California’s Law Office Study Program, an apprenticeship pathway to becoming a lawyer, continues to gain recognition for its potential to diversify the legal profession and reduce the financial burden of law school. Advocates highlight the program’s practical benefits, particularly for underrepresented communities, while regulators have recently taken steps to strengthen its oversight and integration with other legal training initiatives.
Legal scholar Stephen Blasi emphasized the program’s significance for civil rights law, citing the example of the United Farm Workers (UFW) Union legal office in California’s Central Valley. The union has long struggled to recruit lawyers to represent farmworkers, but found success training children of farmworker families who are motivated by a desire to help their communities. One such apprentice, Marcos R. Camacho, who grew up in a farmworker household and worked in the fields, parlayed his apprenticeship into a legal career that culminated in his 2015 appointment to the Kern County Superior Court by Governor Jerry Brown. Camacho helped establish the UFW’s apprenticeship program and served as its general counsel before joining the bench.
Apprentices benefit both from avoiding the typical $150,000 debt associated with law school and gaining hands-on experience in practicing law while earning a salary during their training. However, Blasi cautioned that neither formal legal education nor apprenticeship alone guarantees competence, stressing that becoming an effective lawyer requires ongoing experience and study.
The program has attracted high-profile participants, including entertainer Kim Kardashian, who completed the apprenticeship in 2025 after several attempts at passing the first-year “Baby Bar” exam in 2021. Kardashian, whose father Robert G. Kardashian was a noted attorney and businessman, has been involved in criminal justice reform and portrays a lawyer on television. She is yet to pass the full California bar exam.
The California Supreme Court and State Bar regulate and support the Law Office Study Program, with efforts to refine its rules ongoing. In 2023, the Supreme Court declined a State Bar proposal that would have allowed apprentices to concurrently participate in the Practical Training of Law Students program, citing ethical concerns about potential conflicts if students appeared before judges supervising their training. After revisions addressing these concerns, the court in March 2026 approved a revised rule permitting dual participation, provided supervisors mitigate any conflicts.
Historically, apprenticeships were the norm in California’s early legal system, a time when law schools were scarce or nonexistent. The state’s first Chief Justice, Serranus C. Hastings, was admitted to the bar after private study, and the last Supreme Court justice without a law degree, William P. Clark, passed the bar without completing law school.
As the legal profession evolves, California’s apprenticeship route offers an alternative path aimed at broadening access to the bar and better preparing lawyers to serve diverse communities.