Your MCLE reporting requirement

With a few exceptions, all attorneys who are admitted to practice law in California must complete ongoing legal training. This requirement is called Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE).

• When do I report my MCLE?
• What is the MCLE requirement?
• What are “Subfield” requirements?
• How to report your MCLE compliance

When do I report my MCLE?

California attorneys complete their MCLE requirements on a three-year cycle. Upon licensure, each attorney will be permanently assigned to an MCLE group as follows (changing your last name later does not change your group):

*Attorneys who have been licensed for less than four months within their compliance period are not required to report compliance for that first period.

What is the MCLE requirement?

The requirement is 25 hours every three years. The courses taken must be State Bar of California-approved education. The requirement is less if a licensee is not on active status for the entire three-year period.

For example, a June 2024 licensee with the last name Clogson (A-G, or “Group 1”) will owe a total of 6 hours of MCLE between June 1, 2024 and January 31, 2025 if active in all 8 months (even for one day per month). A June 2024 licensee, with the last name Raines (N-Z, or “Group 3”), and therefore with 20 months on active status (June 2024 –Jan. 2026), will owe a total of 14 hours of MCLE by February 1, 2026. For additional information or help in calculating your proportional requirement, please refer to the Proportional Requirement discussion and detail table.

What are “Subfield” requirements?

Unless State Bar rules indicate otherwise, an attorney who has been active throughout the three-year compliance period must complete 25 credit hours of MCLE activities. Total hours must include no less than seven hours as follows:

• At least four hours of legal ethics.
• At least one hour of education addressing competence issues.
• At least two hours dealing with elimination of bias. Of the two hours, at least one hour must focus on implicit bias and the promotion of bias reducing strategies.
• At least 1 hour on technology in law practice (e.g., conducting remote proceedings or using artificial intelligence in legal research).
• At least 1 hour covering civility in law practice (treating others with professionalism).

An attorney may reduce the required 25 hours, including subfield requirements, in proportion to the number of full months they were not licensed, inactive, or exempt in the three-year compliance period. Refer to the Proportional Requirement discussion and detail table.

How to report your MCLE compliance

It is extremely important to understand that compliance with MCLE does not just entail completing the required courses. Attorneys must track their own hours and report their compliance to the State Bar at the end of their three-year compliance period, by completing and submitting an online attestation through their My State Bar Profile.

For additional MCLE related information, including finding MCLE activities, MCLE exemption, and definitions of important MCLE-related terms such as “participatory” versus “self-study” education, please refer to the MCLE & CLE webpage.