What Are the CLE Requirements for Virginia Attorneys?
Active Virginia attorneys need 12 CLE hours every year, including 2 hours of ethics or professionalism credit and 4 hours of live-interactive credit, completed by October 31 and reported to the Virginia State Bar by December 15.
No more than 8 of the 12 hours may come from pre-recorded programs.
Newly admitted lawyers are exempt for the completion period in which they are first admitted, and up to 12 hours can carry over for one year.
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At a glance
The Virginia State Bar (VSB) administers the MCLE requirement for active Virginia lawyers.
12 hours per year, including 2 ethics/professionalism and 4 live-interactive hours.
Complete hours by October 31; report by December 15.
2 ethics/professionalism hours and 4 live-interactive hours; well-being is certified but carries no penalty.
Up to 8 of the 12 hours may come from pre-recorded programs; 4 live-interactive hours are required.
Exempt for the completion period in which they are first admitted.
$100 non-compliance fee and $100 late-filing fee.
How many CLE hours does Virginia require?
Active Virginia lawyers need 12 CLE hours each year.
The 12 hours include 2 hours of ethics or professionalism credit and 4 hours of live-interactive credit, and they must be completed by October 31 each year.
The Virginia State Bar states the requirement for each active member on its MCLE essentials page.
“must complete 12 hours of continuing legal education, including 2 hours of ethics/professionalism credit, and 4 hours of live-interactive credit by October 31 each year.”
What specialty credits are required (ethics, bias, wellness, tech)?
Within the 12 hours, 2 must be ethics or professionalism credit.
Virginia's well-being rule works differently: each active member of the Virginia State Bar must certify whether they have attended at least 1 credit hour of lawyer well-being education in the past three years, but there is no penalty for not doing so, so it functions as a certification rather than a required credit.
The VSB's MCLE pages we read do not document a separate required bias or technology credit; confirm the current credit breakdown with the Virginia State Bar before you plan your hours.
“each active member of the Virginia State Bar shall certify whether they have attended, within the past three (3) years, at least one (1) credit hour of lawyer well-being education related to the practice of law.”
When is the deadline and how do you report?
Virginia's CLE year has two dates: hours must be completed by October 31 at 11:59 PM ET, and the annual certification must be filed by December 15.
The Virginia State Bar's MCLE essentials page lists both dates alongside a $100 non-compliance fee and a $100 late-filing fee.
Our research documents the deadlines and the fees but not the step-by-step filing process, so the VSB's MCLE pages are the place to confirm how to report.
What are the rules for newly admitted attorneys?
Newly admitted Virginia lawyers are exempt from the certification requirement for the completion period in which they are first admitted to practice in Virginia, per the VSB's MCLE regulations.
Separately, lawyers admitted to the Virginia bar without taking the exam — under Rule 1A:1 — must attend the Virginia State Bar's Harry L.
Carrico Professionalism Course.
“The Rule exempts from the certification requirement a newly admitted member for the completion period in which he or she is first admitted to practice in Virginia.”
Can you complete CLE online or on demand?
Partly.
Virginia builds a live requirement into the 12 hours: 4 of them must be live-interactive, and for compliance purposes only 8 of the 12 hours may come from pre-recorded programs.
Read together, the two limits mean pre-recorded programs alone cannot cover the 12 hours — at least 4 hours must come from outside the pre-recorded cap.
How any specific online format counts toward the live-interactive hours is not something our research documents; the VSB's MCLE live requirements page is the place to confirm a format before you rely on it.
“For compliance purposes, you may only use 8.0 hours from pre-recorded programs to meet your annual MCLE requirement.”
Carryover and exemptions
Virginia allows a one-year carryover: attorneys may carry forward up to 12 CLE hours, including 2 ethics/professionalism hours and 4 live-interactive hours.
On exemptions, the one our research documents is for newly admitted lawyers, who are exempt for the completion period in which they are first admitted.
Other exemption categories are not documented on the VSB pages we read, so confirm with the Virginia State Bar's MCLE regulations whether one applies to your situation.
“Attorneys may carry forward 12.0 CLE hours including 2.0 ethics/professionalism hours and 4.0 live-interactive hours.”
What happens if you miss the deadline?
The Virginia State Bar's MCLE essentials page lists a $100 non-compliance fee and a $100 late-filing fee alongside the October 31 completion date and the December 15 reporting date.
What our research does not document is what happens beyond the fees — whether continued non-compliance affects your license status is not stated on the pages we read, so that question belongs with the Virginia State Bar.
What recently changed in Virginia's CLE rules?
Effective May 1, 2026, changes to the VSB's MCLE regulations let Virginia lawyers earn CLE credit for pro bono work: up to 1 hour of CLE for every 4 hours of qualifying pro bono service, and no more than 5 credits earned this way in one CLE period.
The pro bono credit is earned within the regular 12-hour annual requirement — one more way to accumulate the hours, not a separate obligation.
“Up to 1.0 hour of CLE can be earned for every 4.0 hours of pro bono service; no more than 5.0 credits can be earned in one Cle period.”
What This Page Does, and Doesn’t, Cover
This page summarizes the Virginia court rules, board and bar pages and other sources listed below, as read for this state-by-state CLE requirements series, current as of October 2026.
It is not a substitute for the instructions the Virginia State Bar publishes.
For the rest of the picture in Virginia, see bar admission rules in Virginia.
What Attorney Job Listings in Virginia Show Right Now
From the 16 active attorney listings on LawFirmHires as of October 8, 2026.
Employers with the most openings
- Alliance Defending Freedom13
- U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants2
Pay employers post
- 6% of attorney listings in Virginia state any pay at all.
Benefits and work arrangement
- 401k Matchnamed in 88%
- Dental & Visionnamed in 88%
- PTO / Paid Time Offnamed in 88%
Source: active attorney listings on LawFirmHires, updated daily. Pay figures use only listings that state pay (midpoint of each posted range). Benefits count listings that name the benefit; a listing that doesn’t mention one may still offer it.
Browse 16 jobs →Frequently Asked Questions
Can Virginia attorneys earn CLE credit for pro bono service?
Yes, as of May 1, 2026.
Changes to the VSB's MCLE regulations let Virginia lawyers earn up to 1 hour of CLE for every 4 hours of qualifying pro bono service, capped at 5 credits in one CLE period.
The credit counts within the regular 12-hour annual requirement, which still includes 2 ethics/professionalism hours and 4 live-interactive hours.
Does Virginia require a well-being CLE hour?
Not in the way it requires ethics credit.
Virginia asks each active member of the Virginia State Bar to certify whether they have attended at least 1 credit hour of lawyer well-being education within the past three years, but the VSB attaches no penalty to answering no. The well-being hour is therefore a certification on your annual filing rather than a required credit like the 2 ethics/professionalism hours.
What is the Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course?
It is a professionalism course run by the Virginia State Bar.
Under the VSB's MCLE requirements, lawyers admitted to the Virginia bar without taking the exam — admission without examination under Rule 1A:1 — must attend the Carrico course.
Our research records the attendance requirement but not the course's schedule, format or cost; the VSB's MCLE pages carry those details.
What counts as live-interactive CLE in Virginia?
Virginia requires 4 of the 12 annual hours to be live-interactive and caps pre-recorded programs at 8 of the 12, so the format of each course matters for compliance.
The VSB's pages we read state the counts but do not spell out which specific formats, such as live webcasts, qualify as live-interactive.
Confirm a program's format classification with the Virginia State Bar before counting it toward the live hours.
More Virginia Resources
Sources
- Virginia State Bar: MCLE Essentials (retrieved 2026-10-02)
- Virginia State Bar: MCLE live-interactive requirements (retrieved 2026-10-02)
- Virginia State Bar: MCLE Regulations (retrieved 2026-10-02)
- Virginia State Bar: Changes to MCLE Regulations and Opinions, effective May 1, 2026 (retrieved 2026-10-02)
Sourced from the documents listed above.
Verified October 2026.
This is career information, not legal advice.
Confirm current rules with the Virginia State Bar.