The Louisiana State Bar requires that all hours must be earned by December 31st each year and reported no later than January 31st of the following year. 

The Louisiana State Bar requires attorneys to complete 12.5 Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) credit hours every year. The 12.5 LA MCLE hours must include 1 hour of legal ethics and 1 hour of professionalism. For attorneys admitted in 2022, 6.5 must be live and up to 6 may be taken online with on-demand programs (including the required ethics and professionalism credits). For attorneys admitted in 2023 or prior to 2022, 8.5 must be live and up to 4 may be taken online with on-demand programs (including the required ethics and professionalism credits).

IMPORTANT 2026 CLE UPDATE

Attorneys who turn 65 on or after January 1, 2026, will be required to complete five hours of CLE each year, including one hour of ethics and one hour of professionalism, until they reach age 75. All 5 hours may be earned through computer-based programming.

Attorneys who attain age 75 will be fully exempt from MCLE requirements.

Attorneys who turned 65 before January 1, 2026, will remain covered by the current exemption and will not be subject to the new continuing education requirement.

Louisiana attorneys can carry over a maximum of 8 general CLE credit hours to the next reporting period, but ethics and professionalism credits cannot be carried over. Excess general credits can be carried forward only one year, not further. 

Louisiana attorneys will self-report their CLE credits using either the LSBA Attendance Form or the Uniform Certificate of Attendance.

The deadline to report the previous year’s CLE credits is January 31st.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Louisiana State Bar MCLE Department
Email: mcle@lsba.org
Web: lsba.org/MCLE