No. California Rule of Court 9.49.1(b)(3) defines “legal practice” as “the provision of permitted legal services to clients in compliance with rule 9.49(f) and (g).” Rule 9.49(g) states that legal services to clients include, but are not limited to, “appearing before a court or administrative tribunal, drafting legal documents, contracts or transactional documents, and pleadings, engaging in negotiations and settlement discussions, and providing other legal advice and counsel, provided that the work is performed under the supervision of a Supervising Lawyer.”

Please note that the rules require that services be provided to a client for those hours to count toward the admission requirements. Assignments such as conducting research can count when that research is being used to draft legal documents or to provide legal advice to a client. Assignments that do not involve providing services to a client, such as training, while helpful, are not considered “legal practice” under the rules.

If the State Bar Court determines that a PLL is culpable of conduct that would result in discipline if fully licensed by the State Bar, or if the PLL is sanctioned for misconduct by any court or professional licensing authority, the provisional license terminates. In addition, the matter is referred to moral character.

If an undisclosed arrest is discovered during the processing of a moral character application, the applicant may be asked to provide a narrative of the events and supporting documentation; however, if the arrest was not required to be disclosed on the moral character application, the nondisclosure will not impact the determination.

Maybe. If you disclose a current student loan in default or delinquent debt on the moral character application, you must provide a current credit report dated within the last 30 days. A credit score summary is not acceptable in lieu of a complete credit report if one is required.

You must disclose all professional licenses that include a character or fitness determination component (i.e., questions concerning convictions or disciplinary matters). Examples of professional certifications that typically include a character or fitness component include licensure as a Certified Public Accountant, Patent Practitioner, Real Estate Salesperson or Broker, Notary Public, and Teacher, or security clearance certifications.

Report military enlistment in the “Current/Previous Employment section” and the “Military Services” section of the moral character application. List your last duty station, supervisor, date of enlistment, and date of discharge (or the date you left active duty if you are currently on inactive status). An applicant who is discharged from active duty must also provide a DD-214 military discharge document that clearly indicates the type of discharge.

You cannot delete a document once it is uploaded. If you upload a document in error, please upload a statement that clearly identifies the relevant document and indicates if the document should be deleted.

The Committee of Bar Examiners will review your request and your application. The Committee may take any action it deems appropriate, including but not limited to granting you a positive determination, requesting more information, extending an offer of abeyance, or rendering an adverse determination. 

If the Committee declines to grant you a positive determination, it will decide how long you must wait before you may submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character, which could be the same or different from the time that was set by State Bar staff when it made the initial determination, and will be calculated from the date of the Committee’s determination.

CTAPP is a proactive regulatory program designed to: 

• Protect the public by ensuring proper accounting and safeguards for client and third-party funds entrusted to attorneys; and
• Educate, support, and assist attorneys in complying with the ethical and accounting requirements of managing client trust accounts.

A licensee who fails to satisfy the requirements of CTAPP and its associated rules by the deadline will be assessed a noncompliance penalty. If the licensee still does not comply, they will be enrolled as an inactive licensee of the State Bar under the rules adopted by the Board of Trustees of the State Bar. Inactive enrollment imposed for noncompliance with the requirements of this program is cumulative and does not preclude a disciplinary proceeding or other actions for violations of the State Bar Act, the Rules of Professional Conduct, or other applicable laws. (See FAQ 2.12, below, for a discussion of the unauthorized practice of law by inactive licensees.)

While a licensee is on inactive status, that licensee cannot practice law. An inactive licensee who engages in the practice of law may be guilty of a misdemeanor. (See Bus. & Prof. Code, §§ 6125–6126, 6068, subd.(a), & 6106. See also In the Matter of Burke (Review Dept. 2016) 5 Cal. State Bar Ct. Rptr. 448.) Additionally, a licensee on inactive status may have a duty to inform their client(s) or a tribunal that they are ineligible to practice law. (See Rules of Professional Conduct 1.4 and 3.3.) If you have further questions about the unauthorized practice of law, please contact the State Bar’s Ethics Hotline research service at 800-238-4427 (toll-free in California). The Ethics Hotline cannot provide legal advice, nor tell you how to comply with any of the CTAPP requirements, including whether to answer “yes” or “no” in any portion of the CTAPP reporting requirements.

Reinstatement of your license requires payment of any applicable fees, completion of the past due CTAPP reporting requirements, and applying for reinstatement. To submit payment of applicable fees, please log in to My State Bar Profile and click the “Pay Fee” link on the CTAPP Annual Reporting tile on your Compliance Dashboard or click the blue “Make a payment” button on the Profile Summary page to go to the “Annual Fee” page. You should go to the Annual Fee page to pay outstanding fees even if you have already paid your annual licensing fee for 2026. From there, click the blue “Calculate and pay my fees” button to see a breakdown of the fees owed. Click continue and follow the steps to complete your payment.

If you were involuntarily enrolled as inactive for noncompliance in 2026, you can complete your CTAPP reporting in My State Bar Profile and then complete and submit the first page of the CTAPP Noncompliance Reinstatement Form. If you were involuntarily enrolled as inactive for CTAPP noncompliance in 2023, 2024, or 2025, you will need to complete and submit the first page of the CTAPP Noncompliance Reinstatement Form and the attached CTAPP reporting forms for all missing years.

For help registering your trust accounts in Step 2 of CTAPP in My State Bar Profile, please see the Client Trust Account Updates Guide.

The required self-assessment is a tool to help attorneys evaluate their current practices and to provide citations to relevant rules and other references, including sections of the Handbook on Client Trust Accounting for California Attorneys. The objective is to promote awareness of duties and facilitate thoughtful consideration of any possible changes to an attorney’s current practices.

Given the great variety of practice settings, including situations where an attorney’s practice is conducted in part or completely in another state with different rules, an attorney might appropriately respond “no” to a self-assessment item. Responding “no” should not be considered a wrong answer when that response accurately reflects an attorney’s current practices. However, if you respond “no” to any question, you may want to consider carefully whether you should make changes to your trust account management practices. Even if you decide not to change your trust account management practices, you should consider documenting in your records the purpose of any “no” responses. The self-assessment questions may be reviewed if you are selected for a compliance review. Documentation will assist the reviewer to quickly understand the purpose of the firm’s practice.

In taking the self-assessment, if an attorney is unsure about how California rules and recordkeeping standards apply to a specific practice setting, an inquiry to the Ethics Hotline research service at 800-238-4427 (toll-free in California) can be helpful. The Ethics Hotline might be able to provide more citations and resource references than the ones included in the self-assessment. The Ethics Hotline cannot provide legal advice, nor tell you how to comply with any of the CTAPP requirements, including the self-assessment.

Only by thoughtfully and honestly completing the self-assessment will an attorney realize the benefits of this compliance tool. Please keep in mind that the self-assessment questions are framed in the present tense and as such, they do not elicit information about prior conduct. Most importantly, what is learned from the self-assessment should inform an attorney’s future conduct in providing competent and professionally responsible services when handling funds and property of clients and others.

The State Bar encourages, but does not require, active California licensees to provide pro bono legal services each year. While providing pro bono or reduced legal fee services is not mandatory, licensees are required by Business and Professions Code section 6073.2 to annually report the amount of these services performed each year. Licensees will report either their hours in ranges (e.g., less than 1 hour, 1–5 hours, 6–10 hours, 11–19 hours, etc.), that they did not track their pro bono or reduced fee legal services hours, that they did not complete any pro bono or reduced fee legal services hours, or that they decline to answer.  

The LOS Program allows you to complete your legal education by studying law in a law office or judge’s chamber. 

You will complete four years of recognized law study in a law office under the supervision of a qualifying attorney or in a judge's chamber under the supervision of a judge of a court of record in California.

Your supervising attorney or judge will decide on the content of the monthly graded exams. Your supervising attorney or judge may wish to review what is covered on the First-Year Law Students’ Examination and the California Bar Examination when creating your course of study.

Go to the ”completed courses” tab and click on the “+” icon under each course. Click on the ribbon icon to see your MCLE certificate. Please download/save a copy for your records as they will only be available for a limited time following completion of the course. 

*For any questions that can’t be resolved over the phone, please have them email elearning@calbar.ca.gov with a detailed description of their issue so that we can review it.

If you answer “No” to the introductory question “Would you like to resume where you left off?” the course is reset to the beginning and saves over the earlier copy saved for your e-learning account. You will need to view the course again, including all screens or modules previously completed, in order to complete the course and obtain the MCLE certificate. It is not possible to reset or restore a course to a particular location as marked in a previously saved version of the course.

The six equal payments are scheduled between May 1, 2025, and October 1, 2025.

If you are assessed a noncompliance penalty, you will be removed from the installment plan and required to pay all remaining fees and costs in full by June 30, 2025.