Continuing Legal Education Program

Information

CLE Rerun: Free Ethics - The Guardian

Thursday, May 15, 2025 
1:00 – 4:15 p.m.
AK Bar office
840 K Street, Suite 100, Anchorage
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3.0 Ethics Credits 
CLE# 2025017
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Space is limited. Pre-Registration is mandatory

Registration fee: 

Free to Alaska Bar Members
$95 for non-members

Registrants will watch the video in-person at the AK Bar office.
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The Guardian transports us to a boutique law firm that serves the legal needs of clients in the tech sector. One of the firm’s clients has asked if a few members of the firm would be willing to evaluate a beta version of a cutting-edge Ethics and Risk Management AI tool called Guardian AI designed to evaluate and enhance ethical and risk management decision-making in a variety of industries. The firm agreed and the testing is about to begin…  A panel of your peers will apply professional conduct rules and formal ethics opinions to their analysis of the issues presented.

Moderated by: Mark Bassingthwaighte, Esq., Risk Manager with ALPS

Panel Members: Phil Shanahan, Bar Counsel, Alaska Bar Association, Tim Petumenos, Law Office of Tim Petumenos, and Kate Demarest, Senior Assistant Attorney General, Opinions, Appeals, and Ethics, Department of Law 

Faculty:

Since 1998, Mark Bassingthwaighte, has been a Risk Manager with ALPS, the nation's largest direct writer of lawyers' malpractice insurance. In his tenure with the company, Mr. Bassingthwaighte has conducted over 1200 law firm risk management assessment visits, presented numerous continuing legal education seminars throughout the United States, and written extensively on risk management, ethics, and technology.

Mr. Bassingthwaighte is a member of the State Bar of Montana as well as the American Bar Association where he currently sits on the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility's Conference Planning Committee. He received his J.D. from Drake University Law School.

Kate Demarest is a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Opinions, Appeals, and Ethics section of the Department of Law. She spent seven years practicing general civil litigation with a strong appellate focus as a trial associate and then partner in the Anchorage office of Dorsey & Whitney before joining the Department of Law in 2017. Kate frequently supports the ethics advice functions of her section and serves on the Lawyers Fund for Client Protection bar Committee.

Phil Shanahan grew up in the Boston area and graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in 1993. He moved to Alaska shortly after graduation and practiced as a criminal defense attorney in both state and federal courts.  After a few years in private practice sharing office space with some of Anchorage’s best and brightest criminal defense and family law attorneys, he joined the Office of Public Advocacy.  In 2007 he joined a private criminal defense firm, and opened his own criminal defense practice in 2010.  He is a founding member of the Alaska Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and served on its Board of Directors for four years, including one year as a marginally-effective Secretary of the Board. He began his role as Bar Counsel with the Alaska Bar Association in December of 2019. 

Phil is a diehard fan of all Boston sports teams, but realizes he has an ethical duty to work with even Yankees fans (when absolutely necessary).

Tim Petumenos graduated from Tufts University in 1973 and Georgetown University Law Center in 1976.  Mr. Petumenos has been involved in some of the more celebrated Alaska trials in the course of his career including the Senator George Hohman bribery cases, the McKay murder trials and was lead counsel in the state trial of the Exxon Valdez Oil spill.  His practice also focused on ethics related issues.  Mr. Petumenos served on Disciplinary Hearing Committees for the Bar and was appointed as Special Counsel in connection with gubernatorial ethics complaints during the Palin administration.  Mr. Petumenos litigated numerous legal malpractice cases and has been qualified as an expert witness in legal malpractice cases.  He is a certified teacher with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy and has taught trial advocacy on numerous occasions for the Alaska Bar Association, at the Northwest Regional Session of NITA and for prosecutorial agencies. Mr. Petumenos intends to devote much of his future practice to presiding over complex binding arbitrations.

Course Materials: A digital copy of the program materials is available by logging into your member dashboard at www.alaskabar.org/members. Select "My Course Materials," located under the "My Documents" header on the left side of your dashboard.
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Explore More AK Bar Programs: Don’t miss out on our other upcoming events and CLE opportunities! Click here to view our full calendar and register for additional programs.

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Learn more about ALPS: ALPS is the Alaska Bar Association’s endorsed law firm insurance provider, founded for lawyers by lawyers. To learn more about how ALPS can help your law firm, visit www.alpsinsurance.com/alaska or call 1-800-367-2577.

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What is a CLE Rerun?

Join us monthly for a special "Rerun" session where we revisit valuable CLE content from our archives. These exclusive in-person events, held at the AK Bar office, allow registrants to watch previously recorded sessions together. Due to limited space, pre-registration is mandatory.

While these sessions are in-person only, we're excited to extend this opportunity beyond Anchorage. If you're interested in hosting a CLE Rerun in your area, please reach out to our CLE Director, Kara Bridge (bridge@alaskabar.org).

Can't make it in person? No worries. All reruns are also available on our Video-on-Demand catalog, providing the flexibility to watch remotely at your convenience. Access the VOD catalog through your member dashboard.

For inquiries about CLE Reruns or other CLE-related matters, please email cle@alaskabar.org. We're here to support your ongoing legal education needs.

Please do not create a new account.  If you do not have your log-in information we'll be happy to provide it to you.