24 credit hours every 2 years, reported every 2 years. Verified against the NY bar or court authority.
| Total CLE required | 24 credit hours every 2 years |
|---|---|
| Ethics requirement | 4 hrs ethics & professionalism |
| Reporting cycle | Every 2 years |
| Bias / EDI credit | 1 hr diversity, inclusion & elimination of bias |
| Online CLE accepted | Yes for experienced attorneys; newly admitted must complete transitional CLE live/interactive |
| Accreditation route | Approved (NY CLE Board); reciprocity available |
Note: Also 1 hr cybersecurity. New admittees must complete 32 transitional hrs live/interactive.
New York's 24 hours over two years works out to 12 hours a year. That matches 20 of the 46 jurisdictions that mandate CLE, the most common requirement in the country.
New York mandates specialized credit in bias, equity, or inclusion. 1 hr diversity, inclusion & elimination of bias New York does not currently carry a separate wellness or mental health category, so wellness training here is generally applied as general credit. Trauma-responsive content frequently satisfies bias and inclusion requirements as well, because understanding how trauma shapes client behavior, testimony, and courtroom conduct is directly relevant to serving diverse populations. Confirm the fit with the accrediting body before enrolling.
New York requires 24 hours every 2 years, of which 4 are earmarked for ethics. That leaves roughly 20 hours every 2 years that you choose the content for. Those are the hours in question.
The 2026 national study of 39,036 lawyers found that 47.5 percent reported high or very high work-related burnout, and that moderate or higher symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress ran at 21.6, 20.4 and 18.9 percent. The earlier 2016 study had found something that surprised the profession: the risk concentrated among younger attorneys and those in their first ten years. The prior assumption ran the other way. It is shaping the careers of the people a firm has most recently invested in.
Exposure follows the material rather than the job title, and it is not only the attorneys and advocates who carry it. Family and domestic relations practice sits close to the material: custody disputes involving abuse allegations, protective orders, and termination proceedings put everyone on the matter in sustained contact with the worst days of a client's life. Firms, offices, and courts in New York whose work runs through material like this carry more of it than a general commercial practice does, and their training needs differ accordingly.
These are competence issues, not comfort issues. They surface as missed deadlines, degraded judgment on live matters, ethics complaints, and the departure of lawyers a firm has already paid to train. If New York is going to require the time anyway, it can be spent on the thing that is measurably breaking.
New York requires 24 credit hours every 2 years. Of that, the ethics requirement is 4 hrs ethics & professionalism. The reporting cycle runs every 2 years.
Yes for experienced attorneys; newly admitted must complete transitional CLE live/interactive. Rules on self-study versus live or interactive formats vary, and newly admitted attorneys are often held to stricter requirements than experienced ones. Confirm with the accrediting authority before enrolling.
New York does not maintain a separate wellness or mental health credit category. Such programming is generally applied toward general credit. Many states permit self-application of general credit using a certificate of attendance; confirm the process with the accrediting authority.
Approved (NY CLE Board); reciprocity available. Requirements change, so verify directly with the issuing authority before relying on any summary, including this one.
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