This makes you want to go grab a baton and stand there with him

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

When you pay $300 for a seminar, and finishing two such seminars a year is a requirement to keep your Bar license in effect, and it's late February and you only have one more month to complete that requirement, and you don't like the seminar you happen to be in...

...it's tough to walk out in protest. Not only would you be throwing away $300 but you would have to scramble to find another full day seminar on some other legal topic that hasn't been sold out. You'd have to find it within the next month.

 

[Bear44]

When you pay $300 for a seminar, and finishing two such seminars a year is a requirement to keep your Bar license in effect, and it's late February and you only have one more month to complete that requirement, and you don't like the seminar you happen to be in...

...it's tough to walk out in protest. Not only would you be throwing away $300 but you would have to scramble to find another full day seminar on some other legal topic that hasn't been sold out. You'd have to find it within the next month.

Why walk out. You're a lawyer, take em on. Voice the dissenting opinion.

 

[gh1950]

I have to agree somewhat. I’m just assuming he has some choice where he gets that continuing “education”

Depends on how close you are to the deadline to get continuously educated.

If the deadline is approaching and it's reasonably convenient, you can sit through 6 hours of anything.

Thank goodness they don't take roll after lunch.

 

[Ken Ford]

Depends on how close you are to the deadline to get continuously educated.

If the deadline is approaching and it's reasonably convenient, you can sit through 6 hours of anything.

Thank goodness they don't take roll after lunch.

Lack of planning does not constitute an near or actual emergency.

 

[gh1950]

Lack of planning does not constitute an near or actual emergency.

No one said it's an emergency - you just spend a day listening to some folks blather on about something you have absolutely no interest in. Most of the attendees have their tablets out, earbuds plugged in.

 

[Ken Ford]

No one said it's an emergency - you just spend a day listening to some folks blather on about something you have absolutely no interest in. Most of the attendees have their tablets out, earbuds plugged in.

I hear ya, I was just referencing the “deadline”
If the reasoning is that you have to attend “marginal” or training that does not reflect ones values because of a “deadline”, then that is a lack of planing, and not a valid reason to lower ones standards.
When I had to have training to maintain my certification, at times I would choose options for expediency, but I tried to get quality training. In my case, my life or personal financial well being, could well be at stake.

 

[gh1950]

If the reasoning is that you have to attend “marginal” or training that does not reflect ones values because of a “deadline”, then that is a lack of planing, and not a valid reason to lower ones standards.
.

If only it were that simple.

The education is required to keep your license, but it's at the very bottom of priorities to which you have to attend. You can "plan" for months to attend a seminar, pay for it, make hotel reservations, and the whole nine yards, but when a judge schedules a trial, or a client has a crisis, neither one wants to hear about your "planning." They are perfectly willing to punch your TS card to make you feel better.

It's especially burdensome for sole practitioners because firms can sponsor their own in house training. You can guess how that goes. One firm I know rents a condo in Panama City for a long weekend, and the whole firm gets all their legal education credits for a year, and gets to write off all the expenses.

The burden has been reduced somewhat because you can take courses on-line and there are hundreds of companies selling the courses. But the bar, in it's infinite wisdom has decided that online courses are "good" but not "good enough" for all your credits - you have to make a personal appearance some time some where.

For example, I just took a course at Lake Oconee because it was 30 minutes away, and a nice drive, and i could work a little fishing in. The alternative was to take a day off, drive to the middle of downtown Atlanta, and drive back home in rush hour traffic. "Enlightened self-interest" dictated that I take the crapola course at Lake Oconee.

 

[Ken Ford]

If only it were that simple.

The education is required to keep your license, but it's at the very bottom of priorities to which you have to attend. You can "plan" for months to attend a seminar, pay for it, make hotel reservations, and the whole nine yards, but when a judge schedules a trial, or a client has a crisis, neither one wants to hear about your "planning." They are perfectly willing to punch your TS card to make you feel better.

It's especially burdensome for sole practitioners because firms can sponsor their own in house training. You can guess how that goes. One firm I know rents a condo in Panama City for a long weekend, and the whole firm gets all their legal education credits for a year, and gets to write off all the expenses.

The burden has been reduced somewhat because you can take courses on-line and there are hundreds of companies selling the courses. But the bar, in it's infinite wisdom has decided that online courses are "good" but not "good enough" for all your credits - you have to make a personal appearance some time some where.

For example, I just took a course at Lake Oconee because it was 30 minutes away, and a nice drive, and i could work a little fishing in. The alternative was to take a day off, drive to the middle of downtown Atlanta, and drive back home in rush hour traffic. "Enlightened self-interest" dictated that I take the crapola course at Lake Oconee.

Of course, comfort over quality...
I hear ya, and it’s never as simple as it might look from the outside. But if one might choose a simple solution vs a “best” choice then there is no room to complain.
Really, no offense meant, but if your reasoning was that you could take a “crapola” course vs a quality course based on fishing was better than I have no sympathy. If they are both crap courses than I’d choose one that encapsulated something that I enjoyed.

 

[gh1950]

Of course, comfort over quality...
I hear ya, and it’s never as simple as it might look from the outside. But if one might choose a simple solution vs a “best” choice then there is no room to complain.
Really, no offense meant, but if your reasoning was that you could take a “crapola” course vs a quality course based on fishing was better than I have no sympathy. If they are both crap courses than I’d choose one that encapsulated something that I enjoyed.

The fishing was just the lagniappe.

The 4 hours extra driving, leaving at 6 a.m. with mileage and the time coming out of my pocket - that's the killer,

I usually end up having to do that once a year, no matter what,

Just trying to make the point that "lack of planning" may not have been the reason GAgunLAWbooklet ended up where he did.

 

[GAgunLAWbooklet]

I'm almost an official member of the procrastinator's club.
I read an article about them and their "memberships" back in the early 1980s.
So I thought I'd join them. But years later, I still hadn't gotten around to it, and by then I'd lost their contact information.
So I waited until Al Gore perfected the internet, and around 1997 a "Yahoo" search engine located the Club and got me to a downloadable application.
I printed it out that day, but set it aside for a few years before filling it out. Then a few months later, I finally got it stamped an mailed-off.

I'm sure one day soon my official membership card and suitable-for-framing certificate will arrive. I can't expect a rush job from the staff at the Procrastinator's Club. If they get to it before the year is out, that's close enough.