republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20092010/ab-590.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Legal aid."
description: "(1) The State Bar Act provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation. Existing law provides that it is the duty of an attorney to, among other things, never reject, for any consideration personal to himself or herself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed. Existing law provides that a lawyer may fulfill his or her ethical commitment to provide pro bono services, in part, by providing financial support to organizations providing free legal services to persons of limited means."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20092010"
identifier: "AB 590"
citation: "California AB 590 (20092010)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Legal aid."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Feuer"]
version_count: 9
action_count: 36
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2009-02-25"
last_action: "2009-10-11"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/b880ed8c-8717-4774-9e3a-3340fbab94fd"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590"
source_hash: "e8dbc935e182c2265b0b6e9ea5a9bdfaf97bfc8c1252f4fb75685aefb532f5e0"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 590 (20092010) — Legal aid.

(1) The State Bar Act provides for the licensure and regulation of attorneys by the State Bar of California, a public corporation. Existing law provides that it is the duty of an attorney to, among other things, never reject, for any consideration personal to himself or herself, the cause of the defenseless or oppressed. Existing law provides that a lawyer may fulfill his or her ethical commitment to provide pro bono services, in part, by providing financial support to organizations providing free legal services to persons of limited means.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/25/09 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59099INT)
2. **03/12/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59098AMD)
3. **04/30/09 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59097AMD)
4. **06/30/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59096AMD)
5. **08/20/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59095AMD)
6. **09/04/09 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59094AMD)
7. **10/11/09 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59092CHP)
8. **AB590** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590)
9. **09/16/09 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=200920100AB590&version=20090AB59093ENR)

## Votes

- AB 590 FEUER Assembly Third Reading — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Do pass, but re-refer to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Assembly 3rd Reading AB590 Feuer By Leno — **pass** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. — **pass** (pass) · upper
- AB 590 Feuer Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **pass** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on Appropriations. — **pass** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Feuer — primary (person)
- Leno — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2009-02-25** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2009-02-26** From printer. May be heard in committee March 28.
- **2009-03-12** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2009-03-12** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on JUD. Read second time and amended. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-03-16** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2009-04-29** From committee: Amend, do pass as amended, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 2.) (April 21). `amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, committee-passage`
- **2009-04-30** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-05-04** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2009-05-20** In committee: Set, first hearing. Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2009-05-29** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 12. Noes 5.) (May 28). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-05-29** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-06-01** Read third time, passed, and to Senate. (Ayes 50. Noes 29. Page 1881.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-06-02** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2009-06-11** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2009-06-24** In committee: Set, first hearing. Hearing canceled at the request of author.
- **2009-06-30** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on JUD. `amendment-introduction, reading-2, amendment-passage, referral-committee, reading-1`
- **2009-07-06** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2009-07-15** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 3. Noes 2.) (July 14). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-07-16** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-08-20** Read third time, amended. To second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-08-24** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-08-24** Re-referred to Com. on RLS. pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10. `referral-committee`
- **2009-08-24** Re-referred to Com. on JUD. pursuant to Senate Rule 29.10. `referral-committee`
- **2009-08-24** (Ayes 4. Noes 0.)
- **2009-08-25** From committee: Do pass, and re-refer to Com. on APPR. Re-referred. (Ayes 3. Noes 1.) (August 24). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-08-31** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 8. Noes 5.) (August 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2009-08-31** (received by desk August 28, 2009 pursuant to JR61(a)(11))
- **2009-09-01** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-09-04** Read third time, amended. To second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2009-09-08** Read second time. To third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2009-09-09** Read third time, passed, and to Assembly. (Ayes 23. Noes 13. Page 2332.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2009-09-10** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2009-09-10** Senate amendments concurred in. To enrollment. (Ayes 52. Noes 26. Page 3293.) `amendment-passage, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2009-09-25** Enrolled and to the Governor at 5 p.m.
- **2009-10-11** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2009-10-11** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 457, Statutes of 2009.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/b880ed8c-8717-4774-9e3a-3340fbab94fd`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).