News Releases

Board of Trustees Approves 2024 Budget; Discusses Fee Increase Request Plans for 2025

At a special meeting February 26, the State Bar of California Board of Trustees approved a 2024 budget that relies on last year’s building sale proceeds as a stopgap measure to stave off the impact of an ongoing structural deficit. The Board also reviewed and discussed plans for an April 1 set of reports to the Legislature that will articulate the State Bar’s needs for a fee increase in 2025.

“The 2024 budget makes clear that, with only a single fee increase in nearly a quarter century, the State Bar is facing an impending fiscal cliff deferred only by the sale of the San Francisco headquarters building last year,” said Board Chair Brandon Stallings. “Selling a capital asset was a necessary step, but it masks the reality that a lack of sustainable funding can put in jeopardy the reform progress we have made and are making. As with any organization, costs for labor, technology, and other necessities keep rising. We cannot cut expenses without eliminating programming that supports our public protection mission and legislative mandates. We must make clear to our stakeholders and partners in the Legislature that the State Bar needs a financial reset.”  

Bar-wide revenue is budgeted at $428.9 million, with expenses at $400.9 million. Grant funding, almost all of which is pass-through, distributed to legal aid organizations, accounts for a significant portion—65.5 percent—of bar-wide revenue. The outsize impact of grant revenue contributes to a bar-wide overall budget surplus.  

In contrast, the State Bar’s General Fund revenue, on which the agency relies for its disciplinary functions and most other operations, is budgeted at $96.3 million, with expenses at $118.4 million, resulting in a deficit of $22.1 million. The State Bar General Fund ended 2023 with operating reserves of approximately $36 million, of which $30 million was proceeds from the sale of the San Francisco building. By the end of 2024, the reserve is projected to drop to approximately $14 million, falling below the 17 percent reserve threshold set by Board policy. Without a fee increase, in 2025, the General Fund will become insolvent, as all remaining reserves will be depleted.  

The State Bar’s annual attorney licensing fee is set by the Legislature. The total in 2024 for active licensees, $404, includes a base fee set in statute and mandatory add-ons defined by the Legislature. The licensing fee has increased only once since 1998. Here are more facts about the State Bar’s licensing fees. 

The Board began to discuss plans for a significant fee increase request and will continue that discussion on March 1 in anticipation of the April 1 reports required by the Legislature.  

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The State Bar of California's mission is to protect the public and includes the primary functions of licensing, regulation and discipline of attorneys; the advancement of the ethical and competent practice of law; and support of efforts for greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system.