For background, I was admitted to the NY bar at the end of April 2022. At that time, I worked for a legal nonprofit, and continued working there for another four months. In that role, I was never involved in litigation or representing clients—I almost exclusively worked on legislative projects and legal research for my supervisor. The closest I got to really feeling like a practicing attorney was one project during which I did research on standing when we were considering potentially bringing a lawsuit at one point. Following this PI fellowship, I began clerking in an out-of-state federal district court, which is where I currently work.
From my understanding, I do not need to do CLE for any of the months I've been clerking, since I'm out-of-state. However, I'm unsure whether I need to do 6 prorated credits for the four months during which I was admitted and working for the legal nonprofit. The NY CLE Rules state the following:
- Attorneys practice law pursuant to this section if, during the reporting period, they give legal advice or counsel to, or provide legal representation for, a particular body or individual in a particular situation in either the public or private sector. The practice of law does not include the performance of judicial or quasi-judicial (e.g., administrative law judge, hearing officer) functions
If I do need to do CLE, I'm not sure how I'm going to do the 6 credits outside of paying for courses myself, since the court's CLE courses aren't applicable for newly admitted NY attorneys (they explicitly say so). Ugh...
Edit: Realizing I'd only need to do 4 prorated credits since I have 2 ethics credits.
