From the President
| Jurisdiction | Georgia,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 28 No. 4 Pg. 0006 |
| Pages | 0006 |
| Publication year | 2023 |
SARAH B. "SALLY" AKINS
President
State Bar of Georgia
president@gabar.org
Making a Strong CLE Program Stronger
One of my goals for the remainder of this Bar year is to seek ways through which we can enhance our already outstanding continuing legal education (CLE) program and implement those improvements.
Under the leadership of Director Dee Dee Worley and with support from the Commission on Continuing Lawyer Competency (CCLC), our CLE Department manages and regulates the mandatory CLE program and related rules enforced by the Supreme Court of Georgia. Our charge is to produce and promote a high-quality, comprehensive and innovative CLE program that is relevant to the professional needs of Georgia lawyers and conveniently available to them at affordable costs.
To continue meeting this objective, we are constantly looking for ways to include innovative and up-to-date CLE programming, including ethics and professionalism courses. This includes a consideration of nontraditional and interactive presentation methods to make CLE sessions more appealing, as well as greater use of legal educators, judges and diverse subject matter experts as CLE speakers.
Toward this goal, the State Bar recently distributed a member survey on CLE satisfaction. We received a tremendous response to the survey and are presently compiling and analyzing the results.
Member value is always a top priority when it comes to CLE programming and delivery. That is why we are engaged in a fresh review of how we offer CLE programs, which includes consideration of expanding our recorded sessions for rebroadcast, alternative scheduling that meets the needs of busy Bar members, greater accessibility for all members regardless of geographical location or firm size and, of course, pricing considerations that could include more discount offers.
The term CLE refers to the annual fulfillment of continuing legal education hours required of State Bar members. You will also often hear about ICLE, which is the Institute of Continuing Legal Education, the Bar's provider of CLE programming. Previously a separate organization based in Athens, ICLE was brought in house as a program of the State Bar of Georgia five years ago.
Integrating ICLE into the State Bar not only created an additional revenue source, allowing us to continue providing quality CLE programming at an affordable price to...
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