St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt has been named to a second term on the joint Committee on Continuing Professional Education of the American Bar Association and the American Law Institute.
He also has been tapped to serve on the boards of directors of both the American Law Network and the American Institute for Law Training within the Office. The ALN provides continuing legal education live via satellite to 43 states and the District of Columbia. The AILTO offers law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies consulting and training support for in-house legal education.
ABA president Bill Paul announced the appointments Monday.
An attorney in practice for16 years on St. Thomas, Bolt also serves as the current V.I. delegate to the ABA. His previous term on the continuing education committee was in 1993-95. During that term, "I was successful in getting education programs brought to our Virgin Islands attorneys," he said. "It's imperative that we get affordable and available continuing legal education for members of our local bar."
As a member of the network and institute boards, Bolt said, he hopes to bring the professional education needs of V.I. attorneys to the attention of the national law organizations. He advocates making "real-time, on demand, continuing legal education via the Internet" available to attorneys in the territory as well as in other remote parts of the nation.
The continuing education committee, founded more than 50 years ago, is based in Philadelphia. Bolt's colleagues on the panel will include Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Edward R. Becker.