A good time was had by all yesterday evening as I helped my old friend Randy Wilhite teach his Family Law class at the University of Houston Law Center.
Randy is one of the best family law practitioners in Texas, and he provides his students with a broad and useful curriculum of the myriad issues that they will confront in family law cases. The subject of this particular class was the impact that bankruptcy law and the risk of insolvency have on divorce cases, which is always a lively topic. Most of the students in the class had not yet taken bankruptcy law, but they caught on quickly and asked quite insightful questions regarding the interplay of insolvency and divorce law. You can download my PowerPoint presentation for the class here, which provides a basic introduction of bankruptcy law principles for Texas divorce cases.
Teaching the class yesterday reminded me to pass along a bang up new continuing education resource called Ten Minute Mentor, a free series of Web lectures that the Texas Young Lawyers Association and the Texas Bar CLE launched on March 1st with the well-thought out sales pitch of “Concise. Practical. Free.” Moreover, the program is not limited in any way and is available to lawyers and interested laypersons everywhere.
The Ten Minute Mentor is a library of short video presentations by some of the state’s best-known experts in various areas of law, firm management, and professional development. For example, longtime Houston trial lawyer Harry Reasoner describes how to structure a legal argument, while plaintiff’s lawyer extraordinaire Joe Jamail articulates his view of a lawyer’s role in society. The TYLA is actively adding to the video library, which already includes over 100 videos on various topics and can be searched by either speaker or category.
The Ten Minute Menton is another outstanding addition to the Texas Bar CLE’s continuing education program, which is becoming a model for such programs. Check it out.