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Mandatory Anti-Bias Cle: A Serious Problem Deserves A More Meaningful Response, Rima Sirota
Mandatory Anti-Bias Cle: A Serious Problem Deserves A More Meaningful Response, Rima Sirota
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
This essay addresses the problematic convergence of two recent trends: (1) the expansion of jurisdictions requiring anti-bias training (ABT) as part of mandatory continuing legal education (CLE), and (2) the growing recognition among social scientists that such training, at least as currently practiced, is of limited effectiveness.
Forty-six American states require continuing legal education (CLE), and eleven of these states now require lawyer ABT as one facet of CLE requirements. I have previously criticized the mandatory CLE system because so little evidence supports the conclusion that it results in more competent lawyers. The central question tackled by this essay is …
Can Continuing Legal Education Pass The Test? Empirical Lessons From The Medical World., Rima Sirota
Can Continuing Legal Education Pass The Test? Empirical Lessons From The Medical World., Rima Sirota
Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works
Mandatory continuing legal education (CLE) takes millions of hours and hundreds of millions of dollars from American lawyers every year, with the burden landing in disproportionate fashion on new lawyers, public interest lawyers, and solo practitioners. CLE proponents insist that the system protects the public by maintaining lawyer competence. In the forty-five years since the first jurisdictions began requiring CLE, no evidence has emerged in support of this claim.
This Article argues that mandatory CLE is indefensible in its current state. Either the legal profession and the CLE industry must commit to study and change, or it is time to …