CEQA and other areas. He has litigated cases at the merits stage before the Supreme Court of the United States and the California Supreme Court. Mr. Pierce frequently appears before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the many divisions of the California Court of Appeal.

Mr. Pierce served on the California State Bar Appellate Law Advisory Commission from 2011 to 2014. He is a past Chair of the California State Bar Standing Committee on Appellate Courts on which he served from 2006-2010. Mr. Pierce is a member of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s appellate courts section.

Mr. Pierce is a contributing author of the following CEB treaties: 

California Civil Appellate Practice (3d ed.)

California Civil Writ Practice (4th ed.)

California Administrative Mandamus (3d ed.)

Outside of his law practice, Mr. Pierce serves on the Board of Governors of the LGBT Bar Association of Los Angeles. He is an avid triathlete and in each of the last four years completed a 549-mile, seven-day bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles, raising over ,000 for charity in the process. He competed in and finished his first half-ironman triathlon in Utah in May 2015. 

Immediately following law school, Mr. Pierce served as a law clerk to the Honorable Marcel Livaudais, Jr. on the United States District Court in New Orleans.

Before attending law school, Mr. Pierce was a broadcast journalist.

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Beth Robbins
Assistant Clerk/Administrator
California Court of Appeal, First District

Beth Robbins began working at the Court of Appeal in 1997 as a judicial assistant and moved into the clerk’s office as a deputy clerk shortly thereafter, where she worked in Divisions One and Three.  She became Supervising Deputy Clerk in February 2007, and Assistant Clerk/Administrator in January 2017.  She is involved in several work group focused on enhancing the court’s case management and electronic filing systems, and is a member of the Appellate Advisory Committee to the Judicial Council.  Prior to working at the court, Beth worked as a litigation paralegal for seven years in Los Angeles.  

 

 

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Gary A. Watt, Esq.
Partner
Hanson Bridgett

Gary serves as Chair of the firm’s Appellate Practice. He is a State Bar approved Certified Appellate Specialist, handling writs and appeals in all of the California appellate courts, including the California Supreme Court and the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. His practice also includes dispositive motions such as SLAPP, summary judgment, and post-trial motions. His appellate experience gives him unique insights into complex cases and esoteric disputes. He excels at issue spotting and arrives at thoughtful solutions to business problems. His practice includes risk management such as interpreting contracts, indemnity provisions, and more.

A passionate appellate lawyer and law professor, Gary has been on the faculty at U.C. Hastings College of the Law since 2001 teaching various appellate law courses and coaching intercollegiate moot court competition teams. Consistent with Hanson Bridgett’s commitment to pro bono work, Gary currently serves as Director of U.C. Hastings’ Ninth Circuit clinical program: the Hastings Appellate Project. As Director, he supervises law students in the pro bono legal representation of appellants. He is also a frequent lecturer at MCLE presentations throughout the Bay Area, and has taught hundreds of lawyers over the years on a vast array of appellate and litigation best practices.

Gary is also Chair of the Contra Costa County Bar Association’s appellate practice section. A prolific writer, Gary is a frequent contributor to the Daily Journal, The Recorder, and other legal publications, with over 75 published articles to date. 

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Stacy Wheeler
Supervising Deputy Clerk
First District Court of Appeal

Stacy Wheeler began working at the Court of Appeal as a deputy clerk for Division Two in 2004, and remains assigned to that division.  In January 2017, she was promoted to Supervising Deputy Clerk.  She is involved in various work groups focused on staff training and information sharing among the appellate districts.  Before joining the court, she served as a legal secretary for an Administrative Law Judge at the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board in San Francisco for 7 years. She also worked as legal secretary at the Department of Workers’ Compensation Administration for 5 years. 

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Don Willenburg, Esq.
Partner
Gordon Rees

Don Willenburg is a partner in Gordon & Rees’s Oakland and San Francisco offices, and leader of the firm’s Appellate Practice Group.  He is past chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and presently chair of the amicus briefs committee of the Association of Defense Counsel of Northern California and Nevada. Mr. Willenburg has extensive experience in appeals and writs in a variety of substantive areas of the law, including asbestos and silica litigation; employment; construction; bankruptcy and financial reorganizations; insurance coverage disputes; and entertainment and intellectual property transactions.

Mr. Willenburg has guest lectured at the University of Southern California and Pepperdine Law Schools, and has served as a moot court justice at a number of law schools in Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has volunteered as judge pro tem and as a Penal Code section 1524 special master.

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Greg E. Wolff, Esq.

Complex Appellate Litigation Group, LLP

Greg spent nearly three decades in the chambers of four different California Supreme Court justices, analyzing thousands of petitions for review, evaluating hundreds of Supreme Court briefs, and helping the justices draft scores of opinions and orders. He served as a Senior Judicial Attorney for retired Chief Justice Ron George for 10 years, the Head of Chambers for Justice Carlos Moreno for 10 years, the same role for Justice Goodwin Liu for 3 years, and then again for Justice Leondra Kruger for 4 years. All told, over 27 years, Greg gained deep insight into how the Court functions as an institution and how its individual justices reach decisions — along with how best to persuade them. Greg also served for four years as a research attorney at the California Court of Appeal.

He became the Supervisor of the Appellate Section of the Criminal Branch and handled appeals for the Civil Liability Section. In those roles, Greg argued before the California Supreme Court in Serna v. Superior Court (1985) 40 Cal.3d 239, and obtained nine published opinions from the California Courts of Appeal, as well as 12 by the Appellate Division of the Los Angeles Superior Court.

Greg has given dozens of continuing education programs on persuasive writing and the inner workings of the California Supreme Court. As an Adjunct Professor at Hastings College of the Law for 18 years, Greg taught Moot Court as well as Legal Research and Writing, helping students to understand how to analyze complex legal issues and express themselves clearly orally and in writing. 

Greg is a former Executive Committee-member of the CLA Litigation Section’s Committee on Appellate Courts. He also was on the Board of Directors of the Marin County Bar Association. Greg is a graduate of Southwestern Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science from UCLA.

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Fees

Seminar Materials are included with OnDemand and all recorded package options.

OnDemand Streaming!  On-Demand Streaming allows for a single person to view the seminar unlimited times until one year after the seminar is held.

Recorded Packages!  Recorded Packages allow for a single person to download and view the program recording and are also available via DVD or CD.

Discounted rates are available for 2-4 attorneys at your firm.  Licenses are available for law firms or agencies that would like to distribute the video package or OnDemand Streaming access to more than four attorneys at their firm or agency.

Fees:

OnDemand Streaming:  $429

Recorded Packages via Download or CD/DVDs:

Video Recording – DVD or Download: $429

Audio Only (for in your car, etc.) Recording – CD or Download:  $429

Order both the Video and Audio Only Packages for only $50 more – Download, DVD or CD: $479

$10 shipping and sales tax (in California) are added at checkout to DVD/CD orders.

Your OnDemand access is good for up to one-year from the time of purchase.  Please be sure to select OnDemand Streaming to the right and check out. OnDemand can be watched from any type of device.

*The Video recording is a video of the webinar (with sound). The Audio Only recording are audio files only and are for those who wish to listen to it without watching a video (such as in the car or while walking).

Note: OnDemand Streaming can be watched from any device. However, all download packages must be downloaded to a computer first, before transferring them to another device due to downloading as zip files containing both the video/audio and a large folder with seminar materials contained in the download package.

 

CLE Credit

This program is available for both Self-Study and General Participatory CLE.*

CA General:  This program is approved for 6.5 units of general CLE in California.

CA Self Study (only) Certified Legal Specialist:  This program is approved for 6.5 units of Certified Legal Specialist CLE in California in Appellate Law. (Expires 01/26/2023)

CA Participatory Certified Legal Specialist:  This program is approved for 6.5 units of Certified Legal Specialist CLE in California in Appellate Law. (Expires 01/26/2020)

*General Participatory CLE:  For those states that make a distinction between self-study and Participatory CLE (CA, IL, NY), please write down the Verification Codes read out during the program by speakers or our announcer and email them to us at info@pincusproed.com and we will issue your Participatory CLE certificate.

 

This program is approved for CLE in the states listed above.  Upon request, Pincus Pro Ed will provide any information an attorney needs to support their application for CLE approval in other states other than what is listed above.

 

Terms and Policies

Recording policy: No audio or video recording of any program is permitted.

Seminar Cancellations: Should you be unable to attend for any reason, please inform us in writing no later than 14 days prior to the event and a credit voucher will be issued. If you prefer, a refund, less a $50 non-refundable deposit, will be issued. No refunds or credits will be given for cancellations received within 14 days of an event. However, if you notify us within 14 days of an event, and wish to convert your in-person attendance registration to an Audio CD package (with handout), we can do so. A small additional shipping charge, and sales tax in CA, will be incurred. No shipping charge is incurred for downloads. We will also issue a voucher for the amount paid if you notify us within 14 days and prefer not to have the audio recording.

Substitutions may be made at any time.

Webinars, Tele-seminars and Webcast Cancellations: Once log-in codes and passwords are issued for a webinar, tele-seminars or webcasts, a refund is not possible. If for any reason you cannot attend the event after you have received the codes, we will automatically convert your registration to an instant streaming/instant download or CD format and provide you with the information you need to access the recording after the program concludes and the recording is available.  Conversions to CD require a $8.50 shipping fee, and in CA, 9% sales tax.

Downloads/CDs/DVDs – Refund policy:

Downloads are non-returnable/non-refundable once purchased and received. Tapes, CDs and DVDs are returnable for a full refund or replacement if defective, within 90 days of purchase.

Reminder: The room temperature at hotels and other seminar locations are notoriously hard to control. Please bring a sweater or jacket in case it gets cold and/or layer as if you are going to the movies so you are comfortable.