Ethics

Is it ethical to claim CLE credit for a talk on legal ethics if you've spent nearly the entire time a captive of your Blackberry? Or laptop? Or editing a brief? Or reading a book on your iPad? But I want to address the Blackberry especially. 

For one thing, it's so OBVIOUS when a Blackberry has consumed a person's entire attention, as though the Blackberry were a powerful magnet and her head made of metal.

 In NYC, people stop in the middle of crowded pedestrian sidewalks to stare down at Blackberries as if the whole world had melted away. No matter the interference with others.

At ethics CLEs, the same. There you are (I am) speaking on topics you've (I've) carefully planned, making an effort to be interesting and helpful, advancing your (my) slides, telling weak jokes, and 4, 5, 6 lawyers in the audience are engrossed in their Blackberries. Some right in front of you. In front of you! It's as though an alien force has hypnotized them into an automaton stage. 

Then the Blackberryheads claim 2 hours of ethics CLE credit. Is that right?

You think: No one stares into his or her Blackberry the WHOLE time. Well, maybe not but many seem to feel compelled to  check, every 15 minutes. Who knows? The world might need them RIGHT NOW. 

Should we deduct from their CLE credit a good faith estimate of the time spent Spellbound By Blackberry? 

I've thought of saying Blackberries must be checked at the door. Some law firms do this for CLEs. More should. All should. No one is THAT important.