Approved Jurisdiction List and Policy

Effective July 1, 2004

Under New York’s Approved Jurisdiction policy, New York has adopted procedures to extend comity to jurisdictions whose CLE accreditation standards meet New York's standards. New York currently has 28 Approved Jurisdictions (see list below). Note that two of the jurisdictions are approved only for courses exceeding a certain length.

New York attorneys who attend out-of-state live classroom-format courses that have been accredited by a New York Approved Jurisdiction may apply CLE credits earned towards their New York continuing legal education requirement. Credit for out-of-state nontraditional format courses (audiotape, videotape, online, etc.) may be applied to an attorney’s New York CLE requirement only if the course is accredited by an Approved Jurisdiction and the attorney can show that the sponsor of the course independently verified the attorney’s completion of the course (for example, by use of a code embedded in an audiotape or videotape). Please note that a nontraditional format course is an “out-of-state” course if the headquarters of the sponsoring organization is located outside of New York State.

In order to claim credit for an out-of-state live classroom-format course or program accredited by a New York Approved Jurisdiction, the attorney must retain for a period of four years: (1) documentation of the course or program accreditation by the CLE agency of a New York Approved Jurisdiction, and (2) a certificate of attendance indicating the attorney’s name, the title, date and location of the course, the amount of credit and the categories of credit. The credit must be calculated based on a 50-minute hour, in increments of no less than 25 minutes (.5 hour).

In order to claim credit for a nontraditional format course, a New York attorney must retain, in addition to the above, documentation of the sponsor’s verification of the attorney’s completion of the course. For example, if an attorney completes an audiotaped CLE course for which the sponsor has verified participation by way of an embedded code reported on an attorney affirmation, the attorney must retain a copy of the completed affirmation with the code. As a further example, if an attorney participates in a group viewing of a videotape where an attendance list is maintained, the attorney would retain not only the certificate of attendance, but would also retain supporting documentation, such as a letter from the provider, indicating that attendance was monitored.

If an attendee is a newly admitted attorney in New York (admitted to the New York Bar less than two years), the attorney is eligible to earn CLE credit through the Approved Jurisdiction policy only for attending transitional or introductory-level courses in a live classroom format. In order to apply such credit to the New York CLE requirement, the attorney must retain documentation that the course was transitional in nature and appropriate for newly admitted attorneys, in addition to the documentation required to claim credit for a live classroom-format course (outlined above).

For additional information on New York’s Approved Jurisdiction policy, please refer to section 6 of the CLE Board Regulations and Guidelines.

If your course does not fall under New York’s Approved Jurisdiction policy, you may submit an Application for Accreditation of an Individual Course Activity to the New York State CLE Board. (Please note that, for nontraditional format courses, if the provider does not have a procedure to independently verify an attorney’s participation, the course will not be accredited.)

Finally, please note that all courses that take place in New York – that is, traditional live classroom-format courses held in New York State and nontraditional format courses offered by provider organizations whose headquarters are located in New York State – must be accredited by the New York State CLE Board in order for an attorney to earn CLE credit for the course.

New York Approved Jurisdictions effective July 1, 2004

* Approved only for courses exceeding 60 minutes in length

** Approved only for courses at least 60 minutes in length