The New Jersey State Bar Association, the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, the state's three law schools and the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education announced a new continuing legal education partnership. As part of the alliance, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education will become an entity of the Association, without any disruption in programming or the level of services it has provided to the New Jersey bench and bar for almost 50 years.
Prior to this new alliance, the Association, the Foundation, Rutgers University Schools of Law and Seton Hall University School of Law had been joint venturers in the Institute pursuant to an agreement that was last updated in 1987, when the Association, Foundation and ICLE all moved to the Law Center. Under that joint venture agreement, ICLE had been operating as an entity of the State Bar Foundation.
With the implementation of mandatory continuing legal education in New Jersey and other factors, the parties determined the 23-year-old agreement needed to be re-examined. The state's three law schools, as well as the State Bar Association, viewed it as essential to offer continuing legal education seminars to alumni and members, respectively. Under the Association's mission statement, the provision of educational opportunities to New Jersey attorneys is a core charge. The Association's sections and committees have long worked closely with the Institute to create programming and seminars. That relationship will be enhanced through this new arrangement to provide additional benefits to the Association's more than 17,000 members and to the legal community at large. The Association will assume administrative responsibility for NJICLE, and the Association and its Institute will also continue to work with the state's law schools on future programming opportunities. The law schools will also independently offer educational courses to alumni.