ADMISSIONS
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 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 also create unique challenges 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 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
Spotlights on Admissions: acknowledging challenges, advancing improvements
While this section typically highlights progress and milestones from the past year, the 2024 digital annual report for Admissions takes a different approach. This year’s Admissions report highlights key information from 2024, including California Bar Exam results. Additionally, in light of technical and other unacceptable issues experienced by many February 2025 bar exam test takers, the report focuses briefly on actions taken in 2024 related to that exam.
2024 exams results and California Supreme Court ruling
In 2024, 1,337 applicants passed the February General Bar Exam (GBX) out of 3,944 (33.9 percent), and for the February Attorneys’ Exam (one day), 197 out of 374 passed (52.7 percent). In July, 4,458 applicants passed the GBX out of 8,291 (53.8 percent), and for the Attorneys’ Exam, 156 passed out of 319 (48.9 percent). There were 5,834 new attorneys admitted to practice law in California in 2024. Additionally, in October 2024, the California Supreme Court adopted (with modifications) the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam’s recommendation to develop a new California-specific bar exam covering both general legal principles and California law across 12 topics and 7 skills.
November bar exam study
In November 2024, 3,870 applicants completed a bar examination study that field-tested new multiple-choice questions using the remote platform provided by the vendor ProctorU, doing business as Meazure Learning (Meazure Learning), who was selected to administer the February 2025 bar exam. Following an order by the California Supreme Court and actions by the Committee of Bar Examiners, applicants who answered at least 28 questions correctly earned a scoring adjustment. The Court later extended this benefit allowing eligible applicants to apply the adjustment to their first exam through 2026.
Following the November bar exam study, 72 percent of applicants who responded to a State Bar survey reported being “somewhat” or “very satisfied” overall with the remote, computer-based exam experience, with even higher satisfaction scores from applicants who completed a similar survey administered by Meazure Learning. However, there were technical and other issues that occurred during the November study. Given those concerns, the State Bar made participation in a mock exam mandatory for February exam registrants. The State Bar also received assurances from Meazure Learning that all issues would be resolved before the February 2025 bar exam. However, it became evident from the first day of the February 2025 exam that issues were not resolved, and the State Bar filed a lawsuit against Meazure Learning in May 2025.
Looking ahead
The Board of Trustees, the Committee of Bar Examiners, and the California Supreme Court have been and will continue working to ensure as fair an outcome as possible and appropriate for February 2025 bar exam test takers. Looking to the future of the California Bar Exam, the State Bar will need solutions that reduce costs for both applicants and the agency, and address longstanding concerns about exam relevance, fairness, equity, and accessibility. For more information, please read the State Bar’s Lessons Learned, Forward-Focused page. More details about the February 2025 bar exam and the future of the bar exam will be available in the 2025 digital annual report.