A New Generation of the Bar Exam – A Look at the NextGen Bar

By Owen Leupold

By now, you've probably heard that Washington Bar Exam takers will face the NextGen Bar Exam starting in July 2026. But what exactly does the next generation of the Bar Exam look like, and how are students being prepared to take it? And more, what should lawyers and law firms know about students who will have taken the NextGen Bar? Currently, there are few satisfying answers from the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to these questions. The biggest takeaway is that the NextGen Bar is "designed to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice" and is intended to "reflect many of the key changes that law schools are making today.” If you think that sounds vague, you aren't alone. Let's dive into the details and decipher what the NCBE might mean.

The NextGen Bar purports to alignmore with contemporary real-worldlaw practice by emphasizing alternativedispute resolution, clinical exposure,and legal writing and analysis. Thismeans examinees will face “integratedquestion sets,” which combine short-answer, multiple-choice, and legaldrafting questions. Examinees will alsotackle longer performance tasks thathave been retooled to more accuratelyreflect contemporary practice; examineesare given a fact pattern and applicablecase law and asked to draft a memo to afictitious senior associate or client.

The NextGen Exam is shorter than thecurrent Universal Bar Exam (UBE),consisting of one and a half days oftesting instead of the current two-dayexam. Examinees will test for six hourson day one and three on day two.NextGen Bar takers will use their owncomputers to complete the exam atproctored locations. Like the UBE, theNextGen Bar will support reciprocaladmission in jurisdictions administeringthe NextGen exam. During the transitionperiod from the UBE to NextGen,jurisdictions will accept either score, witheach jurisdiction setting an expirationfor when it will no longer accept UBEscores. Also, like the UBE, the NextGenwill be graded by individual jurisdictions,with the NCBE providing the technologyplatform to conduct grading.

NextGen Bar takers can expect 40% of the exam to be multiple-choice questions, 25% to be integrated question sets, and approximately 35% to be devoted to longer performance tasks. So what foundational legal doctrines are examinees expected to know for the NextGen Bar Exam?

The NextGen Bar will test the following foundational concepts, with Family Law joining the group beginning in July 2028:

• Civil Procedure
• Contract Law
• Evidence
• Torts
• Business Associations
• Constitutional Law
• Criminal Law
• Real Property

Currently, the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) tests twelve foundational concepts. Absent from the NextGen Exam are Conflict of Laws, Family Law (until 2028), Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions. Importantly and confusingly, Trusts and Estates will remain on the NextGen through at least February 2028, but will only appear in performance tasks and multiple-choice questions.

The NCBE adjusted the content of the exam according to three criteria: frequency (likelihood of encountering the topic in general entry-level practice), universality (likelihood of encountering the topic in specialized entry-level practice), and risk (likelihood of serious consequences if a new attorney does not have knowledge of the topic). Reducing the number of topics tested allows for the NextGen exam to focus more on lawyering skills and less on memorization of infrequently used black- letter law.

Looking at the sample multiple-choice questions provided by the NCBE, it is not particularly clear how the questions themselves differ from current UBE questions (unfortunately, reproduction of the questions in this article is prohibited by the NCBE). However, the performance tasks and integrated question sets do take a new approach to testing legal doctrine by placing examinees in a hypothetical office and asking them to draft a memo to a partner or prepare advice for an upcoming client meeting.

How are law schools preparing students for the NextGen Exam? Seattle University School of Law is taking a proactive, instead of reactive, approach to training its students. Starting this year, 1Ls are required to take a Bar Exam skills course, and Bar Skills courses are offered for 3Ls geared towards the new kinds of questions on the NextGen. Given the shroud of secrecy currently shielding the NextGen Exam, law schools are limited in preparing students. Barbri and Themis, Bar Exam preparation companies, have assured students that they will be well prepared to succeed on the NextGen Exam regardless of which program they pick.

So, as part of the first class that will take the NextGen Bar, how do I feel about the exam? I am both excited and scared. Excited, of course, to have a shorter exam with less doctrine to memorize. Scared because jurisdictions have little data outside that provided by the NCBE pilot program as to how the NextGen translates to the practice of law, and whether it is an effective measure of jurisprudential literacy. I am also eager to tackle the more realistic legal questions presented in the performance tasks. This new subject area will feel familiar, at least to graduates of Seattle University, as timed “e-memos” make up a key part of our legal writing curriculum during 1L. As is true in being first at anything, there is uncertainty and anxiety galore.

How do you feel about the approach of the NextGen Bar Exam? If you had two applicants to pick from, one having taken the UBE and one the NextGen, which would you pick? I’d love to hear from local practitioners, so feel free to send your thoughts to me at leupoldo@seattleu.edu

Owen Leupold is a 2L at Seattle University of Law. He will be a Summer Associate at Gordon Thomas Honeywell in Tacoma beginning in May 2025.