FindLaw |

Find a Lawyer. Find Answers.

West LegalEdcenter Partners with West Tennessee Legal Services to Provide Professional Development to Pro Bono Attorneys

Date: November 5, 2003
Press Contact: Katie Neunsinger WestLegalEdcenter(651)848-9222katie.neunsinger@thomson.com

EAGAN, Minn., and JACKSON, Tenn., November 5, 2003 - In an effort to help support the legal professionals representing Tennessee's most underserved citizens, West LegalEdcenter® and West Tennessee Legal Services have partnered to provide free online continuing legal education (CLE) to pro bono attorneys. West LegalEdcenter (www.westlegaledcenter.com) is the nation's leading online CLE service from West, a Thomson business (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC).

West Tennessee Legal Services is a non-profit organization in Jackson, Tenn., that serves the low-income residents of a 17-county rural area in western Tennessee. The partnership with West LegalEdcenter is a first-of-its-kind program to provide a free online CLE program to attorneys to thank them for the time they devote to helping clients who cannot afford to pay for legal representation. Any attorney who takes on at least one case from West Tennessee Legal Services is eligible to take a free course from West LegalEdcenter. Attorneys in Tennessee are required to complete 15 credits every year to maintain their license to practice law.

"We are very excited about being the pilot organization for this offering from West LegalEdcenter," said Linda Warren Seely, director of West Tennessee Legal Services. "The attorneys who volunteer with us have added these clients to their already full work schedules. Providing them with a free online CLE program not only thanks them for their hard work, but gives them more flexibility to further their professional development."

West Tennessee Legal Services refers cases to approximately 350 member attorneys for clients in rural Tennessee. Clients include low-income residents, often those who are elderly or disabled, with legal issues ranging from domestic violence and divorce to consumer protection matters. A recent tornado in the Jackson area destroyed many homes in low-income neighborhoods. Residents looked to West Tennessee Legal Services for help in securing benefits from insurance companies and in gaining recourse against fraudulent contractors.

"Organizations like West Tennessee Legal Services give you an opportunity to help people who otherwise might not be able to access the justice system," said Ed Neal McDaniel, a Savannah, Tenn., attorney who has done pro bono work throughout his career and who will now receive a free online CLE program from West LegalEdcenter.

"The role that the attorneys of West Tennessee Legal Services - and organizations like it across the country - play in protecting the vulnerable members of their community cannot be overstated," said Steve Daitch, vice president and general manager of West LegalEdcenter. "By providing a free online CLE program, we and our CLE content partners are doing our part to thank them for their service and make it easier for them to fulfill all of their professional obligations." The partnership with West Tennessee Legal Services is a pilot project; West LegalEdcenter hopes to expand the offer to other legal service organizations in 2004.

With online CLE from West LegalEdcenter, attorneys complete courses over the Internet whenever and wherever they choose, with access to hundreds of approved CLE programs. Online CLE eliminates costly travel expenses and extra time away from the office. Attorneys can choose from both live webcasts and on-demand programming from more than 90 CLE content partners nationwide, including Practicing Law Institute, American Law Institute-American Bar Association Committee on Continuing Professional Education (ALI-ABA), the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, the Association of Corporate Counsel, National Business Institute (NBI) and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

West LegalEdcenter includes unmatched innovative features such as links from course materials to Westlaw®, the leading online research service from West; customer service and technical support available 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and the most comprehensive law firm and corporate law department CLE Administrators Tool Kit to easily and seamlessly manage CLE attendance and usage.

About West Tennessee Legal Services
West Tennessee Legal Services, headquartered in Jackson, Tenn., serves low-income residents of a 17-county rural area in western Tennessee. The organization is federally funded and has approximately 350 volunteer attorneys working on pro bono projects. For more information visit www.wtls.org.

About West LegalEdcenter
West LegalEdcenter (www.westlegaledcenter.com) is the online continuing legal education (CLE) service from West and the winner of the 2003 TechnoLawyer @ Award in the Favorite Online Continuing Legal Education Provider category. Headquartered in Eagan, Minn., West is the foremost provider of integrated information solutions to the U.S. legal market. West is a business within The Thomson Corporation (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC) and was formed when West Publishing and Thomson Legal Publishing merged in June 1996. For more information, please visit the West Web site at west.thomson.com.

About The Thomson Corporation
The Thomson Corporation (http://www.thomson.com), with 2002 revenues of $7.8 billion, is a global leader in providing integrated information solutions to business and professional customers. Thomson provides value-added information, software applications and tools to more than 20 million users in the fields of law, tax, accounting, financial services, higher education, reference information, corporate training and assessment, scientific research and healthcare. The corporate common shares are listed on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges (TSX: TOC; NYSE: TOC).