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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.
The First-Year Law Students’ Exam (FYLSX) will be administered primarily in person at various Prometric test centers. Once approved to take the exam, you will receive an email detailing how to make your exam appointment with Prometric.
At the joint meeting on August 14, 2025, the Board of Trustees and the Committee of Bar Examiners set the new fees for the PLP. Please find them below.
A PLL must:
• Expressly refer to themselves orally and in writing as a Provisionally Licensed Lawyer and/or participant in the State Bar’s Provisional Licensure Program and not describe themselves as a fully licensed lawyer or imply in any way orally or in writing that they are a fully licensed lawyer.
• Follow the same professional conduct rules as all fully licensed lawyers.
• Agree to be subject to the disciplinary authority of the Supreme Court of California and the State Bar with respect to the laws and rules governing the conduct of lawyers.
• Attest that they will not practice California law other than under the supervision of an approved Supervising Lawyer during the time they are provisionally licensed.
• Be employed by or volunteering at the firm (as defined in rule 9.49) where the Supervising Lawyer works, which must have an office located in California.
• Immediately report the termination of supervision by their Supervising Lawyer to the State Bar.
If you have received a negative determination, you will be immediately suspended from the PLP and cannot practice as a PLL. However, you will not be terminated from the program until time has passed to request a review or final appeal, or the review or appeal has concluded. If following the review or appeal you are issued a positive moral character determination, you can continue in the program through December 31, 2025, while you seek to pass the bar exam. If you had other outstanding requirements as of May 31, 2023 (for example, you hadn’t yet received an 86 or higher on the MPRE), you will be terminated from the program as of May 31, 2023, regardless of the status of your moral character determination.
No. A positive moral character determination expires after three years unless you apply for an extension and it is approved by the State Bar. If your positive determination has expired, you must take action to participate in the PLP. You need to have either a current, nonexpired positive moral character determination or you need to submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character, which is deemed complete and placed in filed status. Filed status means that our office has all the preliminary documentation required to begin the background investigation. Moral Character Applications are processed in the order received and can take up to two to three months for the initial review. If you submit your PLP application before the Moral Character Application is in filed status, your PLP application will say “Pending Internal Review.”
Participants in the Original PLP must, by May 31, 2023:
Participants in the Pathway PLP must, prior to the termination of the program, satisfy those same requirements, in addition to completing and documenting completion of 300 hours of supervised legal practice and receiving a positive evaluation from the supervisor as required by the State Bar. Only hours completed while an active participant in the PLP will count toward the 300 hours.
The California Lawyers Association (CLA) is collecting information about matching programs from around the state and has a provisional licensure e-community available to members where prospective supervisors and provisional licensees can connect. While the cost of joining CLA is minimal, if price is an obstacle to joining, CLA will provide assistance to individuals facing hardship if asked. Read more on the CLA resource page and find out how to join here.
Applications are processed in the order in which they are received and deemed complete. The State Bar is unable to expedite applications. The duration of a moral character investigation varies due to factors such as the volume of applications received in a given time period and whether timely responses to requests for information are received from the applicant or others. Generally, it takes a minimum of approximately 180 days, or six months, from the date the application is deemed complete, to process a moral character application.
Yes. Eligibility to sit for the California Bar Examination is based upon your legal education. An applicant’s criminal history is addressed in the moral character application, which is separate and distinct from the bar exam application.
Traffic violations that resulted in a misdemeanor or felony conviction must be disclosed on the moral character application, as well as the specific examples provided in the moral character application. Violations must be disclosed without regard to when they occurred.
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