No. Part-time employees can be exempt as long as they are permanent or probationary employees who do not otherwise practice law. The words "those employed full-time ... who do not otherwise practice law" in sections 2.54(A)(3) and 2.54(A)(4) refer to employees "employed on a permanent or probationary basis, regardless of their working hours, who do not practice law in California" except as employees of the State of California or the United States government.

The MCLE rules specify that some types of activities qualify only for self-study credit. Other kinds of activities can qualify for either participatory or self-study credit, depending on whether or not the member participated in the particular activity is verified by a provider.

If a provider verifies your "participation," an activity is "participatory." Provider verification consists of ALL the following: 

•     the provider has you sign in at the time of the activity (electronic sign-in is acceptable)
•     the provider keeps a list of those who signed in
•     the provider issues a certificate of attendance to attendees

Online courses, CD ROM-based courses, and some tape-based courses can count for participatory credit if they are verified by an approved provider. If unsure, contact the individual provider to verify that the program has been approved for participatory credit.  To confirm a tape or other self-study activity is still current, contact the provider.

An out-of-state attorney arbitration counsel is an attorney who is not a licensed attorney of the State Bar of California but who is an active attorney in good standing of and eligible to practice before any Bar of the United States and who has been retained to appear in the course of, or in connection with, an arbitration proceeding in this state.

There is no hard and fast rule to determine this. It is usually up to the discretion of the arbitrator and/or arbitral panel who may ask the applying attorney to inform him/her how many times the applying attorney has appeared as an OSAAC. The spirit of the rule that the arbitral panel will follow mandates that out-of-state attorneys not abuse OSAAC as a substitute for practicing in California.

If an attorney earns more than 25 hours during a compliance period, he/she cannot carry the excess hours forward to the next compliance period. [Rule 2.72(D)]

Information received during the investigation process or discussed during the evaluation process cannot be released by the commission. Under the statute, information received by the commission is absolutely confidential and it would be a clear-cut violation of the law to divulge how the commission conducted any part of the investigation or the weight given to evidence of a negative or positive nature.

The commission reports its recommendations, in absolute confidence, to the Governor. The rule ". . . prohibits disclosure of any information of any nature to anyone. . ." except as otherwise provided by the statute. The commission does inform a candidate who has been found not qualified of that fact.

The only other exception is if the Governor appoints a person to a trial court who has been found not qualified, the State Bar may make this fact public after due notice to the appointee of its intention to do so.

When the Governor nominates a person to the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, the JNE Commission submits its recommendation, and the reasons for such recommendation, to the Commission on Judicial Appointments, and appears at the public hearing to present its recommendation and reasons.

If there is a written fee agreement, the arbitrator may consider whether the agreement is valid and whether the terms of the agreement (for example, the hourly fee) should be upheld. You should review the fee agreement before the hearing to determine if it answers your questions about the lawyer's charges. If the arbitrator determines the agreement to be valid and that you understood the agreement, the arbitrator will generally use the terms of the agreement as a basis for making the decision. 

The arbitrator also looks at the lawyer's "performance" in deciding the amount of the fee. For example, did the lawyer spend too much time on a specific task, or did the lawyer make mistakes that required extra time to fix? You should review the lawyer's bills and performance and decide whether, based on these factors, you believe the fee is too high. You should be prepared to point out specific items that support your belief

First, you should decide whether the witnesses have important information related directly to your fee dispute with the lawyer. For example, if the witness was with you when you and the lawyer made or changed your agreement, then the witness may have important information relevant to your fee dispute, and you might want to have that person available to testify at the hearing. You should tell the arbitrator and the attorney whose fees you are disputing that you expect to call witnesses and arrange your presentation so that the witnesses can be easily included. 

If you have an important witness who does not want to come to the hearing, you may be able to order that person to attend with a subpoena. You should contact the administrator of the fee arbitration program to find out how this is done. You should also contact the administrator if you have any problems scheduling a witness. While it is always better to bring witnesses to the hearing, you may present their testimony and evidence in writing instead. It is up to the arbitrator to decide how much weight to give a witness's testimony.