Admission To The California Bar Without Attending Law School
Many people just want to become a lawyer and would prefer not to
attend law school. Although this is not an option in Canada there
are some U.S. states that allow people to become lawyers through
law office study or an apprenticeship. (Prior to the 1950s bar
admission in Ontario was also achieved in this manner.) In any
case the principle is "alive and well" in California. See the
following article.


"Shades of Bombay dreams
By John Van de Kamp
President, State Bar of California


John Van de Kamp 2004-05 President

Chris D'Sa, 38, an India immigrant, never went to law school. He
never took a refresher course. Yet he passed the California Bar
the first
time around.

I became privy to Chris' remarkable story when I spoke at the
bar's Pasadena admission ceremonies last month, stayed around
afterwards to congratulate the admittees and their proud parents
and was introduced to Chris and heard the outline of his story.

Chris emigrated from Bombay in 1989 at age 22 with $100 in his
pocket and hope in his heart. He established a career with
Hydrologue, a Pasadena environmental and geo-technical firm,
rising through the ranks to become a project manager; he has
supervised more than $15 million in projects. Tall and
personable, he has a way with people. He's also very smart.

His desire to become an attorney was stimulated when he was
wrongfully arrested by bounty hunters as a bail jumper and turned
over to the police. He filed with the help of Burbank attorney
Leslie McAfee a wrongful arrest and false imprisonment lawsuit
that was ultimately settled. The unsettling experience lit a
fire: "I knew I wanted to be a lawyer and help others who were
oppressed," Chris told Kevin Smith of the Pasadena Star News.

And so, in 1999 Anthony J. O'Farrill, a Montebello attorney with
a small firm, set up an apprenticeship program for Chris,
allowing him to work part-time. For four years, Chris studied
law, using some of O'Farrill's old outlines and more recent
outlines from BarBri.

O'Farrill and his apprentice also visited the Loyola Law School
library to review current textbooks and cases. With strong
computer skills, Chris turned to Lexis-Nexis and Westlaw to
supplement the written outlines. On top of that, O'Farrill
assigned Chris work on real cases under his supervision, ranging
from contractor and escrow litigation to collections and
bankruptcy matters, and, given Chris' status as a California
registered environmental assessor, environmental litigation.

Chris says one of his most satisfying cases came when he and
O'Farrill prevailed in canceling a deed of trust fraudulently
obtained in a home improvement scam for their 91-year-old female
client, who suffered an organic brain syndrome. He said he
learned as much from his real life experience under O'Farrill's
wing as he did from the outlines and the books.

Why no law school? A rarely utilized provision (¶õ6060(e)(2)(B))
of the State Bar Act permitted Chris, after approval of the
examining committee, to study for four years in a law office
under the personal supervision of an experienced attorney
(O'Farrill). Other qualifying requirements, including moral
character approval and passage of the Baby Bar and the MPRE, also
had to be met. A similar law school bypass is also provided to
those who study under the personal supervision of a judge.

Jerome Braun, the veteran director of the State Bar's admissions
office, says Chris' pathway is rarely utilized. In 2004, only six
persons from apprentice programs with lawyers took the bar exam
(none from judge-supervised programs). Two passed.

Chris is still working with O'Farrill on a part-time basis. But
now he can appear on his own as a full-fledged licensed attorney.
He ultimately hopes to open his own environmental litigation
practice. He also plans to get married in August.

Is there a moral to this story? Several. Intelligence and hard
work will take one a long way. Combine it with strong will and
you have a winner. I hope to check back on Chris' progress in
five years; I think he'll go far. In the meantime, there are more
than 200,000 stories of lawyers in the Golden State. This is one
of them."


"This article originally appeared in the July 2005 issue of the
California Bar Journal and is reproduced with the kind
permission of the author, Mr. John Van de Kamp, President of the
State Bar of California. Copyright in the article remains with
Mr. Van de Kamp."