When can an attorney member of the Illinois Legislature earn CLE credit for attending a session of the Illinois General Assembly?
Supreme Court Rule(s) cited in this FAQ:
Rule 795.
Important: for attendance at a session of the Illinois General Assembly to count toward your MCLE requirements, you need to add this credit to your online transcript. See details below.
An attorney elected or appointed as a member of the Illinois General Assembly earns three hours of general MCLE credit by attending at least one day of one qualifying legislative session. “A qualifying legislative session” is any official regular, special, or veto session of the Illinois General Assembly for which the member is present in the Illinois House of Representatives or Illinois Senate chambers or any official committee or subcommittee meeting of the Illinois House of Representatives or Illinois Senate for which the representative or senator is present. Rule 795(d)(13).
Credit for this attendance is limited to 12 hours in each two-year reporting period. There is no carryover of these credits to another two-year reporting period. Professional Responsibility credit is not available for attendance at Illinois General assembly sessions.
Claiming CLE Credit from a Qualifying Session
To claim CLE credit for attending a qualifying legislative session as a member of the Illinois Legislature, (1) the attorney must secure an official record that reflects their attendance at a legislative session, and (2) the attorney needs to enter these credits in their online transcript on the Board's website.
- Secure an official record that reflects your attendance at a legislative session
To document your attendance for MCLE credit, you need to secure an official record that reflects that you attended a legislative session, committee meeting, or subcommittee meeting on at least one day. The following are suggestions of an available document for both representatives and senators:
- Representatives: go to the House Journal's webpage, select the date you attended a session, and create a PDF of the "Quorum Roll Call" page, located near the end of each date's House Journal.
- Senators: contact the Office of the Secretary of the Senate for the documentation needed to establish your attendance for that day of the session.
- The attorney enters credits in their online transcript
For an attorney who is an elected or appointed member of the Illinois General Assembly to add this type of credit to their online record, here are written instructions:
- Log in to the MCLE Board's website here.
- Click the “I want to...” drop down menu in the upper right corner and select “Add Credits”. Then select that you wish to add "Non-traditional credit" to your transcript.
- On the next page, select the “Attend Illinois General Assembly Session” option.
- Follow the steps to input the requested information, including uploading a government-issued single page or other brief (10 pages or less) document as proof of attendance at a session. After completing the submission process, CLE credit from this activity will appear on the attorney’s online transcript on the Board's website.
If you are a member of the Illinois Legislature but cannot access the process to submit such credits, please contact us.
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