The arbitrator may ask questions at any time. Sometimes the arbitrator will ask questions while you or the lawyer are presenting your case if clarification is needed.

Lawyers are often in the best position to know if another lawyer is not fulfilling their ethical obligations and violating the Rules of Professional Conduct. Reporting another lawyer’s possible misconduct assists the State Bar to protect the public, the courts, and the legal profession from lawyer harm; helps to maintain the integrity of the legal system; and furthers public trust in the legal profession.

If you are not sure whether you have a duty to report misconduct under rule 8.3, you may consult with another lawyer. See rule 8.3, comment [2]. A lawyer may, but is not required to, report any other violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct or the State Bar Act that is not required to be reported under rule 8.3. See rule 8.3(b), comment [4].

The Learning Page organizes the courses under two tabs: To-Do and Completed. The To-Do tab lists courses that are in-progress or that you have not started. The Completed tab lists courses that you have completed.

Yes. All persons newly admitted to the State Bar of California are required to complete the New Attorney Training Program.

Once your MJP application has been approved and the State Bar has issued you a certificate of registration, you may engage only in the activities permitted by the applicable rule of the California Rules of Court. 

Once your MJP application has been approved, you may: 

• RIHC: only provide legal services in California to the qualified institution that employs you. Upon submittal of a supplemental form, you may also provide pro bono legal services under the supervision of a California attorney for an eligible legal aid organization defined by rule 9.45(a)(1) of the California Rules of Court, or the qualifying institution that employs you. 

• RLAA: under the supervision of a California attorney, provide legal services while working, with or without pay, at a qualified legal aid organization and only on behalf of its clients or customers. Practice under this rule is limited to a total of five years. 

• RMSA: under the supervision of a California attorney, practice law in California in all forms of legal practice that are permissible for a licensed attorney of the State Bar of California. Practice under this rule is limited to a total of five years.

Once you become ineligible for the MJP Program, you must notify the State Bar within 30 days. 

You must report the above information in the Applicant Portal by following the steps below or emailing mjp@calbar.ca.gov. 

• Log in to the Applicant Portal. 

• From the home page in the Applicant Portal

• Click “Support Requests”
• Select “New General Request”
• For type, select “Other”
• Provide the update in the description box and click “Confirm” when you are ready to submit the update.

Make sure you complete all demographic information located in your Admissions Applicant Portal. To locate this section, go to My Profile at the top right corner and click on the Update the contact information link. Select the Edit button and scroll down to Demographic section. 

If you have a pending request for testing accommodations, your Admittance Ticket will not be released until your testing accommodation case is concluded. If you launch or draft a testing accommodation case after a decision is sent to you, you will no longer have access to your Admittance Ticket. If you launched the testing accommodation in error or would no longer like to proceed with the submission, please contact testing.accommodations@calbar.ca.gov to have your application updated and your Admittance Ticket released.

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.

First-time takers of the February 2025 CBX in the PLP must complete the New Attorney Training Program five months from the approval of their PLP application or by May 31, 2026, whichever is sooner. 

The New Attorney Training Program costs $55. After logging into the LMS portal, you will need to purchase the New Attorney Training Bundle.

Yes, the rules allow for multiple supervisors. The supervisors may work within the same law firm or at a different law firm if you will be employed or volunteer at more than one organization. 

To add a Supervising Lawyer, replace your main PLP employer, or update your employer’s address or contact information, you must submit the PLP Employment Update Notice in the Applicant Portal. There is no fee associated with this change. You must submit a declaration from each Supervising Lawyer with your PLP Employment Update Notice. You may not work as a PLL at any organization or under a new supervisor until the State Bar has approved your PLP application.

Maybe. If you click "Pause" while you are in the application, you will be able to return to the pending PHV application. 

To return to the paused PHV application: 

• Log in to the Applicant Portal 

• Click "Special Admissions" 

• Click "Pro Hac Vice” 

• Under drafted applications, locate your PHV application and click "Resume." 

You cannot return to a pending PHV application if you exited the application without clicking "Pause" or if a technical issue occurred that prevented you from clicking "Pause" before exiting the application. If this happens, you'll have to start over from the beginning.

For those admitted to the program prior to December 31, 2022, the Supreme Court extended the Original PLP to May 31, 2023, or, in some cases, to December 31, 2025. The program will terminate on May 31, 2023, for any participant who has not yet satisfied all of the program requirements other than passing the California Bar Exam. If bar passage is the only remaining requirement to be satisfied, the PLL can continue in the program through December 31, 2025.

No, you can apply for the program before your moral character determination is completed. If your PLP application is based on having submitted a complete Application for Determination of Moral Character, please note that your PLP application will not be considered until the moral character application is deemed complete by the State Bar 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.”

Under rules 9.49 and 9.49.1, a PLL is allowed to provide a broad array of legal services for clients, including appearing before a court; drafting legal documents, contracts, transactional documents, and pleadings; engaging in negotiations and settlement discussions; and providing other legal advice, provided that the work is performed under the supervision of a qualifying supervising lawyer. The limits on what a PLL can do, or what needs to be done under direct versus general supervision, are largely left to the supervising attorney to determine the readiness of the PLL.

• To qualify to supervise a PLL, the supervisor must have practiced law for at least four years and have actively practiced law in California or taught law at a California law school for at least two years immediately preceding the period of supervision.
• Supervising lawyers may also be judges of a court of record in the California judicial branch.
• Registered In-House Counsel and Registered Military Spouse Attorneys and others “specially admitted” are not California licensed attorneys and cannot act as supervisors for a PLL.
• Supervising lawyers must be active licensees in good standing. They must not be ineligible to practice, actually suspended, under a stayed suspension order, or have resigned or been disbarred in any jurisdiction.
• Supervising lawyers must agree to assume professional responsibility for any work of the PLL and must be prepared to assume personal representation of the PLL’s clients.

When filling out a form, provide as much responsive information as possible. If you are unable to obtain responsive information after conducting a diligent search and contacting others who might have the information, such as an attorney who represented you, please indicate that you have conducted such a search, detail the steps you took, and state that you are unable to obtain the information. An omission of responsive information with no explanation may delay the processing of your moral character application.

No. An applicant who reported an incident of sexual assault or sexual harassment to an educational institution is not required to disclose the incident on the moral character application as a civil action or administrative proceeding to which the applicant was a party. 

However, if a complaint was filed against you and you were formally or informally dropped, suspended, warned, placed on disciplinary probation, expelled, or requested to resign or allowed to resign in lieu of discipline from the educational institution, you must disclose this information on the moral character application in response to the question about scholastic discipline.

No. There is no act of misconduct that automatically disqualifies an applicant from obtaining a positive moral character determination. The State Bar makes moral character determinations on a case-by-case basis, considering each applicant’s history. When an applicant has a criminal history, the State Bar determines whether sufficient rehabilitation and other relevant factors have occurred to warrant a positive moral character determination. Please review the Moral Character Guidelines for additional related information.

Yes. A certified copy of each out-of-state driving record must be uploaded to the moral character application prior to submission. An application received without the out-of-state driving record(s) will be considered incomplete and will delay the processing of the moral character application.