North Dakota CLE Requirements for Attorneys

North Dakota attorneys must complete 36 CLE credit hours, including at least 3 in Ethics & Professionalism credits, every three years.

Attorneys can fulfill their CLE Requirements by completing approved coursework. Some examples of approved course formats are:

• On Demand Video or Audio courses

• CLE Books

• Committee Work

• Legal Research

General CLE

• Webcasts

• Webinars

• In-Person Seminars

• In-House Seminars, as long as the course is open to the general bar membership or if outside speakers are used

Yes! Attorneys can receive credit for:

• Teaching a CLE Program. Attorneys may earn credit for teaching at accredited CLE programs. Credit is earned at a rate of up to five hours of preparation time for every one hour of lecture time, and cannot be earned for teaching the same course more than once.

• Teaching law courses at an ABA-accredited law school. Attorneys who teach at ABA-approved law schools may receive up to 5 hours of credit for each semester hour taught, up to 30 hours per reporting period.

• Writing Law Review Articles. North Dakota attorneys may receive 15 credits for authoring law review articles or other scholarly legal publications including books, magazine articles, etc., provided that the attorney verifies that they actually spent fifteen hours writing the publication.

• Providing pro bono legal services. Attorneys may earn CLE credit at the rate of one hour of CLE credit for every six hours of uncompensated legal services performed. An attorney may receive no more than three CLE credit hours under this policy in any one year of the attorney’s reporting period.

• Attending Graduate Level Courses. Attorneys who pursue an LLM or post-JD law degree at an ABA-accredited university will receive one CLE credit for every full contact class hour.
  

Attorneys in North Dakota must complete their CLE hours by June 30th every three years. The year in which an attorney is due to complete and report compliance depends on their assigned reporting group.

Depending on when an attorney is admitted to practice in North Dakota, he or she is assigned to one of three reporting groups. These groups are designed so that all attorney compliance periods are staggered, and not all attorneys complete and report compliance in the same year.

For example:

• CLE Reporting Group 1 reports in 2021 for the period beginning July 1, 2021–June 30, 2024.
• CLE Reporting Group 2 reports in 2022 for the period beginning July 1, 2022–June 30, 2025.
• CLE Reporting Group 3 reports in 2023 for the period beginning July 1, 2020-June 30, 2023.

Please refer to the State Bar of North Dakota website for more information about assigned reporting groups.

Yes! North Dakota attorneys can carry over up to 12 excess credits into their next CLE reporting period. Ethics credits cannot carry over into the next reporting period.

Attorneys can complete all credits on Lawline. North Dakota automatically accepts credit for any course that was pre-approved in any other MCLE state. Our entire course catalog can be found here. 

North Dakota automatically accepts credit for any course that was pre-approved in any other MCLE jurisdiction. However, attorneys can still self apply for course accreditation, up to 24 hours, by filling out the form below:

North Dakota Self Application Form 

North Dakota CLE Commission 
PO Box 2136 
Bismark, ND 58502 
701-255-1404 
http://www.sband.org/?page=cle_overview

North Dakota CLE FAQ Page

http://sband.site-ym.com/?page=cle_overview

http://sband.site-ym.com/?page=lawyer_assist_prog

http://sband.site-ym.com/?page=mentorship_program