The Texas Supreme Court issued an order1 on June 25, 2024, seeking public comment on the adoption of a new examination for individuals seeking admission to the Texas Bar.
The Texas Board of Law Examiners (BLE) has recommended the adoption of the NextGen Bar Examination, which would replace Texas’ current bar exam, the Universal Bar Exam (UBE). Like the UBE, the NextGen is a product of the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE).
The BLE made the recommendation to the Texas Supreme Court after its NextGen Work Group studied the results of pilot test performance data published by NCBE. The pilot test ran from August 2022 to April 2023 and involved 2,500 law students and recently licensed lawyers.2
NCBE plans to launch the NextGen Bar Exam in July 2026. If adopted by Texas, which the Supreme Court anticipates, it will not be implemented here until July 2028.
Starting with the July 2026 exam, conflict of laws and secured transactions will be eliminated from the test, and family law and trusts and estates will be tested on the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) instead. However, after the February 2028 bar exam, the NCBE plans to completely eliminate the Multistate Essay Exam, the MPT, and the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) components of the test. Instead, the NextGen will feature multiple-choice questions, integrated question sets based on a common fact scenario, and performance tasks “that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish.”3
Trust and estates will not be part of the NextGen, which will test on civil procedure, contract law, evidence, torts, business associations, constitutional law, criminal law, and real property. Family law will be reintegrated into the NextGen in July 2028.
In addition to these subjects, the NextGen prioritizes the lawyering skills of legal research, writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationships and management.
The NextGen will be taken on computers at proctored testing locations and is expected to be only nine hours long compared to the UBE’s 12.
As also recommended by the BLE, “an appropriate, graded Texas Law Component” should also be reintroduced, the Texas Supreme Court’s order reads, to ensure that individuals who want to become licensed in Texas have an understanding of Texas law.
“The content, timing, and format of this Texas Law Component have not yet been determined,” but it is expected to appear along with the inaugural NextGen Bar Examination in Texas if the new exam is adopted.
Public comment on this matter is being accepted through Sept. 30, 2024. Comments can be emailed to rulescomment@txcourts.gov.
ENDNOTES
1 https://www.txcourts.gov/media/1458783/249040.pdf.
2 https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/reports/research-brief-pilot-testing/.
3 https://nextgenbarexam.ncbex.org/nextgen-sample-questions/.