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CLE Credit for Pro Bono Service

Attorneys may receive one credit hour of continuing legal education for every six hours of pro bono legal service they provide to either a person of limited means or to a charitable organization. The pro bono work must be assigned, verified, and reported to the Commission by an organization recognized by the Commission, and the credit earned is capped at six hours of CLE credit per biennial compliance period.

For information regarding eligibility see Gov.Bar R. X, Sec. 5(G) and Appendix I, Reg. 415.

Pro bono work assigned, verified, and reported to the Commission by one of the following organizations may qualify for CLE credit:


An organization seeking recognition to assign pro bono legal services work for CLE credit must submit a Form 21 to the Commission. Once approved, the organization must then submit to the Commission a Form 22 for each of its pro bono programs for which attorneys may seek CLE credit. The Commission’s approval of that form will provide the organization with an activity code, good for one calendar year, which the organization will use to report attorney CLE credits to the Commission.     

  • Form 21
    Application to be Recognized as an Organization Providing Pro Bono Programs or Services in Ohio
  • Form 22
    Application for Accreditation of Continuing Legal Education Activity

Attorneys assigned to them by a recognized organization must submit a completed Part I of Form 23 to the organization. The organization should review the information provided by the attorney, ensuring all is complete and accurate. Once verified, the organization should complete Part II of Form 23  and report the calculated number of hours for CLE credit to the Commission through the Sponsor Portal. Organizations must retain the originals of Form 23 for two years.

  • Form 23
    Application for CLE Credit for Pro Bono Legal Services

Attorneys are eligible to receive one CLE credit hour for every six hours of pro bono legal services performed. Pro bono organizations are responsible for verifying the number of pro bono hours their volunteer attorneys have worked and dividing the total number of hours by six before submitting the CLE credit hours to the Commission. An attorney must provide a minimum of six hours of pro bono legal services to be eligible to receive one hour of CLE credit. After the minimum one-hour threshold has been met, additional pro bono hours will be rounded to the nearest quarter hour. For example, if an attorney provides six hours of pro bono legal services, the attorney would receive one hour of CLE credit; if the attorney provides nine hours of pro bono legal services, the attorney would receive 1.5 hours of CLE credit; if the attorney provides ten hours of pro bono legal services, the attorney would receive 1.75 hours of CLE credit.

Pro bono organizations should submit CLE credit for their volunteer attorneys no later than thirty days following the end of the calendar year in which the pro bono services were performed.

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