New lawyers: Here’s what to know about MCLE for your first year of practice

You passed the Missouri Bar Examination – congratulations!

If you’ll be practicing in Missouri, here’s what you need to know about minimum continuing legal education.

MCLE was approved by the Supreme Court of Missouri in 1988 and requires members of The Missouri Bar, dependent on licensure status, to meet yearly continuing legal education requirements as set out in Rule 15 of the Missouri Court Rules and Regulations.

Lawyers licensed to practice in Missouri must complete a total of 15 MCLE hours within the compliance year. Three of the 15 hours must be devoted to ethics topics, and one of the ethics hours must focus on elimination of bias.

However, as a new lawyer, you are not required to complete MCLE hours during the first compliance period in which you were licensed (July 1, 2026-June 30, 2027).

Under Missouri Supreme Court Rule 15, a lawyer is not required to complete or report any MCLE credit hours in the compliance year in which the lawyer is initially licensed to practice law. Lawyers admitted in October 2026 are first required to comply with Rule 15 for the July 1, 2027-June 30, 2028, compliance year and each year thereafter.

If you do complete more than 15 credit hours of accredited programs and activities in the 2026-2027 reporting year (exclusive of self-study), you may receive credit in the next reporting year for the excess credit hours to apply to the 15-hour annual requirement of Rule 15.05(a).

Up to three hours in excess of the three-hour annual requirement of Rule 15.05(a)(1), and up to one hour of explicit and implicit bias of Rule 15.05(a)(2) may be carried forward to the immediately succeeding reporting year.

There are several ways to earn MCLE.

One way is to attend accredited CLE programs and seminars, which are live programs or seminars held in person or remotely by webinar or telephone. Pre-recorded programs must have a scheduled start and stop time and a live moderator to answer questions in real time to be accredited.

You may receive speaker credit, which includes speaking time and a limited amount of preparation time.

A lawyer can write an article on a legal topic that is published in a professional journal, including the Journal of The Missouri Bar.

And finally, up to six hours of self-study may be reported but cannot include ethics or elimination of bias hours.

To learn more about MCLE requirements, report hours, and see accredited programs, visit MoBar.org/MCLE.