TheCorporateCounsel.net

The rite of passage to becoming a lawyer — the bar exam, including the Multistate Bar Exam, Multistate Essay Exam and Multistate Performance Test — is soon changing! Last week, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (the nonprofit organization that develops bar exam content for 54 of 56 US states and territories) announced that they are set to launch the “NextGen bar exam” in July 2026. The new exam is “designed to test the knowledge and skills needed by today’s new attorneys” and “the biggest change to the way lawyers are licensed in a generation.”

The NextGen bar exam will test a broad range of foundational lawyering skills, utilizing a focused set of clearly identified fundamental legal concepts and principles needed in today’s practice of law. The skills and concepts to be tested were developed through a multi-year, nationwide legal practice analysis, focused on the most important knowledge and skills for newly licensed lawyers. Designed to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice, the exam will reflect many of the key changes that law schools are making today.

Twenty states and one territory have already announced plans to use the new exam, with Florida the most recent. Connecticut, Guam, Maryland, Missouri, Oregon, and Washington will begin using the NextGen exam in 2026; Arizona, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Wyoming will start in 2027; and Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, and Utah will make the switch in 2028. And more states and territories are expected to sign on in the next year.

The release touts the process used to develop the NextGen bar, saying NCBE surveyed over 14,000 attorneys and will engage in multiple phases of testing and statistical analysis to ensure the test is accurate and fair. Still, if I were a rising 2L or incoming law student, I’d be a bit nervous about being one of the NextGen bar exam’s early takers. I have to imagine it takes BarBri and the other bar study service providers out there some time to learn and adapt their teaching strategy — which seemed like a time-tested, well-oiled machine when I took the bar. Once rolled out in your state, this might call for some extra empathy for your incoming first-year associates when they’re waiting for bar results — especially in those states that are early adopters!

– Meredith Ervine