Deadlines rule lawyers’ schedules whether they like it or not. For Illinois lawyers (last name N-Z) there is an important deadline coming up on June 30, 2019. The upcoming deadline is to complete the requirements for the 2017-2019 MCLE reporting period. No pressure, but there is under a month to go!
Deadline Requirements
Hopefully, this deadline and the MCLE requirements are not a surprise to you. As a quick refresher, the Illinois MCLE requirement is 30 hours of credit, including at least six hours of professional responsibility (PR) credit (in the areas of professionalism, civility, ethics, diversity and inclusion and mental health and substance abuse). Of the six hours of PR credit, one hour needs to be diversity/inclusion and one hour must be substance abuse/mental health.
The diversity/inclusion and mental health/substance abuse requirements are new as of July 1, 2017. Therefore, this June 30, 2019 deadline is the first one where licensed Illinois attorneys will need to be in compliance with the new requirements.
New Professional Responsibility Credit
If you are wondering why the Illinois Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism (Commission) would ask the Illinois Supreme Court (Court) to make this change to 794(d), the answer is simple. The legal profession has a diversity and mental health and substance abuse problem that must be addressed. Women and minorities continue to only make small gains in their representation among big firm partners. In addition, a 2016 study found that between 21 and 36 percent of lawyers qualify as problem drinkers and approximately 28 percent, 19 percent, and 23 percent of lawyers are struggling with some level of depression, anxiety, and stress respectively.
Yet, even with these statistics, over 10 years of data collected by the Commission found few diversity and inclusion and mental health and substance abuse CLE courses. Instead, most of the PR CLE offerings were in professionalism and civility. The Court recognized the dissonance between the problems in the legal profession and the low number of course offering. Therefore, it amended 794(d) to include the required one hour of diversity and inclusion and one hour of mental health and substance abuse.
This new required deadline has had a major impact on the number of course offerings. Since the new rule went into effect on July 1, 2017, over 1,600 diversity and inclusion courses and almost 1,200 mental health and substance abuse courses have been provided to Illinois lawyers.
Ways to Still Meet the Deadline
Although the clock is ticking, take a deep breath. It’s not too late to complete the new diversity and inclusion and mental health and substance abuse requirements by the June 30th deadline. And, if your last name is A-M, you can get a head start on you 6/30/2020 deadline! Here is a list of available courses that can help you meet the deadline:
- The Commission’s Rebalance the Scales: Implicit Bias, Diversity and the Legal Profession (FREE online course-1 hour of diversity and inclusion credit)
- The Lawyer’s Assistance Program (LAP) Well-Being Courses (5 FREE different online courses to choose from and each course is at least 1 hour of mental health and substance abuse credit)
- ARDC’s Attorney Well-Being: The Intersection of Physical, Spiritual and Emotional Wellness (FREE online course-1 hour of mental health and substance abuse credit)
- ARDC’s Diversity & Inclusion: A Blueprint for 2017 & Beyond (FREE online course-1 hour of diversity and inclusion credit)
- Search the MCLE website for other diversity and inclusion and mental health and substance abuse courses
Whatever courses you take to meet the deadline, we hope they provide you with some good takeaways and cause you to think differently about diversity and inclusion and mental health and substance abuse in the legal profession. Share what you learned in the comments below.