Nonprofit CLE provider and legal research platform, founded 1933, chartered by NY Regents. Delivers accredited continuing legal education across 33 practice areas via live, on-demand, and webcast formats — over 10,000 hours of content. PLI PLUS is the research arm: a secondary-source platform with treatises, course handbooks, answer books, and journals, described by Harvard Law Library as ‘especially strong for transactional materials.’ 4,000+ volunteer faculty drawn from practicing attorneys, judges, and regulators. Ranked #1 CLE provider by credits delivered in Minnesota (2022-2024 Board data). US CLE market is $5.26B (2024) growing to $8.35B by 2030 at 8% CAGR — PLI is a key vendor alongside Thomson Reuters and LexisNexis. Individual Membership $3,495/yr (7-15x more than Lawline or LexisNexis CLE); enterprise Privileged Membership is unlimited firm-wide access at one flat annual fee. Launched Corporate Counsel Corner (April 2024) with Business and Leadership Academy specifically for in-house practitioners. PLI redesigned PLI.edu in 2025 with enhanced personalization. Dedicated Paralegal Center with free resources. ‘My Credit Tracker’ tool for CLE compliance tracking (launched 2019). Strong Reddit sentiment: practitioners praise depth and quality, but solos and small firms find pricing prohibitive without employer-provided access. No G2/Capterra reviews found. No SOC 2, SSO, or security documentation found publicly — a notable gap for enterprise buyers evaluating PLI PLUS as a research platform handling potentially sensitive query data.
Capabilities
Spans 2 product areas: Legal Education & Training, Legal Research.
Workflow Coverage
Based on published feature listings, this tool maps to 2 workflow areas:
- Firm Operations & Growth
- Research & Analysis
Workflow mappings derived from published feature lists. Not independently verified.
What We Haven’t Verified
This page was assembled from publicly available information. Feature claims and workflow mappings are based on what the vendor and third-party listings publish — not hands-on testing or practitioner feedback.
Workflows
Based on practitioner evidence, Practising Law Institute is used in these workflows:
What practitioners struggle with
Real frustrations from legal professionals — the problems Practising Law Institute addresses (or should address). Sourced from practitioner reviews, Reddit threads, and case studies.
Attorney has 24 CLE credits due by December 31st, including 4 ethics credits and 2 diversity credits — it's December 15th, every in-person seminar is full, and the state bar portal shows zero approved online courses that match the exact credit types still needed, so the attorney is scrambling to find accredited courses that check every box before the deadline
Mid-size firm wants to offer in-house training programs that count as accredited CLE — but the accreditation process varies by state, requires applications months in advance, and the firm's training coordinator doesn't know which states require live attendance vs. allowing on-demand, so they end up only getting accreditation in their home state and attorneys in satellite offices get no CLE credit
Associate staffed on a securities enforcement matter hasn't touched securities law since bar prep — the partner expects them conversant by Friday's client call, and they need to go from zero to credible in a practice area in three days using secondary sources, not just case law
Solo or small-firm attorney needs quality CLE but paying $3,500/year for PLI when their entire tech budget is $300/month means they're stuck with bargain-bin webinars that don't actually teach anything useful — and the free bar association CLE is hit-or-miss
Where it fits in your workflow
Before Practising Law Institute
Attorney identifies CLE requirement (state bar deadline, new practice area staffing, or professional development goal). At firms, CLE coordinators (support staff) manage the identification and scheduling process. Triggers: annual bar compliance deadline, staffing on unfamiliar matter, or firm-mandated training curriculum.
After Practising Law Institute
After completing CLE or researching via PLI PLUS, attorney applies knowledge to active matters — drafting, client advisory, strategy. CLE credits flow to state bar compliance tracking (manual in most cases; PLI's My Credit Tracker helps organize but doesn't auto-report). PLI PLUS research findings feed into work product via copy-paste — no integration with practice management or document management systems.
Integrations & hand-offs
CLE credits → My Credit Tracker → state bar compliance system (manual). PLI PLUS research → attorney work product (manual). No documented integrations with any practice management, DMS, or LMS platform.
Also used by similar teams
Community Data
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