Lawyer Parents and Unemployed Lawyers Can’t Afford NOT to Keep Their License Active
Before writing Staying at Home, Staying in the Law: A Guide to Remaining Active in the Legal Profession While Pursuing Your Dreams and since it was published, lawyers have repeatedly told me that the costs of CLE and attorney licensing fees are a huge obstacle in retaining active status while pursuing other career paths, taking detours or timeouts (such as to stay at home and raise children), or during periods of unemployment.
In my book, I suggest creative ways that lawyers can surmount these costs because I think there's often significant value in retaining active status, if only to have some semblance of a safety net should life circumstances change. Say for example, a spouse walks out the door and leaves the unemployed lawyer spouse/primary child caregiver in the position of needing to make money asap. Having an active license to practice law means, theoretically at least, that the lawyer could launch a practice from home that very same day if necessary, or call up a former employer and ask (if not beg) for work.
The ABA's recent announcement that it is slashing dues for solo lawyers is a helpful step toward keeping an active license. How? Well, look at the new dues structure:
The new dues scale for those lawyers and solos will be:
• $0 for lawyers in practice less than one year.
• $100 for lawyers admitted to practice for one year but less than four years.
• $125 for lawyers admitted to practice for four years but less than six years.
• $145 for lawyers admitted to practice for six years but less than 10 years.
• $225 for lawyers admitted to practice for 10 years or more.
The cost of membership in the ABA alone (hey, I get that some of you have strong feelings about the ABA and membership, but stay with me here for a moment...I think the investment can be well worth it for lawyers who don't think they can afford to retain active status) opens the door to potentially fulfilling state CLE requirements on a shoe-string budget. Thanks to complimentary and low cost ($9.75), live monthly ABA Connection CLE series, it's truly possible to meet CLE requirements without breaking the bank. Hypothetically, if twelve $9.75 sessions are offered per year, a lawyer could spend a grand total of $117, and potentially acquire 12 live CLE credits. Depending on the licensing jurisdiction, pile on a bunch of complimentary CLEs and Voila! MCLE accomplished.
Carolyn Elefant's (MyShingle.com, Solo By Choice), Lawagora is also another place that lawyers can look to find affordable or free CLE and solo practice/law office management training.
Remember the saying, where there's a will, there's a way? Well, when it comes to maintaining an active license there are more resources available than ever to help lawyers make the way.
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It's not too late to register for... The Part-Time Shingle: Why starting a part-time law practice part time can be done, and how to make it work. A Teleseminar, Thursday, February 18, 2010 – 12:30 pm ET. Registration includes a copy of the 50+ page eBook, The Part-Time Shingle. More info at www.PinkSlipsandDetours.com.
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I agree; it's best to maintain at least one active license. I had to put my two other out of state licenses on inactive status though, because it just becomes too expensive and confusing with differing requirements from state to state. At least in my case, the inactive licenses can be made active by completing CLE on the off chance that they are needed.