Beyond IQ: Emotional Intelligence Skills to Enhance Your Family Practice

Why Attend?

• Understand emotional intelligence and its relevance to the practice of law.
• Identify emotional triggers and assess their impact on performance and decision making.
• Recognize how unmanaged emotions may implicate duties of competence, diligence, and communication.
• Apply strategies to regulate emotions, improve communication, manage conflict, and enhance client and professional interactions.

Family law practice is both intellectually rigorous and deeply emotional. Attorneys regularly work with clients facing highly personal and high-conflict matters, including divorce and custody disputes, as well as financial stress. These emotionally charged situations can significantly influence judgment, communication, negotiation, and overall professional effectiveness. Yet, most attorneys receive little training on how emotions impact decision making, client relationships, and ethical obligations. When emotions are unrecognized or poorly managed, they can lead to reactive advocacy, escalation of conflict, communication breakdowns, impaired judgment, and increased ethical risk. Emotional intelligence (EI), the ability to recognize, understand, and manage emotions in oneself and others, is a critical competency for effective family law practice.

This program explores the practical application of emotional intelligence in family law, focusing on how emotional awareness and regulation support professionalism, sound judgment, effective advocacy, and ethical compliance. Participants will learn strategies to manage high-conflict interactions, communicate effectively with clients in crisis, and navigate challenging dynamics with opposing counsel and the court.

Registration Deadlines:

Cancellation Policy: Cancellation/transfer requests will be honored until 5:00 p.m. the day preceding the seminar. You will, however, be charged $40 if you cancel or transfer your registration to a different seminar after the link to the materials has been e-mailed by Virginia CLE^®.

Full refunds or transfers are available up to two days after a webcast in the unlikely event that you experience technical difficulties.

Dietary Restrictions: If you have dietary restrictions and are attending the seminar in person, please email tfitzgerald@vacle.org.

MCLE Credit Caveat: The MCLE Board measures credits by the time you spend in attendance. If you enter a seminar late or leave it early, or both, you must reflect those adjustments accurately in the credits you report on your credit reporting form. A code will be given at the end of the seminar, which must be written on your MCLE form.

Private recording of this program is prohibited.

Can’t Attend?

E-mail distance_ed@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program is made available as an online or USB seminar.
E-mail publications@vacle.org to be notified when/if this program’s seminar materials are made available for sale.

Course Schedule

• Q&A will be handled via chat room for Webcast attendees.
• Q&A will be handled via e-mail for telephone seminar attendees.

Faculty

Hetal M. Challa, Esq., Office of the Executive Secretary, Office of the Supreme Court / Richmond

Charlene P. Reilly, Esq., Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program / Glen Allen

About the Speakers

Hetal M. Challa, Esq., Office of the Executive Secretary, Supreme Court of Virginia / Richmond

Hetal Challa is the Wellness Coordinator for the Supreme Court of Virginia, Office of the Executive Secretary. Prior to working for the Court, she was a practicing family law attorney, and a Supreme Court certified mediator. In addition to her background in law and mediation, she has a degree in psychology with five years of clinical experience, counseling adults, adolescents, children, and their family members, in an outpatient treatment center, suffering from mental health, substance abuse issues. Ms. Challa is certified by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse Mental Health System Services Administration) to perform training on “How Being Trauma-Informed Improves Criminal Justice System Responses.” She uses her diverse background to focus on education and outreach to improve personal and professional wellbeing for attorneys, judges, law students, and all legal professionals.

Charlene P. Reilly, Esq., Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program / Richmond

Charlene Reilly is the Assistant Director and Education and Outreach Manager for the Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program (VJLAP). Prior to joining VJLAP, she spent most of her legal career as a regulatory compliance attorney, serving in in-house roles with a national mortgage loan subservicer and a Virginia-based banking institution. She is licensed to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia and Washington, D.C. Ms. Reilly holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia (1998), a J.D. from The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law (2003), and an M.A. in Psychology from Pepperdine University (1999). Outside of her professional work, she is actively involved in her community. She volunteers with several organizations and serves on the Parent Teacher Association. She is happiest when spending time with her husband and three children in Virginia Beach.