What and Why is 4freeCLE?

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) is an important part of legal practice. In most, or perhaps all, jurisdictions in the United States, an attorney must take CLE and report it periodically, or be disbarred.

One hopes that the CLE are relevant to skillful and ethical practice, and I'm sure that such is the goal of most CLE providers and CLE takers. However, CLE can be expensive, $35 an hour and up. To attorneys charging $250 an hour, this may seem like nothing, but to the many attorneys operating under 200% of the federal poverty line (something like $42,000 for a family of four in 2007) no-cost CLE is a necessity.

Contrariwise, those who provide free CLE need a way to promote their presentations. If they're offering it for free, generally speaking they can't afford a lot in the way of promotion.

4freeCLE serves both providers and consumers of free CLE in an efficient and inexpensive way (..that is to say ... the service is free!)

Why Would Someone Offer Free CLE?

Everyone's got a reason!

• Some providers are nonprofits offer training that is eligible for CLE credit, in exchange for pro bono service.
• Some providers regard education as part of their mission.
• Some offer a free course to get you to try their "non-free" products or to get you on their mailing list.
• Currently, our most frequent source of free CLE are Bar Association Sections, that offer free CLE as a membership benefit. In some sense, these aren't totally free since you have to join the section to get them. However, they are often VERY economical; typically the cost of section membership is less that the cost of 1 CLE credit, and the rest are no-cost. Therefore I've made the editorial decision to include them unless there are complaints.

What to Do if I have a Free CLE to Offer

If this is just a one-shot deal, get the information to me in the form of a "reply" to this posting, and I'll post it for you. Include contact information, whether CLE credit has been applied for and in which jurisdiction(s), plus whatever else seems reasonably calculated to help people decide whether they wish to attend.
If you offer periodic free CLE, consider becoming an editor of this blog so you can just add items when convenient. I welcome anyone who's interested in being helpful!

Other Venues

4free CLE started out and continues as a listserve hosted by Yahoo. This blog mirrors its content in a format that many prefer.
Postings to this blogspot are fed to twitter via twitterfeed. Feel free to follow us at http://twitter.com/4freeCLE

SPREAD THE WORD!

Feel free to pass on information about this list, in a non-spam way, to anyone interested. The objective is service!