Supreme Court Amends In-House CLE Rule

The Washington State Supreme Court has amended Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 11, Regulation 104(e) regarding in-house CLEs, and the changes may impact your office and the lawyers in it.

Background

In 2003, 25 large law firms joined together to request that private firms be permitted to sponsor accredited in-house CLEs exclusively for their own lawyers. The firms also requested clarification of the advertising requirements for in-house CLEs. The amendments to Regulation 104(e) are the result of those requests and the work of the MCLE Board, the WSBA Board of Governors, and the Supreme Court, with input from affected firms and offices.

Who is affected 

The amendments to Regulation 104(e) apply to private law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies (herein jointly referred to as private legal sponsors) and the lawyers who attend CLEs sponsored by them, as well as outside CLE providers who contract with private legal sponsors. The amendments will affect determination of MCLE accreditation beginning June 1, 2006, and will affect determination of lawyers' earned MCLE credits beginning with those members due to report for the 2005-2007 reporting period.

Highlights

• In-house CLEs sponsored by private legal sponsors are eligible for accreditation whether open or closed to non-members of the sponsoring office, provided that notice of the CLE is posted on the WSBA MCLE website at pro.wsba.org. If a government agency is the sponsor of a closed CLE, it must provide a copy of the written materials to anyone who requests it.
• Private legal sponsor CLEs cannot focus directly or indirectly on a case, action, or matter pending before the private legal sponsor.
• The private legal sponsor is the sponsor of the CLE, even if it has contracted with an outside CLE provider to present the CLE.
• Private legal sponsors must file Form 1 applications with detailed agendas for all CLEs. These must be postmarked or submitted online to the MCLE website at least 30 days prior to the starting date of the CLE.
  
  These Form 1 applications will be posted on the MCLE website prior to each CLE, which will be sufficient advertising for programs open to outside attorneys.  Lawyers will not receive credit for private legal sponsor CLEs unless the private legal sponsor files the Form 1. Form 1 filings by individual lawyers will not be awarded credits if the private legal sponsor has not filed a Form 1 for the program.
• Members are limited to a total of 15 credits of private law firm CLEs and 15 credits of corporate legal department CLEs in each reporting period, regardless of who the private legal sponsor was. There are no limits on the number of credits a member may earn at CLEs sponsored by government agencies. These limitations will be applied to individual credit calculations beginning with the 2005-2007 reporting period.
• Private legal sponsors must report attendance and submit an evaluation or critique form to the WSBA within 30 days of the CLE ending date.

Note: applicable late fees for late filing of Form 1 applications or attendance records will be charged to private legal sponsors as well as other sponsors.

A revised paper Form 1 application incorporating the above changes will be available on the WSBA website on or before June 1, 2006, for sponsors who prefer to submit paper Form 1 applications. However, there is a shorter turn-around time for applications submitted online through the MCLE website, and reporting attendance is only $1 per name for online submissions. (Reporting attendance is $3 per name if submitting a paper Form 1 application.)

Click here to read the amended regulation.

For questions contact the WSBA Service Center at 800-945-WSBA (9722) or 206-443-WSBA, or e-mail questions@wsba.org.

Any conflict between information on this web page and the Admission to Practice Rules of the State of Washington or regulations pertaining thereto (the Rules) is resolved in favor of the Rules.