Issue #12 of Equipping Our Lawyers eNewsletter

Editor's Introduction: Thoughtful leadership is breaking out all over in the world of equipping lawyers for the 21st century! See the items and links below for examples both related to the ALI-ABA/ACLEA Summit Recommendations and parallel efforts.

This issue of the EOL newsletter marks the end of the newsletter's first year, and the pace of developments to report, if anything, is picking up!

See www.equippingourlawyers.org for the full text of the ALI-ABA/ACLEA Recommendations and for a broad archive of basic documents, Spotlight articles and past newsletters.

I welcome your suggestions and responses to newsletter articles at chuck@chuckbingaman.com. Chuck Bingaman, Editor.

Pennsylvania MCLE Board Hosts Annual Provider Conference

Dan Levering

The Pennsylvania CLE Board hosts its annual provider conference June 10 in Harrisburg--"one of the most important things we do", according to Board Administrator Dan Levering. The half-day conference attracts representatives of all major CLE providers in Pennsylvania and features discussions of topics of mutual interest in serving Pennsylvania lawyers' evolving CLE needs.

Levering said recently that the annual conference has gone a long way toward dispelling misunderstandings and distrust between providers and the board, challenges that were present in the early years of the state's CLE requirement. He noted that the conferences have been effective forums for discussing and finding practical approaches to evolving issues in CLE such as practical rules for accrediting distance learning approaches.

Editor's Comment: Summit Recommendations #6 and #7 urge mandatory CLE regulators to establish regular mechanisms or frameworks to discuss issues in mandatory CLE regulation with providers and members of the bar and to establish thoughtful rules for accrediting distance learning media in CLE. This annual conference in Pennsylvania is a useful example of such a framework--a model that many states should consider. For further information about the Pennsylvania CLE Board, see www.pacle.org. - CCB

Barristers' Working Group Issues Forward-Looking CPD Recommendations

A working group of the Bar Standards Board of England and Wales recently issued its recommendations for strengthening what they call CPD--Continuing Professional Development--and what we in the US call mandatory CLE.

Current rules expect new barristers to complete, in their first three years of licensure, a 7-hour practice management course, a forensic accounting course and 45 hours of CPD of which 9 hours focus on advocacy and 3 hours focus on ethics.

Established barristers must complete 12 hours of CPD each year, of which 4 must be accredited.

While it is only a working group report to its governing body, the report deserves respectful reading based on its depth of discussion, candid and balanced weighing of competing views on nearly all MCLE issues, and orientation toward overall reform that considers lessons learned through the first generation of CPD experience.

See www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/Practisingcertandcpd/CPDReview/.

Editor's Comment: I've read MANY MCLE reports over the years. Few have been models of comprehensive, balanced, yet principled advocacy in a critical matter for the profession. Most have been based on unstated or questionable educational assumptions and many have included recommended rules that, at best, beg for argument. This report is different! It is erudite but quite approachable, principled but willing to acknowledge competing views, aggressive in its recommendations but not so far out as to risk irrelevance.

It's a marvelous piece of lawyerly thinking and writing. Every mandatory CLE board, commission member and staff member should read it! And all of them might compare their rules and the assumptions behind them with the thinking in this report as a useful self-evaluation exercise.

Of particular interest to me is Paragraph 104 in the report that specifically recommends offering CPD credit for practice management courses. "Attending a personal- or time-management course may at present
attract up to 4 CPD hours, but for some reason courses on stress
management, presentational skills or practice management more generally
do not count.... All of these activities are in our opinion capable of improving the quality of the service which a barrister delivers to his or her client and should in our view be allowable.

We recommend that attendance at courses delivering any of these various skills should be combined in a generic category of "Practice Management and Personal Skills". Summit Recommendation #8 suggests that MCLE regulators should accredit training in the content or skills necessary to the effective practice of law and specifically practice management skills.

Thanks to Helene Breene, Manager of Legal Education and Training for the Bar Association of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, for bringing the report to my attention. - CCB

U. of San Diego Names Goodwin Procter Partner New Law School Dean

Stephen C. Ferruolo

The University of San Diego School of Law has named Stephen C. Ferruolo, a business law partner in international mega-firm Goodwin Procter LLP, its new dean. According to Ferruolo, "There's a strong interest in the value of having a dean in the law school who is reaching out and finding ways to more closely connect the law school to the broader community and figure out where there are job opportunities.

We need to think of ways to better prepare our students for the changing legal marketplace, and we need to find ways to expand the financial aspects of the law school. I think the school was happy to find someone with ties to the legal and business community. I also think it's important to have someone who understands scholarship." For more on Mr. Ferruolo and his priorities, see http://is.gd/YDhVmV.

Editor's Note: Several Summit Recommendations urge closer relations between the bar and the law schools. Seeding deanships with leaders from the practicing bar may be a healthy forward step in this regard. This is not to say that more academically oriented deans cannot or could not pursue closer integration with the demands of 21st century practice. But adding leaders from practice to the mix in law school leadership cannot help but increase valuable dialogue with the practicing bar and raise the possibilities of seeing the Summit Recommendations considered in future law school planning. - CCB

Brooklyn Law School Prof Proposes "Immig-Corp" of Unemployed Lawyers to Serve Indigent Immigrants and to Promote Practice Skills

Stacy Caplow

In a May 25 National Bar Journal opinion piece, Brooklyn Law School Prof. Stacy Caplow describes a growing scandal in which unrepresented immigrants are being deported in large numbers while those that are represented are frequently allowed to stay in the country.

She argues that the situation could be a perfect opportunity for unemployed law school graduates, possibly even law students, to provide vital legal services while learning litigation skills. See http://is.gd/N1VY7e.

Editor's Note: Summit Recommendation #16 suggests that "the legal community should ... develop programs that will prepare and encourage law students and all lawyers to serve the underserved." And sub-section b. of #16 provides that "each jurisdiction should collaborate to help newly admitted lawyers develop the skills that will enable them to provide effective legal services to underserved communities and to create opportunities for those lawyers to provide such services." The approach described by Prof. Caplow could be an important realization of the Recommendation's intent, a powerful practice skills learning opportunity, AND a contribution to mitigating the employment difficulties faced by many young lawyers. - CCB

"Blended Learning" May Be Key to Effective Online Training

In an article on www.edutopia.org--a great source of new thinking on education--Heather Wolpert-Gawron argues that "face time" with the instructor and other classmates is essential for making online learning truly effective.

"Without a heaping dose of face to face time plus real-time communication," she says that "online learning would become a desolate road for the educational system to travel." See http://is.gd/ry0QM1.

Editor's Note: Summit Recommendation #7 urges "MCLE regulators, in collaboration with CLE providers and the practicing bar, ...[to] develop appropriate accreditation standards for all varieties of distance learning CLE programs while also updating and improving accreditation standards for in-person CLE programs."

This article underscores the value of new approaches as more and more online training programs are developed and MCLE credit is requested for them. -CCB