Law Student Registration with the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners
To access the Oklahoma Board of Bar Examiners Law Student Registration instructions and application forms, please click here.
- Please note that two applications are required; the Oklahoma Law Student Registration and the National Conference of Bar Examiners Character & Fitness Report.
Notary Do’s and Don’ts!
- When printing your application, instruments to be notarized must be single-sided.
- Duplexed affidavits/authorization & release forms will be returned by the NCBE with instructions to properly prepare and resubmit – this will delay the processing of your application.
- Be advised that a Notary Public attests to witnessing a signature and verifying the identity of the signatory – always sign/date your documents in the presence of a Notary Public, never ahead of time!
- During the height of the COVID pandemic, the OKBBE temporarily waived notarization, and timely-filed applications were considered by postmarked date. The following update has been posted on the applications page (http://okbbe.com/applications).
An original signature is required. Effective Monday, April 4, 2022, all applications will be required to have a completed notary signature and will no longer be considered timely filed by postmark. All applications are due in the office of the Board of Bar Examiners by close of business on the date of the application deadline.
Timely registration is strongly urged!
- Candidates for Limited Licensure may not be sworn in without a sufficient vetting of their backgrounds via an approved Character & Fitness Report.
- The combined OKBBE and NCBE registration fees are only $400 on or before October 15 of the 2L year (this means the second year of law school regardless of full-time or part-time status).
- Late registration fees soar to more than double that amount.
Save some serious money – apply early!
- The best time to prepare and file your law student registration is during the summer after your 1L year – do not wait until the filing deadline to register.
- Character investigations can take 6 months or longer to complete (candidates otherwise eligible for licensure in their 2L spring semester will miss out if they wait until October to file).
Need financial aid assistance?
If you have student loans, you may receive additional funding to cover the cost of all your bar registration fees (including law student registration, bar exam application, and laptop usage fee), as well as the registration fee for the MPRE.
OCU Student Financial Services Online Forms
- Select the correct Award Year
- Scroll down to “Request for Additional Bar Exam Registration Expenses”
Not planning to practice in Oklahoma?
Students that are targeting another state after graduation may be eligible for completion of a law student registration/character & moral fitness investigation in that jurisdiction (if available).
Refer to Rule 2.1(d)
Students that do not plan to take the Oklahoma Bar may still obtain a limited license to practice law in Oklahoma by successfully completing a law student registration/character & fitness investigation in a state whose standards for admission are at least as high as those for Oklahoma. Contact the Legal Internship Program Administrator for assistance. The burden rests on the law student to investigate the preferred jurisdiction’s standards and procedures as follows:
a) The jurisdiction must require law student registration.
b) The jurisdiction must accept registrations from out-of-state law students.
c) The registration must include a character & fitness investigation.
d) If the jurisdiction does not use the National Conference of Bar Examiners Character & Fitness Report, its in-house investigation must be substantively comparable to the NCBE.