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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.
Contact the LAP office for details about the income eligibility requirements and the application process. Financial assistance can cover up to one year of LAP group fees and one year of lab testing fees.
For more information, see the LAP Growth Grant Criteria.
There is no set time for Support LAP. It is completely voluntary. Participants can enroll, withdraw, and re-enroll whenever they want to.
After submitting your completed membership enrollment card, allow one to two weeks for delivery, then check Attorney Search to confirm your enrollment and find your bar number. If you do not see your name on the State Bar website after two weeks from the date you submitted the card, call 888-800-3400 or email AttorneyRegulation@calbar.ca.gov.
No. Pursuant to rule 9.46 of the California Rules of Court and Title 3 Division 3 Chapter 1 Article 3 of the Rules of the State Bar, you must reside in California. As defined in rule 3.370(D), this means that you must live or be located in California on more than a temporary or transient basis.
Annual registration, or renewal, for the MJP Program is a two-step process you may complete in any order. The MJP renewal period begins in November of the current year and ends in February of the following year. For example, the renewal process for 2023 participants who want to remain in the MJP Program in 2024 must be completed from November 2023 to February 2024. If you do not comply with the annual renewal requirements, you will be suspended from the MJP program.
• Remit payment: You must submit the annual renewal fee through My State Bar Portal. If you need assistance, please view the My State Bar Profile User Guide or contact the Division of Regulation using the Licensee Records and Compliance Inquiry form. Please see the Schedule of Charges and Deadlines for the current renewal fee.
• Submit the renewal application: You must submit the annual renewal application in the Applicant Portal by following the steps below. Please note that you must mail a new, original Certificate of Good Standing to the Office of Admissions at 845 S. Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA 90017 for one U.S. jurisdiction in which you are admitted and currently active. If you are unable to access the Applicant Portal, please contact the Office of Admissions at Admissions@calbar.ca.gov or at 800-843-9053.
If a testing accommodations application is denied in whole or in part, applicants may request review of the decision by the Committee of Bar Examiners once for each exam cycle. However, if you submit your initial application less than 60 days before the filing deadline, there may not be enough time after receiving a decision to appeal for the upcoming administration of the exam. Requests for review must be submitted through the Applicant Portal no later than the first business day of the month in which that exam is scheduled to be administered. Launch a case via the Applicant Portal by clicking the Request for Review link on the right side of the page, under the column labeled Application Action Link. You must complete the required questions, including a statement of the reason you do not agree with the initial determination, and upload any documentation you wish for the committee to consider.
You can view your testing location by accessing the corresponding examination case in your Applicant Portal. Your exam location will be listed in the Details tab, underneath the Examination Event Information. Once your Admittance Ticket is available, you can view your assigned testing accommodations site on the ticket. The ticket will list the general location of the exam. Upon arrival at the test site, you may need to check in at the staff table to receive your room assignment.
Items listed in the Admittance Ticket Bulletin are allowed without prior approval. The Admittance Ticket Bulletin can be found on the First-Year Law Students’ Examination webpage. Items not listed in the bulletin will require approval through the testing accommodations process. If the bulletin is not yet available for the exam you intend to take, refer to the bulletin for the prior administration of the exam; however, please note that the bulletin is subject to change.
Pursuant to the California Rules of Court, rule 9.49(d)(1)(C), you must complete the legal ethics courses of the New Attorney Training Program within 30 days of the date of approval of your PLP application if you did not have a passing MPRE score on file when you submit your PLP application.
If you take the MPRE in August 2025, you may wish to apply for the PLP once your passing MPRE score has been uploaded to your Applicant Portal. We anticipate that scores from the August 2025 administration of the MPRE will be uploaded by the end of September. Please note that you must have designated California to receive your MPRE score and have your accurate NCBE number and Social Security Number in the Applicant Portal for the State Bar of California to upload your MPRE score.
No. You must have a Supervising Lawyer who is committed to supervising you by May 31, 2026. However, you are still permitted to change supervisors, if the need arises, and in compliance with rules 9.49(e)(7)-(8), by submitting a PLP Employment Update application in the Applicant Portal with a declaration from each new Supervising Lawyer. You may not work at any organization unless you have submitted a declaration from a Supervising Lawyer with that organization, and the State Bar has approved your PLP Employment Update.
Unfortunately, you cannot. The most recent amendments to rule 9.49 provide that the recently granted program extension applies to those 2020 law graduates who were admitted to the Original PLP prior to December 31, 2022.
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.
While the PLP recognizes that some PLLs may engage in unpaid volunteer work, nothing in the program purports to exempt employers from any applicable employment and wage and hour laws. Employers interested in supervising a PLL in unpaid volunteer work should determine whether such an arrangement is legally permissible given the specific factual circumstances and should follow all applicable laws as required. Also, refer to the California Lawyers Association’s webpage about employing and paying a PLL.
No. The license is suspended to give the PLL the opportunity to contest the determination. If no request for review or appeal is timely filed, the PLL is terminated. If a request for review or appeal is timely filed, the PLL will remain suspended until the final outcome, unless the PLL is terminated as a result of other factors (such as failing to timely meet other program requirements).
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