Bill > SR184

This resolution urges the Louisiana Supreme Court to modify its Continuing Legal Education (CLE) rules to grant eight hours of annual CLE credit to full-time legislative staff attorneys. Currently, the Supreme Court's rules require licensed attorneys to complete 12.5 hours of approved continuing legal education each year, with specific requirements for ethics and professionalism training. While legislators and certain legislative officers already receive eight hours of automatic CLE credit, full-time legislative staff attorneys do not. The resolution emphasizes the critical role these attorneys play in the legislative process, including conducting legal research, drafting bills, providing legislative procedural advice, and ensuring legislation is legally sound. Given that there are fewer than one hundred full-time legislative attorneys in the state compared to nearly nineteen thousand licensed attorneys, the resolution argues that these staff attorneys should receive recognition for their specialized legal work through CLE credit, similar to the credit already granted to legislators and legislative chief clerical officers.