CLE Survey Results
Why are you awake at this late hour? Perhaps you’re losing sleep over the results from last month’s survey on Continuing Legal Education (CLE). Let’s end the suspense:
* Almost all of you — 97% of respondents, to be precise — are required to take CLE.
* Firms are the most popular CLE providers, with 37% of respondents getting CLE from their firms. Bar associations and online providers accounted for another 21% and 19% of respondents, respectively.
* Only 16% of respondents pay for their own CLE. It’s nice to see that employers still pay for something in these dire times.
* The internet is where it’s at: 50 percent of you have taken online CLE.
* Many of you are using those idle hours to catch up on CLE. Some 39% of respondents attend CLE once a month or more. Another 31% go to CLE once every three months.
These results are pretty straightforward. Reader responses to the question “What would enhance your CLE experience?” were more interesting — and amusing.
Check them out, after the jump.
Here are some representative responses to the question: What would enhance your CLE experience?
“Topical, relevant, practical subjects, such as e-discovery issues.”
“Takeaways like forms, model documents, and checklists.”
“Less lecturing on broad theoretical topics, more realistic simulation-type CLE’s.”
“Written outline of oral presentations, complete written materials for later reference.”
“If it were easier to find ethics credits.”
“An interesting presenter — for once.”
“Juggling bears and trapeze artists.”
“Strippers and booze.”
“Free food.”
“Lolcats.”
“Abolishing this draconian requirement.”
(21) 
Comments
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Not getting laid off by Latham as a 1st year would have helped. Sigh, if only I'd taken a different offer.
I couldn't sleep either. Time to get some more CLE out of the way...
1; hang in there. You're young and the market WILL turn around. Try to get through the next year and wait for business to pick back up. The one consistent response by biglaw firms following recessions is the return to a bloated headcount to churn out the hours.
No reason to dwell on the past; what's done is done. You will bounce back. Good luck.
I'm sorry 1. There are a lot of people regretting their decision to go to Latham right now.
What jurisdictions do NOT have required CLE?
Jeez Elie, what are you doing awake? Are you tripping balls on Ambien or something?
Nice survey - interesting results, especially with law firm and online CLE representing the most popular - are firms finally recognizing cost-savings staring them in the face and acting on it? There is hope yet.
@comment5, the jurisdictions without MCLE are CT, DC, HI, MD, MA, MI, NJ & SD
"A glossy admissions brochure for Brooklyn Law School, considered second-tier, reports a median salary for recent graduates at law firms of well above $100,000. But that figure doesn't reflect all incomes of graduates at firms; fewer than half of graduates at firms responded to the survey, the school reported to U.S. News. On its Web site, the school reports that 41% of last year's graduates work for firms of more than 100 lawyers, but it fails to mention that that percentage includes temporary attorneys, often working for hourly wages without benefits, Joan King, director of the school's career center, concedes.
Ms. King says she believes the figures for her school accurately represent the broader graduating class. She says the number of contract attorneys is "minimal" but declined to give a number."
http://online.wsj.com/public/article_print/SB119040786780835602.html
8: no amount of repetition will cause most of us to give a rat's ass about Brooklyn Law School.
Thank you 3 and 4. I think choosing Latham is probably the worst mistake I've made in my life. I hope the damage from that choice can be undone.
I was also laid off from Latham. Last night I dreamt that I'd accepted my offer from Paul Weiss instead, where they have not laid off any first years. I wish I'd gotten sick the day of my Latham OCI interview or something, and had never met them.
Lat! we've missed you!
Hey Lat: Nothing on the Holland & Knight push-back? Who cares about CLE?
lat, please remove mystttal
I wonder which firm will be the next to Latham all of its first years.
15, i don't think any prestigious firms will Latham their 1st years. While they also have too many lawyers, they'll use classier options like deferments.
Latham was in such bad shape that they didn't have the luxury of worrying about their reputation.
5- My understanding is that New Jersey does not currently require CLE after the onerous requirements of the first three years. Doesn't help those of us who are dual-admitted in NY, but those may be the people who don't have any CLE requirement.
6 - This is a Lat post, not an Elie post.
/me asks IL for CLE credit for all the time i spent reading Bar Exam Lolcats on facebook.
13, are you being sarcastic? Scroll down the page. Or click here:
http://abovethelaw.com/2009/03/holland_knight_latest_firm_to.php
Massachusetts - 6th largest legal market in the country (after NY, CA, IL, TX, and DC), has no CLE requirements. I believe Maryland also has no CLE requirements.