News

Applications are now available for the State Bar’s expanded Provisional Licensure Program, a week ahead of the March 1 deadline set by the California Supreme Court.

At its meeting on January 22, 2021, the State Bar Board of Trustees named the members of the new Ad Hoc Commission on the Discipline System.

A State Bar working group studying innovations that could increase access to justice for all Californians holds its first public meeting Thursday, January 14, 2021.

Today the State Bar released results of the October 2020 California Bar Exam and announced that 5,292 people (60.7 percent of applicants) passed the General Bar Exam. If those who passed satisfy all other requirements for admission, they will be eligible to be licensed by the State Bar to practice law in California. The October 2020 General Bar Exam pass rate is the highest in more than a decade, since July 2008.

At its meeting on November 19, the Board of Trustees set in motion a new commission to conduct an in-depth examination of the State Bar’s attorney discipline process system, a core function of the State Bar, and recommend how to further improve its effectiveness and fairness. The Board approved the charter and composition for the Ad Hoc Commission on the Discipline System.

Applications are now available online for 2020 law school graduates to seek provisional licensure, enabling those who have not passed a bar exam to practice law in California under the supervision of fully licensed lawyers. The initial group eligible for provisional licensure are those who graduated law school between December 1, 2019, and December 31, 2020.

The California Supreme Court and the State Bar are now accepting applications for their joint Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the California Bar Exam. 

The California Supreme Court announced today that it approved the State Bar’s proposal for the provisional licensure of 2020 law school graduates. New Rule of Court 9.49 will be effective November 17, 2020, and the State Bar is slated to begin accepting applications on that day.

Today Associate Justice Joshua P. Groban of the California Supreme Court swore in Sean SeLegue as Chair of the State Bar Board Board of Trustees and Ruben Duran as Vice-Chair at the Board’s first meeting of the 2020-2021 Board year. Also sworn in was attorney Christine Gonong, appointed by the Court to a four-year term as a new Trustee, and attorney Hailyn Chen, reappointed by the Court for a second four-year term. New Trustee Arnie Sowell Jr., executive director of NextGen Policy, who was appointed by the Senate Rules Committee, was also sworn in by Justice Groban. 

The State Bar has launched an innovative digital annual report spotlighting the agency’s accomplishments and progress in 2019, a pivotal year that featured measurable progress in meeting its expansive mission of public protection.

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.

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.

The State Bar of California has seized the unauthorized law practice of a South El Monte woman who victimized immigrants by claiming that she could help them with their immigration matters.

On June 16,  the State Bar of California issued an open letter to the legal community about equality and inclusion.

At its May 14 meeting, the State Bar Board of Trustees approved establishment of a joint Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the California Bar Exam, in partnership with the California Supreme Court.

Today the State Bar released results of the February 2020 California Bar Exam and announced that 1,128 people (26.8 percent of applicants) passed the General Bar Exam. If those who passed satisfy all other requirements for admission, they will be eligible to be licensed by the State Bar to practice law in California.

The State Bar of California has seized the unauthorized law practice of a San Francisco woman who victimized immigrants from Russia and Mongolia, claiming she could help them with their immigration matters.