We’ve got good news and bad news today out of Massachusetts, bar exam takers. The good news is The Bay State will be joining other states in administering the Uniform Bar Exam! The bad news … if you’re taking the bar exam this week, you’re out of luck. The UBE will be administered for the first time in July 2018.
Here’s the details, courtesy of The Massachusetts Bar Association:
The Justices of the Supreme Judicial Court have endorsed the recommendation of the Committee to Examine the Uniform Bar Examination (Committee) to adopt the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), with an effective date of July 2018. The Justices also endorsed the Committee’s recommendation that, beginning in July 2018, applicants for admission to the Massachusetts bar be required to complete a new local component program that will ensure that newly-licensed attorneys are familiar with key Massachusetts laws and procedures. The Court will appoint working groups to develop the Massachusetts law component and to prepare for the transition to the UBE.
The UBE is a uniformly administered, graded, and scored bar examination prepared by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The UBE produces a portable score that can be transferred to other UBE jurisdictions, subject to the applicant’s satisfying any additional requirements imposed by a jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction sets its own pass rate for the UBE. To date, 23 states and the District of Columbia have adopted the UBE. Eight of these jurisdictions have adopted a local law component.
The big question now is this: Which state will bring us past the halfway point? If you include Washington, D.C., we’re now at 25 jurisdictions on the #UBEWatch. The next one puts us at more than half the country’s bar exams.
Stay tuned, students! And good luck to our bar exam takers!