Hours must be tracked and submitted to the Office of Admissions on a weekly basis. Specifically, PLLs will be required to note the total number of hours worked, the total number of hours spent performing legal services (whether paid or unpaid), and a description of the supervised legal practice duties assigned that specific week. When the hours are submitted, the State Bar will contact the supervising lawyer to sign that week’s completed log. To access the time-tracking log:

• Log in to the Applicant Portal.
• At the top, click “Applications.”
• Then click “Timesheet.”
• Click “New” to create a new timesheet.
• Enter all information and click “Save.”

Once that timesheet record has been saved, the applicant will receive an email with a link to capture their electronic signature. After receipt of that electronic signature, an email will be sent to the supervising attorney to confirm the hours reported.

Once a PLL has logged a total of 300 hours of supervised legal practice, an email will be sent to the supervising lawyer requesting an evaluation of the PLL’s overall work performance. Once that evaluation has been completed, it will be reviewed by the eligibility team to determine whether the PLL has satisfactorily met the requirements of California Rule of Court 9.49.1 (i).

Participants in the Original PLP must, by May 31, 2023:

• Have an active positive moral character determination.
• Have achieved a score of 86 or above on the MPRE.
• Have completed the 10-Hour New Attorney Training Program (for participants who have been in the program for one year or more, this training is required to have been completed within 12 months of entry into the program).
• For those who did not have an 86 or above on the MPRE at the time of entry into the program, have completed within the first 30 days of provisional licensure the ethics portion of the New Attorney Training Program.

Participants in the Pathway PLP must, prior to the termination of the program, satisfy those same requirements, in addition to completing and documenting completion of 300 hours of supervised legal practice and receiving a positive evaluation from the supervisor as required by the State Bar. Only hours completed while an active participant in the PLP will count toward the 300 hours.

Under rules 9.49 and 9.49.1, a PLL is allowed to provide a broad array of legal services for clients, including appearing before a court; drafting legal documents, contracts, transactional documents, and pleadings; engaging in negotiations and settlement discussions; and providing other legal advice, provided that the work is performed under the supervision of a qualifying supervising lawyer. The limits on what a PLL can do, or what needs to be done under direct versus general supervision, are largely left to the supervising attorney to determine the readiness of the PLL.

You can look up IOLTA-funded organizations here.

• Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts, commonly known as IOLTA, is a tool for raising money to increase access to justice by funding legal services for indigent Californians.
• Rule 1.15 of the California Rules of Professional Conduct requires that attorneys who handle money belonging to their clients—including settlement checks, fee advances for services not yet performed, or money to pay court fees—deposit the funds in one or more clearly identifiable trust accounts. If the amount is large or the funds are to be held for a long period of time, the attorney must place the money in an interest-bearing account for the benefit of the client. However, if the client funds are nominal or will be held only for a short time, then they are pooled in a single account with similar funds of other clients. The latter type of account is an IOLTA account.
• The interest generated by the IOLTA accounts is collected by the State Bar’s Legal Services Trust Fund Program and distributed to more than 100 nonprofit legal aid organizations that provide civil legal aid to indigent Californians.

The deadline to submit the Pathway PLP application is December 31, 2023. No applications will be accepted after the deadline. Applicants for the Pathway PLP must have 1) an active positive moral character determination, or 2) have submitted a moral character application that has not resulted in the issuance of an adverse moral character determination. If you have not submitted a moral character application and do not have an active positive determination, you must submit a moral character application no later than December 31, 2023. Please note that your PLP application will not be considered until the moral character application is deemed complete and filed by the State Bar. If you fail to submit a moral character application by December 31, 2023, your PLP application will not be processed.

No. An applicant does not need to live in California so long as they are employed by or volunteering with—or have a conditional offer of employment or to volunteer with a legal employer, as defined—with an office in California and are supervised by an eligible California lawyer.

No, if you have not received an 86 or higher on the MPRE at the time of your acceptance into the program, you must complete the legal ethics portion of the New Attorney Training within the first 30 days of being licensed as a PLP. If you do not complete this within the required time frame, you will be terminated from the program.

No, but once your positive moral character determination expires, if you don’t have a completed application for extension on file, you will be suspended from the program. Applications for Extension of Moral Character Determination are simpler and can be filed up to six months before the expiration of your positive determination.

No. A positive moral character determination expires after three years unless you apply for an extension and it is approved by the State Bar. If your positive determination has expired, you must take action to participate in the PLP. You need to have either a current, nonexpired positive moral character determination or you need to submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character, which is deemed complete and placed in filed status. Filed status means that our office has all the preliminary documentation required to begin the background investigation. Moral Character Applications are processed in the order received and can take up to two to three months for the initial review. If you submit your PLP application before the Moral Character Application is in filed status, your PLP application will say “Pending Internal Review.”