Ethics to take center stage in Boca Raton.

Tricky ethical questions facing practitioners--from conflicts with clients and their creditors to bankruptcy to metadata--will be addressed at the 2006 Masters Seminar on Ethics.

The seminar, sponsored by the Professional Ethics Committee, will run from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Friday, June 23, at the Bar's Annual Convention at the Boca Raton Resort and Club.

"We are trying to appeal to a broad spectrum of the Bar by having speakers who will appeal both to people who practice in single issue areas such as bankruptcy but also in a broader spectrum," said Tim Thomes, who chairs the PEC subcommittee setting up the seminar. "I think we have a diversified set of speakers who will satisfy lawyers... seeking a broad overview of issues."

The seminar, which carries 2.5 CLE ethics credits, will begin with brief remarks by Thomes. Then Franklin L. Zemel will discuss conflicts arising in deadlocked entities, followed by Jeffrey Wm. Pearson and Wade Yeakle, who will talk about a lawyer's duty when a client orders an attorney not to pay a creditor, who in turn appeals to the lawyer to protect the creditor's interest.

Patricia Redmond will talk on ethical issues in the new bankruptcy code, and Steven W. Teppler will talk about metadata--the hidden data, sometimes including confidential matters, that can accompany e-mailed documents.

The seminar will close with a discussion by D. Culver "Skip" Smith on ethical concerns when lawyers create ancillary businesses.

Thomes said there will be question periods for each topic, and the speakers will also be available at the end of the seminar. In addition, Teppler will have a laptop computer after the meeting and demonstrate how metadata works, including showing how information, such as notes and editing information, can remain invisible in the background of an electronic document, but can be retrieved by someone who receives it via e-mail or the Internet.

"It is going to be a lively and topical ethics seminar," Thomes said. "We have such a good group of presenters this year that I'm personally very excited and appreciate that this type of talent pool has come forward."