The buzz that the Supreme Court had adopted an MCLE rule on Sept. 29 radiated through the state bar cybersite like a spreading cabernet stain on a tuxedo shirt.

Dozens of comments posted on the ISBA listserv during the next few days indicated that these may not be glad tidings of great joy for a few members. Be that as it may, some thoughts come to mind that may ameliorate any self-inflicted grief.

The M-word in MCLE now is officially “Minimum,” by rule. No limit is imposed on the lawyer who participates routinely in more than the required number of CLE credit hours. Most of those faithful to professional standards far exceed the minimums as a matter of course, and seem to be better lawyers as a result.

An MCLE governing board will be appointed by the court from applications submitted to the AOIC by Oct. 31. Any lawyer with 10 years of Illinois practice is eligible. This nine-member board (seven lawyers, one non-lawyer and one circuit judge) will devise and refine the rules of the game. Get your resume in the works today!

The whole process doesn't even start until next July 1, and even then for only those lawyers whose surnames begin with A through M (fellow A-types who had to sit in the front row of every class from kindergarten through high school will empathize).

The first reporting date for the A's through M's does not occur until June 30, 2008, and the rule even allows lawyers to carry over up to 10 hours of credit for advance CLE hours earned between next Jan. 1 and June 30.

A lawyer who takes advantage of a typical day-long ISBA Law Ed Series program next spring, for instance, needs to accumulate merely a dozen or so more hours during the following 24-month reporting period. Hardly a hardship.

Sitting through a seminar, however enlightening and practical, is not the sole means of meeting the CLE requirement. Other ways to comply include teaching, writing, and perhaps even attending a section council meeting or similar forum in which substantive law or practice matters are discussed.

It is unseemly for an ISBA member to grouse about needing to enhance one's knowledge and skills for personal and public benefit. Continuing legal education, a worthy pursuit, has been a signal state bar raison d'etre for more than two decades.

The elected Assembly and Board of Governors have nurtured the concept, and since 1988, the Law Ed Series has consistently provided the most accessible, affordable curricula for the majority of practitioners throughout the state.

In point of fact, the series of rules that evolved last month into the court's new MCLE scheme mirrors, with canny exactitude, the joint proposal that the ISBA and CBA submitted to the rules committee three years ago. At least 40 other states have similar rules.

The joint proposal, representing the first time both associations had ever been able to agree on all of the standards, was circulated in 2002 and provided to the Assembly in December of that year for review.

The ongoing pros and cons were well covered by the ISBA Bar News and Chicago Daily Law Bulletin back then, as was the subsequent Supreme Court Rules Committee hearing on Jan. 27, 2003. Proponents and opponents disagreed without being disagreeable.

Establishment of the rule after all this time simply cannot be characterized, though some e-mailers have, as “rulemaking by stealth,” or being “blindsided.” Take a deep breath. Become informed. Read the rule. Be a professional.

One of the scruples of Hearsay is to avoid use of the first person perpendicular “I” with appropriate disdain. Nobody wants to read a newspaper to learn about the editor, any more than one goes to a baseball game to watch the umpire.

But this is different, and I rise to a point of personal privilege. Fifty years ago, I became a paid professional journalist and started a journey that has never lacked for personal fulfillment.

Back then, a newspaper page of hot metal weighed about a hundred pounds, and a crafty editor had to read type upside down and backward on the fly. Nowadays, a newspaper page is a weightless wisp of ether, fleeting electronically from writer to printer.

But the people are as interesting as ever, and the stories about them are equally fascinating. I am grateful to be the only Illinois journalist who chronicles the exceptional work of the bench and bar, and not the loathsome anomalies that pique the mass media.

I am not likely to run out of grist for this mill, or the learning experience it provides day after day. Once you lose your ignorance, you never get it back.

Return to October Bar News Table of Contents

Return to ISBA homepage