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Attorney Caught Two Timing CLEs Suspended For A Year

He didn’t pick a Maine one to focus on.

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Young woman comparing with two things.A great man once said, “Never half ass two things, whole ass one thing.” This attorney just made a whole ass of himself by trying to finish two CLEs AT ONCE. Like, concurrently. As it turns out, that’s suspension worthy behavior.

From ABA Journal:

A lawyer’s Maine law license has been suspended after he tried to get continuing legal education credit for attending online programs that happened at the same time.

…
According to the Sept. 11 sanctions order, Buckley had submitted proof of CLE credits in 2023 to reinstate his law license after an administrative suspension. The material showed that Buckley was trying to get credit for two live webcasts that happened at the same time on June 16, 2022.

I imagine that his CLE experience looked a little like this:

Who did he piss off enough to motivate double checking his codes? He attended the CLEs on separate devices, which is guess is better than googleing “free CLE passwords” like he was searching for a Banana Republic 20% off code. Did some other two timing CLEer with a grudge against him see this as their golden opportunity? Reporting practicalities aside, he had multiple opportunities beforehand to ask someone if this was allowed. And according to my calculations:

The bar counsel later received additional information that, on June 17, 2022, Buckley attended a four-hour-and-40-minute webcast that began at 12:39 p.m. and viewed an on-demand six-hour-and-39-minute CLE that began at 1:06 p.m.

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…He had an easy 4 hours during to clarify.

The year he was given was based on a prior incident of a lawyer who attempted to delegate his CLE obligation to an assistant, which I think is a little unfair. Buckley here had to actually sit through two CLEs. Goes to show that if someone can do it 70% as good as you, you might as well delegate it.

On the bright side, at least he kept his clothes on.

Lawyer Suspended For Trying To Attend 2 I Online CLE Programs At Once [ABA Journal]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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