Texas CLE Requirements: Hours, Ethics, and Reporting

Texas CLE requirements call for every active member of the State Bar of Texas to complete 15 hours of continuing legal education each compliance year, with at least 3 of those hours devoted to legal ethics or professional responsibility.¹ Your year runs on a personal cycle tied to your birth month, you report your hours through the State Bar’s online system, and missing the deadline triggers escalating fees that can end in suspension of your license.

The 15 Hours and the 3 Ethics Hours

The 3 ethics hours count toward the 15-hour total, not on top of it.¹ The other 12 can cover any substantive legal topic the State Bar’s MCLE Committee has accredited.

Excess hours from a heavy CLE year can carry over. The cap is 15 credit hours, including up to 3 ethics hours, and banked hours only survive for one compliance year.² Anything beyond that disappears.

When Your Compliance Year Starts and Ends

Your MCLE compliance year begins on the first day of your birth month and ends one year later on the last day of the month before your next birth month.³ If you were born in September, your year runs from September 1 through August 31 the following year.

You then get your birth month itself as an automatic grace period. So an attorney whose year ends August 31 has until September 30 to finish the hours and report them without penalty.⁴ Your license stays in good standing during this window. Once the grace period closes, a shortfall triggers a penalty, and so does late reporting of hours you technically finished on time.

First-Year Rules for Newly Licensed Attorneys

If you just passed the bar, your first cycle runs 24 months instead of 12. It starts on the first day of your birth month after the date you were licensed and ends two years later on the last day of the month preceding your birth month.² After that, you shift to the standard 12-month cycle.

New attorneys also have a separate obligation on top of the hour count: completing the Justice James A. Baker Guide to Ethics and Professionalism in Texas within 12 months of licensure. The four-hour course provides ethics credit and applies to all newly licensed attorneys, including those admitted from out of state. Missing the 12-month mark costs a $150 late fee, and the State Bar will suspend the license of any attorney who has not completed it by the 16-month mark.

What Counts Toward Your Hours

Most attorneys satisfy the requirement by attending accredited courses, whether live, by webinar, or on demand. Any program the MCLE Committee has reviewed and assigned a course number qualifies as standard participatory credit, and there is no cap on how many hours you can earn from accredited online or on-demand programs.¹

Self-Study Credit

You can apply a maximum of 3 self-study hours toward the 15-hour requirement, and up to 1 of those can count toward the ethics minimum.⁵ Self-study covers more than reading:

Reading substantive legal articles in recognized publications, advance sheets, treatises, cases, statutes, and regulations.
Watching or listening to legal education videos and audio recordings that have not been formally accredited.
Non-legal professional skills programs on topics such as time management, communication, or office management that are relevant to your practice.
Serving as a judge or evaluator in moot court, mock trial, or client counseling competitions.

The dividing line is accreditation. A recorded CLE webinar with a State Bar course number is regular participatory credit with no cap. A legal education video without accreditation falls under the 3-hour self-study limit.¹

Teaching and Writing

Teaching an accredited CLE course earns credit for both preparation and presentation, including repeated presentations of the same material.¹ Full-time faculty at an ABA-accredited law school can claim up to a 15-hour allowance toward the annual requirement but still need to complete the 3 ethics hours separately. Part-time faculty can claim up to 12 hours on the same terms.⁶

Published legal writing can also qualify. The MCLE Committee reviews these case by case. The writing must be published or accepted for publication as an article, chapter, or book; must contribute meaningfully to legal education; and cannot be something you produced in the ordinary course of representing a client.¹ You submit an application, and the Committee assigns hours based on scope and substance.

What Does Not Count

The MCLE Committee excludes activities performed in the ordinary course of law practice, regular job duties, volunteer legal services to clients or the public, volunteer work for government entities, and routine committee service within a bar organization.¹ Pro bono work does not generate CLE credit in Texas.

Reporting Your Hours

You log into the State Bar’s online portal with your bar card number to view and manage your CLE record. Many accredited sponsors report attendance for you, so hours often appear without any action on your part. For activities that don’t show up, enter the course number manually. The system separates regular and ethics credit and shows whether you have met the 15-hour threshold.

Keep your attendance certificates for at least four years in case of an audit. They should include the course name, date, accreditation number, and the breakdown of regular versus ethics credit as provided by the sponsor.

Exemptions

Not every active member owes 15 hours every year. The State Bar recognizes several exemption categories:⁶

State and federal judges may claim a judicial exemption from all MCLE requirements.
Attorneys who switch to inactive status are exempt for as long as they remain inactive. Returning to active status requires an application and payment of applicable fees.⁷
Active members who have not practiced law in Texas at any point during their compliance year can claim a non-practicing exemption.
Members of the Texas Legislature, members of Congress, full-time attorneys within certain Texas legislative offices, and state officials appointed by the Governor and confirmed by the Senate may request allowances.
Attorneys serving in a combat zone may be exempt during their deployment.
Members who have reached age 70 are exempt. An attorney who turns 70 during a compliance year must still complete that year’s requirements before the exemption applies.
Attorneys who cannot complete their hours because of illness, medical disability, or other extraordinary circumstances beyond their control can apply for a hardship exemption. Financial difficulty or a busy schedule does not qualify.⁸

Every exemption requires filing paperwork with the State Bar. Being eligible is not the same as being exempt. Skip the filing and the system flags you as non-compliant no matter what category you qualify for.

Penalties for Missing the Deadline

If you miss the deadline after your grace period closes, the non-compliance penalty is $100, $200, or $300 depending on the circumstances.⁴ Hours you completed on time still trigger a penalty if they were reported after the grace period ended, because the penalty applies to the reporting, not just the completion.

Continued non-compliance leads to administrative suspension of your law license. A suspended attorney cannot practice law, appear in court, or hold themselves out as a licensed attorney in Texas. Reinstatement requires contacting the State Bar’s MCLE Department directly, completing any outstanding hours, and paying all accumulated fees.⁹ The longer you wait, the more complicated the process becomes.

1
Supreme Court of Texas. Order Approving Amendments to Article XII of State Bar Rules
2
State Bar of Texas. MCLE Requirements and FAQs for Newly Licensed Attorneys
3
State Bar of Texas. Definition of Compliance Year
4
State Bar of Texas. About Reporting Your MCLE Hours
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State Bar of Texas. Definition of MCLE Credit
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State Bar of Texas. MCLE Exemptions
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State Bar of Texas. Enrolling as an Inactive Member
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State Bar of Texas. MCLE Regulations – Special Cases and Exemptions
9
State Bar of Texas. Request Reinstatement Following a Suspension