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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.
Applications are considered individually. Processing times for applications are affected by variables such as the relative complexity of an applicant’s history. It may take 180 days or more from the date the application is deemed complete to finish the processing of a moral character application. You may submit a moral character application after you meet the eligibility requirements by commencing the study of law and registering with the State Bar as a law student or an attorney applicant. Applicants are encouraged to file a moral character application before the start of their last year of law study.
Yes. Pending criminal matters must be disclosed, and convictions dismissed pursuant to section 1203.4 must be disclosed.
No. Neither indebtedness nor bankruptcy is necessarily relevant to a moral character determination. Moral character issues may arise if indebtedness was handled irresponsibly, or bankruptcy was used to defraud creditors.
You should list people who are knowledgeable about you and do not appear as an employment reference elsewhere in the application. Additionally, your personal references may not be related to you by blood or marriage.
No. Some references may not be contacted. You may wish to remind your references to check their email spam folders periodically and to use the Google Chrome internet browser, if possible, when submitting the questionnaires to avoid potential technical issues.
No. However, you will receive a courtesy copy of your application via email for your records.
After an application has been submitted, you will not be able to access the application or make any edits to it in the Applicant Portal. You should submit updates or amendments by posting the information to your moral character case feed.
No. The State Bar is unable to extend the period to request administrative review. The Committee will decide whether to accept an untimely request for administrative review.
You may request to study under a different attorney or judge by submitting a new LOS application, the required documentation, and the fee in the Applicant Portal at least 15 days prior to beginning study with the new supervisor. The new application must include a completed declaration signed by the new supervising attorney or judge and a new law study outline.
If you change the attorney or judge under whom you are studying during a six-month study period, you must submit a report from your previous attorney or judge that indicates all study completed with that person, along with the semi-annual report fee in the Applicant Portal, within 30 days of beginning study with the new attorney or judge. Within 30 days of completion of the six-month study period, you will also have to submit a semi-annual report reflecting the study conducted under the new attorney or judge that covers the remainder of the six-month study period.
Professional monitoring can be provided for as long as a participant wants it. If an attorney is required to successfully complete the LAP (often required by the State Bar’s discipline system), the attorney will have several goals to meet, including a minimum of three continuous years of sobriety and/or mental health stability.
The California Bar Exam is scheduled two times a year in February and July. The application as an immediate repeater is available online after the results are posted, usually in mid-May and mid-November. You can register for the next exam on the State Bar website. After the deadline, you will have to pay a late fee.
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