Online delivery of required training to benefit California lawyers as new deadlines approach.

SAN FRANCISCO AND SEATTLE, November 27, 2000 - California lawyers, many of whom face the prospect of taking mandatory continuing legal education for the first time in two years as the result of a recent Supreme Court decision, will now have an easier time of it because of a groundbreaking partnership between the State Bar of California and Taecan.com, Inc., the recognized leader for Internet CLE.

After a competitive bidding process, The State Bar of California has selected Taecan.com to be its partner in making the State Bar of California Continuing Legal Education (CLE) courses available online to all California attorneys. The award winning CLE content will be added to the expanding Taecan.com CLE online library and will be accessible to California attorneys wherever they may be around the globe. This partnership will greatly assist California attorneys in meeting new court-imposed CLE deadlines, some as early as the end of January, 2001.

Taecan.com has posted the first wave of courses to the Taecan.com internet site, including digital versions of the more than 150 hours of seminars recently offered at the State Bar of California Annual Meeting in San Diego last September. Topics cover a broad range of legal areas including Family Law, Criminal Law, Taxation, and Estate Planning. It is estimated that, within the year, the partners will offer more than 500 hours of California content online.

Background on the Supreme Court Ruling

Until two years ago, like in most states, lawyers in California were required to take a minimum number of continuing legal education courses every year, to keep their skills current post bar exam. The CLE requirements were in place to make sure lawyers stayed on top of changing legal matters. But in 1998, a legal challenge to the mandatory requirement, which questioned part of the rule that exempted certain attorneys from the requirement, prompted a suspension in the requirement until the courts sorted out the challenge. The result has been that for the last two years, many California attorneys failed to keep up their MCLE compliance.

In the summer of 2000, the California Supreme Court reinstated the rule and made it retroactive to the date of the lawsuit. Although the new rule reduced the number of hours required (to 25 hours per 3 years), the retroactive provision left many California lawyers in the lurch. About one third were estimated to be 50 or more hours behind. The first compliance deadline set by the Court is January 31, 2000, which could affect up to two-thirds of California attorneys.

The State Bar of California Chooses Taecan.com

Knowing that many lawyers were faced with the threat of MCLE noncompliance, the State Bar of California, under a mandate from the legislature to make CLE more accessible and affordable, looked for a cost effective way to help attorneys meet their CLE requirements. The Internet has proven to be a " just in time " solution, and after a competitive bidding process the contract to be the State Bar of California's official Internet CLE partner was awarded to Taecan.com.

"By partnering with Taecan.com, the State Bar of California is providing its member lawyers with a convenient, cost-effective way to satisfy their CLE requirements and meet the new deadlines. It will particularly benefit the many attorneys who are licensed in California but practice outside the state-they can satisfy their CLE requirements without traveling back to California to take courses. We are committed to serving our members, both in the state of California or wherever they may be."

Pam Wilson
State Bar of California

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

"Sometimes lawyers have trouble keeping track of their credit hours earned, especially in states like California, where mandatory CLE has just been re-enacted or in states where the reporting period spans more than one year." KeepTrack(tm) is an easy way to make sure all hours are accounted for and properly reported."

Patrick Vane
CEO of Taecan.com

Traditional options for CLE credit--live seminars--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 their 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 organizations to deploy their content over the Internet. Taecan.com has similar contracts with numerous other bar organizations including the Florida Bar, the New York City Bar, the Ohio Bar, the Los Angeles County Bar, the Houston Bar and with numerous other CLE content providers.

About the State Bar of California. The State Bar of California is the largest State Bar in the nation. Serving primarily California attorneys, its membership includes some of the most well known lawyers in the world. California is also home to some of the world's largest law firms and corporate legal departments. The State Bar of California has a long and distinguished history of developing high quality CLE for its members and the attorney population at large.



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.