Continuing Legal Education: What’s Required and Opportunities for Members and Staff to Satisfy Those Requirements

As members of the self-regulated legal profession, attorneys are required, under the rules of their state bars, to maintain competence in their legal knowledge and skill. These rules apply to preserve the integrity of the profession and ensure that attorneys—who represent clients as officers of the legal system—uphold their "special responsibility for the quality of justice" under that system. To fulfill the duty of competence, most jurisdictions, though not all, have adopted mandatory continuing legal education (MCLE) requirements. This Sidebar provides an overview of the states' various MCLE requirements, discussing how each state varies in their approach to ensuring that attorneys maintain the requisite knowledge and skill to maintain professional competence. The Sidebar concludes by providing details on the Federal Law Update (FLU), a series of CRS legal seminars that will be held the first two weeks of April 2019 and may be eligible for Continuing Legal Education credits.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has described the continuing education requirement as follows:

To maintain public confidence in the legal profession and the rule of law, and to promote the fair administration of justice, it is essential that lawyers be competent regarding the law, legal and practice-oriented skills, the standards and ethical obligations of the legal profession, and the management of their practices.

In 2017, the ABA amended its Model Rule for MCLE credits, setting an example for licensing jurisdictions to use. The MCLE Model Rule requires an average of 15 credit hours per year over the course of the reporting period. Those credits must include three specific categories: (1) an average of one hour of ethics and professionalism credit per year; (2) an hour of mental health and substance abuse disorder credit every three years; and (3) an hour of diversity and inclusion credit every three years. The Model Rule provides various exemptions that would excuse attorneys from completing the MCLE requirements. Exemptions apply, for instance, for non-practicing attorneys with inactive licenses or those on retired status.

Licensing jurisdictions widely diverge from the Model Rule, resulting in MCLE requirements differing from each other in a number of ways, including, for example, the quantity of credit hours and the period over which those credits may accrue. Examples of MCLE requirements that the various U.S. jurisdictions have adopted illustrate the different ways that such requirements may apply to licensed attorneys working in Congress, including:

• Out of State Attorneys. Attorneys who are licensed by a state bar, but work outside of the geographic confines of that state generally are still required to comply with the MCLE requirements of that state. State bars may allow attorneys who are active members, but practice in another jurisdiction, to satisfy the state's MCLE requirements by demonstrating compliance with the MCLE requirements of the jurisdiction in which they reside and practice.
• For example, Washington permits its active members who are also active members of certain other bars to comply with credit requirements in that jurisdiction. In so doing, the Washington Bar allows its members to "certify compliance with [its] rules in lieu of meeting the education requirement by paying a comity fee and filing a Comity Certificate of MCLE Compliance from a comity state certifying to the lawyer's subjection to and compliance with that state's MCLE requirements during the lawyer's most recent reporting period."
• To take another example, Arizona permits active members of its bar who "reside[] in another MCLE jurisdiction, and who [are] subject to and complying with the MCLE requirements for that jurisdiction" to file an affidavit indicating compliance with the other jurisdiction's MCLE requirements, unless the attorney is not admitted in that jurisdiction or the jurisdiction has no MCLE requirement (in which case the attorney must comply with Arizona's MCLE requirements).
• A few states do, however, wholly exempt attorneys practicing out of state from having to comply with the state's MCLE requirements. For example, members of the Wisconsin bar who do not practice law in the state during a reporting period are exempt from its MCLE requirements.
• Status of Government Officials. Some states may exempt government officials from having to comply with MCLE requirements, though these states may still require attorneys to report their exempt status. These exemptions can vary greatly between jurisdictions, from exemptions for discrete professionals like judges, legislators, or attorneys who are active duty in the military to broader exemptions for all federal government attorneys.
• For example, North Carolina "exempt[s]" its "members of the United States Senate" and its "members of the United States House of Representatives" "from the requirements of [its MCLE] rules for any calendar year in which they serve some portion thereof in such capacity."
• Similarly, Texas provides that "Members of the Texas Legislature or members of Congress may request a 15-hour allowance" from its MCLE requirements.
• California exempts attorneys who are "employed full-time by the United States government as attorneys or administrative law judges on a permanent or probationary basis, regardless of their working hours, who do not otherwise practice law."

Failure to abide by a state's MCLE requirements can, depending on the state, result in a range of penalties from fines to suspensions. For reference purposes, Table 1, below, summarizes basic MCLE requirements that apply to active members of the bars of the states, District of Columbia, and U.S. territories. For each jurisdiction, a link is provided to either:

• the state bar or other body that administers or facilitates MCLE reporting in the jurisdiction if that page includes a link to the rules governing MCLE (which also often include other information on MCLE compliance and reporting), or
• the MCLE rules, rules of the state Supreme Court, or rules of professional conduct of the applicable jurisdiction.

It is important to note that MCLE rules will vary widely on a number of factors, including, among other issues, whether the attorney is newly admitted to a bar; whether the requirements necessitate in-person attendance; the minimum minutes per credit hour; or other course requirements. Accordingly, it is paramount that every attorney closely examine his or her jurisdiction's specific obligations to ensure compliance with its MCLE requirements.

CRS can assist attorneys working in Congress with their professional obligations for continuing education through the American Law Division's FLU, a semiannual series of seminars on highly topical legal issues of interest to the legislative agenda. Subject to the approval of the MCLE requirements of the various jurisdictions, the seminars may be eligible to satisfy attendees' MCLE requirements. In addition to general sessions, the FLU offers attendees two opportunities to satisfy their jurisdiction's ethics and professional responsibility requirements. Professional responsibility seminars are intended to satisfy attorney ethics requirements by basing discussion on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct and relevant rules from individual jurisdictions as they pertain to the discussion.

This year, the spring FLU seminars will be held April 2-4 and 9-11 in the Montpelier Room of the James Madison Memorial Building in the Library of Congress. To register, click here.