California lawyers can practice in other states, but a California bar license by itself authorizes you to practice law in California and nowhere else. To handle work elsewhere, you rely on a handful of specific paths: temporary court appearances through pro hac vice, federal court and agency practice, registered in-house counsel programs, remote work under your California license, or full admission in the other state. Each path has real limits, and California’s refusal to offer reciprocity or use the Uniform Bar Exam makes the last option harder for its licensees than for lawyers coming from most other states.
Why the California License Travels Poorly
Two features of California’s system put its lawyers at a disadvantage when they want to work across state lines.
California does not offer reciprocity. Out-of-state attorneys cannot waive into the California bar based on years of practice; they must pass either the full California bar exam or, with at least four years of active licensure elsewhere, a one-day Attorneys’ Examination.1The State Bar of California. Attorney Applicants Because reciprocity is a two-way arrangement, many states that offer admission on motion exclude California lawyers in return. New York, for example, permits admission on motion for attorneys admitted in a reciprocal jurisdiction with five of the last seven years in active practice. A California-only license fails the reciprocal-jurisdiction test.2New York State Board of Law Examiners. Admission on Motion/Reciprocity
California also does not administer the Uniform Bar Exam. More than 40 jurisdictions use it, and lawyers who pass it earn a portable score they can transfer elsewhere.3National Conference of Bar Examiners. List of UBE Jurisdictions If you passed the California bar, you have no UBE score to transfer, and you cannot convert your California results into UBE credit.1The State Bar of California. Attorney Applicants
The result: if you want to handle out-of-state work with your California license alone, you’re working within the paths below.
Pro Hac Vice for a Single Case
When you need to litigate one case in another state’s court, pro hac vice admission is the standard tool. A judge grants you temporary permission to appear in that one matter, and the permission expires when the case ends. You cannot use it to open an office, solicit new clients, or build an ongoing practice.
The process requires filing a motion with the court and paying a fee that varies widely by jurisdiction, from nothing in some states to over $600 in others. A typical fee is around $250 per case. You also need to associate with local counsel — an attorney fully licensed in that state who takes responsibility for ensuring you follow local rules. Local counsel is not just a formality. In most jurisdictions, local counsel carries malpractice exposure on the case and may be required to co-sign filings or appear at hearings, which adds to your client’s costs.
Most states cap how many times you can appear pro hac vice within a set period. Some limit it to a handful of cases over five years. These caps exist specifically to prevent attorneys from using repeated temporary admissions as a substitute for getting licensed. If you regularly handle matters in a particular state, this path won’t cover you.
One more thing to check before accepting a pro hac vice engagement: whether your malpractice policy covers work performed in the other state. Some states require you to show that your coverage is substantially equivalent to their own professional liability standards as a condition of temporary admission. A standard California policy may or may not meet that threshold, and gaps in coverage can leave you personally exposed.
Federal Court and Federal Agency Practice
Federal practice runs on its own rules, separate from state bar licensing.
Once you’re a member of the California State Bar, you can apply for admission to federal district courts. The Central District of California, for instance, requires active California bar membership and familiarity with the court’s local rules.4United States District Court. Instructions for Application for Admission to the Bar of the Central District of California Each federal district across the country has its own admission process, so practicing in a federal court in Texas means applying separately to that district and meeting its requirements. Federal admission in one district doesn’t carry over to another; lawyers who handle matters spanning multiple regions often maintain admission in several districts at once.
Federal agency practice is more flexible. Under the federal Agency Practice Act, any attorney in good standing with the highest court of any state can represent clients before federal agencies without being licensed in the state where the agency sits. The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed this principle decades ago, holding that states cannot restrict practice before federal agencies when federal law authorizes it. A California lawyer can represent clients before agencies like the Patent and Trademark Office, the IRS, or immigration courts regardless of where the proceedings occur.
Registered In-House Counsel
If you work as in-house counsel for a corporation with offices in other states, you generally don’t need a full bar license in each of those states. Most jurisdictions offer a registered in-house counsel program that lets you provide legal services exclusively to your employer without passing the local bar exam.5The State Bar of California. Special Admissions
Registration involves applying to the state bar where you’ll be working and paying an annual fee. The restrictions are tight. You can advise your employer on its business matters, but you cannot appear in state court, represent anyone other than your employer, or offer legal services to the public. If you leave that employer, the registration typically terminates, and you would need to re-register with a new employer or seek full admission. For California lawyers at companies with a national footprint, this is often the most practical path to working across state lines without additional bar exams.
Working Remotely from Another State
Remote work has created a common scenario that older licensing rules never contemplated: a California-licensed attorney sitting at a desk in Nevada, or Texas, or anywhere else, advising California clients on California law. ABA Formal Opinion 495 addressed this and concluded that a lawyer may practice the law of their licensing state while physically located in a state where they are not licensed, provided certain ground rules are followed.
The key restrictions concern appearances and representation. You cannot hold yourself out as licensed in the state where you’re physically located. Your website, letterhead, business cards, and email signature must list only jurisdictions where you actually hold a license. You cannot use a local address in the remote state for professional correspondence. And you cannot offer legal services to people or businesses in the remote state if you’re not licensed there. Sitting in an Austin apartment advising California clients on California matters is on solid ground. Putting an Austin address on your business cards or taking on Texas clients crosses the line.
Not every state has formally adopted this approach. Some states have issued their own ethics opinions that track the ABA’s guidance closely; others haven’t addressed the question. Before committing to a long-term remote arrangement in another state, check whether that state has taken a position on remote practice by out-of-state lawyers.
Which State’s Ethics Rules Apply to Cross-Border Work
Cross-border practice raises a real question: if your conduct touches two states, whose ethics rules govern? Under the framework most states follow, the answer depends on context. For anything connected to a pending court case, the rules of the state where the court sits apply. For transactional work, advice, and negotiations, the rules of the state where your conduct occurred generally control, unless the primary effect of your work lands in a different state, in which case that state’s rules may apply instead.
There’s a safety valve: you won’t face discipline if your conduct conforms to the rules of the state where you reasonably believed the primary effects would occur. That matters because California’s rules diverge from the ABA Model Rules in some important ways. California’s conflict-of-interest rules require “informed written consent” with written disclosure of potential adverse consequences, while most Model Rule states allow “informed consent, confirmed in writing,” a lower bar that can be met by an email or text acknowledging the conflict. The same conduct might be compliant under one state’s rules and problematic under another’s.
The practical takeaway: when work spans states, identify which state’s rules likely apply before you begin, not after something goes wrong.
Getting Fully Licensed in Another State
If you plan to build an ongoing practice in another state, the temporary paths won’t carry you. Full licensure is the only route that removes restrictions on the work you can do and the clients you can serve.
Admission by Motion Is Mostly Off the Table
Admission by motion lets an experienced attorney join a new state’s bar without another exam, but most states offering this path require you to already be licensed in a state that extends the same courtesy. California doesn’t, so a California-only license is excluded from those states’ processes. Florida is closed for a different reason: it doesn’t offer admission by motion to anyone, and every applicant must pass the Florida bar exam.6Florida Board of Bar Examiners. FAQ
Practice-year requirements vary among states that do allow admission by motion. Many require five of the past seven years of active practice; others, including Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, and Washington, set it at three of the past five. Part-time practice may not count, and routine document review is often excluded from the definition of “active practice.” If you hold a second bar license in a reciprocal state alongside your California license, that second license is what qualifies you for admission on motion, not the California one.
UBE Jurisdictions
For the 40-plus states that use the Uniform Bar Exam, you take the UBE either in the target state or in any UBE jurisdiction and transfer your score.7National Conference of Bar Examiners. Transferring Your UBE Scores Each state sets its own minimum passing score and its own deadline for how old a transferred score can be. Many UBE states also require a state-specific law component, such as an online course or an additional exam on that state’s procedural rules. A character-and-fitness investigation runs in every state regardless of a transferred score.
Some lawyers plan strategically by sitting for the UBE in a state with a relatively low passing score, then transferring that score to other UBE jurisdictions where they want to practice. With more than 40 participating jurisdictions, one exam can open many doors, but the planning has to happen in advance.
Non-UBE States
A handful of states, including California itself and Florida, maintain their own exams. If your target state isn’t a UBE jurisdiction, you’re sitting for that state’s exam from scratch, regardless of experience level or where you’re licensed.6Florida Board of Bar Examiners. FAQ
Documents, Fees, and Timing
Whichever state you target, you’ll need a Certificate of Good Standing from the State Bar of California, which costs $41,8The State Bar of California. Certificates of Standing along with your official law school transcripts and your MPRE score. Application fees for bar admission in a new state commonly exceed $1,000, and the background investigation that follows covers employment history, credit reports, and any prior disciplinary actions. Budget several months for the full process. Background checks alone can take longer than the exam.