Friday, March 13, 2026
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Judiciary Committee Introduces Bill to Retain Bar Dues Cap
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Committee on Judiciary has introduced a bill proposing to hold State Bar dues steady at the current baseline rate of $400 for active members and $100 for inactive licensees through the end of 2027, extending the expiration date for the cap from Jan. 1, 2027 to Jan. 1, 2028.
As introduced on Wednesday, Assembly Bill 2784 proposes changes to Business and Professions Code §§6140 and 6141, which provide that the State Bar’s board of trustees “shall fix” the annual license fee for active licensees “at a sum not exceeding” $400 and for inactive members at “a sum not exceeding” $100. AB 2784 would extend the cap through 2027 and allow attorneys to file for inactive status at any point before Dec. 31 of the preceding calendar year.
Other fees, such as a $15 annual charge attributable to costs associated with leasing the body’s San Francisco office, raise the current total cost of licensure for active attorneys to $598 per year.
Recent Push
Wednesday’s proposal follows a recent push by the State Bar to increase dues. In 2024, the attorney licensing body requested an annual increase of $125 and published an accompanying report entitled “Justification for a Licensing Fee Increase.”
In the report, the body emphasized the need for funding to maintain its public protection services, citing its failure to respond to complaints against the now-disbarred Tom Girardi, which totaled approximately 155 filings before the State Bar filed disciplinary charges in March 2021, as evidence of its need for more revenue.
The report, while highlighting efforts to “address conditions that allowed an attorney with numerous viable complaints…to remain on active status,” failed to mention that an independent law firm, hired to look into the Girardi complaints, discovered that the then-attorney had funneled more than $1 million in gifts and payments to an investigator employed by the State Bar, Tom Layton, and his wife, Rose Layton.
Stagnated Resources
In the document, the body asserted:
“Over the course of this last quarter century, the amount of pressure and attention on the State Bar to effectively and responsibly fulfill its mission has grown—rightfully so—while resources have stagnated. Although the organization has been able to prudently manage its resources for these last two-plus decades, time has effectively run out on the State Bar’s ability to remain solvent, let alone meet the public’s expectations of performance and accountability.”
That September, Gov. Gavin Newsom partially granted their request by signing Assembly Bill 3279, which authorized an $88 increase for active attorneys and a $22.60 hike for inactive licensees to set the applicable baseline rates at their current levels.
Critics of the push to increase fees have pointed to alleged mismanagement at the State Bar, citing last year’s botched February entrance exam and projected $24 million budget deficit.
Assembly Members Ash Kalra, who chairs the committee, Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, Issac Bryan, Damon Connolly, John Harabedian, Blanca Pacheco, Diane Papan, Catherine Stefani, and Rick Chavez Zbur, all Democrats, are credited with the bill’s introduction.
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