CRFPA

Overview

The CRFPA entrance exam (often called the pré-CAPA) is the exam you must pass to enter a Centre régional de formation professionnelle d'avocats, the regional lawyer training school, in France. After the school you take the CAPA (Certificat d'aptitude à la profession d'avocat) exam, which is needed to register with a bar (barreau). The exam is held once a year and is organised by universities designated for the purpose. A national commission chooses the written subjects. The Conseil national des barreaux (CNB) publishes the information for each session.

Who can apply

You register with the university of your choice before 31 December of the year before the exam. You must show that you have the first 60 credits of a law master's degree (the Master 1 level), or a title recognised as equivalent. You can supply that proof until 1 August of the exam year. You can register at only one university, and nobody may sit the exam more than three times.

For becoming a lawyer in principle, French rules since 1 January 2025 require a law master's (M2) or a recognised equivalent, together with the CAPA. Some doctors of law are exempt from the entrance exam. For those who defended their thesis after 31 December 2024, the CNB lists three conditions: at least 60 teaching hours a year for two years in the past five years, or two years as an assistant lawyer or justice assistant, or two years as a legal professional working at least 700 hours a year. Doctors of law who defended their thesis earlier at a French university can go straight into CRFPA training.

Exam pattern

The exam has four written admissibility tests and two oral admission tests. Each test carries a coefficient.

The seven specialties are administrative law, business law, civil law, tax law, international and European law, criminal law and social law. Your specialty sets the procedure paper: criminal procedure for criminal law, administrative procedure for administrative law, and civil procedure for business, civil and social law. Tax law and international and European law candidates can choose between civil and administrative procedure.

In the grand oral you comment on a text, usually a court or constitutional decision, from the angle of fundamental rights and freedoms.

Marking and results

You are admissible to the oral stage if you average at least 10 out of 20 across the written tests, taking coefficients into account. Admissibility counts only for that session. To be admitted you need an average of at least 10 out of 20 over all written and oral tests combined.

Important dates

For 2026 the written tests ran on 1, 2, 3 and 4 September. The CNB lists admissibility results on 22 October 2026 and admission results on 1 December 2026. Oral tests start in the first half of November and universities set their own calendars.

After the exam

Admitted candidates receive a certificate for CRFPA registration, and training begins on 1 January. Training lasts 18 months in three six-month parts: practical teaching, then an individual pedagogical project (PPI) outside a lawyer's firm, then an internship at a law firm. Training starts with an oath before the court of appeal. The CAPA exam follows, and if you pass you can apply to join the roll of a bar of your choice. As listed on the official CNB site in 2026, teaching fees are EUR 1,900, with financial aid available on social criteria.

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