What professional responsibility topics meet the requirement that a course or activity must deal primarily with matters related to the practice of law?
Supreme Court Rule(s) cited in this FAQ:
Rule 795.
To be eligible for Illinois MCLE credit, a course must relate to the practice of law. Notably, certain cross-disciplinary courses, such as accounting-tax seminars and medical-legal seminars are also eligible for accreditation under Rule 795(d)(4) as legal topics are integral to those courses. Credits for cross-disciplinary courses are reduced by the number of hours that relate to purely non-legal topics. Rule 795(d)(4).
The Board interprets “primarily with matters related to the practice of law” broadly. Rule 795(a)(2). Providers seeking to offer courses or activities devoted to professionalism, diversity/inclusion issues, mental health/substance abuse, and civility topics, including health and wellness topics to lawyers, need to ensure that the written materials demonstrate how the topics relate to lawyers and the legal profession specifically. In other words, the course content must include instruction or examples of tasks or responsibilities unique to attorneys.
The MCLE Board reviews courses for general CLE credit. The Commission on Professionalism reviews requests for professional responsibility (PR) credits. PR credits include professionalism, diversity/inclusion, mental health/substance abuse, civility, or legal ethics. If you have any questions about professional responsibility credits, please contact the Commission at 2civility.org or (312) 363-6210.
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