On the heels of making 12 hours of Minimum Continuing Legal Education training mandatory for all Connecticut attorneys in 2017, Connecticut's Judicial Branch is now making it easier to tally up those hours from just about anywhere, for free, via a recently launched podcast.

Calendar Call is the name of the new program, launched last month under the leadership of Statewide Bar Counsel Michael P. Bowler. Bowler said he pitched the idea to external affairs Director Melissa Farley last August and received immediate approval from Chief Court Administrator Judge Patrick J. Carroll.

“We spent $125 on a podcasting microphone that we got on Amazon,” Bowler said, “and we downloaded some free software. So we're doing this on a shoestring budget.”