Continuing Legal Education Essay ⋆ Criminal Justice Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Attorneys, like all professionals, must master a certain base of knowledge. Thus, attorneys must successfully complete law school and must pass a state bar exam to demonstrate mastery of that base of knowledge before they are granted an attorney’s license and are then permitted to practice law. But knowledge is not static, and the law certainly is not static. Therefore, attorneys, like most professionals, should continually refresh their knowledge with continuing legal education (CLE).

In the final analysis, the regulation of attorneys falls on states, and usually on each state’s judicial branch. There is no nationwide attorney registration and no nationwide continuing legal education requirements. Thus, each state sets the rules for admission of attorneys to that state’s bar, and sets the rules for whether and what types of CLE will be required.

CLE, although it was originally voluntary in most states, was such a powerful idea that mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) was born. Forty-five states now require attorneys licensed and practicing there to complete formal MCLE on a regular basis. Only Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, South Dakota, and the District of Columbia have no mandatory CLE requirements.

Mandatory CLE was originally intended to ensure that practicing attorneys are kept up-to-date on the many substantive changes in the law each year, but mandatory CLE has evolved so that it now plays a critical role not just in substantive legal training but also in training the attorneys in those jurisdictions to practice the law ethically and professionally. Today, every state that requires its attorneys to complete MCLE credits also requires its attorneys to take at least a specified number of those credits on topics of ethics, professionalism, and/or professional responsibility. Other states also require their attorneys to take some MCLE credits in elimination of bias or access to justice, and other states require attorneys to complete a specified number of MCLE credits on topics related to substance abuse and mental illness, specters that haunt some practicing attorneys.

States impose different reporting periods for their attorneys. Some states require attorneys to report their MCLE hours every year, some every two years, and others every three years. For those states requiring MCLE for attorneys, on average each attorney must complete 12 hours of MCLE training each year, of which three hours must relate to ethics, professionalism, professional responsibility, or some combination.

States often require different levels of MCLE depending on the experience or practice area of each particular attorney. For example, Colorado and Delaware require newly admitted attorneys to successfully complete basic attorney skills training to maintain their attorney. Other states allow very senior attorneys to take fewer or no MCLE credits. Still other states require trial attorneys to complete regular MCLE training on trial skills.

MCLE credits, like many varieties of higher education today, are delivered in many different media. States differ, however, in whether each will grant MCLE credit for all forms of MCLE training. Some states allow MCLE credit only for live, in-person, interactive MCLE training sessions. Other states grant credit for MCLE delivered via video replays or online lectures.

Quite a few states also grant MCLE credit for activities that differ from traditional MCLE training lectures. In those states, MCLE credit may be granted for teaching a MCLE course, teaching a university law course, teaching a law school class, self-study of MCLE topics, scholarly research and writing, and so on. Finally, MCLE courses are created and presented by nonprofit and for-profit entities in the various states, with their MCLE offerings subject to the review and approval of each state’s continuing legal education board.

The MCLE program from one state will serve as an example. In Colorado, every licensed attorney must complete 45 hours of MCLE every three years, and at least seven of those hours must relate to legal ethics. Attorneys 65 or more years old are exempt. Colorado awards MCLE credit for live CLE lectures, but also for approved self-study and home study, law teaching, legal research and published scholarly writing, graduate legal study, pro bono and mentoring activities, and viewing filmed or electronic replays of lectures presented earlier. Finally, in Colorado as in most states, failure to timely complete MCLE requirements will, after a short grace period, result in administrative suspension of the attorney’s license to practice law. The attorney can regain the license after completion of the required credits and payment of a penalty.

Although this essay only relates to continuing legal education for attorneys, it should be noted that many states also require continuing legal education for judges and paralegals. The ethical practice of law requires more than just ethics; it requires competence, too. And maintaining the requisite ethics and the requisite competence requires regular, ongoing, and mandatory continuing legal education.

Bibliography:

American Bar Association. “Continuing Legal Education” http://www.americanbar.org/cle.html (Accessed September 2013).
American Bar Association. “Model Rule for Minimum Continuing Legal Education.” American Bar Association. http://www.americanbar.org/ content/dam/aba/migrated/2011_build/cle/mcle/aba_model_rule_cle.authcheckdam.pdf (Accessed September 2013).
American Bar Association. “Model Rules for Professional Conduct.” http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/model_rules_of_professional_conduct_table_of_contents.html (Accessed September 2013).
Colorado Supreme Court. “Colorado Supreme Court Board of Continuing Legal and Judicial ” http://www.coloradosupremecourt.com/CLE/cle_home.htm (Accessed September 2013).
Continuing Legal Education Regulators Association. “CLEreg.” https://www.clereg.org (Accessed September 2013).

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