Up in Smoke? Jumping on the Marijuana Bandwagon Ethically

Mike McConnell is a civil trial and appellate lawyer with over thirty years of courtroom experience. He is a founding partner of McConnell Fleischner Houghtaling, LLC.

In October 2000, Mr. McConnell was inducted into the American College of Trial Lawyers, the most selective organization of trial lawyers in North America. Mr. McConnell is also a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He has been selected for over 15 years by his peers as one of the Best Lawyers in America?. Mr. McConnell has appeared on the Colorado Super Lawyers list since its inception, including its list of the Top 100 Lawyers in the State of Colorado, and holds the highest rating awarded by Martindale-Hubbell? Law Directory as an AV? Preeminent™ Lawyer. Mr. McConnell handles a broad spectrum of complex civil cases at both the trial court and appellate court levels. He has tried numerous cases to verdict in state and federal courts and has handled complex class action cases in Colorado and New York. He has defended some of Colorado’s top lawyers and law firms in legal malpractice cases and has represented hospitals and physicians throughout Colorado and Wyoming in medical malpractice cases.

A graduate of the University of Denver College of Law and a member of numerous professional organizations, Mr. McConnell lectures frequently to lawyers, health care professionals and insurance professionals.

Mark Moody is an Assistant General Counsel with the Office of General Counsel at the Alabama State Bar. In addition to providing ethics opinions and prosecuting discipline cases, Mark also reviews all attorney advertising, is the liaison prosecutor for the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee, and, as a graduate of Leadership Forum in 2013, also serves on its selection committee as well as several other ASB task forces, committees, and sections. Mark also regularly presents Ethics CLE presentations throughout the state and region and was a panelist on the prosecution of the Unauthorized Practice of Law at the American Bar Association’s 2015 UPL Conference where his comments were later featured by BNA/Bloomberg.

Prior to his employment in the Office of General Counsel, Mark served as a Staff Attorney for Judge A. Kelli Wise on the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals from 2002-2008. From 2009 to March of 2012, Mark served as a Staff Attorney for Judge Mary Becker Windom, Presiding Judge of the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals. Mark graduated with honors from Auburn University in 1998 and from the University of Alabama School of Law in 2002. Mark is a member of the Alabama State Bar, the American Bar Association, the Center for Professional Responsibility of the American Bar Association, and the National Organization of Bar Counsel.

Margaret Brown Funk is Chief Deputy Regulation Counsel of the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. Her responsibilities include operations oversight for the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which includes the Office of Attorney Admissions, Office of Attorney Registration, Office of Continuing Legal and Judicial Education, and the intake and trial divisions in the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. Ms. Funk graduated from the University of Denver College of Law in 1994 and was in private practice for 12 years before joining the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel in 2006 as a trial attorney.

In private practice, Ms. Funk represented individuals in civil rights matters, primarily in the area of employment law. Between 1995 and 1998, she served as President and Vice President of the Colorado Plaintiffs Employment Lawyers Association (PELA). Between 1998 and 2005, she served as a member of the PELA board of directors and was assigned the duties of chair of the legislative committee and liaison to the Colorado Bar Association. She has published several articles in the Colorado Trial Lawyers Association’s monthly magazine, Trial Talk, and has lectured extensively on civil rights, litigation, and legal ethics. She administers the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel Trust Account School. She is a faculty member for the Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel Ethics School program and Professionalism School program, and has been a panelist and presenter at ABA conferences, NOBC conferences and numerous CLE programs in Colorado. Recent committee work includes the National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC) Program Committee; the Colorado Supreme Court Advisory subcommittee on Proactive, Management-Based Regulation; the Colorado Supreme Court Advisory subcommittee on C.R.C.P. 251 rule revision; the Colorado Supreme Court Committee on the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct; the Colorado Board of Continuing Legal and Judicial Education rule revision subcommittee; the Colorado Chief Justice Commission on Professionalism Development, New Lawyer Working Group and Leadership Working Group; and the Colorado Bar Association’s Peer Professionalism Assistance Group.