What do the PBI system changes mean for faculty and course planners?

PBI remains committed to producing gold-standard CLE in partnership with leading experts in the legal field. As part of our commitment to quality educational products, and an effort to expand our services to accommodate attorneys requiring credit in jurisdictions beyond PA, it’s imperative that we continue to button up our process and adhere to reasonable standards for course and course materials preparation. 

We have partnered with the American Bar Association MCLE arm to accommodate CLE accreditation and credit reporting in Pennsylvania and other jurisdictions. As a result of this exciting partnership, PBI can provide quality CLE content to attorneys with licenses to practice outside of PA. With this benefit comes the challenge of meeting national accreditation and reporting requirements, instead of just a PA focus. 

Please review the following guidelines for PBI CLE course development:

Speaker Bios:

3-4 sentences that provide the speaker’s name, current title, current company, their practice area and expertise, education and degrees. Please also include the current city and state of residence for each speaker. 

Course Materials:
Every PBI CLE is required to have quality, original course materials. Please see Course Materials Requirements article.

Course Planning Timeline:

In an effort to reach a broader audience and gain additional exposure for our presenters, we are working to implement standards that require our staff and planners to develop courses and course materials earlier in the planning process than in the past. By doing so, not only do we ensure that there is ample time to develop the highest quality courses, we also have the ability to accredit PBI courses in additional jurisdictions.

Reporting in these additional jurisdictions means not only tighter timelines, but also that we must adhere to national accreditation requirements, often meeting stricter standards than in the past. In order for courses to qualify for these credits, PBI is now required to provide more in-depth information in advance of courses, including written materials. While we recognize that this puts some additional strain on our already hard-working planners and presenters, it ultimately elevates the quality of PBI courses, continuing to strengthen the PBI brand and reinforce the levels of professionalism of our staff and faculty.

You can see the detailed course development requirements checklist here.