CA AB 1522

in committee

State Bar Act: expedited licensure: federal attorneys.

California · 2025-2026 Regular Session · lower

Quick answers

Did CA AB 1522 pass?

Not yet. CA AB 1522 is in committee as of 2025-06-17 and has not come to a final vote. Latest recorded action (2025-06-17): In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.

What is CA AB 1522 about?

The State Bar Act provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California (State Bar) , a public corporation governed by a board of trustees. The act requires a person who has been admitted to practice law in specified jurisdictions outside of this state, including a sister state, in order to be certified to the Supreme Court for admission and a license to practice law in this state, to meet certain criteria, including having passed the general bar examination or Attorneys' Examination, as applicable, given by the examining committee. This bill would require the State Bar to transmit, on or before January 1, 2026, a proposal outlining a process for expediting the licensure to practice law in this state of an attorney who meets certain criteria, including that the attorney was employed by an agency of the federal government on January 20, 2025. The bill would define "expediting the licensure" to mean a licensing process that does not require an attorney to take either the general bar examination or the attorneys' examination. The bill would exclude any person eligible for licensure as an attorney pursuant to this process from the requirement that the person pass the general bar examination or attorneys' examination to be certified to the Supreme Court for admission and a license to practice law in this state. The State Bar Act also provides for the investigation and discipline of a licensee of the State Bar and authorizes the Supreme Court to suspend or disbar an attorney for specified causes, including for a conviction under the laws of another state or territory of the United States that is deemed a felony. Existing law provides that specified evidence that a licensee committed professional misconduct in another jurisdiction is conclusive evidence that the licensee is culpable of professional misconduct. This bill would provide that an excluded event shall not be grounds for disciplinary action or require an attorney or applicant to report the excluded event to the State Bar, supply evidence that an attorney is culpable of professional misconduct in this state, or serve as grounds to deny admission to the State Bar to an applicant. The bill would define "excluded event" to mean certain actions taken when based on the application of another state's law that interferes with any person's right to receive, provide, recommend, enable, or advocate for sensitive services, as defined, that would be lawful in this state. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

Who sponsors CA AB 1522?

Committee on Judiciary is the primary sponsor of CA AB 1522.

Description

Introduced: 2025-04-10
Latest action: 2025-06-17 — In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
Bill type: bill
Last updated: —

Subjects

Committees

Not provided by source.

Action timeline

2025-03-18
Read first time. To print.
reading-1
2025-03-19
From printer. May be heard in committee April 18.
2025-03-24
Referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-04-10
From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended.
amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2025-04-21
Re-referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-04-22
From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 9. Noes 3.) (April 22).
committee-passage,committee-passage-favorable
2025-04-23
Read second time. Ordered to third reading.
reading-1,reading-2,reading-3
2025-05-05
Read third time. Urgency clause adopted. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 60. Noes 17. Page 1422.).
amendment-passage,passage,reading-1,reading-3
2025-05-06
In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment.
reading-1,referral-committee
2025-05-14
Referred to Com. on JUD.
referral-committee
2025-05-15
From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD.
amendment-introduction,amendment-passage,committee-passage,reading-1,reading-2,referral-committee
2025-06-13
In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
2025-06-17
In committee: Set, second hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.

Versions

03/18/25 - Introduced — 2025-03-18Compare
04/10/25 - Amended Assembly — 2025-04-10Compare
05/15/25 - Amended Senate — 2025-05-15Compare
AB1522Compare
(document, no version)Compare

Documents

Votes

Do pass.
2025-04-22 · pass · 9-3
Member-level votes (12)
- Kalra: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Lee: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Bryan: yes
- Dixon: no
- Macedo: no
- Sanchez: no
AB 1522 JUD. Third Reading Urgency By KALRA
2025-05-05 · pass · 60-17
Member-level votes (79)
- Rivas: yes
- Haney: yes
- Papan: yes
- Wallis: yes
- Jackson: yes
- Caloza: yes
- Patel: yes
- Schultz: yes
- Wicks: yes
- Irwin: yes
- Pacheco: yes
- Zbur: yes
- Fong: yes
- Ransom: yes
- Solache: yes
- Petrie-Norris: yes
- Boerner: yes
- Krell: yes
- Soria: yes
- Celeste Rodriguez: yes
- Lowenthal: yes
- Mark González: yes
- Ávila Farías: yes
- Bonta: yes
- Alvarez: yes
- Kalra: yes
- Addis: yes
- Muratsuchi: yes
- Lee: yes
- Sharp-Collins: yes
- Rogers: yes
- McKinnor: yes
- Connolly: yes
- Wilson: yes
- Bauer-Kahan: yes
- Carrillo: yes
- Valencia: yes
- Elhawary: yes
- Michelle Rodriguez: yes
- Nguyen: yes
- Bennett: yes
- Garcia: yes
- Quirk-Silva: yes
- Calderon: yes
- Blanca Rubio: yes
- Harabedian: yes
- Hart: yes
- Stefani: yes
- Bryan: yes
- Ward: yes
- Gabriel: yes
- Ortega: yes
- Ramos: yes
- Schiavo: yes
- Pellerin: yes
- Gipson: yes
- Aguiar-Curry: yes
- Arambula: yes
- Ahrens: yes
- Berman: yes
- Castillo: no
- Macedo: no
- Hadwick: no
- Hoover: no
- Jeff Gonzalez: no
- Sanchez: no
- Chen: no
- Davies: no
- Ta: no
- Patterson: no
- Lackey: no
- DeMaio: no
- Gallagher: no
- Tangipa: no
- Dixon: no
- Flora: no
- Alanis: no
- Ellis: other
- Bains: other

Related bills

No related bills recorded for this bill.

Official source

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB1522

Attribution

Data from openstates_bulk_csv, retrieved 2026-07-24T01:34:27.960412Z

Inspect retained evidence for changes recorded after evidence tracking began:

Source and document changes Status and relationship changes

Use this data

Every field on this page is available from the free public API — no key or licence required. Fetch this bill as JSON: GET /api/v1/bills?jurisdiction=CA&identifier=AB 1522. See the API docs or the MCP server for AI assistants.

Known limitations

Sponsor party and chamber affiliation are not yet captured by this API.
Committee referrals are not yet captured.
Some documents have no extracted text yet, so version comparison may be limited.

See the methodology page for data sources and limitations.