Legal Question in Constitutional Law in California

Re: licensed attorney

you might want to check the california state bar website thru a search engine. this site will give you the educational and other requirements necessary to be able to sit for the california bar exam, as well as how to get licensed as an attorney. however, in a nutshell, the undergrad college degree is not what is necessarily important in being able to sit for a bar exam, but rather a juris doctorate degree from a law school eligible for its graduates to sit for the bar exam. hope this has helped.

Re: licensed attorney

The answer varies from one state to another. Most states require a degree from a law school accredited by the American Bar Association ("ABA") as a prerequisite for taking the bar exam. In America, law is taught at the graduate level, so almost everyone who starts law school already has a college degree. College degrees are almost never granted in law; students spend four years of college studying whatever field they choose because law school admissions offices don't expect applicants to have any particular major. Law school then typically takes another three years to complete.

The header on your question refers specifically to California law, and California's requirements are different from those of most other states. For one, California has its own accrediting system for law schools and does not require graduation from a school approved by the ABA. However, students at non-ABA law schools have to take an additional exam after their first year of school.

California also still allows aspiring lawyers to learn the law by apprenticing with a practicing attorney. The apprentice and the sponsoring attorney have to fulfil a variety of requirements, but I don't know offhand what they are. I have never actually met an attorney who studied this way or who sponsored an apprentice, but I understand that each year the California bar admits about 15 or 20 new attorneys who apprenticed instead of going to law school.

A freind of mine recently told me she knew a lawyer who took and passed the bar exam without going to law school or being an apprentice, but I don't know how this can be accomplished.