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 receiving funding for pro bono programs or services from the Legal Services Corporation or the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation
- A metropolitan or county bar association
- The Ohio State Bar Association
- The Ohio Access to Justice Foundation
- Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc.
- Advocating Opportunity
- American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio Foundation
- Catholic Charities Corporation Immigration Legal Services
- Christ the King Church
- CASA-GAL of Hancock County
- Clermont County Domestic Relations Court
- Community Christian Legal Services, Inc.
- Community Legal Aid Services
- Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) of Franklin County
- Delaware County Interfaith Legal Services Clinic
- Disability Rights Ohio
- Equality Ohio Education Fund
- Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyer Project
- Hamilton County Help Center
- Hospice of Western Reserve
- Immigrant and Refugee Law Center
- Internal Revenue Service, Stakeholder Partnerships, Education and Communication (SPEC)
- Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc.
- Legal Aid Society of Cleveland
- Lorain County Second Chance Reentry Coalition
- Milton and Charlotte Kramer Law Clinic
- Montgomery County Juvenile Court CASA Program
- Office of the Ohio Public Defender
- Ohio Invents
- Ohio Justice & Policy Center
- The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law Clinical Programs
- Pro Bono Partnership of Ohio
- Pro Seniors, Inc.
- R.H.E.M.A. Y.E.S.
- Richland County Legal Clinic
- Scranton Road Ministries CDC
- TransOhio, Inc.
- Toledo Tax Controversy Clinic
- University of Cincinnati College of Law Clinics
- U.S. District Court - Northern District of Ohio
- Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program
- Volunteer Lawyers Project
- Wayne County Common Pleas Court JV/DR/PR
- Wayne County Volunteer Guardian Ad Litem Program
- Wayne County Volunteer Guardianship Association
- Williams County Domestic Relations and Juvenile Court
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.
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.