How many states require attorneys to take continuing legal education/CLE courses as a condition of practicing law?
Forty-seven (47) states and territories in the United States require lawyers to take CLE courses in order to practice law. Maryland is one of only seven jurisdictions that does not have a mandatory continuing legal education (“MCLE”) requirement (others include Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, South Dakota, Washington D.C.). In the past year two states (Nebraska and New Jersey) have adopted MCLE, indicating a clear trend towards adoption of the requirement. The following questions relate to the contents of the Rule proposal: 1. Under the draft Rule submitted by the Commission on Professionalism, how many hours of MCLE would an attorney have to complete? Active attorneys would have to complete ten hours of mandatory continuing legal education per year, unless they are exempt from the MCLE requirement. At least two of the ten hours must be devoted to topics concerning professionalism. 2. What attorneys would be exempt from completing the MCLE requirement? Under the draft Rul
