Marine Corps Recruiting Command

PLC-Law is the largest commissioning source for Marine Corps judge advocates and is the main effort of the MCRC law recruiting mission. The PLC-Law Program offers prospective Marine Corps judge advocates the opportunity to earn their commission as Marine Corps Officers upon meeting certain initial eligibility and training requirements, but prior to completing their law school degree and obtaining a license to practice law. The desired end state of this program is the recruitment of the most mentally, morally, and physically qualified prospective Marine Corps judge advocates.

The key to achieving this end state is the development of a robust pool of officers who commission in law school and receive mentorship and on-the-job training opportunities before and after accession to active duty and before execution of orders to The Basic School (TBS).

Administration of the PLC-Law Program will include coordination of the PLC-Law Mentorship Initiative, Summer, Post-Bar Examination, and Pre-TBS Internship Initiatives, and requests for delay of accession to active duty in order to complete a one-year Master of Laws program or a one-year judicial clerkship.

• MCO P1100.73B “Personnel Procurement Manual”
• MCRCO 1100.2A “Officer Commissioning Manual”
• SECNAVINST 1120.9B “Designation of Marine Corps Officers as Judge Advocates”
• MCRCO 1131.1 “Marine Corps Recruiting Command Law Programs"
• ​FROST CALL 020-20
• FROST CALL 021-20

• FROST CALL 022-20

January 29, 2020

POOL UPDATE

All three officers slated for TBS 3-20, reporting 16 March, are on pre-TBS Internships. Of the 19 officers slated for TBS 4-20, five are on pre-TBS internships by request. The remainder have requested to remain with civilian firms and organization until reporting to TBS on 4 May 2020.

Any officer slated for 4-20 that wants to come onto active duty prior to TBS should reach out to me. MCRC has the need for special projects officers between February and May in Quantico, VA.

USN/USMC COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW

Following the media coverage that the Navy JAG Corps received as a result of the Chief Gallagher court martial, SECNAV ordered a “Comprehensive Review” of the Navy JAG Corps. Eventually, the Marine Corps got roped too. The Comprehensive Review report can be found here:
 

https://www.navy.mil/strategic/Comprehensive%20Review%20DON%20Uniformed%20Legal%20Communities.pdf

I highly recommend reading the entire report, as there are portions that apply specifically to all of you as future 4402s. Specifically, there are going to be some turbulence in accessions in the coming years. If you don’t feel like reading about the Navy, the Marine Corps portion starts at pg. 133 (151/274 of the .pdf)

ADDRESSES

Any Officers coming onto ADOS orders will need to complete the "Primary Residence Authorization Form" (See Documents List). If you have a request for Post-Bar/Pre-TBS Internship with me, fill that out now and send back to me so it's not a hurdle later. This mainly applies to FY21-23 summer internship candidates, as FY20 will be coming on Pre-TBS PTAD.

RESERVE RETIREMENT CONSIDERATIONS

BLUF: Standby for further correspondence. Start doing MarineNet classes, future you will thank you.

All 4401s in the PLC-Law pool are eligible for “Satisfactory” years in the reserves while awaiting training. These “Satisfactory” years can count towards a reserve retirement, if that is a road you want to take in the future (many Marine Judge Advocates do).

In order to get a satisfactory year, you need 35 reserve points per year (in addition to an automatic 15). There are two primary ways to receive these points at this point in your career; correspondence courses and Equivalent Instruction.

Correspondence courses are available on MarineNet. On the MarineNet HomePage (which, surprisingly, just got a facelift) Learning Resources box, there is a link for “Self-Education/Reserve Point”. That link will tell you how many reserve points each course is worth.  

Equivalent Instruction is duties in support of active duty operations. This means if you are helping out at your local OSO, running PFTs and CFTs, assisting in Pre-OCS weeks, etc, you rate reserve points for that time. I’m in the process of creating a process to administratively document these hours, but start logging any time that you’re “volunteering” at OSOs. Four hours of work is one point. You can’t earn more than two points a day with equivalent instruction. See NAVMC 799.

TBS Class dates are:

Charlie Company, 3-20, Reports 16 March 2020 [(4) PLC 4401 seats]

Delta Company, 4-20, Reports 4 May 2020 [(19) PLC 4401 seats]

Echo Company, 5-20, Reports 8 June 2020

Fox Company, 6-20, Reports 10 August 2020

Golf Company, 7-20, Reports 8 September 2020