New Attorney Registration

Pre-Registation Instructions

Congratulations on successfully passing the Maine bar, or for completing all requirements for eligibility for admission by motion or via UBE Score Transfer. Prior to your swearing-in ceremony, you must first pre-register with the Board of Overseers of the Bar. Below you will find links to two required documents you must complete and return to the Board of Overseers. Next, you must contact the Supreme Judicial Court to schedule your swearing-in ceremony. The Court will notify the Board of your ceremony date and the Board will generate your admission card and send it to the Court one week prior to your ceremony. Be sure your registration forms are received by the Board at least ten days prior to your swearing-in ceremony. Thereafter, the Board's Executive Director will send you a welcome packet that includes your official bar card and additional information regarding attorney resources and responsibilities. That letter is generally emailed within a week after your swearing-in ceremony.

Required Registration Forms for the Board of Overseers:

Required Information form to send to the court after you are sworn in and receive your bar number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Registration Statement
The registration statement and IOLTA form shall be completed and filed with the Board of Overseers immediately. Pursuant to Maine Bar Rule 4(a), every attorney, including law clerks and emeritus members admitted to practice in Maine, are required upon bar admission, and annually thereafter, to register with the Board of Overseers. To maintain good standing, attorneys must register regardless of their employment status. Similarly, attorneys who notify the Board that they are members of the US Armed Forces on active duty outside of Maine are required to file the annual registration statement. Active duty military, emeritus attorneys and law clerks pay only the assessments required by Bar Rule 4.

All persons first becoming subject to these Rules by admission to practice in Maine after April 1st shall file the registration documents required by this rule at the time of admission, but no annual registration fee shall be payable until the next annual registration collection. Failure to register shall result in the issuance of a notice of administrative suspension pursuant to Rule 4(h).

Inactive Status
As a new Maine attorney, you may choose to register as inactive. Inactive attorneys do not pay any fees; however, if you decide to change your status to Active, you will be required to pay arrearages not paid from the date you were sworn in to the present date, along with a reinstatement fee. You will also need to provide proof of 22 hours of CLE. Inactive attorneys are not allowed to practice law in Maine, nor allowed in any manner to indicate or advertise an authority to practice law in Maine. Attorneys on inactive status do not have to file a registration statement with the Board after their initial registration, until they activate their bar license.

Maine Bar Rule — Continuing Legal Education
Bar Rule 15 requires all active Maine attorneys to annually complete 11 hours of continuing legal education, with one of those hours being in ethics or professional responsibility. Of the 11 hours required, half (5.5) need to be actual attendance at live programming, to include scheduled webcasts, teleconferences, and video replays; the remainder may be earned through self-study, to include in-house programming, audio, video, and other media venues. The complete text of the rule can be found on the Board’s website at www.mebaroverseers.org under the heading Continuing Legal Education, which is found in the Attorney Services section. Upon completion of your registration, you will be assigned a PIN number that will allow you to keep track of your credits online. You may wish to create a password after you receive your bar number, rather than use the PIN number, and you can create a password on our website under the tab MyBoardAccess.

Any new attorney who completes the Maine State Bar Association’s Bridging the Gap program in the year of admission is granted an exemption from the CLE requirements for that year and for the following calendar year. To learn more about the Annual Bridging the Gap program, visit the Maine State Bar Association website at www.mainebar.org.

Law Clerks
Law Clerks are required to register with the Board of Overseers of the Bar. Law Clerks are exempt from complying with M. Bar R. 5 Continuing Legal Education until after completion of that clerkship and the subsequent assumption of either active practice or inactive status under Maine Bar Rule 4(c)(1). Law Clerks are not required to pay the annual registration fee (see Maine Bar Rule 4(c)(1).

Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection
Pursuant to Rule 3(a), all attorneys, including full-time and active-retired judges, must annually pay $20.00 to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection (LFCP) and $20.00 to the Maine Assistance Program for Lawyers and Judges (MAP). (Law clerks are exempt from paying the $40.00 until the completion of their clerkship). Although the Funds’ assessment is separate from the registration fee, the Board of Overseers collects the annual assessment on behalf of the Court and the LFCP and MAP Boards. Any attorney who fails to pay those amounts is subject to the suspension provision of the Maine Bar Rule 4(g)(2).

The Maine Assistance Program for Lawyers and Judges (MAP) was created by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in September 2002 to confidentially address the issue of lawyer/judge impairment from the effects of chemical dependency or mental conditions that result from disease, disorder, trauma, or other infirmity that impair the ability of a lawyer or judge to practice or serve.

IOLTA: Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts

Active Maine attorneys must annually complete and return the Trust Account Report and IOLTA Election form for reporting information under Maine Bar Rules 3.6(e)(4),(5) and 6(a)(2). Any registration statements received without an IOLTA form included will be considered incomplete. Please refer to the form and the particular Bar Rules to determine your required IOLTA reporting obligations. Questions regarding IOLTA filing requirements should be directed to the Maine Justice Foundation at 207-622-3477.