Large law departments should consider getting accreditation for CLE courses they offer

Viacom’s law department, which has more than 100 attorneys, got approval from a state regulatory body to give CLE credits to its lawyers who attend its programs. According to Mark Morril, deputy general counsel at Viacom in InsideCounsel, Feb. 2007 at 62, the accreditation process is time consuming. His department had to show that its training materials were high quality and were accompanied by in-depth written materials. I assume the presenters also have to be shown to be knowledgeable. But the savings for a large department from accreditation can be impressive.

Rather than send multiple lawyers to CLE providers, and pay the registration fees as well as travel and lodging, the law department can meet some of the CLE obligations internally at a much lower cost. That choice only makes sense if the department has a fair number of lawyers that need training on a similar course or courses. Perhaps two or three smaller departments could combine to provide collective accredited training (See my post of Oct. 24, 2005 on collective action by law departments.).