Legal Ethics

Why this credit exists

Legal ethics is where the Rules of Professional Conduct meet a real file with a real deadline. Conflicts that were not obvious when the matter opened. A client who wants something said to the court that is not quite true. Fee agreements that were fine until the scope changed. Confidentiality when a third party is paying the bill.

CDTA teaches ethics the way it teaches everything else, from the courtroom backwards. The faculty who deliver it are prosecutors, defenders, civil litigators and judges who have watched the problem arrive in front of them.

Where it sits in the California cycle

Active California attorneys complete 25 hours of MCLE every 3 years. Within that total, the State Bar requires 4 hours in legal ethics.

Compliance groups, deadlines and required hours are set by the State Bar and change from time to time. Confirm yours at calbar.ca.gov.

How CDTA delivers it

As part of full-day MCLE events at the Indio campus, taught by practicing trial attorneys, prosecutors, public defenders and judges rather than by a recording. All required subjects are covered across the academic year.

For dates and registration, call (760) 342-0900 or request the schedule.

Other required subjects

• Competence Issues
  2 required hours. Recognizing and addressing the substance-use, stress and wellness issues that impair competent practice, in yourself and in colleagues.
• Elimination of Bias
  2 required hours. Bias in the legal profession and in society, including a required hour on implicit bias and the strategies that reduce it.
• Technology in the Practice of Law
  1 required hour. Remote proceedings, electronic evidence, and the duty of competence as it applies to the tools now sitting on every practitioner’s desk.
• Civility in the Legal Profession
  1 required hour. Professionalism toward opposing counsel, court staff, clients and colleagues, and why incivility is a case-management problem as much as a manners problem.