An applicant must:

• have been admitted to practice law and have been in good standing as an attorney, counselor at law, or equivalent in a foreign country for at least four of the six years immediately preceding the application, and have actually practiced the law of that country;
• possess good moral character (an Application for Determination of Moral Character is required and will be processed by the Office of Admissions in the same manner as for California bar applicants); and
• provide the Office of Admissions with a written statement agreeing to maintain required security for claims for errors, omissions, and dishonest conduct.

For more information, please complete the LAP/OPC Support Intake Form, give us a call (877-LAP-4HELP or 877-527-4435), or send an email to LAP@calbar.ca.gov. Contacting us is confidential.

Very often, the amount of money a lawyer handles for a single client is quite small, or will be held for such a short period of time that it cannot earn net income for the client.

When these small or short-term funds belonging to clients are placed in a single, interest- or dividend-bearing trust account, the funds collectively earn interest that the financial institution forwards to the State Bar of California to support nonprofit legal aid organizations that provide civil legal aid to indigent and low-income people, seniors and persons with disabilities.

Business and Professions Code Sections 6091.2, 6211, 6212, 6213 require that financial institutions that choose to participate in the IOLTA program offer comparable bank investment products to their IOLTA customers as they do to their similarly situated customers. If a financial institution does not meet this requirement, then attorneys are not allowed to hold their IOLTA at that financial institution.  

The Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation (JNE; JNE Commission), is an agency of the State Bar created by statute for the express purpose of evaluating judicial candidates nominated by the Governor. The language of the statute, Government Code section 12011.5, is mandatory. It provides that, prior to exercising their constitutional right to make judicial appointments, the Governor shall submit to JNE the names of all potential appointees or nominees for judicial office for evaluation of their judicial qualifications. The commission operates pursuant to rules and procedures adopted by the Board of Trustees of the State Bar.

If you already made a payment and received a confirmation, do not click the Take MCLE Test button. Instead, go to Complete Unfinished Test, enter the Tester ID sent to your email address, and click Next. The MCLE article and 20 questions will display. 

The course is three hours long. However, you may take it at your own pace and save your progress.

If you are taking the course as the result of being disciplined by the State Bar, CLE credit is not available. Attorneys completing the course for this purpose must submit a certificate of completion to the Office of Case Management and Supervision upon completion of the course.

If you are taking this course as a condition of an abeyance stipulation related to an Application for Determination of Moral Character, MCLE credit is not available. Individuals completing the course for this purpose must submit a certificate of completion to the Office of Admissions upon conclusion of the course.

When browsing the course catalog, select “Ethics School—The Rules of Professional Conduct.” Do not select the course that covers similar content (e.g., “The Rules of Professional Conduct”). Taking any similar voluntary course will not satisfy your mandatory obligation to complete the course, whether mandated by an order of the California Supreme Court or the State Bar Court, or required by the Office of Admissions. To satisfy a mandatory obligation, you must take the mandatory Ethics School course, which is not eligible for MCLE credit.

The cost for drug testing varies by frequency and the type of test. Most tests are about $85 per test, which is paid to LAP’s contracted testing provider. The lab that is used for biological fluid collection, may assess an additional fee.

Arbitration hearings are informal, but you should obtain a copy of the rules of procedure from the program handling your fee dispute to educate yourself about the process.

The program will assign your dispute to a volunteer attorney arbitrator who must be licensed in good standing with the State Bar. Depending on the amount of your fee dispute, the panel will consist of one attorney arbitrator, or a three-member panel consisting of two attorney arbitrators and one nonattorney arbitrator.

You may be represented by a attorney, but it is not necessary. You can arrange for an interpreter to attend the hearing with you.

Both you and the attorney will have a chance to make statements, ask each other questions, and present evidence, such as letters, billing statements, or the fee agreement. You may also present witnesses, for example, someone who heard you and your attorney agree to the fee. If you have problems obtaining papers needed for the hearing from the opposing attorney, you may ask the arbitration panel to intervene.

If you think you will need moral support, ask the arbitrator if a family member or friend can accompany you to the hearing. Fee arbitration hearings may be closed to everyone else except the witnesses while they are testifying.

Most local bar programs don’t allow the arbitration hearing to be recorded or transcribed for confidentiality reasons.

Also, keep in mind that fee arbitration aims to determine if the fee amount is appropriate for the attorney’s work on your case. Arbitrators also consider the attorney’s performance in your case to reach their decision, but they cannot award any additional money for what may be attorney malpractice or professional misconduct.

If you choose to arbitrate, the attorney must do so in most cases. Exceptions include these situations:

• Fees set by law or the courts, such as the ordinary charges for probating a will, or attorney’s fees that a judge orders one spouse to pay the other in a divorce.
• Fees charged by an attorney who is not a member of the State Bar of California, who does not have offices in California, and who did the majority of the work for you out of state.
• Fee disputes in which you or the attorney filed a suit, and the attorney notified you of your right to arbitrate, using the required State Bar form, but you filed a suit or answered a suit in court before requesting arbitration.
• Fee disputes in which you are not the attorney’s client, unless you paid fees to the attorney for a client.

The State Bar offers information for attorneys on subjects such as starting a limited liability partnership, rules about starting a law corporation, and closing a practice.