As you may have recently heard, we’ve transitioned our thirty year old baby, Second Saturday: What Every Virginia Woman Needs to Know About Divorce, from a seminar to a webinar on Zoom.
It was a change that was both made necessary by the pandemic and also just reality; people want to turn more and more to digital solutions, and it was time for us to deliver one. After all, though an in-person seminar allows us to display our undeniably dazzling personalities, it’s also maybe not the most ideal set up for our attendees. Aside from all the handwashing and mask wearing that has become routine as of late, it also makes the seminar feel less anonymous.
Anyway, our personalities shine through computer screens, too! And by transitioning to a webinar format, we have a lot more flexibility to offer privacy to our attendees – not to mention safety, in this new post-pandemic world we’re all navigating.
Substantively, the seminar is otherwise much the same, so you can definitely count on getting access to the up to date, Virginia specific divorce and custody information you always got, but the experience will probably look a little bit different.
What format does the seminar webinar take now?
We’re currently hosting our seminar on a Zoom platform! It’s not perfect, and we may modify it a little bit later on, but for now it works.
We teach the seminar from a PowerPoint presentation, which in and of itself is an improvement from our totally low tech in-person seminar! You can see the attorney presenting, but she will be smaller (except briefly at the beginning and end of the seminar when she introduces herself and says goodbye). No one wants to just look at a talking head, right?
How will you protect my privacy?
When you join the webinar, no one will see you or your name. Even though it’s on Zoom, your face will not appear. You will not be able to see or engage with any of the other seminar participants, either. When you log in, it will just look like our staff and attorneys are in the room with you.
It’s not ‘confidential’ in the sense that we are not having a private one-on-one conversation, but it’s as good as we could get.
Will I still be able to ask my divorce and custody questions — and get an answer from a real Virginia attorney?
Yup! After all, that’s a key point, right? You want to be able to ask your questions, not to just hear general information about the law in Virginia.
We have two attorneys managing each seminar; one presenting, and one moderating. Since it’s so distracting to have questions pop up while you’re presenting and keep the seminar moving along, the moderating attorney will be the one responding to the questions.
There is some interplay between the attorneys, and some questions may be shared with the group during the presentation.
A couple things to know, though: you won’t be able to see the other group attendees, and they won’t be able to see you. When you ask a question, though, you have a couple of options.
You can ask a question anonymously. The attorney will answer the question. If you ask anonymously, the attorney can either send the answer back to you privately, or can share with the group. Your name won’t be shared (again, its anonymous!), but the response might be, especially if the attorney thinks your question will be beneficial for the group. If you don’t want the answer shared with the group, please request in your question to have the answer sent privately to you.
We’ll always use our best judgment, and will try to judge whether an answer should be shared – but if you could erase all doubt, that would be super helpful!
If you ask a question using your name – as in, you do not hit the button indicating that you’d like to ask the question anonymously – the same principle applies. Ask specifically for a private answer, if that’s what you want, or the attorney will have to use her best judgment to determine whether the answer should be shared with the larger group.
When possible, we like to share the questions so that everyone gets the information, but want to be super careful about sharing anything sensitive.
Remember, too, that you shouldn’t treat this as a completely confidential forum; it’s not. And we can’t get legal advice, since we can’t talk to you one on one about your case. We can only give general information based on the facts we have to use, which may or may not be different than what you’d hear if you had a one-on-one conversation with an attorney.
Will I get a copy of the presentation, before or after the seminar webinar?
You’ll get a copy of the seminar workbook, delivered to your inbox just prior to the seminar.
Can I still get a fee waiver from my mental health professional so that I can attend the seminar webinar for free?
Yes! Just have your mental health professional email us at office@hoflaw.com, and we’ll be happy to help you get your fee waiver.
Likewise, if you’re a current client or have been in for a consultation, we can also waive your fee. Send an email to office@hoflaw.com, and we’ll get you sorted out.
Otherwise, the cost to attend is $40.
If I’ve been to your Second Saturday seminar before, can I attend again, like you said before?
You certainly can! But you can’t just “show up” anymore, because there’s nowhere to show up to. The Zoom link is seminar-specific, so you’ll have to email us at office@hoflaw.com to register to attend, even if you’ve already been before. But you only have to pay once.
We hope to see you at the seminar! For more information, visit our website or give us a call at 757-785-9761 to learn more about your seminar – and now webinar! – options