The Oregon State Bar Board of Bar Examiners (BBX) is seeking input on a recommendation for OSB implementation of the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ (NCBE) NextGen Bar Exam.
The exam will be introduced by the NCBE in phases between 2026 and 2028. It strives to better evaluate attorney competency by supplementing the examination of legal knowledge with an increased focus on evaluating applicants’ legal skills and analysis.
The BBX currently uses the NCBE’s Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) as an assessment of lawyer competence to practice law. The UBE consists of a Multi-State Essay Examination (MEE or short essay exam), the Multi-State Bar Exam (MBE or multiple-choice exam), and the Multi-State Performance Exam (MPT or skills exam). The UBE tests knowledge of 13 different areas of law and, aside from the MPT, is focused primarily on testing legal knowledge, with limited focus on legal skills.
The NextGen Bar Exam will test knowledge of foundational concepts and principals for eight subject areas. In addition, it will test foundational lawyering skills in the following areas: legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management.
The new exam would continue to be administered locally by the BBX, and would be administered as a single-event examination, as has been traditional in most jurisdictions. We do not yet know whether the new exam will be portable in the way the UBE has been.
Detailed information about the new examination, as well as the studies and report upon which the exam is based, are available on NCBE’s website here.
The Board of Bar Examiners intends to make a formal recommendation to the Oregon Supreme Court on May 6, 2025, and invites OSB members and the public to provide comment on the new exam to better inform the BBX’s recommendations.
Anyone interested in providing comment should email their comments to feedback@osbar.org no later than 5:00pm on Wednesday, April 23rd.