eCourses

Session 01: Finaceability of Documents - Explore financeability requirements for documents in commercial real estate financing. Session 02: What Is Negotiable in Loan Documents - Discuss issues, motivations and explanations of the loan document provisions that are typically negotiated in a commercial real estate lending transaction. Session 03: Loan Modifications  Session 04: Contesting Property Tax Appraisals - The Property Tax Protest and Appeal process can be confusing. With fifteen-minutes as the average length for an Appraisal Review Board hearing, review strategies for what to do and not do before your values are set in the Summer, and tax statements arrive in the Fall. Session 05: Arrows in the Quiver: Remedies for Commercial Real Estate Secured Loans - Review of potential remedies available to enforce and collect commercial real estate secured loans. What are the requirements? What are the pros and cons?     Session 06: Give a Little, Get a Little - A push and pull open discussion of the interactions of lender counsel with the borrower, guarantor and equity counsels. Session 07: Title Insurance: Common Title Issues and Fixes - Hear a title insurance update including common title issues that arise in a transaction and how to clean up a title after a project as gone wrong. Session 08: Intercreditor Agreements: Avoiding Lender on Lender Violence in the Closing Process - An examination of intercreditor agreements from the perspective of each of the borrower, the senior lender and the mezzanine lender.  Session 09: Escrow Agreements - A review of the various uses, types of Escrow Agreements, Escrow Agent options, regulatory and drafting concerns and forms availability. Session 10: Follow the Money - How to Avoid Mortgage Fraud - The real estate and mortgage industry has seen an increase in fraud in the wake of the Pandemic. Learn to spot the red flags for avoiding mortgage fraud by getting to know your customers and going beyond the paperwork.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: Case Law Update – Part I - Discuss recent and significant Texas cases from the last year, with particular attention paid to cases involving new legal concepts or which materially alter or extend current jurisprudence. Session 02: Case Law Update – Part II - Discuss recent and significant Texas cases for the last year, with particular attention paid to cases involving new legal concepts or which materially alter or extend current jurisprudence. Session 03: Hot Topics - Hear about recent developments and hot topics in mortgage lending and related real estate matters.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Has Judgment Day come? Is Skynet about to destroy humanity? Nah…not yet. Until our computer overlords take charge, Generative AI can be a helpful new tool for sorting through the vast amounts of data and knowledge on the Internet. Walk through the basics of using Generative AI and hear some pointers on how you can make it work for you and your practice. 

Includes: Video Audio Slides

THIS MONTH: Interest Rates and the Mortgage Market: What’s Next? • Navigating Sensitive Employment Complaints​ • How to Use Your Expert Witness as a Fact Witness and Find Other Valuable Damages Testimony • Cybersecurity Legal Incident Response Preparedness in Today’s Threat Landscape • My Mind Has A Mind of Its Own: Why Even Good Lawyers Are Lured Into Unethical Behavior by the Way Their Brains Work

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

An examination of intercreditor agreements from the perspective of each of the borrower, the senior lender and the mezzanine lender. 

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Hear a discussion on Subchapter V, lender and lessor relations, 363 sales, third-party releases, and related market trends affecting lenders in bankruptcy cases including a review of recent cases decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and in the Fifth Circuit.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

Session 01: Give Me a (Tax) Break: Considerations for Affordable and Workforce Housing Transactions Utilizing Public Facility Corporations (PFCs) - In recent years housing has become increasingly difficult to develop due to rising interest rates and construction costs, but innovative financing strategies that leverage property tax exemptions available to public facility corporations (PFCs) and other similar entities have allowed communities in Texas to continue growing. Examine the basics of PFCs, including their formation, legal requirements and recent legislative changes, and some of the pitfalls and best practices when considering a public-private partnership with a PFC.   Session 02: How it Works: C-PACE Financing - Hear about the building blocks of the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program in Texas. Gain valuable insights on the mechanics of C-PACE financing and how it can be leveraged to fill gaps in the capital stack.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

Session 01: Transactional Lessons Learned at the Courthouse - Litigation is a popularity contest. This presentation provides lodestars for creating winning paper trails, focusing on the transactional documents presented to trial courts at temporary-restraining-order hearings, temporary-injunction hearings, summary-judgment hearings, pretrial evidentiary hearings, bench trials, and jury trials. Session 02: FinCEN Developments - FinCEN is a federal government level regulatory activity which involves real estate transactions, requiring filing of disclosures of ownership of corporations, LLCs and other entities. This is the Corporate Transparency Act, but, more important to real estate and real estate lending, is a second set of proposed regulations which would require attorneys and others involved in residential real estate closings to "turn in" clients and client information for the purposes of tracking illegal activity.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: Part 1: Workout, Foreclosure, Deed-in-Lieu, Receivership, and Other Judicial and Non-Judicial Remedies. So Many Choices... - The panel will share lessons learned from past cycles and what is different about this one. They will also discuss their general approach to problem loans, and the primary questions that guide the resolution process. Session 02: ​Part 2: Workout, Foreclosure, Deed-in-Lieu, Receivership, and Other Judicial and Non-Judicial Remedies. So Many Choices... - The panel will share lessons learned from past cycles and what is different about this one. They will also discuss their general approach to problem loans, and the primary questions that guide the resolution process.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Hear a title insurance update including common title issues that arise in a transaction and how to clean up a title after a project as gone wrong.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: A House Divided: The Rights and Duties of Homesteaders, Life Tenants, Remaindermen, and Co-Tenants - Discuss the often complex relationship between the surviving spouse who chooses to exercise her homestead right, or who inherits a life estate in separate property, and the remaindermen who are standing by to receive the property. Learn the various rights and obligations of those who exercise a homestead right, possess a life estate, or own a remainder interest in property.  Session 02: Partition of Real Property Under Texas Law: A Primer - An overview of the litigation process of a claim for partition of real estate, including issues which arise under the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Need ethics credit? We’ve got you covered! UT Law CLE’s First Friday Ethics streams live every first Friday of the month, and features some of our best ethics speakers and presentations for a total of 3.00 hrs ethics credit. Fulfill your entire annual ethics requirement in Texas in one day!   This month includes: (1.00 hr | 1.00 hr ethics) Let’s Chat About ChatGPT: Ethical Considerations in the Use of Generative AI (Replay) Since the introduction of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, lawyers around the country have been getting into ethical hot water over their misuse of generative AI. Courts have responded with mandatory AI disclosures and certifications by attorneys. What are your ethical obligations in using AI, and how can you stay within the lines? Come find out in this informative and entertaining presentation! Hon. John G. Browning, Of Counsel, The Cole Law Firm, McKinney, Texas and Distinguished Jurist in Residence, Faulkner University School of Law - Plano, TX (1.00 hr | 1.00 hr ethics) Attorney Wellness: Speaking Up, Reaching Out (Replay) Mental health issues are taboo discussions at the workplace, yet when attorneys consider suicide, it's often a result of work-related stress. Explore real-world tips and information on how to spot a mental health crisis in someone you work with, and what to do once you are aware of a problem. Stephanie Townsend Allala, Townsend Allala, Coulter & Kludt PLLC - El Paso, TX (1.00 hr | 1.00 hr ethics) How to Avoid Malpractice in a Post-Pandemic Legal World (Replay) Law practice has been forever changed by the Covid-19 pandemic with the widespread adoption of remote work. While “work from home” has been eagerly embraced by many lawyers, it has caused an increase in age-old ethical problems for lawyers. This course is designed to help practitioners avoid conflicts and unintended clients, safeguard client confidentiality, maintain competence, and form better communication habits with their clients, other attorneys and staff. Robert L. Tobey, Johnston Tobey Baruch, P.C. - Dallas, TX

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: Let’s Chat About ChatGPT: Ethical Considerations in the Use of Generative AI - Since the introduction of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, lawyers around the country have been getting into ethical hot water over their misuse of generative AI. Courts have responded with mandatory AI disclosures and certifications by attorneys. What are your ethical obligations in using AI, and how can you stay within the lines? Find out in this informative and entertaining presentation! Session 02: Philanthropy in Sports - Collegiate athletics draw significant attention, and revenues, to many institutions and associated nonprofit organizations. This presentation covers tax and legal considerations around such activity for organizations and donors, including "name, image and likeness" (NIL) structures, licensing/joint ventures, and sponsorships. Session 03: Overcoming School Challenges for Students with Disabilites - Having school-aged clients with a disability can provide unique challenges in their care. Learn about these challenges and potential solutions from the collaborative perspective of an education consultant and a nurse case manager. Session 04: Challenges Presented by Litigation Funding - District courts and parties continue to grapple with issues relating to litigation funding and the funders themselves. This panel discusses some of the more prominent challenges including disclosure requirements (e.g., Delaware), how to get a funded litigant to settle, and patent aggregation by funded entities. Session 05: Texas Public Information Act and Texas Open Meetings Act: How They Work - An overview of the requirements and procedures under Texas’ government transparency statutes and a look at some common issues.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Come listen and participate in deconstructing ethical dilemmas faced in the land use, development, and economic development practice, from attorneys, elected officials, engineers to planners, all those involved face hurdles one must clear to maintain ethical obligations in the land use space.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: Deep Dive into Utility and Other Resources in Planning - Legal and land use implications of SB 2038 - ETJ Release. Session 02: Why Would Anyone Want to Own and Operate a Utility - A discussion and analysis on recent trends in the water and wastewater regulatory environment. The presentation addresses what hurdles investor and developer owned utilities are facing in front of Texas regulators, navigating municipal oversight and relationships, and the financial and business outcomes from regulation. Audience members who are considering or advising clients on entering the regulated utility space can expect to come away with a better understanding of this critical Texas industry and its administrative oversight. 

Includes: Video Audio Slides

Since the introduction of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools, lawyers around the country have been getting into ethical hot water over their misuse of generative AI. Courts have responded with mandatory AI disclosures and certifications by attorneys. What are your ethical obligations in using AI, and how can you stay within the lines? Come find out in this informative and entertaining presentation!

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

New subdivisions in rural areas raise numerous water law considerations, including how to convert pre-existing rural stock ponds to amenity lakes, dealing with old soil & water conservation district easements and dam structures, and the statutory obligation to avoid flooding downstream neighbors. Come get practical tips on how to address all of these water law issues.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

An overview of right-of-way planning, including comprehensive plans, traffic issues, subdivision requirements, street standards, private streets, sidewalks. Also gain insight into right-of-way management ordinances, including design manuals, plats, right-of-way dedications, sidewalk vendors and cafes, dockless mobility issues, robot deliveries, utility placement, and a discussion about utility easements vs. right-of-way.

Includes: Video Audio Slides

How the courts have expanded property owner exactions and regulatory takings protections.

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides

Session 01: Cities Don’t Enforce Private Restrictive Covenants or Do They?: The City of Houston’s Unique Land Use Scheme - As one of the only large and unzoned municipalities in the United States, the City of Houston enjoys the unique ability to enforce restrictive covenants as a means of land use regulation. This course explores Houston’s enforcement authority and processes, as well as how such enforcement might work for other cities. Session 02: A Private Solution to a Public Concern? Private Restrictive Covenants versus Short Term Rentals, Residential Amenities, and Accessory Dwelling Units - As cities adopt ordinances to regulate a variety of land uses on residential property, they face substantial challenges in both the courts and the Legislature. Perhaps the solution is a private contract between neighbors.  

Includes: Video Audio Paper Slides