Continuing Legal Education / CLE

Millennial Lawyers Are Lucky They Don't Have To Put Up With This Anymore

Back in the day, getting CLE credits was a truly awful experience.

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One of the things that I have liked about being a lawyer (what? I’ve liked anything about being a lawyer? Yes, and I’m about to tell you…) is the necessity of continuous learning to keep up with all that goes on in the lawyer world and in the larger world. That’s one of the reasons I went to law school and it’s just as true today as it was when I entered law school way back in 1973 (not a typo), and Richard Nixon (who?) was still president. When people ask me why I’m still at it after all these years, that’s why.

There’s so much to learn (and I don’t know if dinosaur brains shrink or expand, I will tell you when I know), and I understand that it’s hard to get that when all you’re doing is churning paper, day after day, week after week. A lot of the practice of law is dreary and routine, but it’s the ever-changing landscape of the law that keeps me interested.

When I look at the huge list of CLE programs being offered, in areas that weren’t around 10 years ago, I am curious about so many of them, and it’s only budget and time that keep me from being a CLE junkie. I know, I know, sick, isn’t it? Maybe not sick, but certainly a glutton for punishment (is that what a lawyer is?).

Areas of law that I’d like to learn about, even at my advanced and ever-advancing age, include, but are not limited to, the following topics that technology has fueled: data security and privacy, internet law, social media, and digital currency, to name just a few.

I’ve written before about how primitive (a relative term, I know) law practice was and how it’s moving at warp speed today. I think most dinosaurs will admit (if not to others then to themselves), how hard it can be to wrap a dinosaur head around certain concepts that millennial lawyers understand with ease.

Last week, another dinosaur lawyer and I had coffee with a millennial lawyer who provides legal services to both startups and small to medium companies, mainly in the tech arena. We’ll stipulate that what this millennial lawyer knows in tech-driven areas is light years ahead of what we know and will ever know. It was fascinating to learn from him about certain things that inform the practice today. He was incredibly patient with us two oldies in explaining how the profession is changing.

In turn, we two dinosaurs provided perspectives on how the profession has changed while we’ve been in it, and gave him some historical knowledge that he will find useful as he motors along in his career. That’s what we all should be doing, sharing knowledge, however and whenever learned.

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It’s not just how legal services are being delivered these days, but also how continuing  legal education is. All of us dinosaurs remember having to attend CLE in person, which usually meant giving up an evening and/or a Saturday.

Picture this: we’ve worked a full day or more (depending on how you billed those hours) and then had to drive (or walk to, but in those days L.A. was much less walkable than it is now) to a hotel ballroom, sit for three or so hours to speakers who were so boring that I wanted to stick a fork either in them or me. Program materials were in binders so heavy that they were repurposed as door stops.

Saturdays were worse, giving up a full or half day when there were a million other more fun things to do, like cleaning out the garage or scheduling that long overdue root canal.

Back in those days, diverse CLE panels were nonexistent, and while it’s better today, it’s still not great. So, imagine in those days before #TimesUp and other hashtags (we didn’t know from hashtags, it was just a symbol on the phone, rarely used), it was all old white guys droning (and they really knew how to drone). Need I tell you how many crossword puzzles in various stages of completion were left behind? Need I tell you how dreary these programs were?

One of the things that I did and still do is look at who is speaking. It’s gotten better in recent years, but nothing to write home about, as Elie Mystal’s post confirms. Why is this so hard?

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I battled constantly with my boss, who would buy a very expensive department ticket every year for a particular day long seminar, and there were no, nada, zip, zilch women and/or minority speakers on any of the panels during any of the years we argued about this. I asked repeatedly: Why were we paying for something with no representation of women or minorities on a single panel, when our legal department was mainly women and we had subject matter experts on seminar topics?

What did that say about the regard (or lack thereof) in which women were held as speakers? One of the seminar organizers mumbled something about “not being able to find any women,” and even now, as I write this, years later, I’m still torqued. Please, spare me. The organizers got caught with their pants down, as well they should have. I digress.

I love the way that webinars have taken over CLE, as they are so much more efficient and cost-effective in getting the information (and the credit) without leaving the office, and there seems to be more speaker diversity on them. Webinars are also great for cleaning up your desk or email in box or reshuffling papers, while the speaker prattles on. No more sitting in traffic, no more time spent wondering how best to jump onto the podium to throttle the speaker. Now I can learn all about data security and privacy, internet law, social media, and digital currency without leaving my office.

Then, even if I know very little, it’s hopefully enough to spot issues and make the right referrals to millennials, who will carry the law and the profession forward.

old lady lawyer elderly woman grandmother grandma laptop computerJill Switzer has been an active member of the State Bar of California for 40+ years. She remembers practicing law in a kinder, gentler time. She’s had a diverse legal career, including stints as a deputy district attorney, a solo practice, and several senior in-house gigs. She now mediates full-time, which gives her the opportunity to see dinosaurs, millennials, and those in-between interact — it’s not always civil. You can reach her by email at oldladylawyer@gmail.com.

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