Submit Your Request

The CLE Board views your event as an educational course for attorneys. As such, they require a timed agenda (the course syllabus) and written materials (the course textbook). A simple course description (for example, the event description included in your promotional materials) is useful; however, it does not provide the detail required by the CLE Board. Please keep this analogy in mind as your prepare your CLE application materials.

Please submit a Word document with the following information:

 

1. Event Details

 

2. Timed Agenda

The timed agenda serves as the syllabus for the CLE course.

Please indicate start and end times for:

  • the overall event
  • introductions
  • educational sessions (panels, keynotes, etc.)
  • breaks
  • meals
  • question and answer time
  • closing remarks

For each educational session (panel, keynote, etc.), please include:

  • start and end times (indicate time dedicated to introductions, closing remarks, and questions during the session)
  • a description of the content and legal learning objectives
  • topics to be presented and the time spent on each topic, if known
  • faculty expected to cover each topic
  • descriptions or citations for the written materials that correspond to the content
General Advice on Content and Legal Learning Objectives

In terms of the specificity, the CLE Board wants to see “detailed timed agendas (even for single topic courses…) that list the topics presented and the time spent on each ….”

Your timed agenda should make it clear that the session content and legal learning objectives will “increase the professional legal competency of attorneys." 

The description of the session should make it clear that the content would be way too legal and technical for a general audience and just right for transitional attorneys, non-transitional attorneys, or both.

3. Written Materials

The written materials serve as the textbook for the CLE course and must follow the guidelines provided in detail in section 8(A)(4)(e) and (f) of the CLE Board Regulations and Guidelines.

  • Materials shall be prepared or compiled specifically for the accredited course or program, and shall specifically address each topic presented in the course or program.
  • Materials shall be prepared or adopted and approved by the speaker and shall be distributed to the attendees at or before the  time  the  course  or  program  is  to  be  held,  unless  the  absence of materials, or the provision of such material shortly after the program, is approved in advance by the CLE Board.
  • Materials  shall  reflect  that  they  are  timely  or  that  they have been updated with specific reference to the course or program.
  • Materials shall cover those matters that one would expect for a  comprehensive  and  professional  treatment  of  the  subject matter of the course or program.
  • Brief  outlines  without  citations  or  explanatory  notations shall not constitute compliance with Program accreditation criteria. 

Note that the CLE Board values original content, and takes a dim view of sources which only tangentially touch on the topic, or cover the topic incompletely.

If your event has more than one session, please list the written materials (with descriptions or citations) within the appropriate session on the timed agenda.

General Advice on Written Materials

[To be added]

Copyright Clearance

Event sponsors/organizers are responsible for obtaining and paying for copyright clearance for all materials distributed before and during an event.

The Graduate Tax Office does not provide copyright clearance, consult on copyright clearance, check your clearances, or pay for clearances. The Graduate Tax Office is not responsible, financially or otherwise, for any copyright infringement you engage in, and we strongly encourage you to follow all applicable laws.

NYU provides a number of resources for information on copyright and copyright policies:

NYU Website on Copyright and Fair Use NYU Libraries Research Guide on Copyright Basics

 

Keep in mind that you should not publicly post copywritten materials online without explicit permission to do so. Enforcement of copywritten images, sounds, and sources is highly automated and expensive to the violator. For example, the unauthorized use of a photograph in materials posted online within a pdf document can be easily found by an automated “copyright bot” which will dispense a demand for payment in the hundreds or thousands of dollars per violation.

  • Use a commercial service, such as:
  • Create the materials yourself. You can create a detailed outline or set of presentation slides, brimming with citations. To pass muster, however, it would need to be substantial and cover all topics in each portion of your event.
  • If you are not charging a fee for the event (i.e., non-commercial use), you can look for materials created under a creative commons license which allow for non-commercial use, or look for an open source version of the US Code or other documents, such as through Cornell’s Legal Information Institute.
  • NYU students and faculty might be covered under our existing licenses with commercial databases such as Westlaw, Lexis, and Bloomberg BNA, but you should ask the publishers if they agree if the student license covers this use. Alumni and other community members are not covered under our existing agreements with these publishers, unless the publisher has an incidental use policy, which likely only covers a very small number of users. You can find more information here:

There are several ways to go about obtaining copyright clearance:

Contact the author, editor, or publisher. Some event organizers are able to informally receive permission directly from authors.

 

4. Faculty

Speakers, panelists, and moderators are referred to as CLE "faculty."

Requirements

Each segment (panel, session, keynote, etc.) of your event, must include at least one attorney in good standing. Non-US law licensure is also acceptable to the CLE Board. Law professors at ABA-accredited law schools may also fulfill this requirement.

Note: Disbarred attorneys may not serve as faculty for CLE events.

Biographies

Please provide a biography for each member of the event faculty (moderators, panelists, and speakers). Each biography must include:

  • degrees earned and the institutions at which they were earned, and
  • current bar memberships.

 

5. Promotional Materials

Your CLE application should include drafts for material that you will distribute to promote your event (emails, flyers, poster text (in 8.5x11 size), brochures, a print-out of your webpage, a print-out of a Docket announcement, etc.)

Pending CLE Approval

If you have applied for CLE credit but your application has not yet been approved, you may include one of these statements in your promotional materials:

a)    “New York CLE credit is pending. If approved, it will be a transitional course intended for newly admitted attorneys (those admitted to the New York Bar for less than two years).”

b)    “New York CLE credit is pending. If approved, it will be categorized as non-transitional credit and will not be acceptable for newly admitted attorneys (those admitted to the New York Bar for less than two years).”

c)    “New York CLE credit is pending. If approved, the credit will be appropriate for both newly admitted and experienced attorneys.”

Fee-Based Events

Promotional materials for all fee-based CLE events must include a statement on the availability of financial aid, as required by the NYU School of Law CLE Financial Aid Policy Promotional materials must also include contact information for the event organizer and guidelines on how to request aid. Organizers for events at which a fee is charged, must include the following text in their promotional materials:

“NYU School of Law is committed to the availability of quality affordable CLE programs for its alumni community and members of the bar-at-large. Prospective attendees interested in obtaining financial aid for this program should contact [Event Organizer] at [email address]. Written requests for financial aid should include applicant name, phone number, email address, employment status and recent employment history, along with a brief statement of financial need. All requests for financial aid will be kept confidential.”

 

6. Attendance Verification Materials

Your CLE application should include an overview of your planned attendance verification procedures and samples of any documents you intend to use.

Your options for attendance verification procedures depend on the format you choose for your event. The overwhelming majority of NYU Law CLE events use either of the following two methods of attendance verification.

Sign-In/Out Sheets

"Traditional live classroom" events should plan to use physical sign-in/out sheets. The NYS CLE Board requires that the following event information be printed on the sheets: title, date, location (city/state), and start and end times. A sample sign-in/out sheet is available in the Additional Resources menu on this website.

Attendees seeking CLE credit must sign in and note the time of arrival AND sign out and note the time of departure. CLE credit cannot be issued to an attendee who does not sign in AND out of an event.

Course Codes and Attorney Affirmation

"Live simultaneous transmission," "prerecorded audio," and "prerecorded video" events should plan to use attorney affirmations and course codes to verify attendance. A sample NYS CLE Attorney Affirmation is available for your use. 

More information on how to use attorney affirmations and course codes to verify attendance is available in the sections on Before, During, and After Your Approved Event.