August 2001

CLE Credit for Teleconference
and Webcast Courses

by David L. White and Margaret Fuller Corneille

In July of 2000, the Minnesota Supreme Court adopted new Rules for the Minnesota Board of Continuing Legal Education that change the way Minnesota attorneys can obtain their CLE credits.The new rules apply to courses presented on or after July 1, 2000.

Attorneys are now able to attend and get CLE credit for teleconference courses or webcast courses, but only after meeting certain conditions. The conditions balance attorneys' need to have easy access to CLE with the Board's interest in maintaining standards for CLE and preserving the collegial experience that is integral to professional education. Accordingly, an attorney can get CLE credit for electronically broadcast courses only when the course the attorney attends is "live." This concept bears further explanation.

The Board Rule 5(A)(5) requirements make it possible to receive CLE credit for seminars webcast over the Internet. They can be approved so long as they are scheduled for and held on the particular day and time and are presented "live" or with a "live moderator." This is now also achieved by using either audio or audio/video teleconferencing. Both teleconference and Internet webcast courses can be approved, but they must be presented on a particular date and at a certain physical location that are specified in the application for accreditation. This means that wholly interactive Internet courses or audio or videotapes that are not scheduled for presentation at a particular time and place will not be accredited.

Since the early 1980s, the CLE Rules have permitted CLE credit for video replay courses so long as there is a live moderator present either at the CLE location or through some type of telecommunications hook up. The new rules won't change that.

While the accredited program may be available for viewing at any time, the attorney can receive credit only if she views it during the live broadcast. This is an important distinction and one that is going to require clarification if attorneys are to understand the distinction. A replay at a later date without a live moderator will receive no credit.

Attorneys should beware when sponsors advertise a course as having a specific number of credit hours or a specific type of credit. Until a credit application is filed in the Board's office, reviewed and an accreditation determination made, the sponsor's statement of credits has no weight. It is important to check advertisements for the use of the words "credit applied for" or "credits granted." If the former language is used, there is no guarantee that the credits applied for will be granted. It may very well turn out that the program is not approved for the number of hours or the types of credits that the sponsor represents. The Board asks program sponsors to make every effort to have information about program credit accurately stated in the promotional material.

While the new rules provide attorneys with many more options for attending courses by teleconference or webcast, a source of confusion arises concerning home viewing of video courses or webcast courses. Any advertisement or promotional material that states that Minnesota lawyers can participate for credit in CLE seminars from their home or office is overstated. The Rules specifically prohibit CLE credit for self-study or home viewing.

An example of the circumstances in which an attorney can, however, receive credit for CLE from home would be when the attorney conducts his/her practice from a home office and when that office qualifies as a "classroom setting" as newly defined by Rule 2D of the Board Rules. The Rule now states:

A classroom setting means a room, including an office, suitably appointed with chairs, writing surfaces, lecterns and other normal accouterments of a teaching room that is exclusively devoted to the educational activity being presented.

The Rule 2 provision which states that the office must be "exclusively devoted to the educational activity" means that the attorney who is seeking credit for participating in a CLE broadcast or webcast must stop making or receiving phone calls, and must not be reading or signing documents or otherwise conducting legal business while the program is being presented. Instead, as with any other CLE presentation, the attorney must be focused solely upon the learning activity. In addition, the area designated as the CLE classroom must meet the traditional classroom requirements of writing surfaces, etc.

Rule 2(G) is also relevant to the definition of CLE. Rule 2(G) now defines "participant" to mean "a lawyer licensed in Minnesota attending an approved course and actively engaged in the subject matter being presented." This provision is meant to be read in conjunction with the new provision stating that the classroom setting is "exclusively devoted to the educational activity being presented."

Read together, the two rules are intended to require attorneys who are participating via the Internet or teleconference to use their office exclusively for the CLE event during the time in which it is being presented. The attorney has to devote her attention as well as her office to the educational program. Similarly, the attorney cannot just pop a videocassette into the tape player in the home office and leave the room.

OVERALL, while numerous changes have been made to the Rules, these changes have served to clarify and adapt the Rules in light of new developments in technology; they do not represent major changes in what is required for attorneys to earn CLE credit. Readers are encouraged to visit the Continuing Legal Education Board's Web site at http://www.mbcle.state.mn.us/mbcle/pages/home.asp for additional information regarding new and old rule requirements and approved courses in all three (3) categories of credit -- standard, elimination of bias, and ethics CLE. Out-of-state lawyers have additional options for receiving credit for elimination of bias courses. These options are found at Rule 5A(11) of the CLE Rules.

MARGARET FULLER CORNEILLE is director of the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners, the Minnesota Board of Continuing Legal Education, and the Minnesota Board of Legal Certification. She received a J.D. degree in 1978 from the University of Akron School of Law. She is a member of the Ohio and Minnesota bars.

Twin Cities attorney DAVID WHITE is the immediate past chair of the Minnesota State Board of Continuing Legal Education. An ERISA attorney, he has also chaired the MSBA Employee Benefits Section and the Minnesota Chapter, Midwest Pension Conference. He is a graduate of Ohio University and Harvard Law School.