What We Do
Working as an administrative arm of the California Supreme Court, the State Bar oversees all activities required for admitting attorneys to the practice of law in the nation’s most populous state. The State Bar develops, administers, and grades the California Bar Examination and conducts moral character investigations required for admission. The agency also administers programs for several admissions pathways beyond graduation from a traditional, nationally accredited law school. Designed to broaden access to the legal profession, these multiple pathways create both challenges and opportunities for the State Bar’s admissions system.
California is unique in offering its own accreditation for law schools, an effort overseen by the Committee of Bar Examiners. The State Bar accredits and regulates two types of law schools: California-accredited law schools and registered (unaccredited) law schools.
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Bar exam applicants tested
Applicants granted testing accommodations
Moral character applications reviewed
New attorneys admitted
Provisionally licensed lawyers to date
Five Years of Reform Highlights
- In keeping with a strategic goal to ensure that its admission system is timely and fair, the State Bar has performed numerous studies of the California Bar Exam over the last five years, including:
- Examining changes in the characteristics of students taking the exam to better understand declining pass rates
- Evaluating and implementing an online program—Strategies and Stories— a productive mindset intervention proven to increase bar exam scores by approximately 30 points
- Undertaking studies to ensure that bar exam content is free of bias
- Conducting a first-ever California practice analysis to identify the knowledge, skills, and abilities of entry-level attorneys, and
- Simulating the impact of different bar exam cut scores on passing levels by gender, race/ethnicity, and law school type
- The State Bar revised its guidelines and decision-making tools for the moral character determination process to ensure greater uniformity and consistency in decision-making and provide transparency in the evaluation process. Revisions included broader consideration of rehabilitative efforts undertaken by applicants, including those with a criminal history, consistent with a greater societal focus on rehabilitation.
Bar Exam attendance down compared to exams pre-COVID-19 pandemic
2022 saw the return of in-person bar exams in February and July. This followed three consecutive bar exams that were held primarily remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Scores were down for both exams compared to 2021, which was consistent with the experience in many other states. Attendance was comparable to 2021, rising slightly in February and dropping a bit in July. However, overall attendance has dropped precipitously—a reduction of as many as several thousand applicants annually—when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
Supreme Court extends the Provisional Licensure Program for second time
On December 23, 2022, to give Provisional Licensure Program (PLP) participants more time to complete the alternative licensure program requirements, the Supreme Court once again extended the program. The initial program was created for 2020 law graduates whose bar exam was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Those graduates were allowed to postpone taking the bar exam and begin practicing law under the supervision of an attorney. For those who had satisfied all other program requirements but had yet to successfully pass the bar exam, the Supreme Court granted them an extension to pass the exam by December 31, 2025.
A second wave of the PLP expanded it to include law graduates who scored 1390 or higher on any exam between July 2015 and February 2020. The Court’s extension reopened applications for this wave of the program throughout 2023 and will give participants until December 31, 2025, to complete it. Since the PLP program launched, 651 individuals have achieved licensure through both versions of the program.
Sebastian Caballero Bendeck utilized the Provisional Licensure Program to gain real-time attorney experience and serve the public.
Admissions aims to improve testing accommodations process
In 2022, the State Bar began the process of revising its rules around testing accommodations to streamline the process for applicants. The Committee of Bar Examiners and staff developed a set of rule proposals guided by a consent decree arising out of The Department of Fair Employment and Housing v. Law School Admission Council litigation (LSAC Consent Decree), and the guidelines for testing accommodations issued by the U.S. Department of Justice. The proposed rules have generated significant public interest and comments. They aim to limit an applicant’s need to secure additional documentation or testing, rely heavily on proof of past testing accommodations on high-stakes exams, and limit the need to secure additional documentation, among other changes. The rule proposals are expected to be heard by the State Bar Board in late 2023 for potential adoption in 2024.
Is a California-specific exam in the State Bar's future?
In 2022, the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam, a joint committee of the State Bar and the California Supreme Court, voted to recommend that a California-specific bar exam be implemented. If the Court supports the recommendation, the State Bar will be tasked with gathering experts in the field to develop such an exam, a process expected to take several years. While no commission consensus could be reached on a bar exam alternative pathway, in 2023 the Board voted to engage commission members who favored alternatives to a bar exam in order to hear the merits of those options. The Board could then send recommendations for a nonexam pathway to the Supreme Court at a later date.