A State Bar Board of Trustees Zoom meeting on Friday, September 4, 2020, was disrupted when an individual flooded the chat function with a barrage of offensive, inappropriate text.
The State Bar of California has seized the unauthorized law practice of a Garden Grove man who defrauded Vietnamese immigrants. Toan Quy Thai, doing business as Pacific Immigration Law Office, was disbarred by the District of Columbia and the federal Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) in 2017. He has never been licensed to practice law in California.
An online learning program designed to help applicants navigate the challenges they face when preparing for the California Bar Exam is showing promising results, measurably increasing the likelihood of passing the exam, a two-year analysis indicates. The State Bar is again offering the free program to October 2020 bar exam applicants.
What are some examples of exempt and nonexempt attorneys?
Exempt
Attorney employees of California Superior Courts
Attorneys employed by the State of California who pass judgment or opinion on the law as part of their job duties.
Law Clerks provided they are employed on a permanent or probationary basis
Attorneys employed by the military services (acting within the scope of their employment)
Nonexempt:
Attorneys employed by the University of California
Attorneys employed by the State Bar of California
District attorneys and public defenders
Annuitants, contractors, and consultants
Attorneys performing work on behalf of the State or Federal Government as part of their employment by a nongovernment entity.
What if my job title is not "attorney" or "administrative law judge"?
For purposes of 2.54(A)(3) and 2.54(A)(4), attorneys are exempt who are required by the State Bar of California to maintain an active license as a result of the duties they are required to perform by virtue of their employment with the State of California or the United States government.
An example of those exempt are law clerks.
Are Superior Court attorneys required to comply with MCLE requirements?
No. Superior Court attorney employees are “Employees of the State of California” who are exempt from MCLE.
What is the State Bar of California?
The State Bar of California is the regulatory arm of the California Supreme Court responsible for licensing and disciplining attorneys. Read about the State Bar's mission.
The State Bar’s “First Annual Report Card on the Diversity of California’s Legal Profession,” published today, provides baseline data on the diversity and workplace satisfaction of California’s attorney population across multiple demographic groups and employment sectors. The report brings into stark reality that despite significant growth in the proportion of attorneys who are women and people of color over the past 30 years, California’s attorney population remains far from reflective of the state’s diversity.
At its July 16 meeting, the State Bar Board of Trustees approved an action plan designed to improve equity in the attorney discipline system, following up on the agency’s first-ever study on racial disparities in the disciplinary system. The first group of reforms aim to expand representation by counsel when an attorney faces a disciplinary investigation.
