MCLE Quizzes

The representation of women and minorities in major U.S. law firms, especially at the partnership level, remains low. The numbers indicate that relative to the overall population (half women; one-third minority) and that of the demographic makeup of law students, women and minorities continue to be under-represented among the partnership ranks at major law firms. This exercise examines how maintaining a diverse workforce can be good for business.

Everyone knows that, much like diet and exercise, networking is good for you and that, similarly, there are lots of excuses for avoiding it. This exercise applies specific Rules of Professional Conduct to effective networking strategies.

If you ask most attorneys whether their clients are satisfied, the vast majority would, of course, say "yes." If you then ask them "what makes you so sure?" the responses would typically range from "They donít complain" and "Theyíre nice to me" to "They pay their bills" or "They continue to do business with us." A closer examination of these reasons, however, reveals that such client behavior hardly indicates satisfaction. This exercise makes a business case for keeping clients satisfied to avoid ethics complaints from dis-satisfied clients.

The State Bar of California approved online continuing education courses for MCLE credit in 2000. Online programs are now accepted in 42 states, but there are as many rules as there are states. This exercise outlines the differences in course offerings from some of the most popular online MCLE providers.

The California State Barís Rules of Professional Conduct lay out very specific guidelines to regulate the professional conduct of its members - through discipline. These rules have been adopted by the Board of Governors of the Bar and approved by the Supreme Court of California pursuant to Business & Professions Code Sections 6076 and 6077 to protect the public and to promote respect and confidence in the legal profession. This exercise provides an overview of these rules for Attorneys.

There are numerous ethical considerations one must make in the day-to-day practice of law. While some seem to follow simple common sense, others are a bit less clear. This exercise will help you learn where to easily find answers to your ethical questions utilizing free State Bar and academic resources on the Internet.

Whether you already have your own Web site or are just beginning to consider launching one, this exercise will help you learn where to easily find answers to ethical questions regarding your Web site. The exercise includes the California Barís standing Committee on Professional Responsibility & Conduct Formal Opinion addressing ethical issues related to attorney Web sites, as well as the Business & Professions Code Sections.

The California Rules of Professional Conduct spell out VERY specific requirements for minimum continuing legal education for Paralegals AND the responsibilities of Attorneys with whom they work to monitor and certify that MCLE compliance. This exercise gives Paralegals AND Attorneys an overview of how these rules affect EACH of them.

The California State Barís Lawyerís Assistance Program to helps attorneys with substance abuse or mental health problems. This exercise features questions about features and benefits of the program. Information for this exercise is drawn directly from the California State Barís Web site and the California Business & Professions Code Sections covering the program.

There are three Federal government Web sites that offer free access to searchable databases of the United States Code (U.S.C.). Even though all use the same Code (prepared by the Office of the Law Revision Counsel of the House of Representatives), they are not all created equally. This exercise features questions that highlight the strengths of each one separately and explains the differences between them.

Federal government agencies are posting more and more documents (e.g. reports, press releases, etc.) on the Internet. Unfortunately, these agencies donít always do a good job of making them easy to find when you visit the agenciesí Web sites. This exercise shows you how to use outside sources (e.g. Justia, USA.gov, and Google) to locate even the most hard-to-find information posted by the government.

The term "public record" has always been VERY misleading. Just because a record is "public" and available for public scrutiny in the strictest sense, doesnít mean that it is readily available on the Internet. In this exercise, youíll learn about some of the various types of records that are available for free on the Internet. Each question features an outline of the type of information included in each specific resource discussed, and a hyperlink to take you directly there so you can see for yourself.

Now you can locate information on about companies ñ existing or potential clients, the opposition, their products, financials, etc. ñ quickly online. And for free ñ if you know where to look. This exerciseís clear explanations and hyperlinks to Internet research resources lead you to real-life answer to questions about a real-world companies.

There was a time when the only sources for online legal research were proprietary pay databases like Lexis and WestLaw. Now there are a variety of sources to research cases, codes, statues, etc. online ñ often for free or at low cost. This exercise shows you how to retrieve information from some of the more popular sources for legal research in California.

Lawyers looking for evidence for their cases need to start thinking about looking "virtually" in addition to the traditional sources their more familiar with. With increasing amounts of "paperless" information being added to the Internet every minute of every day, there is an increasing chance lawyers could find potentially relevant evidence there. This exercise examines some sources of this evidence, as well as how other lawyers have handled challenges to the ìvirtualî evidence they have introduced.

From the lowbrow to the highbrow, there are millions of Internet sources with information on the entertainment industry. This exercise will show you how to cull information about companies in the field and individuals from sources ranging from scholarly journals to pop-culture Web portals.