No. However, you may submit Certificates of Admission or Certificates of Good Standing for each court to which you are admitted in lieu of listing each court and your standing in that court.  

No. You must have a Supervising Lawyer who is committed to supervising you by May 31, 2026. However, you are still permitted to change supervisors, if the need arises, and in compliance with rules 9.49(e)(7)-(8), by submitting a PLP Employment Update application in the Applicant Portal with a declaration from each new Supervising Lawyer. You may not work at any organization unless you have submitted a declaration from a Supervising Lawyer with that organization, and the State Bar has approved your PLP Employment Update. 

Pursuant to the California Rules of Court, rule 9.49(d)(1)(C), you must complete the legal ethics courses of the New Attorney Training Program within 30 days of the date of approval of your PLP application if you did not have a passing MPRE score on file when you submit your PLP application.  

If you take the MPRE in August 2025, you may wish to apply for the PLP once your passing MPRE score has been uploaded to your Applicant Portal. We anticipate that scores from the August 2025 administration of the MPRE will be uploaded by the end of September. Please note that you must have designated California to receive your MPRE score and have your accurate NCBE number and Social Security Number in the Applicant Portal for the State Bar of California to upload your MPRE score.  

Client Trust Accounting (CTA) School provides an overview of the California Rules of Professional Conduct and relevant provisions of the State Bar Act and Rules of the State Bar relating to client trust accounting. The course is designed to help attorneys understand their fiduciary responsibilities, avoid common trust accounting violations, and maintain compliance. It is self-paced and available 24/7 on the State Bar’s E-Learning Portal. It replaces the previously offered live sessions.

The general requirement is that the report must be made within 30 days of the time you have knowledge of the triggering event.[1] Exceptions:

• If you have been newly licensed in another state or federal jurisdiction, or if your license in another jurisdiction has been terminated, you must report it on or before February 1 of each year.[2]
• If you employ a person who is disbarred, resigned, involuntarily inactive, or suspended, you must report it to the State Bar prior to or at the time the employment commences.[3]

Reporting duties are not stayed while a sanction order is on appeal.[4]

Use the search bar or filter by subject to browse relevant courses. 

Please contact our support team via email at elearning@calbar.ca.gov. Please note, response times may take up to 48 hours. 

No. Your completion status will be captured and reported to the State Bar automatically and display on your online My State Bar Profile. However, if you are audited for compliance, you will need to provide copies of your MCLE certificates of completion as verification.

Complaints typically take up to six months, sometimes more, for an investigation to be completed. In particularly complex cases, the investigation could take as long as a year. Many complaints are diverted out of the process along the way by, for example, a referral to mandatory mediation, an agreement requiring the attorney to meet certain conditions or the attorney's participation in other programs.

Attorneys are asked to provide their best, good faith effort at reporting the amount of pro bono and/or reduced fee legal services hours provided to low-income individuals, nonprofit organizations, or public law libraries during the past year to meet the requirement of Business and Professions Code section 6073.2. Per section 6073.2(g), failure to comply with any of the provisions of this section is not grounds for disciplinary or administrative recourse.

The Ethics Hotline:

• Cannot offer legal advice. Staff cannot tell you what to do, review documents, or recommend a specific course of action; they can only provide references to applicable rules and authorities.
• Cannot assist with administrative or compliance issues, such as:
  • Client Trust Account Protection Program (CTAPP)
  • Law Corporations or Limited Liability Partnerships
  • Agency billing
  • Admissions
  • MCLE compliance
  • Mandatory pro bono reporting

For these types of questions, please use the Licensee Records and Compliance Inquiry Form.

The operative date has not yet been set; it depends on completion of the public comment and Board approval processes.

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.

Yes. To remain in the program, you must take your first eligible administration of the California Bar Exam, and your certification in the program will continue only until the State Bar releases results for that examination.

You can participate in the program if you are currently enrolled in or have graduated from:

• A Juris Doctor (JD) program: Have successfully completed one full year of studies and have passed or established exemption from the First-Year Law Students’ Examination, and be enrolled and in good academic standing in the second, third, or fourth year of law school.
• A Master of Laws (LLM) program: Have a degree from a law school in a foreign jurisdiction that authorizes the applicant to practice law in that jurisdiction and is acceptable to the State Bar of California under the State Bar’s Guidelines for Applicants with a Foreign Language Degree; have successfully completed one semester or two quarters in an LLM program; be enrolled and in good academic standing in a second or subsequent semester or third or subsequent quarter of an LLM program; and have not failed to take or received results for the first California Bar Examination for which eligible, since first registering with the State Bar of California.
• The Law Office Study (LOS) Program: Have successfully completed one full year in the Law Office Study Program, have passed the First-Year Law Students’ Examination, and be actively continuing the study of law in a law office through the Law Office Study Program.

Some of the most frequent compliance issues include:

• Not performing monthly three-way reconciliations of the trust accounts
• Errors in distribution calculations to both the law firms and clients
• Designated licensee failing to supervise trust account recordkeeping performed by staff, bookkeepers, or outside vendors
• Commingling personal and client funds, often through overpayment or underpayment of withdrawals from the trust account
• Delayed or missing written notice to clients when funds are received on their behalf
• Lack of documentation for deposits and disbursements, or incorrect amounts recorded
• Failure to promptly distribute undisputed funds to the client or third party within 45 days
• Missing or incomplete account journals that do not contain all required fields:

1. Date of each transaction
2. Client related to each transaction
3. Amount of each deposit and disbursement
4. Running balance

• Failure to maintain client ledgers that contain all required fields:

1. Date of each transaction
2. Source of funds (payor) or payee of each transaction
3. Amount of each deposit and disbursement
4. Purpose of each transaction
5. Running balance

All documents must be uploaded through the State Bar’s secure online portal. This system ensures encrypted, confidential transmission and complies with data privacy and privilege protections.

Initially, attorneys selected for compliance review will represent a cross-section of the legal community. In the future, the State Bar may select attorneys using a risk-based and random selection criteria. Factors may include prior trust account activity, self-reported information through CTAPP registration, or other factors driven by State Bar data and oversight priorities. Being selected for a compliance review is not, by itself, an indication of misconduct.