Community Perspectives: Does your company pay for your bar dues, CLE credits and other expenses?

Our in-house professional community discuss their experiences with company compensation for career expenses.

(Author) Associate

Does your company pay for your bar dues, CLE credits, and other expenses? I'm in BigLaw right now, and my firm pays for everything to maintain my license. I imagine all those expenses really add up if you're paying for them yourself.

General Counsel Responses:

Yes.
Yes, our company will reimburse bar dues and has a reasonable budget for CLE.
We pay for one state’s fees and provide a set annual stipend to spend on CLE. Also, pre-COVID, In-house get several invites to free CLE webinars and lunches.
They pay for state bar dues and up to three associations. Previous companies I’ve worked for have paid for all dues.

Director Responses:

Yes, in a manner of speaking. I've worked at three smaller tech companies and bar dues have always been paid in full. CLE has been more of a mixed bag; they've generally been more reluctant to fund CLEs since you can find so many of them for free.
I’m in banking, and yes, they pay for CLE and bar dues.
My company pays for bar dues, and CLE. If I know there is a large annual meeting like NITA or IPO that I or my team want to attend, I just have to plan for it and put it in my annual budget.

Counsel Responses:

Mine does - I would hope this would be standard, or at least partial payment for these expenses.
Mine does, but not for any extraordinary CLE experiences. No ski and CLE or similar resort trips with minimal CLE time.
My company only pays dues, but will pay for as many states as you have licenses. Everything else is out of pocket.
Yes, they pay for two bars. Being in-house, I’m under the restricted license for the state I practice within. They pay for that state and the state I’m barred in. They also pay for my CLE credits.

Associate and Attorney Responses:

Mine does!
I've been in-house at two different major companies, and the only thing they paid for were bar renewal fees. Everything else is out of pocket. I’m surprised at these other comments.
Yes, they pay for license renewal, bar membership (within reason), and CLE’s (again, within reason) if there is something relevant to your position. They prefer we do free CLEs, though since we get emails about multiple free ones each week.

(Author) Associate

Thanks for all these responses! I'm glad to hear that companies typically pay for at least some of the expenses!

In-house? Join the conversation on Fishbowl (anonymous).