Karen Munoz | Dolan Law P.C

Karen Munoz is a managing partner at Dolan Law, where she advocates for clients who have suffered traumatic injuries and been victims of crime. Committed to wellness in the legal profession, she is pursuing a master’s in counseling psychology and is a certified yoga instructor. Karen is a board member of the Mindfulness in Law Society, co-chair of the CBA Well-being & Mindfulness committee, and serves as Secretary of the Illinois Lawyers Assistance Program. She actively contributes to legal committees and offers wellness support to law firms and organizations, believing that maintaining personal health and balance enables lawyers to best serve their clients.

Timothy Fort | Kelley School of Business

Timothy L. Fort holds the Eveleigh Professorship in Business Ethics and is Professor of Business Law & Ethics at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. He is also an Affiliated Faculty at the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Fort received the 2022 Distinguished Career Faculty Award from the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. In 2023, he was nominated for the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.

He has written one hundred articles/book reviews/book chapters along with twelve books; he has edited an additional twenty-five books. Two of his books have won the Best Book Award from the Academy of Management for Social Issues. He has won twelve research awards from three different academic associations, the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, the Society for Business Ethics, and the Academy of Management and has served on the editorial boards of the flagship journals of each of these associations. He has won five teaching awards and has served as academic director for a unique program for players from the National Football League; he also co-taught a course with then-Federal Reserve Chair, Ben Bernanke. He has served as director of an institute, as department chair, and as an interim associate dean. He has been a coach/consultant for Alexandra, Countess of Fredriksborg (Denmark) in her role as a member of the Board of Directors of Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

Complementary to his work on business and peace, Tim’s research interest concerns how ethical business conduct can create positive organizational cultures, which in turn foster sustainable peace. He co-chaired a task force on the topic with the U.S. Institute of Peace and helped to develop a program with the U.S. State Department where MBA students served as pro bono consultants to entrepreneurs in conflict-sensitive zones. He has also partnered with NGOs, such as International Peace Through Tourism and Peace Through Commerce.

He has extended that work to music, sports, and film to create a research stream of “Cultural Foundations of Peace” where cultural artifacts serve as a nudge to make ethical decisions and to provide common ground for individuals who might otherwise disagree on social issues. In that regard, he has organized multiple conferences with faculty from the Jacobs School of Music, co edited a book, written two articles, and organized a film series with the IU Cinema. He is currently writing a book with Kristin Hahn, Executive Producer of Apple TV’s The Morning Show, author of two HarperCollins books, and who co-owns Echo Films with Jennifer Aniston.

His pre-tenure work on how businesses can be “mediating institutions” is drawn from natural law and from bioanthropology. That work integrates leading theories of business ethics and emphasizes optimal corporate culture.

Fort received his BA and MA from the University of Notre Dame and his PhD and JD from Northwestern University. He taught at the University of Michigan from 1994-2005 and at George Washington University from 2005-2013.

Session I – Fostering Professionalism: Enhancing Communication and Civility in Legal Practice | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

• The Role of Civility in Effective Advocacy; Rules 1.3, 3.4 4.4(a), and 8.4
• Ethical Mental Health Implications Rules 1.1 and 1.16
• Strategies for Managing Incivility
• Staying Healthy in a High-Stress Profession Rule 1.1

Break | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

Session II – Unlocking Ethical Behavior: Leveraging Brain Plasticity, Nudges, and Music for Lawyers | 2:10pm-3:10pm

• How the primate brain’s plasticity provides lawyers (and anyone else) with the capacity to escape from seemingly trapped roles and behaviors
• How “nudges” can spark that capacity and the utility of cultural artifacts in doing so
• How a subset of those nudges is particularly conducive to be bridges that provide the foundation for civil and ethical conduct
• How to create your own cognitive playlist to assist in finding your own nudges and bridges, both within litigation and the office
• How these nudges and bridges can be found in litigation
• And there will be music. Yes, there will!