The fact that one must go somewhere to attend the seminar establishes a useful boundary between the office and the learning experience that inhibits interruptions and allows focused attention on the topic. The direct interaction with colleagues and faculty is extremely valuable and is widely perceived as such. Nevertheless, many attorneys would benefit from high quality alternatives to traditional seminars. At the minimum, some methods would allow attorneys to save travel, lodging, and meal expenses and time out of the office. The touchstone of the new methods, and the old methods, must be quality.
Nobody is in the CLE business for the short run.
All depend on repeat attendance. Unless the quality is there, the sense of value required to interest attorneys in the product evaporates. The market will take care of weak products and weak performances in its own sure way. To speed this evolution, regulatory bodies should give maximum attention to well-understood indicia of quality and, within those boundaries, to maximum encouragement of opportunities for constructive innovation. States not currently doing so should consider permitting and encouraging the widest variety of effective means for delivering CLE, consistent with the maintenance of quality and relevant content of all CLE activities.