The Minnesota Supreme Court issued an order, effective July 1, 2008, amending Rules 2 and 6 of the Rules of the Minnesota State Board of Continuing Legal Education to allow limited continuing education credit for pro bono legal services.

The amended rules provide that a lawyer may claim one hour of standard CLE credit for every six hours of legal representation that the lawyer provides to a "pro bono client" per the definitions of Rule 2. An attorney may claim up to six of these "pro bono for CLE credits" per three-year CLE reporting cycle.

Volunteer Lawyers Network qualifies as an "approved legal services provider" per the definition of Rule 2. This means that you may claim one CLE credit for every six hours of pro bono you do through VLN.

If you wish to claim CLE credits for pro bono work through VLN, please:
? In full representation cases, make sure VLN referred or approved the pro bono client prior to your undertaking the representation.
? Submit your VLN representation agreements and closing forms or (if claiming hours at a clinic) clinic data sheets to us. These forms can be found on our web-site at www.volunteerlawyersnetwork.org.
? If you would like to claim hours prior to a case's completion, please email your Case Placement Coordinator reporting the hours you have worked on the case (s) so far.

Complete the Minnesota State Board of Continuing Legal Education form "Affidavit of Pro Bono Representation to the Board" and submit this to the CLE Board. You may list on the reporting affidavit as your contact any VLN staff person with whom you have been working.

Note: If you volunteer at a VLN clinic in partnership with your law firm, please list your firm and pro bono coordinator as the "legal services provider".

Please see separate attachment for a copy of the proposed Amendments to the Rules and the Affidavit of Pro Bono Representation Form. This form will also be available on our web-site.