DTCI conference looks to ‘Ted Lasso’ for tips

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(Photo courtesy of Apple TV+)

Attorneys who defend clients against civil litigation will gather in South Bend November 20-22 for the 31st annual Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana conference, held at the Morris Inn on the campus of the University of Notre Dame.

The conference is a chance for attorneys to connect with their peers while improving their career skills in and out of the courtroom.

“It’s a good, well-rounded program,” said Jim Strenski, conference chair for the event.

This year’s conference includes several breakout sessions focused on topics important to defense attorneys’ practices, including health care and employment, construction and business litigation, insurance and product liability, and trial tactics.

Attendees will also participate in a discussion on the attorney shortage in the state, featuring a member of the Commission on Indiana’s Legal Future.

In October, the Indiana Supreme Court approved several tactics to address the attorney shortage, including a grant program to support lawyers working in areas of high legal need and the introduction of a regulatory sandbox pilot program for legal services offered through non-attorneys.

“That’s a topic that goes beyond just defense counsel, but all counsel,” Strenski said of the shortage.

Attorneys attending the two-day conference can earn 12 continuing legal education credit hours during their time in South Bend.

Appeals on Wheels stops in South Bend

The Indiana Court of Appeals will also make a stop in South Bend to hear an appeals case in front of defense attorneys as part of its Appeals on Wheels program.

Indiana Court of Appeals Judges Nancy Vaidik, Melissa May and Mary DeBoer will hear arguments for The City of South Bend, Indiana v. Victor C. Cao, et al.

In the original complaint, filed in August 2020, plaintiff Victor C. Cao and his company sued the City of South Bend for reportedly disconnecting and failing to restore water service to a fire suppression system for a property owned by Cao. In July 2019, a fire broke out at the property, and efforts to extinguish or contain it proved futile because the water service wasn’t working, according to the lawsuit.

The fire resulted in the total loss of the property and what was inside it, the lawsuit states.

Cao also sued Legacy Fire Protection for reportedly failing to properly inspect the property’s fire suppression system or tell owners about the potential hazard, according to court documents.

The trial court denied the city’s motion for summary judgment, leading to the city’s appeal. The city argues it didn’t breach any contract with Cao for providing water to the property’s fire suppression system and is immune from liability under the common law and its own rules and regulations for utility service.

Defense attorneys attending the conference will be able to watch the oral arguments in person on Nov. 22.

Ted Lasso leadership program

One of the conference’s featured events is a leadership program themed around the popular TV show “Ted Lasso.”

The show follows character Ted Lasso, a college football coach in the United States who moves to London to manage a floundering soccer team looking for a second chance.

Elizabeth Sorensen Brotten

Elizabeth Sorenson Brotten, a partner at Foley Mansfield in Minneapolis, created the program alongside Laura Emmett, a partner at Canadian firm Strigberger Brown Armstrong.

Brotten said the program was created both out of a love for the show and a need to reach attorneys in a unique and compelling way.

“This is the first time that we’ve had actually five generations in the workplace,” Brotten said. “That can lead to some challenges, but also some opportunities that I think, it kind of requires a creative or different approach to leadership moving forward.”

“We thought it was a really interesting way of highlighting, you know, and giving common sense recommendations to people on how to cope with a very large issue in the workplace,” Emmett said.

Laura Emmett

The women’s approach includes identifying 10 moments from the show that best demonstrate how to be a leader.

These pointers are backed up by clips from the show, which Brotten said is applicable whether you’ve seen the series or not.

In one scene, one of Lasso’s players makes a mistake on the field, and instead of criticizing the player like his teammates do, Lasso tells the player to be a goldfish.

“Ted says goldfish have a memory that is only a few seconds. So, you know, you make a mistake, you learn from it, but you move on from it. You don’t sit and dwell on it,” Brotten said.

The women even dress up as Ted Lasso to present the program and encourage audience participation modeled after the series.

“We call them ‘Cookies with Counsel’, as opposed to ‘Biscuits with the Boss,’” Emmett said. “We encourage people to speak, and then you bring Crumbl cookies or Crave cookies and give those away during the presentation as well.”

Since creating the program, the women have been able to share it with attorneys in Arizona, Texas, North Dakota, and Canada. Now, it’ll be a centerpiece program at this year’s defense trial counsel convention in South Bend, where Brotten hopes attendees can take important lessons from it.

“I know for me, being a leader is a constant journey of self-reflection and trying to improve different aspects of how I lead the teams that I work with,” Brotten said. “And so I hope that the attendees get the same, like some self-reflection after having seen the presentation and some ideas on even little steps that they can take to improve their leadership skills.”

Like Brotten, Strenski hopes attendees will come away from the entire conference with more knowledge to carry them through their practices, both on the individual and statewide levels.

“I hope that folks gain some insight on some cutting-edge issues that affect their individual practice but the practice of law in Indiana across the board,” he said.

A full list of programming at this year’s conference can be found on the Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana’s website.•

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