What Are the CLE Requirements for Rhode Island Attorneys?

Rhode Island lawyers must complete 10 hours of continuing legal education in each MCLE reporting year, which runs July 1 to June 30.

At least 2 of those 10 hours must be in the area of legal ethics.

The requirement sits in Article IV (MCLE) of the Rhode Island Supreme Court's rules — the same court that regulates attorney admission in the state — and it runs by the reporting year, so the 10-hour count applies afresh to each July-to-June year.

The one specialty credit the rule text our research read names is legal ethics: at least 2 of the 10 annual hours must be in that area.

The same rule text names no separate bias, wellness or technology requirement.

That is a statement about the text our research captured, not a finding that no other required category exists — and a later order amending the MCLE rule is an open question in our research — so confirm the current credit types with the Rhode Island Supreme Court before you build a compliance year around a non-ethics course.

The rule our research read defines the reporting year, July 1 to June 30, but in what we captured it does not state a completion deadline for the hours or a mechanism for reporting them, so we cannot give either.

Active Rhode Island lawyers also pay a $200 annual registration fee to the Supreme Court between April 1 and July 1; our research did not confirm whether or how CLE reporting ties into that registration.

Ask the Rhode Island Supreme Court for the current deadline and reporting process.

Two rules apply to new Rhode Island admittees.

Newly admitted attorneys are exempt from the 10-hour requirement for the current and next full MCLE reporting year.

They must still take the one-day, mandatory Rhode Island Bridge the Gap course by the end of their first full reporting year, unless at the time of admission the attorney has been admitted in another jurisdiction for 3 years.

The exemption lifts the hour obligation; it does not lift the Bridge the Gap course.

Our research did not establish whether Rhode Island caps online or on-demand CLE, whether recorded courses count, or whether any of the 10 hours must be earned live.

Because a later order amending the MCLE rule is an open question in our research, the current delivery-format rules should be confirmed with the Rhode Island Supreme Court before you plan a reporting year around recorded courses.

One exemption in the rule text our research read is age: attorneys who are 70 years old or over are exempt from MCLE.

With the newly admitted exemption above, those are the two exemptions our research captured.

The rule text we read did not set out other categories, such as inactive status or hardship, and our research did not find whether hours beyond the 10 carry into a later reporting year.

Confirm carryover and any other exemption question with the Rhode Island Supreme Court.

Our research did not capture what follows a missed Rhode Island CLE deadline: no late fee, penalty or noncompliance process appears in the material we read, and the rule text we read is the April 2024 revision with a later amending order flagged as an open question.

The body that administers the requirement is the Rhode Island Supreme Court, so questions about a missed or late reporting year belong with the court.

The MCLE rule text our research read is the Article IV text revised April 2024.

Our research flagged a later order amending the rule as an open question and did not capture that order's text or confirm what, if anything, it changed.

The hour total, the ethics credit, the exemptions and the Bridge the Gap rule on this page come from the April 2024 text, so check the Rhode Island Supreme Court's attorney-resources pages for the current rule before you rely on any single number here.