20 legal services groups get grants to hire provisionally licensed lawyers

Twenty legal services organizations will get grants to hire lawyers who are provisionally licensed to practice law, the State Bar said Friday.

The grants, funded by legislation that tacked on an optional $5 donation onto California attorney licensing fees this year, are meant to expand the organizations’ legal capacities for about a year. Most of the hired lawyers will serve rural areas, and provide legal aid related to COVID-19 or natural disasters, the bar said in a news release.

The Legal Services Trust Fund Commission selected the grantees, which include Family Violence Law Center, Public Counsel, UC Davis School of Law Legal Clinics, Worksafe Inc. and California Rural Legal Assistance Inc.

In July 2020, the state Supreme Court directed the State Bar to create a provisional licensure program allowing law school graduates, before they pass the bar exam, to practice some areas of law under the supervision of a licensed lawyer.

The state Supreme Court expanded eligibility for the program in January 2021, so that graduates who scored 1,390 or higher on the bar exam between July 2015 and February 2020 could also apply to participate in the provisional licensure program. Participants who complete 300 hours of supervised legal work will not need to retake the bar exam.

The organizations that won grants Friday can hire lawyers from either branch of the provisional licensure program, State Bar spokeswoman Teresa Ruano confirmed.

The program was launched last November and will expire June 2022, unless it is extended by the state Supreme Court. The bar estimated it will receive $1.4 million in grant contributions before 2022.

“These grants provide a powerful dual benefit: expanding the reach of these legal aid organizations when the needs are greater than ever, and offering meaningful public interest jobs to new provisionally licensed lawyers,” State Bar Interim Executive Director Donna Hershkowitz said in a statement. “We are grateful to the thousands of licensees whose contributions made these grants possible.”