Proposed Rules Archives
APR 11 - Continuing Legal Education
Suggested Amendments
ADMISSION TO PRACTICE RULES (APR)
Rule 11 and Appendix APR 11: Continuing Legal Education
Submitted by the Board of Continuing Legal Education
Purpose: Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 11 establishes the Board of Continuing Legal Education (herein referred to as the MCLE Board) and sets forth its duties and responsibilities. It also establishes the continuing legal education requirements for Washington-licensed lawyers, and sets forth rules relating to administration of the compliance aspects of mandatory continuing legal education for lawyers.
The suggested amendments to APR 11 would:
- change the official title of the Board of Continuing Legal Education to the “Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board” or “MCLE Board”;
- bring all of the credit requirements for mandatory continuing legal education for lawyers into one rule (APR 11.2), pulling some out of the existing regulations;
- reduce the number of credits that must be earned as “live” credits;
- do away with a three-month grace period for lawyers to become compliant with their MCLE requirements after the end of their actual reporting period; and
- separately set out provisions of APR 11.4 and 11.6 regarding enforcement and appeals from decisions, to make them easier to locate and understand.
The suggested amendments to APR 11 Appendix - Regulations of the Washington State Board of Continuing Legal Education (herein APR 11 Appendix) substantially modify the existing APR 11 Appendix regulations for determining accreditation and administration of the mandatory CLE system. The suggested amendments would:
- make the requirements for course accreditation and the requirements imposed on all sponsors more uniform, assuring quality education through a system of advance submission of agendas, review of course materials (when appropriate), evaluations by attendees, and spot audits of seminars;
- eliminate the existing limits on the number of credits that can be earned through open and closed in-house CLE seminars sponsored by private law firms, corporate legal departments, and government agencies, addressing concerns raised by those groups regarding current Regulation 104;
- increase the list of topics eligible for accreditation, allowing for accreditation of more topics applicable to small- and solo-practices and more topics related to mental health issues;
- revise requirements for sponsors to become “accredited sponsors” (sponsors allowed to set credit awards for their own courses, subject to review by MCLE Board);
- streamline some regulatory processes; and
- clarify and simplify the wording of the regulations.
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