The New York Attorney CLE Update Form is how you correct or update the continuing legal education information you already reported on your biennial attorney registration. You download the blank PDF from the New York Courts website, list your completed courses by category for the two-year cycle you’re updating, sign it, and send it to the CLE Board by email at CLE@nycourts.gov or by mail to 25 Beaver Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10004.1New York State Unified Court System. Contact Us The form itself is short. Getting it right depends on knowing which credit categories apply to you and which reporting cycle you’re fixing.
When You Need to File One
The usual trigger is that you registered as non-compliant on your biennial attorney registration and have since finished the missing coursework. New York ties the reporting cycle to your birthday: you certify CLE compliance on the registration you file within 30 days after your birthday every two years. If you weren’t finished by that deadline and checked the non-compliant box, the update form is how you tell the CLE Board you’ve caught up.
Two other situations call for the same form. You reported incorrect credit totals on a registration you already filed. Or the CLE Board contacts you during a random compliance audit and your reported hours don’t match what providers have on file. Attorneys are expected to keep certificates of completion for at least four years, so pull those records before you start.
Don’t let a gap sit. The CLE Board’s enforcement path starts with a notice of noncompliance, moves to delinquency status, and can end in administrative suspension from practice.
Credit Requirements You Are Certifying
The form asks for a category breakdown, so you need the exact minimums in front of you before you fill anything in. They differ for experienced and newly admitted attorneys.
Experienced Attorneys
If you were admitted to the New York Bar more than two years ago, you owe 24 credit hours per biennial cycle, with specific minimums in three categories:2Legal Information Institute. 22 NYCRR 1500.22 – Minimum Requirements
- Ethics and Professionalism: at least 4 credit hours.
- Diversity, Inclusion, and Elimination of Bias: at least 1 credit hour.
- Cybersecurity, Privacy, and Data Protection: at least 1 credit hour, satisfied through a general cybersecurity course, an ethics-focused cybersecurity course, or a half-credit in each. Up to 3 cybersecurity-ethics credits can also count toward the 4-hour ethics minimum.3New York State Bar Association. Fulfill your Cybersecurity CLE Requirements with NYSBA
- Skills, Law Practice Management, and Areas of Professional Practice fill the remaining hours, with no individual minimums.
Newly Admitted Attorneys
If you were admitted two years ago or less, you owe 32 total credit hours split evenly across two years, 16 credits per year:4Legal Information Institute. 22 NYCRR 1500.12
- Law Practice Management, Areas of Professional Practice, and/or Cybersecurity (General): 7 hours per year.
- Skills: 6 hours per year.
- Ethics and Professionalism (including Cybersecurity-Ethics): 3 hours per year.
You also need at least 1 total credit hour in cybersecurity, privacy, and data protection somewhere within the 32-hour requirement. Credits earned between law school graduation and your admission date can count toward your first-year total, but nothing earned more than two years before admission qualifies.5New York State Unified Court System. New York State CLE Board – Newly Admitted Attorneys
How to Fill Out the Form
Before you open the PDF, gather your certificates of completion and your seven-digit attorney registration number. The number appears on your biennial registration paperwork and in the public Attorney Directory on the court system’s website. Identify the specific two-year reporting cycle you’re updating. Credits that fall outside that window don’t count toward the cycle in question.
The form asks for a course-by-course breakdown. For each program, enter the course title, the accredited CLE provider, the date you completed it, and the number of credits earned in the applicable category. Copy each entry straight from the provider’s certificate of attendance. The CLE Board cross-references what you report against provider records, so small discrepancies can create problems.
After listing your courses, total the credits in each category and confirm that the subtotals meet the minimums for your experience level. This is where most errors happen. An attorney fills in 24 total hours but shorts the ethics minimum by a credit, or forgets to break out the cybersecurity hour separately. Check category subtotals against the requirements above before you sign.
Your signature certifies that everything you reported is truthful, so treat each line the way you would a statement under oath.
Where to Send It
The completed form goes to the New York State Continuing Legal Education Board. Email is faster; mail works too.
- Email: CLE@nycourts.gov
- Mail: New York State Continuing Legal Education Board, 25 Beaver Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10004
- Phone for questions: (212) 428-2105 or toll-free 1-877-697-4253
If you email, scan the signed form and send it as a PDF attachment. Keep a copy of what you sent and the date you sent it in case there’s any later dispute about timing.6New York Courts. Contact Us
What Happens After You Submit
The Board reviews your submission and checks your entries against provider attendance records. There is no officially published processing timeline. If your status hasn’t updated after several weeks, contact the Board at the email or phone number above.
You can track your own status through the public Attorney Directory at iapps.courts.state.ny.us. Search by your name or registration number and look at your registration status. Once the Board processes the update, your listing should show compliant standing for that cycle.
Staying Out of This Situation Next Time
The easiest way to avoid filing another update form is to track credits during the cycle instead of counting them at registration time. Keep every certificate of completion organized by reporting period and hold onto it for at least four years. In a random audit, those certificates are the only documentation the Board will accept.
Watch the category minimums as you go. It’s easy to rack up 24 hours of general practice courses and discover at the end of the cycle that you’re a credit short on ethics or cybersecurity. Scheduling the mandatory categories early leaves the rest of the hours free for whatever you want to take.