After consideration on August 7 & 8, 2009, the Tennessee Commission on Continuing Legal Education took the following actionactions on four pending proposals. The Commission thanks the bar associations and individuals who submitted comments about the proposed changes to the regulations.

Definition of Interactivity: On a vote of 3 for, 4 against, declined to adopt the proposed definition of interactivity. Prior to the discussion and vote, the Executive Director, David Shearon, had recommended that the Commission not adopt the language proposed by staff due to the substantial resistance from providers and the recognition that quality educational opportunities could be offered through distance learning with interactivity as minimal as the opportunity to email questions to the subject matter expert who prepared the program.

Definition of Ethics:

Adopted the following statementreplacement of paragrah 5H of the Commission's Regulations. This sections describes the types of sessions in courses that can receive Ethics/Professionalism (Dual) credits. Dual credits are those that can count either toward the three-hour E/P requirement or toward the 12-hour general requirement. They do NOT count twice. Under this definition, most types of E/P credit will be dual. About the only remaining type of E/P credit that will count only toward the E/P requirement is pro-bono service E/P credit under Rule 21, Section 4.07 (c).

5H. Ethics and Professionalism (Dual) Credit
1. Dual credit will be granted to programs or topics within programs to the extent that the subject matter is the Rules of Professional Conduct or ethical considerations applicable to attorneys.
2. Dual credit will also be granted to programs or topics:

a) designed to sustain or increase the capacity of attorneys to strive for and to achieve the highest, aspirational levels of professionalism, including programs aimed at increasing attorney well-being, optimism, resilience, relationship skills, and energy and engagement in their practices,
b) designed to help lawyers re-connect with, strengthen, and apply their values, strengths of character, and sense of purpose toward achieving outstanding professionalism,
c) designed to protect lawyers or help them recover from the deleterious effects on professionalism of stress, substance abuse, and poor staff, financial, or time management, or
d) designed to support the development of organizational cultures within firms, law departments, and legal agencies that recognize, support, and encourage outstanding professionalism.

3. All programs accredited under this section must be clearly and primarily designed and intended for attorneys, not a general audience. 4. Programs and topics focused on advertising legal services will be denied all credit, except to the extent they deal with the ethical restrictions concerning advertising. 5. In addition to the other requirements set forth in this Regulation 5H, in order to qualify for credit, the topics must be presented in a session separate and apart from the general credit topics, with specific time allocated to only such topics.

The Commission also deleted the current section 5G in its entirety.

Credit for Coaching:

The Commission adopted the following new Regulation 5J:

5J. Credit for Individual Coaching
The Commission, after consideration as a body and not through staff, will give dual credit for “Courses” consisting of individual coaching sessions on topics described in 5H.2 above if:
1) The coaching sessions must be submitted in advance as a complete offering involving a set number and length of sessions, defined topics, content to be covered, readings or other material to be assigned, the qualifications and experience of the coach, a general description of actions expected of participating attorneys, and price.
2) Courses will be accredited under this section only for the time included in the approved coaching sessions. Time invested by the attorney outside such sessions to complete readings or assignments will not receive credit.
3) The Coach agrees to report and pay for attendance for the attorney upon completion of the sessions including adequate performance by the attorney on assignments made by the Coach as part of the program.
4) Accreditation of a “Course” under this section will be for one calendar year only (or the portion of a year remaining at the time of approval). Courses must be re-submitted annually.

Mentoring

The Commission adopted the following statement:

TCCLES believes good mentoring can:

• help beginning lawyers understand, value and achieve the best of what it means to be a lawyer,
• assist beginning lawyers in transitioning from law school to practice, and
• create relationships that can support beginning lawyers as they seek to perform at the highest levels of professionalism even after formal mentoring ends.

TCCLES, therefore, seeks opportunities to dialog about these beliefs and the evidence behind them with the bar associations and CLE providers of Tennessee and to work with the associations and providers to discover how the Rule for Mandatory Continuing Legal Education and the Commission’s Regulations can best enable and encourage high quality mentoring.