California’s state bar asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to authorize a controversial law licensing pilot program even as the specifics for its funding and operations remain unsettled.

In a Dec. 15 letter to the court, bar executive director Leah Wilson wrote that the agency “has secured a commitment from the Legal Services Funders Network to fund 100 percent” of the start-up costs for the so-called portfolio bar exam pilot, which would allow a small group of law school graduates to forego the bar exam and obtain their law licenses through supervised employment and graded work displays.