Free CLE for Texas Lawyers
May 2025
Good evening,
Here’s your curated list of free CLE opportunities for the next few weeks — including on-demand ethics courses, live webinars, and in-person events across Texas. Whether you need to knock out ethics hours, learn about cutting-edge energy policy, or stay sharp on Supreme Court updates, there’s something here for you.
Feel free to forward this to a colleague, and as always, post in the group if you come across other free CLEs worth sharing.
Scroll down for links and registration info
Thanks,
Abdul Farukhi
ON DEMAND
State Bar of Texas CLE
https://www.texasbarcle.com/new/CourseList.asp
Why Should I Do Pro Bono Work?
https://www.legalethicstexas.com/cle-courses/why-should-i-do-pro-bono-work/
Ethics With A Legend - A Conversation With Former Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Hecht
https://www.legalethicstexas.com/cle-courses/ethics-with-a-legend-a-conversation-with-former-texas-supreme-court-chief-justice-nathan-hecht/
May 1, 2025 Time: 12:00 pm
Supreme Court Update on May 1: Citizenship/Minority Status and the First Amendment
Please join us for an important Supreme Court update CLE on the Interplay between Citizenship/Minority Status and the First Amendment. Our panel of expert practitioners includes Maria Kari of Project Taha, Rehan Alimohammad of Wong Fleming, and Anthony Osso of Cogdell Law Firm. 1.0 hr CLE credit pending.
Venue: Zoom link available through the Eventbrite ticket link below.
Tickets: Free registration here.
May 1 from 12-12:30PM
TXDOCS presents
Join us Thursday, May 1 from 12-12:30PM for part two of a 3-part Lunch & Learn series. These 30-minute webinars are designed to provide an easy and quick overview demonstrating how to get the most out of the featured topic of the week.
This week’s topic is editing and customizing documents. TXdocs includes many tools which make document prep fast, accurate, and repeatable. In this session we’ll cover how to:
• Assemble documents using client data and QuickText;
• Style your documents using Format Wizard;
• Open, edit, and update documents in the built-in editor (RTF and PDF);
• Save, print, or download completed documents; and
• Create and reuse custom snippets for frequently used text
This course has been approved by the State Bar of Texas MCLE Committee for 0.5 hours of Ethics CLE credit. To register to attend please visit:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/8296373130462702166
Friday, May 2, 2025 9:00 am–4:00 pm
SMU presents:
Join us Friday, May 2, 2025, for the 3rd Annual SMU Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Colloquium. Registration is free and we are applying for 2.25 hours of Texas MCLE (pending). Register here: https://lnkd.in/gr25rQdc
SMU Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources Colloquium
Friday, May 2, 2025
9:00 am–4:00 pm
EY Gallery (Room 220), Fincher Building, Cox School of Business, SMU (Dallas, TX)
Texas MCLE 2.25 hours CLE / 0.50 hour Ethics CLE pending
Lunch Provided
Topics include: (1) Environmental Law, Justice & Policy, (2) Engineering (deconstruction & material recovery), (3) Renewable Energy Projects, (4) Tribal Nations Land, Resources & Sovereignty, and (5) Space Science, Mining Tech, Law & Policy. We also have Graduate Student Research Presentation Lightning Round, which includes graduate students presenting cutting-edge research within the fields of Energy, Environment, and Natural Resources (EENR).
Parking available at Hilltop Plaza, a pay parking garage located at 3423 Daniel Avenue. Ridesharing (Uber, Lyft) or taxi are also recommended. A map of SMU’s campus is also available.
Please contact Monika Ehrman at mehrman[at]smu.edu with any questions and feel free to circulate.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/3rd-annual-smu-energy-environment-and-natural-resources-colloquium-tickets-1339881143569?aff=oddtdtcreator&utm-source=cp&utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing
Friday, May 2, 2025
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Central
Rural Solar Rights
Utility-scale solar projects on private land – the fastest-growing form of energy development in the United States today – generate low-cost, carbon-free electricity and can invigorate rural economies. However, they are also attracting unprecedented local opposition as municipalities across the country adopt ordinances prohibiting or severely restricting solar farm development within their jurisdictions. Fortunately, state legislatures have multiple means of preventing municipal governments from unreasonably restricting solar energy. Among other things, states can legislatively preempt excessive local solar siting restrictions, manage more solar project permitting at the state government level, or statutorily require municipalities to classify solar farms as a “permitted use” within certain land use zoning districts. Such legislative strategies comprise a new generation of “solar rights” laws analogous to decades-old statutes in some states that prohibit cities and homeowner associations from unreasonably restricting rooftop solar installations. As federal support for utility-scale solar softens under the new Trump administration and local roadblocks to these projects become more commonplace, the need for a new generation of state solar rights statutes is greater now than ever. This presentation describes and analyzes the growing local opposition to rural solar energy and ultimately argues for a wave of new state legislation designed to strengthen rural landowners’ rights to develop utility-scale solar projects on their land.
Troy A. Rule
Professor of Law, Joseph Feller Memorial Chair in Law and Sustainability, Faculty Director of the Law and Sustainability Program, The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
https://uhlc.zoom.us/meeting/register/NkiVSGDiSjiRJhFNFhwcig#/registration
May 7th at 12:00 p.m. EST
CyEx will be hosting a 1-hour virtual Ethics CLE session on Wednesday, May 7th at 12:00 p.m. EST - Technology & Law: Data Breach Victims, Consumer Protection.
The session will examine the ethical and practical inadequacies of traditional credit monitoring services as restitution for data breach class actions.
We will also explore how new monitoring technologies and capabilities are reshaping consumer protections, address the ethical obligations of attorneys and insurance companies, and provide data-driven insights into the rapidly evolving landscape of data breaches and privacy litigation.
The virtual event is free and attendees will receive 1 ethics CLE credit. The CLE credit is currently ACCEPTED in California, New York, Texas and Arizona and pending in Illinois, Ohio, Kansas, Florida, Washington D.C., Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma.
https://cyex.com/CLE-registration/
Monday, May 12, 2025 2:00 – 5:00 PM Central Time
A Conversation on the ABA Accreditation of Texas Law Schools
HBA presents the role and impact of the ABA in law school accreditation.
Approved for 3.0 hours of Texas MCLE credit, of which .5 is ethics
https://www.hba.org/?pg=events&eid=301772&evAction=regV2
Co-Conveners:
Austin Bar Association
Dallas Bar Association
San Antonio Bar Association
Tarrant County Bar Association
Baylor Law School
SMU Dedman School of Law
South Texas College of Law Houston
St. Mary’s University School of Law
Texas Tech University School of Law
Thurgood Marshall School of Law
University of Houston Law Center
UNT Dallas College of Law
May 15, 2025, from 1:00-2:30 PM ET.
Insurer payouts for LA wildfires have surpassed $12 billion—nearly double the amount paid earlier this year. Fires continue to burn across the country from Texas to the Carolinas to New York. What does this mean for insurers, legal professionals, and the environment?
Join us for Wildfires & the Environment: Legal, Insurance, and Risk Perspectives, a complimentary CLE webinar hosted by Perrin Conferences, sponsored by HETI on
Gain insights from industry experts on the legal, insurance, and environmental impacts of wildfires.
https://www.perrinconferences.com/webinars/5125/