Back to School With CLE

By Yael Schacher
New York Law Journal
September 5, 2000

Attention recent law school graduates: get ready to head back to class. Luckily, there will be no grades or outlines involved. Still, attendance is mandatory for anyone who wants to practice in the State of New York and stay out of trouble with the Appellate Division.

According to Part 1500B of Title 22 of the Official Rules and Regulations of the State of New York, during each of the first two years of practice from the day they are admitted to the bar, new lawyers must attend 16 hours of transitional continuing legal education (CLE) classes — three hours of lectures or seminars on legal ethics and professionalism, six hours on legal skills and seven on practice management and specific areas of professional practice. The goal of the transitional program is to "bridge the gap" between school and practice.

The CLE requirements for experienced attorneys are less restrictive than for the newly admitteds. After two years, New York attorneys have fewer mandatory CLE hours to account for and more ways to get credit. While classes for novice lawyers follow the "traditional" lecture hall approach, experienced attorneys can get credit for, among other things, self-study, on-line seminars, pro bono work or legal writing and teaching.

There are two exceptions to this rule, though. Novice lawyers based in law offices outside of the United States may fulfill up to a maximum of 12 credit hours of accredited transitional CLE through "nontraditional" course formats like audio and videotapes. Also, all new lawyers may get credit for nontraditional courses that have been separately preapproved by the CLE Board.

Most of the big firms have accredited in-house CLE programs for the newly admitted attorneys on staff, as do some non-profit firms and government offices. Those in small practices have to be more proactive about seeking out seminars at local bar associations, law schools, professional organizations or private providers. A list of CLE providers, and the CLE rules, can be found on the New York State's Unified Court System's Web site at www.courts.state.ny.us/mcle.htm.

Time and Money

Many of the city's large firms carefully monitor the CLE status of their associates, tracking their credits and reminding them of their progress. This makes CLE management easier for the associates, but it is also is in the best interest of the firm to make sure their newest hires stay certified. Robert Gelber, a program analyst for the CLE Board, said the Board takes a particularly "dim" view of those newly admitted attorneys working at firms with in-house programs that do not comply with requirements.

In-house programs vary. Some firms have their new attorneys attend a long orientation, condensing 16 CLE hours into a single three-day conference. Other firms opt for a series of breakfast and lunch training seminars over the first few months. Many firms have "privileged status" with the Practising Law Institute (PLI): the firms pay a flat fee so that their attorneys can go to CLE conferences offered by PLI.

Firm CLE coordinators said PLI seminars can be useful for new attorneys who are lateral hires from other states. According to the rules, attorneys have to fulfill transitional CLE requirements if they have practiced law in another state for less than five years preceding their admission to the New York State Bar.

But brand-new attorneys, the coordinators said, get most of their substantive training from partner-given seminars at their firms. Marc Abrams, a second-year associate at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, said he much preferred CLE seminars given by partners "who have a better sense of what it is we need to know."

New lawyers working for solo practitioners have to handle CLE on their own. Elizabeth Harnisch, a 1998 law school graduate who works at Kirshenbaum & Kirshenbaum, says she considers CLE personal, not firm, business that always takes second place to meetings with clients or appointments in court. "I can't pass off my workload to another associate to go to a CLE class," she said.

Ms. Harnsich said that she takes mostly American Bar Association-
sponsored and private classes, which she learns about through advertisements and mailings. (She claimed, however, that most PLI flyers she receives say their programs are sold out.) Her firm pays for the courses.

CLE courses can get expensive even though the rules say that seminar costs must be "reasonable" and mandate that all providers have a financial hardship policy. Fortunately, if you do not have a job, and are therefore not practicing law, you do not have to go to class. According to Mr. Gelber, lawyers are exempt until they begin to practice. And, they get a "break" if they start practicing a few months after admission to the bar: they are required to perform an hour and a half of credit hours, with no strict distribution requirements, for each full month they work as attorneys for the first two years.

Mr. Gelber also stated that though the quality of courses varies, the goal of CLE is to get attorneys, especially experienced ones, to realize that there are always new things to learn about the practice of law. Once they do, they will not see CLE as an obligation but an opportunity.

Novice attorneys have mixed feelings. They say that certain classes are snoozers and that others are advertisements for the companies sponsoring them. Classes can also be redundant if new attorneys learned about the issues they address in law school. But, they say, many of the classes in legal research and specific practice areas are extremely useful.

Blunders and Tips

According to the CLE rules, a maximum of 16 credit hours of transitional CLE can be fulfilled between the date of graduation from law school and the date of admission to the New York Bar. These 16 hours can take care of credit for the first year. But excess hours performed before admission to the bar may not be carried over to apply towards the second-year CLE requirements.

Also, according to Lydia Lai, counsel for the CLE Board, many newly admitted attorneys do not realize that they have to get 16 hours of CLE credit each year, mistakenly cramming all 32 hours into the second year. Those who make this mistake will have to apply for a "retroactive extension"— time added to their first year so that credits completed in the second year can count for the first.

Generally, the Board grants extensions only in extenuating circumstances. Also, extensions are granted only once, for 90 days or less, per two-year reporting cycle.

Under the rules, all newly admitted attorneys must certify that they have fulfilled their CLE requirements on their biennial attorney registration statements on their birthdays. Those attorneys whose birthdays fall before a full two years since their admission to the bar have elapsed must certify the actual number of hours they have completed. They remain responsible for completing the full 16 second-year credit hours by the end of the second year after admission to the bar. However, 12 of the 16 credit hours may be applied to fulfilling the CLE requirement for experienced attorneys in the next reporting cycle.

Attorneys need to keep the certificates of attendance for all CLE courses for which they are claiming credit for four years. Ms. Lai notes that the Board has begun to conduct random audits of newly admitted attorneys to ensure compliance.

And one final point. Ms. Lai cautioned that attorneys should make sure that courses taken out of New York are approved for transitional credit.