History and Purpose
The University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law, Office of Continuing Legal Education (UK/CLE) was organized in 1973 as the first permanently staffed, full time continuing legal education program in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It endures with a threefold purpose: 1) to assist lawyers, judges, faculty, and students in keeping abreast of changes in the law; 2) to develop and sustain practical lawyering skills; and 3) to maintain a high degree of professionalism in the practice of law. Revenues from seminar registrations and publication sales allow the Office to operate as a separately budgeted, self-supporting program of the College. No tax dollars or public funds are used in the operation of UK/CLE.
Live Programs
UK/CLE provides a variety of convenient, practical seminars to satisfy the continuing legal education needs of lawyers. Seminars range from half-day programs in selected areas to in-depth programs extending over several days. While many seminars are conducted in Lexington, UK/CLE has a long-standing statewide commitment. Since its first year of operation, beginning with a criminal law seminar in Madisonville, Kentucky, the Office has continued to bring high-quality continuing legal education to attorneys in every region of Kentucky.
Publications
Each seminar is accompanied by extensive speaker-prepared course materials. These course materials are offered for sale following seminars and are consistently regarded as valuable, affordable references for lawyers. Since 1987, UK/CLE has produced a series of Practice Handbooks and Monographs. Each Practice Handbook is an extensively referenced, fully-indexed practice guide consisting of separately authored chapters, allowing for the comprehensive coverage of a distinct body of law. Each Monograph is a concisely written practice guide, often prepared by a single author, designed to cover a topic of narrower scope than the Handbooks. They are convenient references on topics often not treated elsewhere. In 1995, UK/CLE began publication of its highly popular Compendium Series. Each Compendium volume gathers several hundred pages of forms, charts, statistical data, case summaries, or other reference material useful in all aspects of drafting, case evaluation, case management, and litigation.
Self-Study Programs
Kentucky Supreme Court Rules allow attorneys to receive their annual mandatory 12 credit hours of continuing legal education credit through the use of accredited technologically-delivered products. UK/CLE has been offering an array of accredited self-study programs since 2002. These accredited CLE products are offered as on-demand streaming video.
Professional Management
UK/CLE serves the needs of the bar from its offices on the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. Its staff manages course registrations, publication planning and editing, publication sales, seminar and publication marketing, publication composition and printing, and seminar content planning, as well as budgeting, accounting, and financial reporting. As an “income based” program, UK/CLE’s seminar tuitions and publication sales are budgeted to generate sufficient revenues for self support.
An Integral Part of the Legal Profession’s Tradition of Service
An enormous debt is owed to the judges, law professors, and practitioners who generously donate their time and talent to continuing legal education. Their knowledge and experience are the fundamental ingredients for our seminars and publications. Without their motivation and freely given assistance and dedication to a distinguished profession, high quality continuing legal education would not exist.
As a non-profit organization, UK/CLE relies upon the traditional spirit of service to the profession that attorneys have long demonstrated. We are constantly striving to increase attorney involvement in the continuing education process. If you would like to participate as a volunteer speaker or writer, please contact us and indicate your areas of interest and experience.