Catawba Community Forum to discuss how to avoid ‘ethical train wrecks’

Published 12:00 am Thursday, November 2, 2017

Catawba College

SALISBURY — Chris Osborn, the co-founder and principal of ReelTime CLE, an international provider of interactive education workshops and professional development training programs, will be the keynote speaker at Catawba College’s Community Forum on Nov. 9.

The forum, which is free and open to the public, begins at 7:30 p.m. in Tom Smith Auditorium of Ralph W. Ketner Hall on campus.

Osborn will speak on the topic of “Ethical Train Wrecks and Other Avoidable Disasters: Practical Steps to Heading Off Misconduct Before It Happens.”

Through viewing and discussing a series of film clips from “Changing Lanes,” the legal film thriller starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson, Osborn will explore the forces and factors that can affect ethical decision-making.

He will also share some behaviors to avoid that seem always to get employees in trouble, such as:

• Don’t falsify company expense reports.

• Don’t create fake checking and savings accounts for people who did not order or authorize them.

• Don’t accept gifts or perks from vendors.

•Don’t seduce the attractive young intern.

•Don’t vent about specific customers on social media.

Osborn is the founding principal of Osborn Conflict Resolution. He served from 2012 to 2015 as an assistant professor at the Charlotte School of Law.

He holds a juris doctorate from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was a Hardy Cross Dillard Scholar and a member of the Virginia Law Review. He also served as a career law clerk to former U.S. Magistrate Judge Carl Horn III and spent 11 years practicing with the Charlotte law firm of Horack Talley Pharr and Lowndes PA.