California attorneys – CLE update

California MCLE Requirements 2025

New MCLE compliance requirements (extracted from The State Bar of California Memorandum to Attorneys of 2024 qv)

For the compliance period ending January 31, 2025, and subject to the proportional requirements (State Bar Rule 2.72(C)(2)(c) and exceptions (State Bar Rule 2.54) licensees are required to complete and report

25 hours of MCLE within the three-year compliance period as follows:

1. At least 12.5 credit hours must be participatory credit hours;
2. Legal Ethics: At least 4 credit hours of legal ethics;
3. Elimination of Bias: At least 2 credit hours of dealing with the recognition and elimination of bias in the legal profession and society by reason of, but not limited to, sex, color, race, religion, ancestry, national origin, physical disability, age, or sexual orientation;
4. Implicit Bias/Bias-Reducing Strategies: 1 hour of this requirement must focus on implicit bias and the promotion of bias-reducing strategies to address how unintended biases regarding race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics undermine confidence in the legal system;
5. Competence: At least 2 credit hours of education addressing competence, one hour of which must focus on prevention and detection and one hour of which may focus on attorney wellness;
6. Technology: At least 1 credit hour of education addressing technology in the practice of law;
7. Civility: At least 1 hour of education addressing civility in the legal profession.