Monthly Archives: September 2012

South Dakota CLE

South Dakota is yet another state without a mandatory continuing legal education requirement for attorneys who practice within its borders.  Further, it’s incredibly difficult to find any information about CLE in South Dakota. One of the few resources I was able to locate was from the State Bar of South Dakota.  On the State Bar of South Dakota homepage, there are a…

Now Offering CLE for Michigan Attorneys

Michigan is one of the handful of states around the country that do not have an MCLE requirement for attorneys.  Interestingly enough, Michigan previously had an MCLE requirement – but the MCLE requirement was abandoned and the experiment was labeled “a disaster” by some.[1] Here’s how the story goes.  In 1987, a proposal was adopted by the State Bar of Michigan Representative…

CLE for Attorneys in Maryland

Maryland is another state without an MCLE requirement … for now.[1] The Maryland MCLE subcommittee recently voted to recommend that the Commission on Professionalism support an MCLE requirement for attorneys in Maryland. The push for MCLE in Maryland started in 2009, when the Commission on Professionalism formed an MCLE subcommittee to examine the whether the Maryland Bar should adopt Mandatory Continuing Legal…

CLE for Massachusetts Attorneys

Run a Google search for ‘MCLE’ … and the first thing that pops up is Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Ironically, although there is no MCLE requirement in Massachusetts, the CLE body in Massachusetts is known as MCLE – and their website can be found at mcle.org. However, the ‘M’ in MCLE does not stand for mandatory or minimum like most states,…

CLE for D.C.

In the world of CLE there are two kinds of states out there – mandatory and non-mandatory CLE states. At this point in time, there are only a handful of states where CLE is not mandatory. In the past few years states Nebraska and New Jersey have adopted MCLE, leaving Connecticut, Hawaii, Washington D.C., Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and South Dakota as the…

Are Your Tweets Protected by The Fourth Amendment?

Just about every attorney – criminal or otherwise – can tell you that the Fourth Amendment prohibits the government from conducting unreasonable searches and seizures. The difficult part has always been the application of the standard … and social media only makes the application of the Fourth Amendment even trickier. The latest clash between the Fourth Amendment and online privacy revolves around…

Should States Enact Social Media Privacy Legislation?

California recently became the first state in the country to pass legislation aimed at preventing employers and colleges from viewing the social media accounts of employees and students.[1] While a number of other states have passed this type of legislation, California is the first state to protect both students and employees. This legislation may collectively save California businesses tens of millions of…