Admission results for the CRFPA entrance exam come out at the end of the year, and many successful candidates then realise they do not really know what lies ahead. Law school for lawyers (école d’avocats) is neither an extra year of university nor a simple internship: it is an eighteen-month professional training course, organised in three stages, which ends with the CAPA and, for most trainees, with the search for a first associate position.
Whether you join the EFB in Paris or one of the regional schools, the pattern is the same. This article describes each period, what you learn in it, the right time to look for an associate position and how to update your CV at each stage.
After the CRFPA: enrolling at law school
There are eleven regional professional training centres for lawyers (CRFPA), commonly called “law schools for lawyers”. Every year, the Conseil national des barreaux publishes a guide to initial training at the law schools 🔗 presenting each of them, with its calendar and particular features.
A few practical points:
- the choice of school does not depend on the university where you sat the entrance exam; pre-registration opens after the admissibility results are published and closes shortly after the admission results;
- training begins with an oath taken by the trainee lawyer before the court of appeal, which binds you to professional secrecy from day one for everything you discover during placements;
- tuition fees are charged, with possible financial support based on social criteria, detailed by each school.
The regulatory framework is set out by the CNB on its page on conditions of access to the profession 🔗: initial training lasts eighteen months and ends with the CAPA exam.
The training period: courses and workshops
The first of the three periods, in the order set by each school, covers the fundamentals: around six months of practical teaching.
What you learn
The programme is harmonised nationally by the CNB and entirely focused on practice. The aim is no longer to learn the law, but to learn how to practise it:
- professional ethics and the status of the avocat: secrecy, conflicts of interest, fees, relations with colleagues and the courts;
- drafting: legal opinions, pleadings, contracts, letters to clients and colleagues;
- oral skills: advocacy, presenting a case, negotiation;
- running a practice: accounting, billing, organisation, digital tools.
Teaching takes the form of lectures, small-group workshops and online modules. It is subject to continuous assessment: since the CAPA reform applicable from the 2026 session, the exercises of drafting a legal opinion, a pleading and a legal document are assessed throughout the training, and no longer in a final five-hour exam.
Work-study
The CNB guide indicates that most schools now offer to start with the PPI, followed by a period of around twelve months alternating between teaching and placement in a firm. The CNB has also adopted the principle of an apprenticeship contract for trainee lawyers, alongside the internship agreement; its implementation depends on each school.
The PPI: six months of individual educational project
The PPI is the freest period of the training, and the one that requires the most advance preparation.
According to the CNB guide, the PPI is proposed by the trainee and approved by the school. It consists of a placement in any environment consistent with the trainee’s plans, outside law firms in France: a company, a professional organisation, a court, a public administration, a foreign law firm. It can also take the form of a course, such as a master 2 or a university diploma.
Three common uses:
- Discovering the client: a PPI in a legal department teaches what a company expects from its lawyers, an asset for business law firms.
- Seeing the judge’s side: a PPI in a court, alongside a judge, trains you in procedure and in drafting decisions.
- Opening up internationally: a PPI in a firm or institution abroad, or an LL.M., strengthens your working language.
The PPI must be found early, often even before training starts, since it opens the cycle in most schools. Our article choosing your PPI and law firm placement explains the strategy to adopt depending on the career you are aiming for.
The final placement in a law firm
The last period is a placement of around six months in a law firm, which can be carried out at any French bar or at a bar in another European Union member state, whatever the school’s jurisdiction.
This is the decisive period for what comes next. The final placement is used to:
- practise under the responsibility of a lawyer: drafting documents, research, attending client meetings and hearings;
- write the placement report, which will be defended at the CAPA;
- get known by a firm that may offer an associate position at the end.
The choice of firm for the final placement should therefore match the practice you want to work in. The interview that leads to it is similar to a standard internship interview, with slightly higher expectations on autonomy: our article on internship interviews at law firms lists the questions that come up.
Preparing for the CAPA and the search for an associate position
The CAPA
Since the 2026 session, the final exam consists of two oral tests, according to the CNB’s presentation of the reform 🔗:
- an advocacy exercise of around twenty minutes, after two hours of preparation, on a case in the area of law chosen by the candidate;
- an oral exam of around forty minutes in two parts: a practical question on professional ethics and regulation, then the defence of the placement reports (law firm placement and PPI).
The placement report therefore becomes a key document: it is prepared during the placement, not afterwards.
Looking for an associate position
The right time to look for an associate position is during the final placement, or even earlier for firms that recruit early. Two main routes:
- an offer from the placement firm, still the most common: the final placement is a long interview;
- direct applications, through the bar associations’ and schools’ platforms, recruitment fairs and networking.
A realistic timetable: first applications three to four months before the end of the placement, interviews during the last two months, starting work after taking the lawyer’s oath.
Updating your CV at each period
Your CV should not stay frozen for eighteen months. Its purpose changes at each stage.
To apply for the PPI, it remains a student CV: master’s, dissertation, internships, languages. Add “trainee lawyer, school and year group” at the top.
To apply for the final placement, it includes the PPI, described by what you did there rather than by the name of the organisation:
- Before: “PPI in a legal department.”
- After: “Six-month PPI in the legal department of an industrial group: review of purchasing contracts, preparation of files sent to external counsel.”
To apply for an associate position, it becomes a practitioner’s CV: the final placement first, with the documents drafted and hearings attended, then the PPI, then education. The profile line states the planned date of the oath and the practice you are aiming for. The pre-filled trainee lawyer CV corresponds to this stage, and the pre-filled junior associate CV shows what it becomes a year later. The article CV for a first associate position explains the transition from one to the other.
To keep these three versions up to date without starting from scratch, the AvocatCV builder keeps the layout and lets you reorder sections in a few clicks; the resulting PDF is read correctly by the screening tools some firms use for their recruitment campaigns.
Frequently asked questions
Can you work during law school for lawyers?
The pace of teaching and placements leaves little room for a job on the side. Work-study and, eventually, the apprenticeship contract do, however, allow you to be paid by the host firm.
Can the PPI be done in a law firm?
Not in a law firm in France, according to the CNB guide. It can, however, take place in a foreign firm, a company, a court or a public administration, or take the form of a course.
Can you choose the order of the periods?
The order is set by each school. Most now start with the PPI; check the calendar of the school you are aiming for before pre-registering.
What happens after the CAPA?
A trainee who passes applies to be entered on the roll of the bar of their choice and takes the lawyer’s oath before the court of appeal. They can then practise, most often as a freelance associate.