Partnership to benefit New York lawyers by providing online alternative to in-person CLE as deadlines approach.

NEW YORK CITY AND SEATTLE, November 8, 2000 - New York Lawyers, many of whom are facing the prospect of taking required continuing legal education (CLE) for the first time in the states' history, will have an easier time of it as the result of a unique partnership between Taecan.com, Inc and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York's (New York City Bar) CityBar Center for CLE.

Effective immediately, Taecan.com and the New York City Bar will partner to make the prestigious New York City Bar's Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses available to all attorneys wishing to fulfill their CLE requirements. The renowned CLE content will be added to the expanding Taecan.com CLE online library and will be accessible to attorneys in New York, in other states and around the globe.

Taecan.com's online legal courseware, currently accredited in all 37 mandatory jurisdictions, will also feature access for New York lawyers to courses from other jurisdictions, including California, Florida and Texas as well as giving attorneys in other states access to The New York City Bar's programs.

" By partnering with Taecan.com, The New York City Bar can now provide it's member lawyers, many of whom are licensed in New York but practicing outside the state, high quality CLE, without making them travel back to the City to take the course. As well as giving attorneys from other states access to our programs that are national in scope with national faculties. It's a great convenience. "said Michelle Schwartz-Clement, Director of the CityBar Center for CLE. "We are committed to serving our members and the legal community, wherever they may be."

The Agreement between the two organizations also makes Taecan.com's trademarked "KeepTrack™" system available to their New York CityBar members at no initial cost. A boon to lawyers who have trouble keeping track of their CLE hours earned, KeeptTrack™ offers a continuously available "user friendly" way to track their CLE credit hours and report them to their Bar Associations if required.

" Sometimes lawyers have trouble keeping track of their credit hours earned, especially in states where mandatory CLE has just been enacted or in states where the reporting period spans more than one year. said Patrick Vane, CEO of Taecan.com. "KeepTrack™ is an easy way to make sure all your hours are accounted for and properly reported."

Traditional options for CLE credit often require money to be spent on travel, hotel and class registration, while attorney hourly revenue is often lost because lawyers leave their practices to attend live programs. Many litigators are forced to skip a CLE class they have signed up and paid for simply because there schedule changes unpredictably. By providing lawyers a tool to complete all or part of their CLE requirements over the Internet, whether at home or in the office, costs are reduced by having the Internet become the "classroom". Law firms using the Internet for CLE stand to save $ 1,200 per lawyer per year over traditional classroom CLE credits.

About Taecan.com. Taecan is Old English for " To teach". Taecan.com is a Seattle based Internet company that offers a convenient and affordable alternative to seminar style " fixed time and place" CLE seminars. The company, founded by an attorney and educator, has rapidly aggregated the largest online library of approved CLE titles in the world by partnering with bar associations to deploy their content over the Internet. In addition to the New York City Bar contract, Taecan.com was recently awarded the contract for the State Bar of California, the Ohio Bar, the Los Angeles County Bar and numerous others, from Alaska to Florida.

About The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (The New York City Bar). The Association of the Bar of the City of New York is one of the oldest and most highly regarded bar associations in the United States. Serving primarily New York City attorneys, its membership includes some of the most well known lawyers in the world. New York City is also home to some of the worlds largest law firms and corporate legal departments, many of who are members of The New York City Bar. The Association has a long and distinguished history of developing high quality CLE for its members and the attorney population at large. The Association of the Bar of the City of New York was founded in 1870, and is dedicated to maintaining the high ethical standards of the profession, promoting reform of the law, and providing service to the profession and the public.


In addition to the courses offered for purchase, any user may take a free sample course at Taecan.com. This course is being offered to Ohio lawyers to familiarize them with Taecan.com and the Internet as a legal education delivery tool. The sample class does not allow the user to receive credit for the course, but it allows the attorney to have the Taecan.com experience. This fully-functional site enables users to review course materials, take quizzes and tests, and report CLE credit electronically, all online. While significant effort went into the implementation of this site, it is only the beginning: improvements will be added based on Taecan.com's business-plan directives and customer and investor feedback.