All you need to know about the article 100 exam

If you are a solicitor in England & Wales and want to qualify as a lawyer in France, you generally don't need to follow the traditional route in France (the CRFPA exam, 18 months of bar school and the CAPA exam). Instead, you can typically take the exam outlined in article 100 of Decree no. 91-1197 of 27 November 1991 organising the legal profession (known as the article 100 exam). This is the exam I took after passing the New York bar (the process is the same whether you come from the UK or the US).

In this first article, I will share some practical information about this exam. If you wish to have some tips on how to succeed, read our second article.

The first step is to pre-register on the CNB website. You can apply for exemptions from certain parts of the exam. Once the CNB has made its decision, you can register with the school of your choice to take the exam and pay the registration fee. Only the EFB in Paris and HEDAC in Versailles organise this exam. It takes place once a year at each school: generally in April at EFB and in November at HEDAC. You cannot take the exam more than three times.

It consists of four tests:

• An oral exam on procedure: 1 hour of preparation followed by a 20-minute presentation on a randomly drawn topic;

• A deontology oral exam (15 minutes): no preparation; a topic is drawn at random in front of the jury, followed by questions;

• A written exam in civil law (3 hours): drafting legal submissions;

• A written exam in a specialist subject (3 hours): consultation on administrative, social, commercial or criminal law.

For the oral exams, the jury consists of three members: a magistrate, a lawyer, and an academic. They may ask you questions about your academic and professional background.

There are prep courses to help you prepare for the exam, but I chose not to take one.

You will receive the results by email about a month later; however, the school does not provide a precise date, so be sure to check your email regularly! If you have passed, congratulations! You'll then need to fill out an application form to register with the bar of your choice, meet with a reporter and attend the swearing-in ceremony. 

We hope this article helped you! If you have further questions on this topic, do not hesitate to send a message to frenchlegalprofessionals@gmail.com.

Article by Victoria Plisson 

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