CLE Requirements

One thing people sometimes do is work on a CLE to present themselves. These are most likely to be people who have become involved in a Section or Committee and present a one-credit lunchtime CLE. I have a few acquaintances who have done so, and it's a way of gaining name recognition in their area of expertise, assuming they have an area of expertise.

In addition to becoming an expert on a small slice of the law, in my state, you also receive credit for time spent researching and writing the material for the CLE. I don't know if there's a cut-off for the number of credits received for preparation; in any case, most multi-hour CLE's have several presenters, each of whom has created a short portion of the presentation and has received credit for preparation as well.

One basic requirement of CLE's is legal content, yet the one program of which I'm aware was declined for credits, was sponsored by a non-profit in the legal world. What I fail to understand is how an organization that has attorneys on staff and recruits attorneys to volunteer on their behalf can sponsor a presentation that doesn't meet the requirement to receive CLE credit. While unapproved presentations always have the disclaimer that CLE credits will be applied for, it mystifies me that such an organization could fail to screen their speakers or the topics, thus rendering the credit disapproved.

I still attend lunches from this group; as someone pointed out, the lunch is still free. Because I'm working on my CLE's for this reporting period already, it probably won't matter to me whether a given credit is approved or not. Because their lunches are free and I was aware of other free credits still available, I wasn't that concerned; however, as this is the same organization sponsoring the lunch for which the the application for credit was not immediately submitted, I would hesitate to count on their lunch receiving a credit if it was only a few weeks before my reporting period was up.