Legal Commentary

I retain and maintain memberships in both the New York and Oregon bars.  I haven't practiced, have no current plans to engage in anything resembling practice, but as they say, you never know.

New York seems to be satisfied that law teaching satisfies CLE requirements, or they seem to be satisfied that I'm not really practicing.  (I forget which gets me off the CLE hook, but I'm off that hook. It could also be that satisfying my Oregon CLE requirements is enough for New York.)  For maintaining bar membership in the Beaver State, however, there's a snag for those in our privileged line of academic work.

For a practicing attorney in Oregon, time spent preparing and teaching a CLE (or writing an article for the bar journal) can be credited toward the requirements.  Interestingly, however, the Oregon State Bar has gone out of its way to be declare that law professor members are not permitted to count hours spent creating "legal education" in the course of institutional employment toward CLE requirements.

So, I have to build my Oregon CLE from scratch.  With my reporting period ending in December, I am watching a lot of CLEs on streaming video. I'm not sure what I have learned, except that there still are new ways to abuse PowerPoint.

How many of you out there keep your bar licenses?  Do you have to comply with CLE requirements?  Should academics be exempt from CLE or should we concede that this a way to keep in tune with the bar?  For those of you who must comply, how have you made it useful?