Persons Taking and Passing the 2020 Bar Examination by Source of Legal Education

The “Law School Outside the USA” category includes foreign-educated graduates who subsequently obtained a US law degree other than a JD (e.g., LLM, SJD). Foreign-educated graduates who subsequently obtained a JD from an ABA-approved law school are included in the “ABA-Approved Law School” category.

** 2020 examination canceled* California does not recognize US attorneys taking the General Bar Examination as being from either ABA-approved or non-ABA-approved law schools. This number of applicants (849 taking, 552 passing) is therefore omitted from either category. California’s “US Attorneys Taking the General Bar Exam” category is composed of attorneys admitted in other jurisdictions less than four years who must take, and those admitted four or more years who have elected to take, the General Bar Examination.Applicants under California’s four-year qualification rule who did not earn JD degrees (55 taking, 6 passing) are not included in either the ABA-approved or non-ABA-approved category. California’s four-year qualification rule allows applicants to take the General Bar Examination through a combination of four years of law study without graduating from a law school.† California did not report 2020 data for persons taking and passing the General Bar Examination with education obtained by law office study. (As of 2016, California no longer reports statistics for categories with fewer than 11 takers.)

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