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No. The State Bar is unable to extend the period to request administrative review. The CBE will decide whether to accept an untimely request for administrative review.
The CBE will review your request and your application. The CBE may take any action it deems appropriate, including but not limited to granting you a positive determination, requesting more information, extending an offer of abeyance, or rendering an adverse determination.
If the CBE declines to grant you a positive determination, it will decide how long you must wait before you may submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character, which could be the same or different from the time that was set by State Bar staff when it made the initial determination.
The notice of the adverse determination will provide you with the date on which you may submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character. You are encouraged to engage in affirmative rehabilitative activities during the period you must wait to reapply.
Alternatively, you may choose to request administrative review by the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE). If you request review by the CBE, the date on which you will be eligible to reapply may change, as it will be determined by the CBE in the event it issues an adverse determination.
Please call 415-538-2450 and ask to speak with the Moral Character Person of the Day. Please be prepared to email a screenshot if the issue cannot be resolved over the phone. Some issues may take more time to resolve if technical assistance is necessary.
Some applicants have traveled extensively in the past three years and have numerous addresses to report on the moral character application. You are encouraged to provide as much information pertaining to each residence as can be reasonably recalled. You are responsible for the complete and accurate reporting of information on the application to the best of your ability, and the failure to provide complete responses could result in a delay in the processing of the application.
You must disclose all residences for the past three years, regardless of how long you resided at the location.
No. You are only required to disclose the addresses of the places you have lived within the past three years, including college and law school residences.
No. Some references may not be contacted. You may wish to remind your references to check their email spam folders periodically and to use the Google Chrome internet browser, if possible, when submitting the questionnaires to avoid potential technical issues.
Report military enlistment in the “Current/Previous Employment section” and the “Military Services” section of the moral character application. List your last duty station, supervisor, date of enlistment, and date of discharge (or the date you left active duty if you are currently on inactive status). An applicant who is discharged from active duty must also provide a DD-214 military discharge document that clearly indicates the type of discharge.
Contact the employer and attempt to obtain the information. If you do not remember your supervisor’s name or your supervisor is no longer with the business, please enter "Human Resources" into the Full Name of Supervisor field and enter the appropriate information into the Email Address of Supervisor and Phone Number of Supervisor fields.
If the company is no longer in business (defunct), contact information will not be required once you indicate that the company is no longer in business.
Do NOT use your own email address or phone number.
The State Bar does not refer clients to lawyers or provide legal advice. We provide a directory of certified Lawyer Referral Services in your area who may be able to help you find a lawyer. Please see our Find Legal Professionals section for resources. The State Bar also publishes free legal information for consumers.
If you believe your lawyer has done something wrong, you can file a complaint with the State Bar. Complaints may be submitted online or by mail. If you have questions or need assistance in completing the form, call the State Bar’s Attorney Complaint Hotline at 800-843-9053. For more information on reporting a lawyer to the State Bar and handling other problems, read the legal guide If You Have a Problem with an Attorney.
If you have a complaint about a certified or uncertified LRS, you can file a complaint against the service with the State Bar. In order to promote public protection, the State Bar will review your complaint to determine if the LRS has violated Business and Professions Code Section 6155 and State Bar Rules.
For more information on certified lawyer referral services, contact LRS@calbar.ca.gov.
The due date is by March 30, or the next business day if that date falls on a weekend or holiday, each year during the annual license renewal process. The 2025 annual deadline is April 1, 2025. If you miss the deadline, you will be charged a penalty ($103 for active attorneys, $31 for inactive attorneys).
Activities that qualify for general MCLE credit must: (1) relate to legal subjects that are directly relevant to California attorneys, and (2) offer current, significant educational, professional, or practical content with the specific objective of increasing each participant’s professional competency as an attorney. Programs created primarily for nonattorney audiences (for example, general public, clients, or business staff) do not qualify and will not be approved for general MCLE credit. More on Standards for MCLE activity Approval.
IOLTA stands for Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts. Attorneys deposit client funds that they plan to hold briefly, or that are too small to earn interest for the client, into larger shared accounts. Over 73,000 attorneys make deposits in approximately 49,000 IOLTA accounts in California. As of September 2019, IOLTA accounts hold nearly $5 billion. Any interest earned on these accounts is paid by financial institutions to the State Bar, which in turn distributes those funds as grants to qualified nonprofit civil legal organizations throughout the state.
Refer to the State Bar’s IOLTA FAQ page for more information.
This means you are not entitled to practice California law and your public State Bar records will note this period of not entitled status.
The State Bar’s statutory mission to protect the public “includes support for greater access to, and inclusion in, the legal system” (see California Business and Professions Code, section 6001.1). The State Bar’s Strategic Plan takes a systemic and institutional approach to increasing diversity and inclusion in the profession. A major component of this work is collecting, analyzing, and presenting comprehensive, current, and accurate data on California’s licensed attorneys through an annual voluntary Attorney Census that captures the following demographic characteristics: race/ethnicity, gender identity, cis/transgender identity, sexual identity, disability status, and military status.
The Attorney Census also assists the State Bar in complying with California Rule of Court rule 9.9 and California Business and Professions Code sections 6002.1 and 6009.5.
If you receive a notice of deficiency and are able to locate more certificates for courses taken within the compliance period, please submit them as an attachment to the Licensee Records and Compliance Inquiry form. Please remember to include the MCLE Audit Submission Cover Sheet and a letter of explanation whenever responding to a Notice of Deficiency.
Conducts research, evaluation, and data management to support the State Bar’s multiple missions, management accountability, and effectiveness, and to inform planning and policy initiatives. The office also supports the State Bar in fulfilling its unique role as a statewide aggregator and distributor of data about California’s legal profession.
The prosecutorial arm of the State Bar, OCTC carries out the agency's public protection mission by investigating and prosecuting attorneys for violations of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the State Bar Act. The office also investigates and pursues complaints regarding the unauthorized practice of law. OCTC can go to court to seize unauthorized law practices, partners with law enforcement on criminal prosecution, and pursues civil penalties against those involved in the unauthorized practice of law.
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.
You can make changes to your address of record online by logging into your My State Bar Profile. For more information, go to Attorney Address Change.
No.
Your prior account information will be migrated into the new AIMS. You will receive an e-mail on March 1, 2019 with instructions on how to log-in to the AIMS along with a direct link to reset your password (if you didn’t receive the e-mail, check your SPAM folder).
List any languages, besides English, in which you, or your staff, are fluent enough to communicate with clients on legal matters.
For guidance on selecting an attorney, the State Bar publications,
How Can I Find and Hire the Right Lawyer?
and
What Can a Lawyer Referral Service Do for Me?
will give you tips on choosing the right attorney.
The State Bar provides information about California attorneys through its online directory. An attorney’s official State Bar record includes:
Submission of falsified documentation will result in a referral to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel for further investigation and/or disciplinary action.
No. Please do not submit your receipts. A receipt is not considered sufficient proof of course completion. If you cannot find your certificates, contact the provider, send them your receipts, and ask for their assistance in helping provide proof of course completion.
Providers are required to maintain proof of attendance for four years. Contact your provider to obtain your certificates of attendance and exhaust all possible avenues to find your attendance records before completing additional courses. Submitting out of period coursework may result in your audit file being referred to the Office of Chief Trial Counsel for further investigation and/or disciplinary prosecution.
It may. A lawyer’s duty to report another lawyer begins on the rule’s effective date: August 1, 2023. However, to the extent a lawyer knows of credible evidence of another lawyer’s conduct that occurred prior to August 1, 2023, the lawyer is obligated to report that past conduct because the lawyer’s knowledge exists on or after the effective date of rule 8.3.
No, rule 8.3 applies to reporting misconduct of another lawyer. However, licensees have self-reporting obligations, and this rule does not excuse a lawyer from reporting their own conduct in certain instances. (See Rule 8.4.1(d) & (e); Bus. & Prof. Code, § 6068, subd. (o).)
Your supervising attorney must be an active licensee of the State Bar of California in good standing for at least two years before beginning supervision. They must also have practiced law in California as a full-time occupation for at least four years in any U.S. jurisdiction. Please refer to rules 9.41.1 and 9.45 of the California Rules of Court.
A Testing Accommodations Application must be completed and received by the State Bar no later than the following:
• January 1 for the February California Bar Examination;
• June 1 for the July California Bar Examination;
• May 15 for the June First-Year Law Students’ Examination; or
• September 15 for the October First-Year Law Students’ Examination.
The California Bar Examination will be administered in person. When registering to take the exam, all applicants will be required to choose a standard testing site but will also have the opportunity to indicate their preferred testing accommodations location. In the event that you are granted accommodations that require you to be at a testing accommodations site, staff will reassign you, and your Admittance Ticket will reflect the updated testing accommodations site.
The exam is comprised of 100 multiple-choice questions administered in two 90-minute sessions, with a 20-minute break between sessions.
Yes, PDF documents are preferred. Word documents are discouraged, as incompatible versions may create technical issues. There is a 25 MB upload limit per post.
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