Minnesota Continuing Legal Education

Lawyers at the Institute for Justice advocate for the end of the protectionism inherent in occupational licensing laws.  They don’t overlook their own profession.

Continuing education requirements impose an expensive and often useless cost on licensed practitioners.  That’s true for lawyers, real estate brokers, doctors and other licensed workers.  IJ and attorneys from four other firms are bringing this problem directly to the justices of the Minnesota Supreme Court.  The justices regulate lawyers and set requirements to earn and maintain a license to practice law in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

On-demand CLEs are more convenient, relevant, affordable and numerous than in-person CLEs and live-webcast CLEs. Yet the Minnesota Supreme Court capped on-demand CLEs to 15 hours in the triannual reporting cycle. Lawyers should be free to earn all 45 hours of required CLEs from the vast libraries of on-demand classes relevant to their practice.

The state supreme court agreed. In December 2020, it issued an order phasing out the cap.