Does Maryland Require CLE? What Maryland Attorneys Need to Know

None.

Maryland has no mandatory CLE, so a Maryland attorney has no hour total to meet and no credits to earn.

The question has been studied, not ignored: a Supreme Court of Maryland workgroup reported on mandatory CLE on June 16, 2023, and on April 28, 2025 the Court postponed consideration of both mandatory CLE and mandatory reporting of voluntary CLE until further notice.

Until that changes, no CLE requirement is in force in Maryland.

No specialty credits are required in Maryland, because there is no mandatory CLE for an ethics, elimination-of-bias, wellness or technology hour to sit inside.

The absence is general: the Court's April 28, 2025 postponement covered the whole question, both a CLE mandate and mandatory reporting of voluntary CLE, not a partial scheme with some credit categories required and others not.

If the Court ever adopts a requirement, its order would define the credit types.

There is no CLE deadline and no CLE report in Maryland.

The reporting idea the Court weighed was an alternative to a mandate — requiring lawyers to report voluntary CLE — not a deadline inside one, and it was postponed on April 28, 2025 until further notice.

Maryland's annual attorney obligations sit outside CLE: registering in the Attorney Information System, paying the Client Protection Fund assessment, and filing pro bono and IOLTA reports.

The Client Protection Fund describes the assessment as a condition precedent to the practice of law in the State of Maryland.

Our research found no CLE rule for newly admitted Maryland attorneys, and there is no mandatory CLE requirement for a new admittee to be exempt from.

Admission is a separate track: the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners handles bar admission under Maryland Rules Title 19, Chapter 200, and the requirements it sets for new lawyers are admission requirements rather than CLE.

If the Court revives mandatory CLE, any newly admitted rule would be part of that decision.

Maryland sets no online or on-demand CLE rules, because it sets no CLE requirement at all: with no mandatory hours, no Maryland rule counts formats, caps on-demand study or sets an online limit.

An attorney who takes courses voluntarily in Maryland therefore has no state CLE rule to track them against.

If you are also licensed in a mandatory-CLE state, that state's format and credit rules are its own — confirm them with its CLE regulator.

Neither exists in Maryland.

Carryover and exemption rules are machinery of mandatory-CLE states: they govern hours a state requires, and Maryland requires none, so there is nothing to carry into a later period and no exemption status to apply for.

The April 28, 2025 postponement left no CLE scheme of any kind in force.

If the Court ever adopts a requirement, its order would create any carryover and exemption rules.

There is no Maryland CLE deadline to miss, so the state has no CLE late fee, grace period or suspension path to describe.

The annual obligations Maryland attorneys do carry sit outside CLE: registering in the Attorney Information System, paying the Client Protection Fund assessment, and filing pro bono and IOLTA reports.

Our research does not document what follows if one of those is missed, so that question belongs with the Supreme Court of Maryland or the Client Protection Fund.

A Supreme Court of Maryland workgroup studied mandatory CLE and reported on June 16, 2023.

On December 19, 2024, the Court voted to continue its consideration of whether to adopt a mandatory CLE requirement, and it also weighed a mandatory reporting requirement for voluntary CLE as an alternative.

On April 28, 2025, the Court postponed consideration of both alternatives until further notice.

Neither option has been adopted, so Maryland remains a state with no mandatory CLE and no mandatory CLE reporting.