2025 Bench & Bar CLE & Reception – Featuring Author & Film Producer Jonathan Shapiro (Boise/Webcast)

Sponsored by the Idaho State Bar, the Idaho Judicial Branch, and the Idaho Women Lawyers

Tuesday, September 9, 2025
3:00 pm to 7:00 pm (MT)

Jack’s Urban Meeting Place (JUMP) – Pioneer Room

1000 W. Myrtle Street – Boise

*Live Webcast Available 

1.5 CLE credits

Registration Fee: 

Standard Registration             $75.00

Law Clerks                               $25.00

The Idaho State Bar and Idaho Law Foundation are proud to continue their anniversary celebration with this special event in collaboration with the Idaho Judicial Conference.  The afternoon will kick off with the keynote presentation “How To Be Abe Lincoln – Seven Steps to Leading a Legendary Life” by attorney author and film producer, Jonathan Shapiro.  A reception sponsored by the Idaho Women Lawyers will immediately follow with the Idaho State Bar’s 2025 Distinguished Jurist Award presented to Justice Cynthia K.C. Meyer.

This event is truly one for the record books as the Idaho State Bar and the Idaho Judiciary have not held a combined event in over 10 years.  This will be the afternoon session for the Judicial Conference and will be attended by the magistrate, district, and appellate court judges from across the state that will be in Boise for the conference.  We anticipate this event to sell out so do not delay in registering!

Agenda

3:30 pm      How To Be Abe Lincoln – Seven Steps to Leading a Legendary Life

                       Presented by: Jonathan Shapiro

                       More than any time except Abe Lincoln’s own, we need his help, and not just to inspire us.  What we need is a practical guide to being Lincoln, one that shows us how to survive in a fractious age.  Former federal prosecutor, law professor, author, playwright, and television writer Shapiro identifies the seven steps that made Lincoln legendary and teaches us how to follow them.

5:00 pm       Reception – Sponsored by the Idaho Women Lawyers

5:30 pm       2025 Idaho State Bar Distinguished Jurist Award Presentation

                        Honoring Justice Cynthia K.C. Meyer, Idaho Supreme Court

7:00 pm       Reception Concludes

Keynote Speaker – Jonathan Shapiro

Jonathan Shapiro has spent the last 25 years writing and producing some of television’s most iconic shows. An Emmy, Peabody, and Humanitas Awards winner, he and David E. Kelley are the creators and executive producers of Amazon Prime’s TV show “Goliath” starring Billy Bob Thornton.

In addition to his work in television, he is an author of three books: “How to Be Abe Lincoln: Seven Steps to Leading a Legendary Life” a memoir “Liars, Lawyers, and the Art of Storytelling” and the novel “Deadly Force: A Lizzie Scott Novel.” Shapiro is also a playwright and wrote “Sisters in Law,” about Justices Sandra Day O’Connor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Jonathan spent a decade, working first in the Organized Crime & Racketeering Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and later, as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he handled cases throughout the country involving organized crime, police brutality, public corruption, continuing criminal enterprises, and espionage. He served as a special assistant to then Attorney General Janet Reno for her appearance before Congressional committees investigating the siege of the Branch Davidian Compound in Waco, Texas.

Shapiro has been an adjunct professor teaching criminal law and procedure at Loyola Law School and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and University of California – Los Angeles Law School.

Beginning in 2006, Shapiro worked as a pro bono attorney for Public Counsel, representing immigrants who have applied for political asylum. In 2008, he became the founder and director of the Public Counsel Emergency Fund for Torture Victims, which provides financial assistance to immigrants seeking asylum. The Fund has assisted individuals and families from Ethiopia, the Sudan, the Congo, Cameroon, Guatemala, as well as other countries.