• 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.

Yes. You must disclose all employment that is law-related or lasted more than six months, even when the employer is no longer operating. You do not need to provide a defunct employer’s address, email address, or phone number; however, if you have contact information for your former supervisor from the business, you must provide this information in your application.

First, try to reset the password. Second, call the Office of Admissions at 800-843-9053 and request a password reset email. Please do not register with another email address, as doing so will create a duplicate account.

You may submit a General Request to ask questions that are not related to your moral character application, request FD-258 fingerprint cards, or request assistance with the application prior to submission. General Requests are answered in the order received, and there may be a delay before the General Request is addressed as the volume of requests varies.

A lawyer in possession of client or third-party funds and property is a fiduciary. A lawyer must safeguard and segregate those funds and not commingle them with the lawyer's personal or business accounts. (See FAQ 1.3, above, for a description of the two types of trust accounts a lawyer may open to hold client or third-party funds.)

A lawyer must report timely and completely to their client regarding the status and accounting of client funds. A lawyer’s obligations regarding entrusted funds and property are set out in rule 1.15 of the Rules of Professional Conduct. In addition, under rule 1.4 of the Rules of Professional Conduct, a lawyer must keep their client reasonably informed about significant developments related to a client’s representation. Comment [1] to this rule specifies that a lawyer’s receipt of funds on behalf of a client ordinarily is a significant development requiring such communication with the client.

Yes. Even if you do not currently hold funds in your client trust account, you must still report and register the account. Further, regardless of whether there are client funds, third-party funds, or no funds in a trust account, an attorney has the Client Trust Account obligations set forth in the standards in rule 1.15. 

The definition of a client trust account is “any bank account or accounts opened to receive or hold funds in accordance with rule 1.15(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct, regardless of the amount of funds in the account, and includes, but is not limited to, any IOLTA account under Business and Professions Code section 6211, subdivision (a) where the interest is paid to the State Bar; and any accounts established under Business and Professions Code section 6211, subdivision (b) where the interest is payable to a client or other person.”

Question 1 asks whether, to comply with the requirements or prohibitions governing the safekeeping of funds of clients and other persons in rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct, you maintained—or anyone maintained on your behalf—any trust account under Business and Professions Code section 6211, subdivision (a) where the interest is paid to the State Bar, also known as an Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Account (IOLTA), or a similar pooled trust account in another jurisdiction? 

Question 2 asks the same question about trust accounts under Business and Professions Code section 6211, subdivision (b) where the interest is payable to a client or other person or similar accounts, also known as non-IOLTA trust accounts, or a similar trust account in another jurisdiction. 

When registering a client trust account as part of CTAPP, you must identify the trust account type. The account will either be IOLTA or non-IOLTA; an account will never be both. The account type was established at the time the account was opened and does not change. A California IOLTA must bear the State Bar of California’s Taxpayer Identification Number to ensure that interest or dividends generated by this account will be paid to the State Bar’s IOLTA program. A non-IOLTA will bear the Social Security Number or Tax ID number of the client or third party.

Rule 2.2(C) of the Rules of the State Bar requires licensees to report changes in trust account information within 30 days of any change. Many licensees are unaware of this longstanding rule. At this time, there is no penalty for noncompliance with the 30-day update requirement. Answering this question truthfully will not increase the likelihood of a CTAPP compliance review or investigatory audit. Currently, the State Bar is focusing on gathering accurate information, educating licensees about their trust account responsibilities (including the 30-day update requirement), and improving overall compliance. There is a 50-character limit on this field.

Unless exempt (see FAQ 2.3, above), California licensees, regardless of where they practice, must still comply with the CTAPP reporting requirements. Licensees must report and register each and every trust account in any location if (1) they acted as a signatory or exercised managerial or primary administrative oversight for a trust account held pursuant to rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct, or (2) were otherwise responsible for complying with any of the requirements or prohibitions in rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct other than the disclosure and agreement requirements in rule 1.15(b) pertaining to depositing a flat fee paid in advance into a lawyer’s or law firm’s operating account (e.g., responsibilities for safekeeping of funds, to identify and discharge liens, notify clients that funds have been received, etc.).

Currently, CTAPP reporting features do not allow licensees or firm administrators to enter non-U.S. routing and account numbers. Therefore, for all non-U.S. trust accounts, in Step 1 (Annual Client Trust Account Reporting), please check the box next to “Yes, I will provide or update IOLTA and/or non-IOLTA account information, including the balance as of December 31, 2025, via My State Bar Profile” for the appropriate question, depending on the type of account. Then, during Step 2 (Account Registration), check the checkbox next to “Other” under the sentence, “If you selected Yes to the IOLTA or Non-IOLTA question in Step 1, but are unable to register that IOLTA (CA or Non-CA) and/or Non-IOLTA because you do not have some of the required information, please describe why below,” and, in the box provided, list all non-U.S. bank accounts, including bank name, account number, and country of origin. In future years, we expect enhancements to the reporting application will make it possible for licensees and agencies to report non-U.S. trust account information.

It depends. Service to a local or affinity bar association counts toward the pro bono hours requirement if it is legal in nature (i.e., providing legal services to the nonprofit directly pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 6073.1(c)(1)(B) or 6073.1(c)(1)(C)). General board service qualifies only to the extent that the work enables legal services to the indigent, to another “charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental, or educational organization in matters that are designed primarily to address the needs of persons of limited means,” or to another “charitable, religious, civic, community, governmental, or educational organization in matters in furtherance of its organizational purposes.” Licensees should use their best good-faith judgment in determining whether their non-legal board activities enable the direct provision of legal work to the indigent or other nonprofits.

Unfortunately, the State Bar is unable to refer you to an attorney or judge. You are required to find a qualified attorney or judge who is willing to supervise your legal studies. You may wish to contact your local bar association for assistance.

Make sure that you have completed all interactive parts of the screen. The “NEXT” button will only activate once all of the screen elements have been completed. Additionally, please allow the screen seek bar to progress on its own. If you manually drag it to complete the course, the “NEXT” button will not get activated.

Your device may be referring to an earlier memory cache (version) of the course and may not be refreshing correctly. Try carrying out each of these options until you resolve the issue:

1. Clear your browser’s memory cache/history.
2. Try using a different Internet browser. The following are optimal:
   Windows 7/10: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 11 or above
   iOS: Safari
3. Try launching the course on a different device.

The recently signed licensing fee bill requires the State Bar to offer an installment payment plan to active licensees eligible for fee scaling. This plan allows attorneys to divide their total annual fees into six equal payments instead of paying in full by the original deadline of April 1, 2025.

No, once you opt in for the installment payment plan, you cannot opt out unless you are ineligible for fee scaling.

The court must approve your application in order for you to appear as PHV in a case. While the State Bar's Applicant Portal may show that your PHV case is "approved," this refers to the internal processing of your application and should not be taken as the court's approval of your appearance as PHV.