The Florida Bar CLE: How to Create a Course and Get Approved
To create a CLE course for The Florida Bar, start with your own Bar section. Pitch a topic its members need, build a timed outline and slides, record it with qualified speakers, and let the section submit it to The Florida Bar for accreditation. Once it's approved, you share it. The rules are short. Most of the work is planning, production and getting the word out.
I'm Blake Hickey. I've been in marketing since 2006, and I host and produce The Florida Bar Business Law Section CLE series on lawyer advertising compliance. I've also helped produce continuing education for accountants and a podcast for an orthodontic practice, worked behind the camera on Walmart commercial shoots, and spent plenty of time in front of the camera myself. This guide walks through how we made Episode 1 of that series, start to finish, with the real pieces, so you can do the same with your section.
One more thing about me: I'm married to a teacher, and I teach adults all the time. We laugh about how the same rule works in every classroom. Everyone learns a little differently, so good teachers make it easy and tailor it to the room. Most of us remember a teacher like that. A good CLE should feel the same way.
Why teach a CLE?
Every member of The Florida Bar needs 30 CLE hours every three years. At least 5 have to be in ethics, professionalism, substance abuse or mental health and wellness, including the Bar's 2-hour professionalism course, and at least 3 in technology. So lawyers are always looking for good courses.
Teaching one is good for the lawyer who does it, too:
Your peers, and the lawyers who refer you work, get to watch how you think through a real problem.
You earn credit for it. The Florida Bar lists "lecturing at an approved CLE program" as a way to earn CLE hours.
One recording keeps working for months as a trailer, clips and posts.
It helps. The more our lawyers know, the better they serve their clients.
The timing is good. Anyone can ask a chatbot a question now, but a lawyer who has handled the problem for real is a different kind of teacher. The guidance keeps moving, too. On October 15, 2026, The Florida Bar News reported that the Bar's ethics committee may take up agentic AI, AI notetakers, guidance for clients and updates to Ethics Opinion 24-1. When guidance changes, lawyers look for a current course.
Start with your own section
Most lawyers teach their first CLE through a Florida Bar section they already belong to. I did mine with the Business Law Section. A section already has an audience that cares about your topic, a CLE committee or chair who plans its calendar, staff who handle the forms, and a sponsor that submits the course to The Florida Bar for you.
Here's how to get started:
Find your section on The Florida Bar's Sections and Divisions page (linked below), and look for its CLE committee or CLE chair.
Look at what the section has already offered, so your topic fills a gap instead of repeating one.
Send a short pitch. Keep it to the topic, the one problem it solves, who would speak, and roughly how long it runs.
Ask what the committee needs from you and how far ahead it plans. The Business Law Section's 2026 checklist, for example, aims for at least 70 days from first contact to the program date.
Here's a pitch you can copy and change:
Subject: CLE idea for [section] members
Hi [name],
I'm a member of the [section], and I'd like to propose a CLE on [topic]. It would cover [the one problem it solves] and run about [50] minutes, with [speakers] presenting.
Is there room on the calendar, and what does the committee need from me to get started?
Thanks,
[Your name]
If you're not in a section that fits, you have two other routes: work with another approved CLE provider, or apply to become a provider yourself through The Florida Bar's course accreditation process, which needs a Florida Bar Portal login and a CLE provider number.
What does The Florida Bar look for?
The Bar's course approval policies (the 500 series of the Board of Legal Specialization and Education's policies) set the bar. Here's what they say, and what it means for you:
The Bar's policy says | So your course needs |
|---|---|
"Significant intellectual or practical content" and speakers "qualified by practical or academic experience" (5.01(a)) | Something lawyers can use, taught by people who know it |
"High quality and carefully prepared materials" for attendees (5.01(b)) | Slides or a handout people can keep |
"Fifty minutes of course time is equivalent to 1 credit hour" (5.03(b)) | At least 50 minutes of content for 1 credit (25 minutes earns 0.5) |
Recorded courses earn credit "in the same manner as for live CLE courses" (5.07(a)) | You don't have to teach it live |
No credit for content that only markets legal services, or markets a technology product (5.08(e), 5.09(f)) | To teach, not sell |
The accreditation application also asks for a detailed time schedule, a topic outline and a bio for each speaker. Your section may add its own guides. The Business Law Section gave our speakers PowerPoint guidelines and course material formatting guides, so follow your section's version first.
What gets a course approved, and what gets it turned down
Helps it get approved | Gets it turned down |
|---|---|
Practical content lawyers can use in their work | Content that only markets legal services, or only covers increasing profitability (5.08(e)) |
Speakers with real experience in the subject | A course designed mainly for people who aren't lawyers (5.08(a)) |
A timed agenda, a topic outline and bios | Marketing a technology product, if you want technology credit (5.09(f)) |
Slides or a handout people can keep | Counting on "it's online" to earn technology credit. Virtual alone isn't technology content (5.09(f)) |
A CLE isn't a way to sell your services, and it's not a quick money-maker. It's a way to teach. That's also what makes it work for the people who teach one.
How a CLE comes together, start to finish
Fit call. Talk through the topic and who it's for. If it isn't a fit for the section, better to know now.
Interview and questionnaire. Get the topic down in the speaker's own words, so the course gets it right.
Outline and slides. Chapters in the right order, learning objectives and a timed agenda.
Team and date. Speakers, a moderator, who covers what, and a date with your section.
Section forms. For the Business Law Section, that's a course development form (within a week of setting the date), a materials submission with slides, agenda and bios, and a headshots form. Each speaker signs a grant of license.
Shoot day. Live in front of an audience, or recorded on Zoom from your own office.
Edit and apply. Clean audio, slides matched to the conversation, and captions. The section's accreditation application goes in at least 30 days before the program.
Approve, then launch. Once The Florida Bar approves it, you share it.
For the speakers, the time goes into the fit call, the interview, a slide review and the recording itself.
Who's on the panel
A good panel gives each person one clear job: someone who knows the rules, someone who lives with them in practice, and a host who keeps it moving. For Episode 1, Navigating Lawyer Advertising Compliance: Foundations of Lawyer Advertising, I hosted alongside Zach Hyman of Millennial Law and other speakers from the Bar community.
These are the speaker cards we made for Episode 1, one per person. The section's headshots form asks every speaker for a photo and a bio, so gather them early.
How to teach it so people remember it
You're the lawyer, so I won't tell you how to teach your subject. But I've produced enough of these to see what keeps people watching:
Keep one idea per slide. If a slide needs a paragraph, that paragraph belongs in the handout.
Carry one example through the whole hour, like a made-up client the panel keeps coming back to.
Say it, show it and give a real example. Some people listen, some watch, and some only get it from the story.
Put the rule, opinion or case on the slide in small type so viewers can look it up later.
Have the moderator ask a question at every hand-off. A minute per answer is plenty.
Open with the not-legal-advice language, and close with a short list of what to do next.
Live or recorded? Both can earn credit. Live takes less editing, since what happens is what people see. Recorded takes more work afterward, but mistakes come out, music and graphics go in, and every slide lands at the right moment. Episode 1 was recorded on Zoom, and you don't need a studio for it. A laptop, your notes and a quiet room will do.
What one recording turns into
One recorded session became a full launch for Episode 1:
The emails went out in two waves, one before launch and one on launch day:
The order we rolled it out
We didn't post everything at once. Here's the plan we used for Episode 1:
What to post, and what to email
Keep posts short and plain. Ask the question your reader already has, say who answers it and what the course covers, and give one link. Here's an example you could post, and change for your own course:
Florida lawyers: do you know which of your ads have to be filed with The Florida Bar before they run?
In Episode 1 of Navigating Lawyer Advertising Compliance, presented by the Business Law Section, our panel walks through the Bar's advertising handbook: which ads get filed, what causes delays, and how to keep your marketing honest.
Approved for [X] hours of CLE credit. Watch it here: [link]
Send two emails, and only to people the course fits, like the lawyers you know. One goes out before launch:
Subject: A CLE I'm working on
Hi [first name],
Quick heads-up: I'm teaching a CLE with the [section] on [topic]. It covers [the one problem it solves], and it should be out in [month]. I'll send the link when it's live. If you know someone who'd find it useful, I'd love for you to pass it along then.
[Your name]
And one on launch day:
Subject: It's live: [course title]
Hi [first name],
The CLE I mentioned is out. In about an hour, we cover [what it covers]. It's approved for [X] hours of CLE credit. Watch it here: [link]
If it's useful, feel free to share it with a colleague.
[Your name]
Fill in the brackets with your course's real details. The Florida Bar exempts communications mailed only to lawyers, clients and former clients from its ad filing requirement (Rule 4-7.20(d)), while unsolicited direct email to anyone else generally has to be filed. Ask your counsel how that applies to your list before you send.
On your own website, post a short blog about the course with one image and a link. It gives search engines, and AI tools like ChatGPT, a page that says you taught it, and it's a page you can share.
What keeps all of this clean: it describes what the course covers, not results. It doesn't promise approval or outcomes, the credit line matches the approval exactly, and everyone named has said it's OK.
One caution before you post any of it: The Florida Bar's advertising handbook says seminar announcements generally have to follow the lawyer advertising rules. Run every piece past your counsel first.
Your CLE checklist
Copy this and work down it:
Pick a topic lawyers need, and the section you'll pitch it to
Write 3 learning objectives
Build a timed agenda and topic outline
Confirm speakers, a moderator and who covers what
Pitch the section's CLE chair and set a date (at least 70 days out for the Business Law Section)
Submit the section's forms, bios and headshots, and grants of license
Build slides and a handout, using your section's guidelines
Record, edit and add captions
Section files the accreditation application, at least 30 days before the program
After approval: trailer, clips, promo cards and emails, cleared with counsel
The Florida Bar resources you'll use
These are the pages I keep going back to, grouped by the question they answer.
Your question | Where to look |
|---|---|
How many hours do I need, and does teaching count? | |
What do the rules actually say? | Rules Regulating The Florida Bar (CLE is in Chapter 6) |
What does a course need to be approved? | |
What does the application ask for? | |
Can I become a CLE provider myself? | |
Which section should I pitch? | |
What has already been taught? | |
What does a section's planning look like? | |
Who answers credit questions? | |
What are the rules for promoting it? | Handbook on lawyer advertising and solicitation and Advertising regulation and information |
What's changing on AI? |
Here's what a few of those pages look like, so you know you're in the right place:
Who to call for what
For questions about the rules, credit hours or whether a course qualifies, go straight to the source: The Florida Bar's CLE staff and your section. They decide approval, and they're the right people to ask.
For everything around the course, that's where I come in. I'm a marketing advisor, not a lawyer, and I've done this with a Florida Bar section from first pitch to launch. I can help you shape the topic and outline, write the flow and the moderator questions, host or moderate, record and edit it on Zoom, design the slides and promo cards, keep the section's forms and deadlines on track, and build the launch: trailer, clips, posts and emails.
You can do all of it yourself with the checklist above. If you'd rather hand off part of it, here are three ways to work together. My favorite is recording on Zoom, not live, so a mistake gets a retake, we edit it, everyone reviews the cut, and it goes in polished.
You review and approve every step. The Florida Bar decides approval, so nobody can promise it. Every CLE is different, so I quote it after a short call.
If you're the marketing person on a firm's team, this whole post is meant for you, too. Use the checklist, and reach out if you get stuck.
FAQ
How long does a CLE course need to be? The Bar counts 50 minutes of course time as 1 credit hour, and 25 minutes as half an hour.
Do lawyers get credit for teaching one? The Florida Bar lists "lecturing at an approved CLE program" as a way to earn credit. Its CLE staff can tell you how many hours a given course earns.
Do I have to be a lawyer to present? The Bar's policy asks for speakers "qualified by practical or academic experience," so a non-lawyer can teach a part they know well. Each speaker needs a bio for the application.
Can a CLE be recorded instead of live? Yes. The Bar's policy gives recorded courses credit the same way it does live ones.
Who submits the course to The Florida Bar? The sponsor, such as a Bar section or another approved provider. Ask early how far ahead they need it.
Can I use the CLE to promote my firm? The course itself has to teach, not sell. Promotion afterward can work, but it follows the lawyer advertising rules, so run it past your counsel.
General information, not legal advice. Blake is not a lawyer. For your situation, talk to your counsel or The Florida Bar. Hickey Media is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Florida Bar.
