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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.
The MJP Program allows an attorney licensed in a U.S. jurisdiction other than California to receive limited rights to practice law in California, under one of the three destinations: Registered In-House Counsel (RIHC), Registered Legal Aid Attorney (RLAA), or Registered Military Spouse Attorney (RMSA).
You can participate in the program if you are active, in good standing, and licensed to practice law in another U.S. jurisdiction and meet the other requirements pursuant to rules 9.41.1 and 9.45-9.48 of the California Rules of Court and Title 3 Division 3 Chapter 1 Articles 1-3 of the Rules of the State Bar. Other requirements to participate in the program include but are not limited to:
• RIHC: reside in California and work at a qualifying institution, as defined by rule 9.46 of the California Rules of Court.
• RLAA: work at an eligible legal aid organization, as defined by rule 9.45 of the California Rules of Court, and not have taken and failed the California bar exam within five years immediately preceding the initial application to register under the rule.
• RMSA: reside in California; be married to, in a civil union with, or a registered domestic partner of, a Service Member; and not have taken and failed the California bar exam within five years immediately preceding the initial application to register as defied in rule 9.41.1 of the California Rules of Court.
You are ineligible to participate in the MJP Program if you are only licensed in a foreign jurisdiction
Yes.
RMSA: Within 30 days, you must notify the State Bar of the date that the supervision by your supervising attorney ended. If you have a new qualified supervising attorney, you must submit the RMSA Change of Employer Notice to register as RMSA before beginning employment with the new supervising attorney.
If you are unable to secure new qualifying employment within one year from the date your employment or supervision ended, you will be terminated from the MJP Program. If you are terminated from the MJP Program, you will be required to submit a new application, not the change of employer notice. Additionally, if you are terminated from the MJP Program and your positive moral character determination has expired, you will be required to submit a new Application for Determination of Moral Character.
You must report the above information in the Applicant Portal by following the steps below or emailing mjp@calbar.ca.gov.
• Log in to the Applicant Portal.
• From the home page in the Applicant Portal:
Provide the update in the description box and click “Confirm” when you are ready to submit the update.
You may find the change of employer notices in the Applicant Portal under the applications section called the “Multijurisdictional Practice Programs for Out-of-State U.S. Attorneys.”
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.
Yes. The process for requesting testing accommodations is separate from the application to take an exam. You are not required to wait for a determination regarding your testing accommodations to register for an exam, and doing so is not recommended.
If you are requesting to change your testing accommodation test center to a different testing accommodation location, you may submit the request through the Applicant Portal or by emailing testing.accommodations@calbar.ca.gov by the test center change request deadline. Space is subject to availability, and it is not guaranteed that your request will be available.
The PLP will sunset for first-time takers of the February 2025 CBX on December 31, 2027.
Once you are no longer supervised by your Supervising Lawyer, you must immediately:
• Log in to the Applicant Portal.
• Click on your most recent PLP case number.
• Report the termination by posting the information, including the date and reason for termination, to your most recent PLP case.
• Alternatively, you can also submit a general request through the Applicant Portal by clicking on the Help Center.
Under rule 9.49.1, individuals who scored between 1390 and 1439 on a California Bar Exam administered between July 2015 and February 2020, as determined by the first read score or the final score, may apply so long as they:
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.
Under the program for 2020 law graduates, PLLs who attempt the bar exam but do not pass it may continue in the Provisional Licensure Program until the program terminates. Furthermore, they are not required to sit for the bar exam. No further extensions of the program are anticipated. By the end of the program, they must have passed the bar exam to continue in the practice of law.
Please review the information regarding the Moral Character requirement, including the instructions for the Application for Determination of Moral Character and Application for Extension of Determination of Moral Character.
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