The "NextGen" Exam, as it is known, will be launched in 2026. Now that the states are hooked, the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is preparing the next generation of the exam.
It is difficult to imagine any of these states could abandon the UBE, and revert to a state-specific exam. The appeal of portability trumped the appeal of lawyers actually knowing the law of the state in which they'll practice. And that number will eventually approach 50, as states without the UBE place their law students at a competitive disadvantage. To date, 40+ jurisdictions have adopted the UBE, including my home state of Texas. Prioritizing a uniform bar exam will diminish respect for that value. There is an importance in State A and State B being able to approach the same principle of law in different ways. If law students are trained to believe that there is no difference between laws of different states, then an entire generation of lawyers will have even less regard for the values of federalism, wherein the states can serve as laboratories of democracy. In 2015, I warned that the spread of the UBE would obscure the important flavors of local law, and in the long run, harm federalism. Instead, the UBE focuses on "general" legal principles that apply uniformly across the country. The biggest downside, in my view at least, is that the UBE eliminates the requirement to know any state-specific law. The upshot of the UBE is that a score is "portable." Someone who receives a passing score in one state can transfer that score to another state. One of the most significant developments has been the expansion of the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). In recent years, there have been many shifts in how states administer bar exams.
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