After the CRFPA, many trainee lawyers see the CAPA as a formality. That is partly true: the vast majority of trainees pass it. But the exam was thoroughly reformed for the 2026 session, it now relies on tests that are prepared throughout the training, and it has its pitfalls, starting with a professional ethics test that people readily underestimate.
This article explains what the certificate of aptitude for the legal profession validates, how written and oral tests are organised since the reform, the real weight of the placement, the PPI and the reports, what happens if you fail, then the steps that follow: taking the oath and a first job.
What the certificate of aptitude validates
The CAPA concludes the eighteen months of initial training provided by the law schools for lawyers. The Conseil national des barreaux points this out on its page on conditions of access to the profession 🔗: if successful, the trainee can apply to be entered on the roll of the bar of their choice, after taking the lawyer’s oath.
What the jury checks is no longer knowledge of the law, already tested by the CRFPA entrance exam and the master’s. It is the aptitude to practise:
- drafting the documents of the profession: legal opinion, pleading, legal instrument;
- pleading and persuading orally;
- knowing and applying the profession’s ethics and regulations;
- making use of placements to build a practice.
The reform strengthened this logic. According to the CNB’s presentation 🔗, decree no. 2023-1125 of 1 December 2023 and the order of 20 June 2024 aim at a more professional CAPA, with continuous assessment throughout the training. These rules apply to trainees who started their training on or after 1 January 2025, that is from the 2026 session.
The written tests
Before the reform
The former CAPA included a final five-hour written exam: drafting a legal opinion, followed by a pleading or a legal instrument. Many trainees dreaded it, and it concentrated a large part of revision into a few days.
Since the 2026 session
This final exam has disappeared. It has been replaced by shorter drafting tests, organised and assessed regularly as part of continuous assessment:
- drafting a legal opinion;
- drafting a pleading;
- drafting a legal instrument.
In practice, the written part is played out throughout the fundamentals period. Every assignment counts, and drafting workshops are no longer optional exercises. The exact calendar and weightings depend on each school, which communicates them at the start of training.
How to prepare
- Work on the method specific to each document: a legal opinion is not an essay, a writ has its mandatory particulars, a contract has its structure.
- Build a library of templates during your placements, with the firm’s agreement and anonymising everything that needs to be.
- Ask for feedback on your assignments: continuous assessment is also an opportunity to learn.
The oral tests, including ethics
The final exam now consists of two oral tests, which replace the four oral tests of the former system.
The advocacy exercise
Lasting around twenty minutes, after two hours of preparation, it concerns a case in the area chosen by the candidate: civil law, business law, employment law, criminal law, administrative law, European law or tax law.
What makes the difference:
- a simple, announced structure that the jury can follow;
- advocacy, not a presentation: you defend a party, you do not set out the state of the law;
- controlled time management, without reading from notes;
- precise answers to the jury’s questions, which may interrupt you as a judge would.
Choose your area based on your placement experience rather than your university preferences: you will have pleaded, or seen others plead, similar cases.
The ethics and report defence test
Lasting around forty minutes, it takes place in two parts:
- twenty minutes on a practical question concerning the status and ethics of lawyers and professional regulation;
- twenty minutes defending the placement reports written by the candidate, for the law firm placement and for the PPI.
The ethics part is the one most often underestimated. The question is practical: a conflict of interest to identify, a professional secrecy issue, a fee problem, a difficulty with a colleague, a situation involving client funds. The candidate is expected to identify the problem, cite the applicable rule (law of 31 December 1971, decree of 27 November 1991, decree of 12 July 2005, national internal rules) and propose a course of action.
Preparation involves careful reading of the national internal rules 🔗, particularly the first articles (secrecy, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, fees) and article 14 on associate arrangements, which you will apply from your first contract.
Foreign languages
The 2023 decree removed the foreign language test from the CAPA: languages become an optional course. They remain a considerable asset when looking for an associate position, especially in business law firms.
The weight of the placement, the PPI and the report
With the reform, placements are no longer just training periods: they become an exam subject, through the defence of the reports.
What is expected of a placement report
A good report does not recount the placement day by day. It shows what you learned and what you take from it for your future practice:
- the context of the organisation and your place in the team;
- two or three matters or situations analysed in depth, anonymised;
- the legal and ethical questions encountered;
- how the experience changed your career plans.
The PPI report follows the same logic, with a particular angle: what the experience outside a law firm (company, court, administration, abroad) teaches you about the lawyer’s profession.
Preparing the defence
Prepare a presentation of a few minutes, then anticipate the questions: why this placement, what you would do differently, how you dealt with a particular difficulty. The jury checks that you have reflected on your experience, not just that you have lived it. The article choosing your PPI and law firm placement helps you choose placements that will provide material for a good report, and the article French law school for lawyers in 18 months describes the calendar they fit into.
If you fail: the second chance
Failing the CAPA is rare, but it happens. The decree of 27 November 1991, as amended in 2023, provides that after a failure the trainee may repeat the training; the school’s board may authorise them, depending on their situation, to repeat only certain periods. The number of attempts is regulated: check with your school as soon as the results are out.
In practice:
- ask for a meeting with the director of studies to understand the reasons for the failure;
- organise the new period: additional placement, drafting workshops, advocacy preparation;
- inform the firm that offered you an associate position, if there is one: many agree to postpone the start date.
On your CV, the failure does not need to appear. Simply state “CAPA in progress”, then the date it was obtained.
After the CAPA: the oath and a first job
Admission and the oath
Once you have the CAPA, you apply to be entered on the roll of the bar of your choice, then take the oath before the court of appeal. It is from this oath that you practise the profession and that your seniority at the bar runs.
The first job
Most young lawyers start as freelance associates. The search for an associate position is ideally carried out during the final placement, even before the CAPA; the article preparing for an associate interview at a law firm explains what to expect.
Your CV at the time of the CAPA
Your CV must switch from a trainee’s CV to that of a future associate: a profile line with the target bar and the planned date of the oath, the final placement at the top of the experience section with the documents drafted and hearings attended, then the PPI, and a tighter education section. The pre-filled trainee lawyer CV corresponds to this moment, the pre-filled junior associate CV to the next stage, and the article CV for a first associate position explains the transition from one to the other. The AvocatCV builder lets you make this switch in a few minutes: the layout is kept, and the PDF remains readable by the screening software some firms use to recruit young associates.
Frequently asked questions
Is the CAPA difficult?
It is much less selective than the CRFPA entrance exam, but it requires regular preparation, especially since the written part became continuous assessment. The ethics test deserves real preparation.
Can you choose the area for the advocacy exercise?
Yes, the candidate chooses among the areas provided: civil law, business law, employment law, criminal law, administrative law, European law or tax law.
Does the placement grade count?
Placements count through the defence of the reports, which is part of the second oral test. How the placement supervisor assesses the placement is up to each school.
Can you look for an associate position before obtaining the CAPA?
Yes, and it is even recommended. Firms often recruit their future associates during the final placement, subject to obtaining the CAPA and taking the oath.