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No. Your certification is only valid for the period stated in your application. You must submit a new Application for the Certified Law Student Program in the Applicant Portal with the required documentation and fee.
You can participate in the program if you are currently enrolled in or have graduated from:
On the end date of your study session, the State Bar will send your supervisor an email asking about your progress over the last six-month study period. Your supervisor is required to attest whether you have demonstrated sufficient academic progress to continue to the next study session for each six-month period. If your supervisor does not provide a positive attestation or fails to provide one, your participation in the program will be terminated, unless the requirements of State Bar rule 4.29(N)(1)–(2) are met.
You will not receive credit for hours of study devoted to repetition of studies previously completed and you will lose credit for the entire six-month study session.
No, you cannot pause your studies during your six-month study period. A pause between sessions can take place; however, your participation in the LOS Program will be terminated if you fail to submit a semi-annual report within a year of your last semi-annual report. You will retain law study credit already received and recognized by the State Bar.
To receive credit for a six-month study period, applicants must study law under the supervision of their approved attorney or judge for at least 72 hours per month for six consecutive months, lasting at least 24 weeks and no longer than 26 weeks, as well as submit a semi-annual report within 30 days of completion for each six-month period that conforms to the State Bar requirements.
The supervisor must supervise the applicant directly for at least 20 hours per month, either in person or remotely. At least 10 of those hours over each six-month period must be in person.
Applicants enrolled in both programs, along with their respective supervisors, are expected to take proactive steps to avoid or address any actual or potential conflicts of interest or ethical issues. This includes exercising good judgment in situations where their dual roles may overlap. For example, an applicant who studies in the Law Office Study Program under the supervision of a judge should avoid appearing before that same judge when representing a client in the Certified Law Student Program.
An applicant becomes eligible to take the FYLSX after completion of their first year of law study. If your second session, which completes the first year, ends prior to the final eligibility deadline for the current FYLSX, you are strongly encouraged to apply for the FYLSX, as it will be considered your first eligible administration in the calculation of your legal study credit.
The final eligibility deadline is two weeks prior to the exam. All deadlines for the FYLSX can be found on our First-Year Law Students’ Examination webpage.
All students in the LOS Program are required to take and pass the FYLSX after completing their first year of study, unless you establish an exemption, as specified in rule 4.55(A) of the Rules of the State Bar.
You must take and pass the FYLSX within the first three consecutive administrations of first becoming eligible to receive credit for your law study completed to date. If you fail to take or pass it after the first three consecutive administrations of first becoming eligible to take the exam, upon passage, you will only receive credit for your first year of legal studies.
If you completed law study at an accredited or registered law school prior to beginning the LOS Program, you are required to provide official, sealed law school transcripts. The Office of Admissions will evaluate your prior completed law study to determine if you are exempt from the FYLSX. In addition, the Office of Admissions will advise how much credit has been recognized for the prior law school study and let you know how much more study you need to complete in the LOS Program to qualify for the California Bar Exam.
To resume study after you have been terminated from the LOS Program, you must submit a new Application for the Law Office Study Program, the required documentation, and the fee in the Applicant Portal 30 days prior to the date you plan on resuming your legal studies.
Contact the LAP office for details about the income eligibility requirements and the application process. Financial assistance can cover up to one year of LAP group fees and one year of lab testing fees.
For more information, see the LAP Growth Grant Criteria.
There is no set time for Support LAP. It is completely voluntary. Participants can enroll, withdraw, and re-enroll whenever they want to.
After submitting your completed membership enrollment card, allow one to two weeks for delivery, then check Attorney Search to confirm your enrollment and find your bar number. If you do not see your name on the State Bar website after two weeks from the date you submitted the card, call 888-800-3400 or email AttorneyRegulation@calbar.ca.gov.
No. Pursuant to rule 9.46 of the California Rules of Court and Title 3 Division 3 Chapter 1 Article 3 of the Rules of the State Bar, you must reside in California. As defined in rule 3.370(D), this means that you must live or be located in California on more than a temporary or transient basis.
No. Entry into the Pathway PLP is only permitted for those who scored between 1390 and 1439 on a bar exam from July 2015 through February 2020. Program participants do not need to retake a bar exam if they complete 300 hours of supervised legal practice in the Pathway PLP and fulfill all other requirements of the rule.
Please review the Moral Character Statement and the Moral Character Determination Guidelines.
Yes. The moral character application requires disclosure of all civil actions, including but not limited to divorce, dissolution, and class action cases in which you were a named plaintiff or defendant.
Contact the citing or arresting agency to obtain a copy of a law enforcement report and contact the court where the related proceedings were held to obtain a copy of the charging document, court docket, and judgment (please see Form 2 for the complete list of required documents). You must contact each agency to determine whether records may be requested or obtained online, in person, or through the mail. The identity of the citing or arresting agency may sometimes be found in related court documents. The prosecutor’s office, such as the District Attorney or City Attorney, may be able to assist in identifying the court in which certain proceedings were held.
A nonjudicial punishment, court-martial, resignation in lieu of court-martial, administrative discharge, or a discharge that is not “honorable” may be relevant to a moral character determination, but it does not automatically exclude an applicant for admission to practice law in California.
You must disclose your current employer, even if it is not law-related, and you have not been there for at least six months.
You are not required to disclose to a potential employer. The moral character application requires you to disclose any employment, past or present, lasting more than six months, and any law-related employment, regardless of its duration.
If you obtain new employment while your moral character application is pending or after you have received a positive moral character determination, but before you take the attorney’s oath, you must provide the new employment information to the State Bar within 30 days.
You must disclose all residences for the past eight years, regardless of how long you resided at the location.
Post the completed Live Scan Form to your moral character case feed. Do not submit the Live Scan Form as a General Request or as a Fingerprint Request, or there may be a delay in processing.
You must fulfill the pre-legal education requirements that apply to students who attend law school. This includes at least two years of college work or equivalent intellectual achievement by attaining a score of 50 or higher on specified College-Level Examination Program (CLEP) examinations, as detailed on the College Equivalency Education webpage.
Your pre-legal and any completed legal education will be evaluated upon submission of your LOS application. You must register with the Office of Admissions, and the Registration Application must be approved before you can submit an LOS application. When submitting your Application for the Law Office Study Program, you must submit your official, sealed undergraduate transcripts, CLEP scores, or a course-by-course evaluation of your foreign study from an approved credential evaluation agency if you have foreign undergraduate study. All official, sealed legal education transcripts must also be submitted before your participation in the LOS Program can be approved.
All sealed official transcripts must be mailed to the Los Angeles Office of Admissions. Electronic transcripts are not acceptable.
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