Professional Development and Continuing Education in the JAGC

"An officer can spare himself many mistakes by improving himself."
--Frederick the Great

As a member of both the profession of arms and the profession of law, I am fortunate to have many opportunities for formal continuing education. The standards of diligence in both professions are similar, in that both require continuing growth in skill and educational attainment. From my perspective, the Army’s emphasis on lifelong learning is one of the most satisfying characteristics of the Army’s career model.

As an attorney, I am required to complete 45 credits of Continuing Legal Education (CLE) every three years. The Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAGC) has always provided opportunities for far more credit than that. As a result, I have never had to pay for civilian CLE, other than to meet some unique requirements in my state. I have completed satellite courses ranging from pre-deployment fiscal law, to a range of specialized prosecutorial training through the Trial Counsel Advocacy Program. I have also completed the JA Officer Basic Course, JA Officer Advanced Course, and most recently, attended the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School where I earned an LL.M. in Military Law, with a specialization in International and Operational Law.

As an Army officer generally, in addition to the branch-qualifying courses noted above, I have had numerous opportunities for formal continuing education. For example, I attended the DoD Emergency Preparedness Course, which deals with military support to civil authorities in disaster or other homeland defense scenarios. I also earned a certificate in Non-Lethal Weapons: Policies, Practices, and Technologies from Penn State Fayette, the Eberly Campus. I have enjoyed the opportunity to attend myriad other courses as well, covering a broad range of training in Soldier skills from the tactical to the strategic level. I am currently enrolled in Intermediate Level Education-Common Core, which enables future consideration for promotion, and also provides significant graduate level course credit toward a Master’s degree (although, like me, the vast majority of my classmates already have one or more post-graduate degrees).

In the Army, education and training are often synonymous. All of these educational opportunities have been put to good use at some point in my career, whether in deployments, exercises, or in my day to day duties of providing timely and accurate legal advice to the Army. I am confident that trend will continue as I progress to more and more challenging positions. In fact, the job I will be moving to this summer will be covered by a block of instruction a few weeks from now.

MAJ Brian Harlan
Student, Command and General Staff School
U.S. Army Combined Arms Center
Fort Belvoir, VA

“The views expressed in this BLOG are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Dept. of the Army, Dept. of Defense, or the U.S. Government.”