The
Commission on Continuing Legal Education
Commission
on Continuing Legal Education
Judicial
Branch Building
1111 East Court Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50319
(515)
725-8029
cle@iowacourts.gov
The
Commission on Continuing Legal Education administers a program established by
the court which requires attorneys to attend legal education classes each year.
Lawyers and judges must complete a minimum of 15 hours of legal education
accredited by the Commission. The minimum number of legal education hours must
include a minimum of three hours every two years, of education devoted
exclusively to legal ethics. Hours in excess of the minimum requirements may be
carried over subject to specific restrictions. Click here for the Court Rules regulating CLE. This requirement
helps ensure that lawyers and judges keep abreast of the latest legal
developments.
New Rule Changes!
The Court
recently adopted several changes in Division III of the Iowa Court Rules,
pertaining to various matters within the scope of professional regulation. One key change was the adoption of the
majority of a recommendation made by the Commission on CLE a few years ago. Rules 41.3 and 42.1 are affected by the
change, which will apply to the new (2012-2013) ethics biennium. As explained in the summary published with
the rule change:
In recent years, as many as one-third of the published
disciplinary opinions of the Supreme Court have specifically mentioned
substance abuse or mental health issues on the part of the respondent. Staff
members at the Attorney Disciplinary Board and the Grievance Commission
estimate that the majority of founded disciplinary matters in Iowa involve
lawyers with a substance abuse issue, a mental health issue, or both. As a
preventive measure designed to reduce lawyer discipline matters and harm to
clients, the definition of what constitutes legal ethics for purposes of the
biennial ethics continuing legal education (CLE) attendance requirement is amended
to include instruction specifically designed for lawyers regarding substance
abuse and mental health. The biennial ethics attendance requirement is
increased from two to three hours. Iowa joins at least seven other states that
allow ethics CLE credit for instruction regarding substance abuse or mental
health.
The rule change, adopting order and a summary
are available here: Rule Change
Basic Skills Course
Requirement for Lawyers Admitted by Examination
On October 9, 2009, the Supreme Court adopted
a new requirement that all lawyers newly admitted by examination attend a basic
skills course on Iowa law. The
attendance requirement applies to every lawyer admitted by examination after
December 31, 2008. Lawyers admitted by
examination in 2010 and future years must complete the course within one year
of their actual date of admission. The
basic skills course requirement does not apply to lawyers admitted to practice
on motion. On November 24, 2010, the
Supreme Court amended the basic skills course rule to allow new lawyers to
complete the basic skills course during the period between completion of the
bar examination and admission to practice.
A
copy of the original rule is available here:
Rule 41.12
A copy of the November 24, 2010 rule change
is available here: Amended Rule 41.12(1)
An
approved basic skills course will consist of at least eight hours of
instruction on Iowa law, including one hour of ethics, drawn from at least
eight of the topic areas specified in the rule.
Lawyers who attend the basic skills course are entitled to claim credit
against their regular continuing legal education attendance requirements. The course must be reviewed and approved by
the Commission on Continuing Legal Education, and the sponsor will be required
to track and report attendance to the commission.
A
lawyer who fails to attend the required course within the allotted time period
may have their right to practice law suspended.
The Commission on Continuing Legal Education is authorized to grant
individual extensions of time or waivers based on hardship or extenuating
circumstances.
As
basic skills courses are submitted to the commission and approved, the commission
will list them on this web page. Lawyers
admitted during 2009 are encouraged to monitor the commission web page and
arrange attendance of the basic skills course at the first available
opportunity. At this time, the
Commission is aware of the following basic skills courses:
Current
& Future Courses
On-Demand
Webcast Iowa State Bar
Association http://www.legalspan.com/iowa/catalog.asp
August
23-24, 2012 Iowa State Bar
Association Des Moines, Iowa - For
information, call ISBA CLE at 515-697-7874
November
8, 2012 Iowa Association for
Justice Des Moines, Iowa - For
information, call IAJ at 515-280-7366
Application
Fee for CLE Event Sponsors
By rule dated November 23, 2004 the Supreme
Court adopted an application fee to be paid by sponsors who submit CLE events
for accreditation approval in Iowa. Adoption of the application fee was
recommended by the Commission on Continuing Legal Education. The application fee has been set at $25.00
per application. The fee applies to
applications received at Commission offices on or after July 1, 2005. There are three important exceptions to the
application fee.
First, the application fee applies to event
sponsors only. No application fee will
be payable with an accreditation application submitted by an individual
attorney solely as an attendee at an event.
Second, the Commission will not impose the
fee on an application submitted by a sponsor who provides the educational
program at no cost to attendees. A
sponsor may charge attendees its cost for a meal provided to the attendees at
the event and still qualify for no-fee application under this exception,
provided the meal charge is not used to subsidize the cost of the CLE presentation.
Third, the Commission will not impose the fee
on applications submitted for an additional, identical presentation of a
program already reviewed and approved by the Commission for presentation during
the same calendar year.
Sponsors subject to the fee should submit the
application fee with each application, in the form of a check or money
order. If multiple applications are
submitted simultaneously, a single check or money order may be submitted to
cover the application fees on all of the applications. The Commission will not maintain accounts for
sponsors or provide a billing service for application fees. Applications received without fees will
prompt an electronic mail or telephonic advisory to the sponsor, and the
application will be held for no more than two weeks pending receipt of the
required fee. The fee is an application
fee, rather than an approval fee, and it is not refundable regardless of the
action taken on the application by the Commission.
The Commission's application forms have been
revised. A single form now will be used
for applications submitted before or after an event is conducted. The new form is available below.
Policies
on Approval of CLE Events for Credit (Accreditation)
Basic standards on accreditation of CLE events are contained in
Rule 42.3:
(1) A continuing legal
education activity qualifies for accreditation if the commission determines
that the activity complies with all of the following:
a. It constitutes an organized program
of learning (including a workshop or symposium) which contributes directly
to the professional competency of an attorney.
b. It
pertains to common legal subjects or other subject matters which integrally
relate to the practice of law.
c. It
is conducted by attorneys or individuals who have a special
education, training, and experience by reason of which said
individuals should be considered experts concerning the subject matter of the
program, and preferably is accompanied by a paper, manual, or written
outline which substantively pertains to the subject
matter of the program.
d. It
is presented live or by computer-based transmission. Activities presented by
computer-based transmission must be interactive as defined by the accreditation
policies of the commission.
(2)
No activity will be accredited which involves solely self-study, including
television viewing, video or sound recorded programs, or correspondence work,
except as may be allowed pursuant to rule 42.5.
In addition, the Commission has adopted policies regarding accreditation
of CLE events, based on Rule 42.3 and its experience. Click here for a copy of those
policies.
Forms (download a copy)
IMPORTANT
NOTE: The accreditation application
forms below are intended for use by sponsors and other persons who do not have
access to the Office of Professional Regulation (OPR) web
pages. Lawyers and sponsors who
have active account pages on the OPR web site should submit applications for
accreditation online using their lawyer or sponsor account pages. See the OPR Forms & Tutorials page for instructions.
NEW!!
Searchable Database of Approved CLE Events: You may perform basic and advanced searches of
all the CLE events approved by the Commission at this page on the Professional
Regulation Online Services web site: CLE
Search Page
Approved CLE Events Conducted During
2011:
Download the list in Portable Document Format (PDF)
or Excel (XLS) format.
Approved CLE Events Conducted During 2012: Download the list in Portable Document Format (PDF) or Excel
(XLS) format.
Commission Members
The
commission is composed of twelve members - ten Iowa lawyers and two residents
who are not lawyers appointed by the Iowa Supreme Court. Members shall be
appointed for a term of three years except when appointed to fill an unexpired
term. No member shall serve more than two consecutive complete terms.
Kathleen A. Kleiman, Cedar Rapids, Chair
Laurie K. Doré, Des Moines
The Honorable Myron L. Gookin, Fairfield
Steve Waterman, Osceola
Roberta M. Anderson, Mason City
Paul Feeney, Des Moines
Gary R.
Faust, Council Bluffs
Diana
Rolands, Osceola
Loan
Hensley, Sioux City
The
Honorable Todd Geer, Grundy Center
Werner
Hellmer, Dubuque
Meredith
Rich-Chappell, Iowa City
