Oregon CLE Requirements for Attorneys

An Experienced Attorney in Oregon is an attorney who has already completed their first reporting period.

Experienced Oregon attorneys must complete 45 MCLE credits every 3 years, including at least 5 Ethics, at least 1 Substance Abuse & Mental Health and at least 1 devoted to a lawyer's responsibility to report child and elder abuse.

In alternate reporting periods, at least 3 of the 45 credits must be in approved Access to Justice MCLE credits. 

The Supreme Court of Oregon has created 3 categories of CLE completion methods, and has assigned different compliance period maximums per category as follows:

Category 1: No Limit.

• Attending CLE Seminars. Some examples include:
  • On Demand CLE courses (video and/or audio)
  • Live, in-person courses
  • Satellite broadcasts
• Attending law school or graduate-level courses
• Participating in the OSB New Lawyer Mentoring Program
• Serving in the Oregon Legislative Assembly

Category 2: Up to 20 credits per 3 year reporting period.

• Teaching or preparing written materials for an approved CLE course.
• Teaching law school courses.
• Performing legal research and writing.
• Serving as an Oregon Bar Examiner.
• Volunteering in Oregon’s legal ethics/disciplinary system.
• Serving on an OSB jury instructions committee.

Category 3: Up to 6 credits per 3 year reporting period.

• Participating in Personal Management Assistance Activities.
• Performing other volunteer legal service activities.
• Attending courses on business development/marketing.

Oregon attorneys earn CLE credit for Category 1 activities as follows:

• Attending CLE seminars. 1 credit is earned for every 60 minutes spent in an OSB-approved CLE program.  Some examples of program formats include:
  • On Demand CLE Courses (video and/or audio)
  • Live in Person Courses
  • Satellite Broadcasts
• Attending certain law school/graduate level courses. Attorneys earn 1 credit for each 60 minutes attending law school or graduate-level courses at at ABA- or AALS-accredited universities but attorneys must apply to OSB for credit and the course must be approved.
• Participating in the OSB New Lawyer Mentoring Program (as either a mentor or as a mentee). Attorneys who act as mentors can earn 6 general credits and 2 ethics credits, while mentees can earn 6 general/practical skill credits to be applied towards their first reporting period. If there are multiple mentors, credits are shared between them.
• Serving in the Oregon Legislative Assembly. Credit is earned at a rate of 1 General credit for each week that the legislature is in session
  

Oregon attorneys earn CLE credit for Category 2 activities as follows:

• Teaching or preparing written materials for an approved CLE course. Attorneys can earn CLE credit for teaching an approved CLE program. Credit is earned at a rate of 1 credit for each 60 minutes of instruction, plus 1 additional credit for each 60 minutes spent preparing written materials for use in a CLE presentation. For panel presentations, the number of instructional minutes are divided by the number of panelists to determine the credits earned. Unless the program is substantially updated, attorneys cannot earn credit for teaching the same course more than once.
• Teaching law school courses. Attorneys can earn CLE credit for teaching law school courses at ABA- or AALS-accredited institutions, as long as the teaching is not part of the attorney’s primary job. Credit is earned at a rate of 1 credit for each 60 minutes of instruction  and cannot be earned for teaching the same course more than once, unless a substantial update is made to the content.
• Performing legal research and writing. Attorneys can earn CLE credit for performing legal research and publishing legal writing in an approved legal publication, as long as the writing is not part of the attorney’s primary job. Credit is earned at a rate of 1 credit for each 60 minutes of research and writing. Credit cannot be claimed for stylistic editing.
• Serving as an Oregon Bar Examiner. Attorneys in Oregon can earn 3 CLE credits for writing a Bar Exam question, and 3 CLE credits for grading the Bar Exam during their reporting period.
• Volunteering in Oregon’s legal ethics/disciplinary system. Attorneys can earn 2 Ethics CLE credits for each 12 months of volunteer work within Oregon’s legal ethics/disciplinary system.
• Serving on an OSB jury instructions committee. Attorneys can earn 2 CLE credits for each 12 months of service. A minimum of 6 hours of committee meetings is required in the 12 month period to claim CLE credit.
  

Oregon attorneys earn CLE credit for Category 3 activities as follows:

• Participating in Personal Management Assistance Activities. Attorneys can earn 1 CLE credit for every 60 minutes of instruction.
• Performing other volunteer legal service activities. Attorneys can earn 1 CLE credit for every 2 hours spent teaching paralegals, coaching or judging high school mock trials, providing pro bono representation, teaching legal education to non-lawyers, or other types of volunteer legal service activities.
• Attending courses on business development/marketing. For example, a course designed to teach new lawyers how to establish themselves in the legal profession. Attorneys can earn 1 CLE credit for every 60 minutes of instruction.
  

Attorneys can complete all forty-five credits on Lawline. Our Oregon course catalog can be found here.  

Experienced Oregon attorneys must complete their CLE requirements by April 30th of the end of their three-year reporting period.

Reporting periods are determined at the time of admission to the OR Bar. An attorney’s first reporting period begins on the date of admission and ends on April of the following year. From then on, reporting periods are every three years.

For instance, an attorney admitted in September of 2020 would still be considered Newly Admitted until April 31, 2021, and then their reporting periods would be the three-year cycles ending 2024, 2027, and so on.

Yes! Attorneys in OR may carry forward up to 15 CLE credits earned in excess of the minimum to the following reporting period. However, there are some limitations to credit carryover.

• No more than 6 ethics credits can be carried forward to count towards the following reporting period’s ethics requirements.
• Ethics credits in excess of the 6-credit carryover limit may carry forward as general credit.
• Child and Elder Abuse Reporting credits and Access to Justice credits earned in excess of the minimum may carry over to the next reporting period as general credit. New Child and Elder Abuse Reporting credits and/or Access to Justice credits must be earned in the reporting period in which they are due to be completed.
• Credits cannot carry forward more than one reporting period.

Yes! This is known as reciprocity. Oregon has established reciprocity jurisdictions with Idaho, Utah, and Washington. If an attorney is admitted to practice in Oregon but their principal office for the practice of law is in one of the established reciprocity jurisdictions, the attorney may file a compliance report with evidence of satisfaction of the other jurisdiction’s CLE requirements. The OR attorney would still need to comply with the Child/Elder Abuse Reporting Requirement.

If an attorney is admitted to practice in Oregon but their principal office is not in Oregon or in one of the established reciprocity jurisdictions, then the attorney must file a compliance report showing that they have completed at least 45 hours of  CLE activities accredited in any jurisdiction.

Attorneys can self apply for course accreditation by filling out the form on the OS Bar website:

Oregon Self Study Application 

When self-applying please note that courses taken by Oregon attorneys must be less than 3 years from the original recording date.

Oregon State Bar 
5200 SW Meadows Road 
Lake Oswego, OR 97035 
(503) 431-6413 
http://www.osbar.org/mcle

https://www.osbar.org/_docs/rulesregs/mclerules.pdf

http://www.osbar.org/_docs/mcle/ChildElderAbuseReportingFAQ.pdf

http://www.osbar.org/_docs/mcle/MCLEReportingInstructions.pdf