Practicing lawyers in California must pass the California Bar Exam and be licensed by the State Bar. 

**** SPECIAL NOTIFICATION ****

The State Bar of California is nearing completion on a new computer system that will significantly improve the applicant experience in registering with the State Bar and submitting applications for things such as the California Bar Examination, First-Year Law Students’ Examination, and Moral Character Determination.

We anticipate implementing the new system in mid to late February 2019, and while our team is working diligently to ensure a smooth transition, there may be some service interruptions while we adapt to the change. We will make every effort to minimize disruptions during this transition, and we will do our best to communicate service outages in advance.

As a result of the transition to a new system, any partially completed registration and/or moral character determination application must be fully completed and submitted by no later than midnight on February 13, 2019. You will not be able to access the platform to update or submit your registration/application after that date. Beginning February 25, 2019, registration will resume on our new platform.

If you have any questions, please e-mail them to admsf@calbar.ca.gov.