CLE for Newly Admitted Attorneys

New York separates its newest attorneys from everyone else.

The transitional requirement in New York's CLE regulations (22 NYCRR 1500.12) obliges newly admitted attorneys to complete 32 CLE credits across their first two years — 16 in each year.

Each year's 16 credits break down into 3 in ethics, 6 in skills and 7 in practice management or professional practice, and the two years together must include at least 1 credit in cybersecurity, privacy and data protection.

The format rule is the part that surprises new admittees: self-study, recorded and online formats cannot be counted toward transitional credit unless the regulations or the CLE Board permit it.

Before buying an on-demand bundle, check that the format counts where you are in your first two years.

Carryover exists but is capped.

Up to 8 excess first-year credits carry into year two, and up to 6 excess second-year credits carry into your first biennial cycle as an experienced attorney.

Registration runs on its own clock.

New York attorneys re-register every two years, within 30 days after their birthday, with the Office of Court Administration, at $375 per registration — and the experienced-attorney CLE cycle follows that registration.

The transitional credits are counted by year of admission instead; our research did not confirm how they are reported at registration, so check with the CLE Board.

Once the two transitional years end, the experienced-attorney requirement takes over: 24 credits per two-year cycle, including at least 4 in ethics and professionalism, 1 in diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias, and 1 in cybersecurity, privacy and data protection (22 NYCRR 1500.22).

The diversity credit belongs to that experienced cycle — the transitional mix for newly admitted attorneys is the 3-6-7 breakdown above, with no diversity line.

For the requirement at every career stage — reporting, exemptions and the experienced cycle in full — see our guide to New York CLE.

Beyond New York, new-lawyer CLE is set state by state, and the approaches split three ways in the rules we read: a named course bolted onto the first year or two (a professionalism program, a basic-skills course, a bridge-the-gap program), an exemption from the regular CLE requirement that runs anywhere from the admission year alone to the first two years, or no mandatory CLE at all — Maryland, Michigan and South Dakota in our review.

DC shows a no-CLE state can still require one course for new admittees.

For the ongoing requirements that apply after the new-lawyer period, see our CLE requirements by state guide.

The table lists the new-lawyer rules our October 2026 review of the state rules captured.

State	New-lawyer requirement
Alabama	Exempt from MCLE for the rest of the admission year, but a 3-hour professionalism course is due within 12 months of admission.
Alaska	Exempt from MCLE for the calendar year of first admission.
Arizona	One-time 4.25-hour State Bar Professionalism Course within the first year — all 4.25 hours count as professional-responsibility CLE. Lawyers admitted July–December also owe 10 hours (2 ethics) that year; January–June admits owe none that year.
California	State Bar New Attorney Training by the end of the month of the first admission anniversary — $55 since May 26, 2025, with no exemptions. The hours count toward MCLE if done within the compliance period; missing the deadline costs a $106 late fee.
Connecticut	Exempt for the calendar year of admission to the Connecticut bar.
Delaware	CLE starts January 1 of the year after admission; seven Delaware State Bar Association Fundamentals courses are due by the end of the second compliance year.
District of Columbia	No general mandatory CLE, but new admittees must complete the Mandatory Course on the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct and Practice (DC Bar Rule II, Section 2) — online and on demand, $229, within 12 months of swearing in, or the lawyer faces administrative suspension.
Florida	Basic Skills Course Requirement in two parts: an 8-hour Practicing with Professionalism course taken no earlier than 12 months before and no later than 12 months after admission, plus 21 hours of YLD basic-level substantive courses during the first 3-year CLE cycle.
Hawaii	Excused from the year's 3 CLE hours when going active in the licensure year, but must still take the separate Hawaii Professionalism Course.
Idaho	Within one year of admission, 10 NAC-approved credits covering Idaho ethics, civil and criminal procedure and community property; lawyers with under 3 years of practice also take the New Attorney Program. The first reporting period runs from admission to December 31 of the third full calendar year after admission.
Illinois	Basic Skills Course of at least 6 professional-responsibility hours plus 9 more CLE hours — 15 total — by the last day of the month one year after admission; those admitted on or after January 1, 2028 need 0.5 hours on access-to-justice topics in the course.
Indiana	A 6-hour Applied Professionalism course within the first three-year period, which starts January 1 after admission, for lawyers admitted by exam.
Iowa	No CLE requirement for the admission year. The old Basic Skills Course rule covers only lawyers admitted by exam after December 31, 2008 and before January 1, 2015.
Louisiana	12.5 hours from the year of admission through the next calendar year, at least 8 of them in ethics, professionalism or law office management; the LSBA Transition Into Practice program can satisfy this.
Maine	Complete an accredited new-attorney (bridge-the-gap) program in the admission year and CLE is exempt for that year and the next.
Maryland	No mandatory CLE.
Massachusetts	The new-admittee Practicing with Professionalism course was repealed — the SJC repealed Rule 3:16 effective August 14, 2024, concluding that a mandatory course is no longer the best way to help newly admitted attorneys transition into practice.
Michigan	No mandatory CLE for attorneys as of 2026.
Minnesota	The first reporting period is a full three years plus the rest of the admission year.
Mississippi	A 12-hour new-lawyer program — 6 hours basic skills, 6 hours ethics/professionalism — by the end of the second CLE year; lawyers with 5 or more years of practice elsewhere can skip the skills half by affidavit.
Missouri	No CLE completion or reporting in the reporting year of first licensure, for lawyers admitted after July 1, 2018.
Montana	Exempt for the rest of the reporting year in which admitted.
Nevada	Exempt for the rest of the admission year and the next full year, but must complete the Transitioning into Practice (TIP) program.
New Jersey	A newly admitted lawyer with a plenary license must earn 16 of the first 24 credits from at least 6 of 12 named New Jersey practice areas, such as estate administration, trial preparation, family law, real estate closings and trust accounting.
New York	32 transitional credits over the first two years — see the section above.
North Carolina	The Professionalism for New Attorneys (PNA) program in the first reporting period; lawyers licensed elsewhere for 5 or more years are exempt.
North Dakota	The first reporting period starts July 1 after initial licensure and ends June 30 three years later.
Ohio	Exempt from regular CLE for the first biennial period, but must complete 12 hours of New Lawyers Training (Gov.Bar R. X, Secs. 9 and 14).
Oklahoma	Exempt for the calendar year of first admission.
Oregon	15 hours in a first reporting period running from admission to April 30 of the next year: a 3-hour bar-approved access-to-justice course, 2 ethics hours, 1 mental health/substance use hour and 9 practical-skills hours (SPPE admittees have a lighter mix).
Pennsylvania	Exempt from CLE for 12 to 24 months depending on compliance group — including lawyers admitted on motion.
Rhode Island	Exempt from the 10-hour requirement for the current and next full reporting year, but the one-day Rhode Island Bridge the Gap course is due by the end of the first full reporting year unless admitted elsewhere for 3 years.
South Carolina	Exempt in the admission year, but must complete the SC Bar Essentials Series course during the first required reporting year.
South Dakota	No mandatory CLE.
Vermont	A 15-hour first-year requirement with at least 9 hours moderated or interactive; missing the deadline leads to administrative suspension.
Virginia	Exempt for the completion period in which first admitted.
West Virginia	The State Bar's free Bridge-the-Gap Program within 24 months of admission; lawyers who completed a comparable program elsewhere may apply for exemption.
Wisconsin	Exempt from CLE attendance and reporting in the admission year (lawyers practicing principally in another mandatory-CLE state may still have to report).

Our review could not verify a new-lawyer CLE rule for Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah or Wyoming — the pages we read either named no rule or named programs whose details we could not verify, which is not the same as none existing.

Check with the state's CLE regulator before assuming anything either way.

Already licensed elsewhere?

Check the experience carve-outs before assuming a state's new-lawyer rule applies to you in full.

Illinois lawyers with at least one year of practice in another state in the prior three skip the Basic Skills Course and instead complete 15 CLE hours, including 4 in professional responsibility, in their first year.

Florida lawyers with 5 or more years of non-government practice in another jurisdiction can be exempted from the 21 basic-skills hours if they show 30 CLE hours from the past 3 years.

North Carolina exempts lawyers licensed elsewhere for 5 or more years from the PNA program, Mississippi's skills half can be skipped by affidavit at 5 or more years, Rhode Island waives its Bridge the Gap course after 3 years admitted elsewhere, and West Virginia accepts applications based on a comparable program completed in another state.

In New York, skills are a named category: 6 of each year's 16 transitional credits must be skills credits.

And because self-study, recorded and online formats do not count toward transitional credit unless the regulations or the CLE Board permit them, those credits have to come through formats the rules allow.

The practical skew in the rules we read is not just a New York vocabulary choice.

Ohio sends new lawyers to 12 hours of New Lawyers Training.

Oregon requires 9 practical-skills hours out of a new admittee's first 15.

Mississippi's new-lawyer program is half basic skills.

Florida's second phase is 21 hours of YLD basic-level substantive courses.

Delaware names its seven Fundamentals courses — Lawyer-Client Relations, Family Law, Real Estate and Civil Litigation among them.

New Jersey pins 16 of a newly admitted plenary-license lawyer's first 24 credits to at least 6 of 12 New Jersey practice areas, and Vermont requires at least 9 of the first-year 15 hours to be moderated or interactive.

Where a state's new-lawyer rule names skills-style coursework, budget for those courses early, and check which formats count where the rule limits them (as New York and Vermont do).

The clock starts at admission — the step our guide to life after passing the bar walks through.

From there, the deadlines spread out very differently by state.

New York runs on a two-year clock counted by year of admission: 16 credits in the first year and 16 in the second.

The birthday-linked biennial registration cycle governs the experienced requirement that follows.

The carryover caps — up to 8 excess first-year credits into year two, up to 6 excess second-year credits into your first biennial cycle — sit in the transitional regulation itself, 22 NYCRR 1500.12.

Elsewhere, the first deadlines land fast.

Within the first year come Alabama's 3-hour professionalism course (12 months), Arizona's 4.25-hour Professionalism Course (first year), California's New Attorney Training (by the end of the month of the first admission anniversary), DC's Mandatory Course (12 months from swearing in), Idaho's 10 approved credits (one year) and Illinois' 15 first-year hours, Basic Skills Course included (by the last day of the month one year after admission).

Others run into a second year: Delaware's seven Fundamentals courses (by the end of the second compliance year), Louisiana's 12.5 hours (the admission year through the next calendar year), Mississippi's 12-hour program (by the end of the second CLE year), Rhode Island's Bridge the Gap course (by the end of the first full reporting year) and West Virginia's Bridge-the-Gap Program (24 months).

A few run longer still — these are the horizons named in the rules we read, not a ranking: Florida's 21 YLD basic-level hours stretch across the first 3-year cycle, Indiana's 6-hour Applied Professionalism course sits in the first three-year period starting January 1 after admission, Minnesota grants a full three-year period plus the admission year, North Dakota's first period ends June 30 three years after licensure, and Idaho's first reporting period runs to December 31 of the third full calendar year after admission.

Where deadlines slip, the rules we read name concrete consequences: administrative suspension in DC and Vermont, and a $106 late fee in California for a missed New Attorney Training deadline.

We did not capture a specific New York penalty for missed transitional credits — confirm enforcement with the CLE Board.

The requirement is written on you, not your employer.

Every rule on this page places the obligation on the attorney being admitted — whether a firm pays for courses, buys seats in a bridge-the-gap program or runs its own trainings is a benefits and development decision, and our research documents the rules, not firms' benefits packages.

So raise it early.

When comparing offers or planning your first year, ask whether the firm covers CLE fees, whether it runs in-house trainings — and, the part that matters for compliance, whether those sessions carry credit in your state.

In New York, for example, transitional credit only counts in formats the regulations or the CLE Board permit, so an in-house session is not automatically credit.

Costs are real even where the programs are bar-run: DC's Mandatory Course costs $229, California's New Attorney Training has been $55 since May 26, 2025, and West Virginia's State Bar Bridge-the-Gap Program is free.

Those are the figures our review captured from the bars that run the programs; commercial course pricing varies and is not something our research captures.

Career information, not legal advice. CLE requirements are set by each state's CLE regulator — in New York, the CLE Board. Confirm the current rules with the regulator named above before you act on them.