Ethics CLE is the specialty credit to plan around.
Every state in the table below names a specialty minimum in an ethics-related category, from Hawaii's 1 hour once every three years to the 3 annual hours Alaska, Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas require in ethics, professional responsibility or professionalism — though the label is not always ethics: Montana's 2 Professional Fitness and Integrity credits can be wellness programs instead, and West Virginia's 3 hours can be any mix of legal ethics, office management, attorney well-being and elimination of bias.
Whether you also owe elimination-of-bias, mental-health or wellness, or technology credits is decided state by state — California, New York and Minnesota each combine them differently.
Here is what each state requires.
Ethics and professional responsibility CLE credits
Ethics is the closest the table comes to a universal specialty credit: every state row names a minimum in an ethics, professional-responsibility or professionalism category, though two states let adjacent topics fill the block — Montana's 2 Professional Fitness and Integrity credits can be wellness programs rather than ethics courses, and West Virginia's 3 hours can be any mix of legal ethics, office management, attorney well-being and elimination of bias.
The label varies — legal ethics, professional responsibility, professionalism, or a combined ethics/professionalism block — and each state's own rule defines what counts.
Kentucky sets its 2 hours of ethics, professional responsibility and professionalism in SCR 3.645; Missouri's 3 ethics hours sit in Supreme Court Rule 15; and New York's rule for experienced attorneys, 22 NYCRR 1500.22, requires 4 hours of ethics and professionalism per two-year cycle.
The size of the ethics block ranges widely.
Hawaii requires 1 hour of ethics or professional responsibility once every three years, counted inside its 3 annual hours.
Idaho asks for 3 of its 30 credits per three-year period; Texas for 3 of at least 15 hours each year; Washington for 6 ethics credits per three-year period.
Colorado splits a 7-hour professional-responsibility block into at least 5 hours of legal ethics or legal professionalism plus at least 2 equity, diversity and inclusivity hours.
Louisiana and Utah both name professionalism separately from ethics: Louisiana requires 1 hour of each within its 12.5-hour total for lawyers under 65 — the professionalism hour in addition to the ethics hour — and Utah pairs 1 ethics hour with 1 hour of professionalism and civility.
The ethics block can also do double duty.
Mississippi's single ethics/professionalism hour can be satisfied with malpractice-prevention, substance-abuse or mental-health content.
Oklahoma's Legal Ethics and Professionalism hours may include malpractice prevention and mental health or substance use.
Hawaii's ethics credit can cover mental-health and substance-abuse topics, client trust administration, bias awareness and access to justice.
New Hampshire rolls ethics, professionalism and the prevention of malpractice, substance abuse or attorney-client disputes into a single 2-hour block, and Montana's 2 Professional Fitness and Integrity credits can be ethics courses or programs on substance abuse, mental health or stress.
Specialty categories change — verify before you enroll
Elimination of bias, diversity and inclusion CLE
Some states name a bias, diversity or equity credit of their own.
California requires 2 hours on elimination of bias, at least 1 of which must focus on implicit bias and bias-reducing strategies (B&P 6070.5).
Minnesota requires 2 elimination-of-bias hours of its 45.
New Jersey requires at least 2 of its 5 ethics/professionalism credits in diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias, and New York requires 1 hour on diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias per two-year cycle.
Other states write the topic into the requirement in other ways.
Colorado's 7 professional-responsibility hours must include at least 2 equity, diversity and inclusivity hours, and Washington's 6 ethics credits must include at least 1 "equity" credit — both folded inside an existing block.
Missouri's 3 ethics hours must include at least 1 hour on explicit or implicit bias, diversity, inclusion or cultural competency, and Illinois requires 1 hour of diversity and inclusion inside its 6 professional-responsibility hours.
New Mexico names a separate hour — 1 equity-in-justice hour alongside its 2 ethics hours — and Vermont requires 1 hour of diversity and inclusion per two-year period.
Maine takes a different route: its harassment-and-discrimination hour must be attended in person.
Iowa shares a single slot — since January 1, 2021, its 15 annual hours must include at least 1 hour of legal ethics and 1 hour of attorney wellness or diversity and inclusion, a slot an attorney can fill with either topic.
North Dakota, by contrast, makes the topics optional: its 3 ethics hours may include courses on racial and ethnic diversity, gender equity, disability access and elimination of bias, but nothing requires them to.
Mental health and wellness CLE
In the state rules we read, the wellness requirement takes one of three forms: a standalone hour, a topic inside a broader block, or no named credit at all.
The standalone group: Nevada's 13 hours are 10 general, 2 ethics and 1 on substance abuse, addiction or mental health.
Minnesota requires 1 hour on mental health or substance use, and Oregon requires 1 hour on mental health or substance use alongside its 5 ethics hours and a separate 1-hour duty to report child and elder abuse.
Vermont requires 1 hour of attorney wellness, North Carolina requires 1 hour of professional well-being taken in at least one-hour increments, and South Carolina requires 1 hour on substance abuse, mental health or stress at least every two years.
Inside a block: California folds the topic into 2 competence hours, at least 1 on the prevention and detection of substance use or mental health issues.
Illinois must include 1 hour on mental health and substance abuse within its 6 professional-responsibility hours — or the yearlong Lawyer-to-Lawyer Mentoring Program can substitute.
Florida's 5 ethics/professionalism hours count substance use disorder or mental health and wellness among their qualifying topics, and Montana's Professional Fitness and Integrity credits can cover substance abuse, mental health or stress.
Wisconsin works in the opposite direction: rather than requiring wellness hours, it caps them — wellness topics such as substance abuse, mental illness, stress and work/life balance count for no more than 6 hours per reporting period.
Virginia asks a wellness question without attaching a penalty: lawyers must certify whether they took 1 hour of well-being CLE in the past three years, but nothing happens if they did not.
Two states we checked have no wellness requirement our research could verify.
The Texas rule we confirmed is at least 15 hours a year with 3 hours of ethics, and we found no required Texas mental-health or wellness credit.
Washington's verified rule is 45 credits per three-year period with 6 ethics credits including at least 1 equity credit; a separate Washington wellness hour does not appear in the sources we read.
Technology and cybersecurity CLE
The states that name a technology or cybersecurity credit: Florida requires at least 3 technology hours of its 30 under Rule 6-10.3 as in force October 1, 2026.
California requires 1 technology hour, with a civility hour beside it.
North Carolina requires 1 technology hour, in at least one-hour increments.
And New York requires experienced attorneys to complete 1 hour on cybersecurity, privacy and data protection per two-year cycle — a requirement effective July 1, 2023.
New York's new admittees owe one too: across the 32 transitional credits of their first two years, at least 1 must be in cybersecurity.
New Jersey is the state to double-check: we found no separate 1-hour technology requirement in the Board on Continuing Legal Education FAQ or the new-attorney pages we read.
Its named sub-credits are the 5 ethics/professionalism hours, at least 2 of which must cover diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias.
And an hours rule is not the only place technology shows up: Comment [8] to Massachusetts Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 says lawyers should keep abreast of changes in the law and its practice, including technology, and engage in continuing study and education — a competence expectation, not an hours requirement.
Specialty CLE credits by state
The matrix below lists the specialty minimums we verified for the mandatory-CLE states our sources cover, next to the total each sits inside.
All figures are minimums for active lawyers; exemptions and newly admitted rules sit on top.
Four jurisdictions had no general mandatory CLE in the rules we read in 2026, so the specialty question does not arise there: Maryland, Michigan, South Dakota and DC — though newly admitted DC lawyers must still complete the Mandatory Course on the D.C. Rules of Professional Conduct and Practice.
For total hours, reporting cycles and deadlines, see our CLE requirements by state guide; newly admitted lawyers face a separate transitional layer, covered in our CLE for newly admitted attorneys article.
| State | Total | Ethics / professional responsibility | Bias, equity and inclusion | Wellness and mental health | Technology |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 12 / year | 1 ethics or professionalism | — | — | — |
| Alaska | 12 / year | 3 ethics | — | — | — |
| Arizona | 15 / year | 3 professional responsibility / ethics | — | — | — |
| Arkansas | 12 / year | 1 ethics | — | — | — |
| California | 25 / 3 years | 4 legal ethics | 2 elimination of bias (1 implicit bias) | 2 competence (1 substance use / mental health) | 1 technology + 1 civility |
| Colorado | 45 / 3 years | 7 professional responsibility (5 ethics or professionalism) | 2 equity, diversity and inclusivity (inside the 7) | — | — |
| Connecticut | 12 / year | 2 ethics / professionalism | — | — | — |
| Delaware | 24 / 2 years | 4 ethics | — | — | — |
| Florida | 30 / 3 years | 5 ethics / professionalism / substance use / mental health (incl. 2-credit professionalism course) | — | inside the 5 | 3 technology |
| Georgia | 18 / 2 years | 3 ethics + 2 professionalism | — | — | — |
| Hawaii | 3 / year | 1 ethics / professional responsibility once every 3 years | can count inside the ethics credit | can count inside the ethics credit | — |
| Idaho | 30 / 3 years | 3 legal ethics / professional responsibility | — | — | — |
| Illinois | 30 / 2 years | 6 professional responsibility | 1 diversity and inclusion (inside the 6) | 1 mental health and substance abuse (inside the 6, or mentoring program) | — |
| Indiana | 36 / 3 years | 3 professional responsibility | — | — | — |
| Iowa | 15 / year | 1 legal ethics | 1 wellness or diversity and inclusion (shared slot) | 1 wellness or diversity and inclusion (shared slot) | — |
| Kansas | 12 / year | 2 ethics and professionalism | — | — | — |
| Kentucky | 12 / year | 2 ethics / professional responsibility / professionalism | — | — | — |
| Louisiana | 12.5 / year | 1 ethics + 1 professionalism (separate) | — | — | — |
| Maine | 12 / year | 1 live ethics-and-professionalism hour | 1 in-person harassment and discrimination hour | — | — |
| Minnesota | 45 / 3 years | 3 ethics / professional responsibility | 2 elimination of bias | 1 mental health / substance use | — |
| Mississippi | 12 / year | 1 ethics / professionalism (or malpractice prevention, substance abuse, mental health) | — | can count inside the ethics hour | — |
| Missouri | 15 / year | 3 ethics | 1 bias / diversity / inclusion / cultural competency (inside the 3) | — | — |
| Montana | 15 / year | 2 Professional Fitness and Integrity (ethics or wellness topics) | — | can count inside the 2 | — |
| Nebraska | 10 / year | 2 ethics / professional responsibility | — | — | — |
| Nevada | 13 / year | 2 ethics | — | 1 substance abuse / addiction / mental health | — |
| New Hampshire | 12 / year | 2 ethics / professionalism (or malpractice, substance abuse, dispute prevention) | — | can count inside the 2 | — |
| New Jersey | 24 / 2 years | 5 ethics / professionalism | 2 diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias (inside the 5) | — | — |
| New Mexico | 12 / year | 2 ethics | 1 equity in justice | — | — |
| New York | 24 / 2 years | 4 ethics and professionalism | 1 diversity, inclusion and elimination of bias | — | 1 cybersecurity, privacy and data protection |
| North Carolina | 24 / 2 years | 4 ethics | — | 1 professional well-being (1-hour increments) | 1 technology (1-hour increments) |
| North Dakota | 36 / 3 years | 3 ethics / professional responsibility | diversity and bias topics may count inside the 3 | — | — |
| Ohio | 24 / 2 years | 2.5 professional conduct | — | — | — |
| Oklahoma | 12 / year | 2 legal ethics and professionalism (or malpractice prevention, mental health) | — | can count inside the 2 | — |
| Oregon | 45 / 3 years | 5 ethics + 1 child and elder abuse reporting hour | — | 1 mental health / substance use | — |
| Pennsylvania | 12 / year | 2 ethics | — | — | — |
| Rhode Island | 10 / year | 2 legal ethics | — | — | — |
| South Carolina | 14 / year | 2 legal ethics / professional responsibility (LEPR) | — | 1 substance abuse / mental health / stress (every 2 years) | — |
| Tennessee | 15 / year | 3 ethics / professionalism | — | — | — |
| Texas | 15 / year | 3 ethics | — | — | — |
| Utah | 12 / year | 1 ethics + 1 professionalism and civility | — | — | — |
| Vermont | 24 / 2 years | 2 ethics | 1 diversity and inclusion | 1 attorney wellness | — |
| Virginia | 12 / year | 2 ethics / professionalism | — | well-being hour certified, no penalty | — |
| Washington | 45 / 3 years | 6 ethics (1 equity) | 1 equity (inside the 6) | — | — |
| West Virginia | 24 / 2 years | 3 ethics / office management / attorney well-being / elimination of bias (any mix) | can count inside the 3 | can count inside the 3 | — |
| Wisconsin | 30 / 2 years | 3 legal ethics and professional responsibility | — | wellness topics capped at 6 | — |
| Wyoming | 15 / year | 2 ethics | — | — | — |
Read the dashes as "no separate credit in the rule we verified" — not as permission to skip a topic, and not as a ban.
Hawaii, Mississippi, Oklahoma and New Hampshire let wellness or bias topics count inside the ethics block even where no standalone hour exists.
Exemptions are each state's own too: Colorado's requirement, for one, ends in the compliance period in which a lawyer turns 72.
And the employer side of these hours is a real question when comparing offers: whether CLE time sits inside or on top of a billable target, and who pays for courses.
From the firm's side, our attorney job description guide covers how a posting states hours expectations and benefits such as CLE support.
This page is career information, not legal advice — confirm your state's current specialty requirements with its CLE regulator before you enroll in courses.
How to read this table