https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/ en https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-supreme-court-approves-additional-bar-exam-remedies California Supreme Court Approves Additional Bar Exam Remedies Balassone, Merrill Wed, 06/11/2025 - 12:57 News Release The California Supreme Court on Wednesday issued rulings on two petitions submitted by the State Bar of California concerning the administration of the February Bar Exam, granting several key requests intended to provide further relief to impacted applicants. The court approved an expansion of the Provisional License Program to include the February applicants, but limited eligibility to first-time takers who either failed the exam or withdrew from the exam. These applicants may now practice law under a provisional license, provided they are supervised by an eligible California attorney. The Provisional License Program was originally established in 2020 to support law school graduates whose first bar exam opportunities were disrupted and delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The court also granted the State Bar’s request to extend scoring adjustments for applicants who performed well on the November 2024 test sessions. These adjustments will be applied to the first bar exam they take during 2025 or 2026. But the court denied without prejudice a request to explore proposals for admitting attorneys licensed in other states without requiring them to take the California Bar Exam. The court indicated that any such request must await statutory changes to Business and Professions Code section 6062, which currently mandates passage of the exam for admission. The court also granted the State Bar’s request to modify the court’s prior order and allow imputation of performance test scores for the February exam. Due to significant technological disruptions affecting the performance test portion of the exam, the court approved the use of applicants’ essay scores to impute their performance test scores. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-supreme-court-issues-statement-february-bar-exam California Supreme Court Issues Statement on February Bar ExamBalassone, Merrill Tue, 03/04/2025 - 09:27 News Release The California Supreme Court on Tuesday issued the following statement about the administration of the February 2025 California Bar Examination: The court is deeply concerned by the troubling reports of technical failures, delays, and other irregularities in last week’s administration of the February 2025 California Bar Examination.  The court regrets this situation and apologizes for the disappointment, stress, and frustration experienced by some applicants.  At present, the complete scope and causes of the problems are still being determined.  Last week, the court asked the State Bar, in conjunction with the vendor responsible for administering the exam, to provide an expedited, detailed report regarding the problems encountered by applicants.  This information is crucial in informing how the court will provide appropriate remedies for affected applicants who deserved and expected better.  In the interim, the court directs the State Bar to plan on administering the July 2025 California Bar Examination in the traditional in-person format." https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-supreme-court-approves-incentives-test-drive-new-bar-exam-questions California Supreme Court Approves Incentives to Test Drive New Bar Exam QuestionsBalassone, Merrill Tue, 10/22/2024 - 18:01 News Release The California Supreme Court on Tuesday approved a State Bar of California proposal to provide bar applicants an incentive for a study being held on Nov. 8 and Nov. 9 that will pretest experimental multiple-choice exam questions developed by Kaplan, Inc. Participants in those studies may increase their chances of passing a future bar exam under certain conditions. The scoring adjustment will only be available to participants who meet a threshold of performance on the exam, to be determined by the Committee of Bar Examiners. “No participant shall receive a scoring adjustment simply for participating in the proposed study,” the court’s order read. The court also stated that any scoring adjustment “does not alter the maximum available points for the General Bar Examination or its passing score,” but, instead, “the proposed study potentially provides participants with additional questions through which they may demonstrate competency.” The court denied a related scoring adjustment proposal for participation in special sessions scheduled in conjunction with the July 2025 California Bar exam. The court denied this part of the State Bar’s request without prejudice to its resubmission pending results of the November study and the submission of additional details concerning the State Bar’s plans for the July sessions. The court also granted a petition to make the bar exam be mostly remote administered, beginning in February 2025. On Oct. 10, the court issued an order approving a slate of modifications based on the report and recommendations of the Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the Bar Exam. As part of that order, the State Bar was directed to develop a California-specific bar exam. That order also rejected a separate proposal for a licensing alternative, the portfolio bar exam. That proposal would have allowed certain law school graduates to demonstrate their professional competence through a program of supervised legal practice in which work product created for clients would later be graded by an admissions committee. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/supreme-court-names-appointments-state-bar-board-trustees-and-committee-bar-examiners-1 Supreme Court Names Appointments to State Bar Board of Trustees and Committee of Bar Examiners Karen.Datangel Thu, 08/22/2024 - 16:04 News Release The California Supreme Court made various State Bar-related appointments yesterday.   Two individuals were reappointed to the State Bar of California’s Board of Trustees, the State Bar's governing body, effective September 20, 2024. The appointees are:  Attorney Brandon Stallings, the current chair, will serve a second year as the board's chair for 2024-2025. Stallings is a deputy district attorney in Kern County. The court appointed him to the board in 2018.    José Cisneros, a nonattorney, public member and the current vice chair, will serve a second year as the board's vice chair for 2024–2025. Cisneros is the Treasurer of the City and County of San Francisco.  The Governor appointed him to the board in 2019.  Four were named to the State Bar of California’s Committee of Bar Examiners. Their terms will begin next month. The appointees are:   Attorney Alex Chan, the current committee vice chair, will serve as committee chair for 2024-2025. Chan is a partner at Devlin Law Firm.   Attorney Alan Yochelson, a current member, will serve as committee vice chair for 2024-2025. Yochelson is the Head Deputy District Attorney of Los Angeles County.    Administrative Law Judge Robert Brody, a current attorney member, was reappointed to a four-year term. Judge Brody is an Administrative Law Judge with the State of California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board Pasadena Office of Appeals.   Attorney Paul Kramer, a current member, was reappointed to a four-year term. Kramer is retired and previously worked at the California Energy Commission. The committee’s roles include development and administration of the California Bar Exam and oversight of the moral character determination and admissions processes for attorneys. The committee also accredits state law schools and registers unaccredited state law schools. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-supreme-court-extends-provisional-licensing-program California Supreme Court Extends Provisional Licensing ProgramBalassone, Merrill Thu, 05/26/2022 - 14:59 News Release The California Supreme Court on Thursday issued an order extending the Provisional Licensure Program through December 31, 2022. The California Supreme Court first adopted the program to give 2020 law school graduates the opportunity to practice law after the COVID-19 health pandemic forced delay of the Bar Exam. The court then expanded the program to include those with qualifying prior bar exam scores—between 1390 and 1439 on any California Bar Exam administered from July 2015 to February 2020. In July 2020, the court lowered the passing score from 1440 to 1390 for future examinees, but did not apply the new passing score retroactively. Two-thirds of both groups of Provisional Licensing Program participants—nearly 1,100 people in total—have since been admitted to the State Bar. “With two-thirds of participants admitted to the State Bar prior to the program’s June 1 sunset, it is safe to say that for many the [Provisional Licensure Program] has been a success,” the State Bar of California wrote in a letter to the court. For the remaining 346 active participants who have not yet been admitted to the State Bar, the court’s extension allows additional time for these participants to meet licensure requirements, such as passing the bar exam and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), finishing the moral character determination process, and completing any supervised practice hours. https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/news/california-supreme-court-names-members-blue-ribbon-bar-exam-commission California Supreme Court Names Members of Blue Ribbon Bar Exam CommissionBalassone, Merrill Tue, 04/27/2021 - 18:54 News Release The Supreme Court of California on Tuesday announced the appointment of 19 commission members who will study the future of California's Bar Exam. The Joint Supreme Court/State Bar Blue Ribbon Commission on the Future of the California Bar Exam will develop recommendations on whether to make changes to the California Bar Exam, and “whether to adopt alternative or additional testing or tools to ensure minimum competence to practice law,” according to the charter. The commission will also consider whether the Bar Exam, or any of its parts, should be administered online and/or in-person. The first online Bar Exam was held in October 2020 and the next one is scheduled online for July 2021 as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The 19 commission members have multiple areas of expertise and represent a wide range of stakeholders, including: the California Lawyers Association; law school deans and faculty; Committee of Bar Examiners; former members of the California Attorney Practice Analysis working group; Council on Access and Fairness; judges; NCBE Testing Task Force; California Department of Consumer Affairs; State Bar Board of Trustees; and national experts on developing exams and online testing security. The court added two additional members to the original 17 called for in the commission charter. The additional members are a California Lawyers Association member with a litigation background (a skillset identified by the California Attorney Practice Analysis Working Group as an area the bar exam should assess) and a representative of the legal education field with experience preparing students for the bar exam or practicing law. The commission plans to issue its recommendations in early 2022. The appointed members are:   California Lawyers Association (CLA) Ona Dosunmu is the first CEO and executive director of the California Lawyers Association. Prior to that, she served as vice president and general counsel at the Brookings Institution. Charles Duggan is a criminal defense attorney who joined the California bar after passing the February 2020 California Bar Exam. Amy Williams is CEO of AB Unlimited, specializing in print and marketing resources for corporations. Williams practiced civil litigation, family law, and business law as a sole practitioner and with Geraci Law, APC. Law School Deans/Faculty Susan Bakhshian is a professor at Loyola Law School and oversees all bar exam programs. As the school’s Director of Bar Exam Programs for almost a decade, she has experience participating in bar review courses, bar exam student counseling, and bar exam grading sessions. Mai Linh Spencer is an associate clinical professor at UC Hastings. She is also the academic director of the Lawyers for America program, which places third-year law students in full-year externships in nonprofits and government offices, followed by a year of paid, post-graduate work. Spencer teaches an "Essential Lawyering Skills and Legal Externship" seminar to teach the skills and knowledge required by entry-level attorneys.  Natalie Rodriguez is a professor and assistant dean of academic success at Southwestern Law School. Rodriguez has primary responsibility for designing and implementing academic support courses and designing and teaching bar-exam preparation classes, workshops, and events. Rodriguez helped develop data metrics to predict students’ success on bar exams as part of her law school’s task force on the subject. She has participated in recent studies of the bar exam, including the 2018 Performance Changes on the CBX, which attempted to determine the reasons for declining bar pass rates.  Members of the Committee of Bar Examiners (CBE) Alex Chan is a partner at the Devlin Law Firm, which practices patent law and trade secret litigation in California, Texas, and Delaware. Chan is the first person in his family to earn a college degree and first to become an attorney. Chan has been a court-appointed member of CBE since 2017, where he is currently chair of its Operations and Management subcommittee. He is a member of the NCBE’s Test Design Committee. Most recently, Chan served on the informal working group that directed the efforts to move the California Bar Exam online for the first time.  Esther Lin is a deputy district attorney in Orange County. Before that, Lin was an attorney at Best, Best, & Krieger and at Woodruff, Spradlin, & Smart where she represented local government agencies in major public improvement projects. She has also served as a pro tem judge in Orange County since 2019. She has been a court-appointed member of CBE since 2017, and currently serves as chair of the committee. She is also a member of the NCBE’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee and formerly served on its Character and Fitness Investigations Committee. Former Members of California Attorney Practice Analysis Working Group (CAPA) Jackie Gardina is the dean and chief academic officer for the Santa Barbara and Ventura Colleges of Law, both California-accredited schools. Gardina is the current chair of the Committee of State Bar Accredited and Registered Schools, which advises the bar on its regulation of California-accredited and unaccredited law schools. Emily L. Scivoletto is the senior assistant dean of student affairs at UC Davis School of Law. Scivoletto served similar roles at UCLA Law School and the University of San Diego School of Law, where Scivoletto designed and taught bar exam prep courses. Before that, she was a professor at UC Davis and McGeorge law schools where she also assisted students in bar exam preparation. Scivoletto has prior experience grading bar exam questions and attending calibration sessions. In addition, she served as a panelist in the 2017 Standard Setting Study for the Bar Exam.  Members of the State Bar’s Council on Access and Fairness (COAF) Ryan Harrison  an associate attorney at Jackson Lewis in Sacramento, where he practices labor and employment litigation for public and private sector employers. Harrison is a graduate of UC Hastings, and entered the California bar in 2016. While in law school, Harrison served as an extern in California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye’s chambers. Harrison is COAF’s vice-chair.    Kristin L. Rosi is a chief administrative law judge for the Department of Insurance. Rosi also occasionally serves as a pro tem judge or as a mental health hearing officer for the Alameda County Superior Court. In addition to volunteering for COAF, Rosi is a member of the National Association of Women Judges, where she serves as co-chair of the Administrative Judiciary Committee and chair of the LGBTQ Committee. Judges Justice Patricia Guerrero (chair) has been a justice in the Fourth Appellate District, Division One since 2017. Prior to that, Justice Guerrero was a judge of the San Diego Superior Court. Before her appointment to the bench, she was an associate and then partner at Latham & Watkins. While at Latham, Justice Guerrero trained incoming associates to prepare them for practicing law at the firm.  Judge Glen Reiser (Ret.) is currently an arbitrator for JAMS in Los Angeles. Judge Reiser retired from the Ventura County Superior Court in 2019 after serving more than 20 years on the bench. He has an extensive history of volunteer work, including various Judicial Council advisory bodies, teaching courses for judges, and serving as a member of the California Attorney Practice Analysis Working Group.  NCBE Testing Task Force David Boyd is a partner at Balch & Bingham in Birmingham, Alabama. Boyd is former chair of the Alabama Board of Bar Examiners and former chair of the National Conference of Bar Examiners, where he served on the Board of Trustees. Currently, he chairs NCBE’s Long Range Planning Committee and serves as a member of the Testing Task Force, Boyd is also a former chair of the Alabama State Bar Disciplinary Commission and the former vice-president of the Alabama State Bar.   National Expert on Examination Dr. James Henderson is a psychometrician and runs his own consulting service, Credentialing Examination Consulting in Raleigh, North Carolina. For more than 30 years, Dr. Henderson has specialized in practice analysis, test design, test specifications, test development, standard setting, scoring, analysis, and reporting. He has consulted for new and existing credentialing examinations.  California Department of Consumer Affairs Tracy Montez is the chief of the Division of Programs and Policy Review at the California Department of Consumer Affairs. Montez oversees a number of units, including the Office of Professional Examination Services where she evaluates the content-related validity of the department’s regulatory exams and evaluates national professional licensure exams. She has also overseen her agency’s efforts to shift its regulatory paper exams into computer-based testing formats. Montez has more than 20 years of experience in education and providing assessment and regulatory expertise to city, state, and national organizations.  State Bar Board of Trustees Joshua Perttula (vice-chair) is president of Kirra Consulting and manages his own real estate investment company. He previously served as the special assistant city attorney for the City of Los Angeles where he managed and supervised attorneys and support staff at the Los Angeles World Airports, the Port of Los Angeles and the Department of Water and Power. Perttula served as the head of the informal bar exam working group that navigated moving the bar exam to an online format. He was appointed to the State Bar Board of Trustees in 2018 by the Pro Tem of the California Senate.  Expert on Online Testing Software, Security, and Privacy Evaluation Karen Silverman is CEO and founder of the Cantellus Group and is a board member and retired partner at Latham & Watkins. She consults on issues raised by the use of artificial intelligence, computer privacy, and other frontier technologies. Silverman acted as a consultant to the informal bar exam working group to help it navigate the privacy and security issues raised by the first online bar exam.  https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/document/bar-exam-leak-report Bar Exam Leak ReportBueno, Ivan Wed, 09/09/2020 - 10:09 Report Tags Bar Exam Supreme Court Topics Supreme Court https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/document/supreme-court-order-bar-exam Supreme Court Order on Bar ExamBueno, Ivan Wed, 09/09/2020 - 10:09 Administrative Order Tags Bar Exam Supreme Court Topics Supreme Court https://newsroom.courts.ca.gov/document/supreme-court-letter-bar-exam Supreme Court Letter on Bar ExamBueno, Ivan Wed, 09/09/2020 - 10:09 Letter Tags Bar Exam Supreme Court Topics Supreme Court