Continuing Legal Education

VI. Continuing Legal Education

"Quality control" for the required Professionalism CLE courses has been assured through:

A. Review of the content of proposed Professionalism CLE courses by the staff;

B. Assistance to CLE sponsors in the design and implementation of Professionalism CLE;

C. The introduction of professionalism materials developed by the Commission.

A. Each year, the staff reviews more than 500 applications for professionalism credit submitted for approval by CLE sponsors, including local bar associations, law firms, corporate and government legal departments, legal services programs, and inns of court.

B. The Commission urges the Institute of Continuing Legal Education in Georgia (ICLE) and all other CLE sponsors to structure Professionalism courses to confront the question: How will you handle this situation when it occurs in your practice? The staff encourages each sponsor to tailor the professionalism session to the concerns of the group to whom it is presented and to use creative, introspective, interactive and simulation-based methods for presenting professionalism issues in the CLE course.

SAMPLING OF PROFESSIONALISM PROGRAMS

Atlanta Bar Association
Les Misérables Meets Collateral Consequences
Pro Bono March Madness

Chief Justice's Commission on Professionalism/Atlanta Bar Association
Lincoln on Professionalism

Cobb Bar Association
ADR vs. Litigation

DeKalb Bar Association
A Prosecutor's View: Ethics and Professionalism in the Court Room

Emory University School of Law
Ethics With a Twist

Gate City Bar Association
Professionalism: Civility and New Technologies

Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys (GABA)
Civility: Back to the Future

Georgia Assoc. of Criminal Defense Lawyers
Professionalism and Ethics in the New Millennium

Georgia Association of Women Attorneys (GAWL)
Serving Your Clients and Managing Your Office When You're Not There

Georgia Justice Project
Lessons from Groundhog Day

Georgia Public Defender Standards Council
Youth Law Conference

Henning Mediation
Best Practices of Mediation and Arbitration

ICLE
Family and Trial Law Convocation on Professionalism
Professionalism: A Trial Judge's Perspective
Professionalism: When No One is Watching

Lamar Inn of Court
Professionalism - Taking the Tide at the Flood - the Public Perception of Lawyers from Shakespeare's Time to Ours
Prosecuting Attorneys Council of Georgia
Professionalism: Protecting the Victim's Rights

U.S. Attorney's Office
Professionalism - Criminal Discovery Obligations and DOJ Policy

U.S. Department of Justice
Professionalism Training Day

U.S. EPA
ADR for Administrative Enforecment Attorneys


C. The materials developed by the Commission include hypothetical situations, scenarios, role plays, and guided videotape programs with discussion materials that are appropriate for courses on professionalism in general, as well as in civil practice, criminal prosecution and defense, and the in-house setting. The tapes can also be used for in-house CLE and retreat programs for law firms, corporate legal departments, and governmental agencies. Also available from the Commission is a list of other videotape programs which qualify for professionalism credit. Because all of Georgia's nearly 22,000 active lawyers fulfill their yearly professionalism requirement by taking a course sponsored by ICLE or a Commission-approved sponsor, the Commission's ability to provide solid instructional materials assures that what the professionalism courses teach is educationally as well as professionally sound. Materials produced by the Commission benefit not only Georgia's lawyers and judges, but also bench and bar groups around the country. The Case of the Silent Alarm: A Study in Professionalism was presented at the 1994 mid-year meeting of the Conference of Chief Justices and then given to the supreme courts of each state for use in continuing legal and judicial education. Through the Commission's marketing efforts, its videotape programs are sold to out-of-state CLE sponsors, state bar associations, law schools, and law firms. (See Description of Video-Based Programs Produced by the Commission). The New Mexico State Bar made The Silent Alarm the centerpiece of its required Professionalism course.