Although the committee was expected to vote on the boot camp measure at the meeting, another Rules Committee member, Judge Barbara N. Bellis, said it was clear the committee was far from agreeing on the topic of requiring continuing legal education for any bar member.
With that in mind, she suggested Judge Solomon make a presentation to the committee at its March meeting. If the Rules Committee decides at that point to consider requiring a training day for new lawyers, a public hearing will be held in May.
If the committee then votes to adopt the rule, the matter will face a vote by the entire state bench. That meeting typically occurs in June. While that date seems a long way off, committee members acknowledged that a consensus on how to proceed is a long way off.
"It's getting down to crunch time," said state Supreme Court Justice Dennis G. Eveleigh, the committee chair.
At least one law school leader wondered about the effectiveness of a one-day skills program for new lawyers.
Although she did not attend the Rules Committee meeting, Lesley Levin, Asociate Dean for Academic Affairs and a professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, said the school is already doing a great deal to ready graduates for the real world.
At UConn, graduates are required to complete an "experiential learning" course through a supervised internship. Levin said all graduates must have interacted with real clients in clinics run by the law school, or through an externship.
While Levin said strong arguments have been made about the benefits of MCLE in keeping attorneys up to date in their practice areas, "I question how much you're going to teach a bar applicant in one day."
But Levin did say the cost and responsibility for such a program, if approved, should be borne by the Judicial Branch. "I can appreciated the Rules Committee looking elsewhere for money to pay for mandatory legal education," she said, "but having the courts bear at least some of the the expense is the model in most states."•
