My Thoughts on CLE TechnoEditorial touched a nerve!
I would like to thank everyone who responded both publicly and privately. Please keep it coming as I personally consider this issue important. CLE, like all information, should be portable.
Kathryn Bellman, Director of Continuing Legal Education at the Nebraska State Bar Association, writes: "A number of CLE providers are taking their CLE content and making it available for podcasting. Our link is through LegalSpan. I think lawyers are slowly beginning to make greater use of podcasts because of their convenience — download to your computer or listen on your iPod. But every new technology has a learning curve, and the learning curve is not always about the ease of use, but rather: How will I use it in my own practice?"
Barry B. Ansbacher, a real estate lawyer in Florida, writes: "Neil, you will be pleased to learn that the Florida Bar has just joined modernity. In a huge leap from cassette tapes actually, the Florida Bar now offers MP3 downloads of its sponsored CLE courses. Many of the courses should be eligible for MCLE credit in other jurisdictions. Now if they can move to allowing downloads of a la carte topics like ALI-ABA. Sometimes there is just one seminar topic of interest for a current case or such, and it would be great to be able to purchase just those materials and audio. With MP3 the technology will accommodate more creative policies."
William D. Elliott, a tax and estate planning lawyer in Texas, writes: "The State Bar of Texas uses MP3 format for their CLE courses available for purchase. The quality is of the highest grade."
David A. Stewart of Jeffrey Long & Associates in Portland, Oregon writes: "FYI the American Association of Justice (AAJ formerly ATLA) distributes it's CLE's in MP3 format. AAJ covers a wide variety of subjects including some commercial litigation and intellectual property. Most of it is of course geared to personal injury, professional negligence, products liability, pharmaceutical, etc., but there is a lot of other stuff as well. In my experience, the caliber of their CLE programs is outstanding and keeping apprised of litigation trends and outcomes seems like a worthwhile CLE pursuit for lawyers of most any stripe."
Finally, David M. Heisler, Operations Counsel at GE Capital Solutions, writes: "Neil, my company's legal department just inked a subscription arrangement with Practicing Law Institute, and in perusing the site I noticed that they have no less than 742 downloadable CLE courses in MP3 format. Hopefully there might be something there that would both satisfy your CLE requirements and keep you awake — just click on "Downloadable MP3's" under "Recorded Programs" in the left-hand column on the main page, or go directly to www.pli.edu/product/mp3_viewall.asp and sort by title or interest area. This afternoon I noticed at least 20 downloadable MP3's covering Internet, computer and technology law."
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A TechnoEditorial is the vehicle through which we opine and provide tips of interest to managing partners, law firm administrators, and others in the legal profession. TechnoEditorials appear first in TechnoGuide, and later here in TechnoLawyer Blog. TechnoGuide, which is free, also contains exclusive content. You can subscribe here.
