California Supreme Court approves adoption of NextGen Uniform Bar Exam
The California Supreme Court has approved adoption of the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam.(Image from Shutterstock)
The California Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a State Bar of California recommendation replacing the current General Bar Exam with the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam beginning in July 2028. The decision follows a messy rollout of the state’s attempt to create its own exam.
The court also directed the State Bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners to submit a proposal for a California-specific test component to accompany the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen exam. The Committee of Bar Examiners was given a Feb. 26, 2027 deadline. The California-specific test is slated to begin in July 2029. Therefore for one year, individuals sitting for the state bar exam will not have to take a California-specific test component.
If adopted by the court, the California-specific component would test areas of California law and may include subjects currently covered, as well as state employment law and family law.
The California Supreme Court specified in its order that the bar exam will continue to be administered in-person on the last Tuesdays in February and July each year. The length of each session, the order of testing and the overall length of the exam may be modified for applicants who have been granted certain testing accommodations, the court said in its order.
In May, the State Bar of California’s board of trustees unanimously voted to recommend to the California Supreme Court that the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen exam be administered starting in July 2028.
The rush to make changes to California’s bar exam process can be traced to the state’s failed February 2025 administration of a new, proprietary exam written by test prep company Kaplan and administered by Meazure Learning that experienced a host of troubles.
After that, the California Supreme Court ordered a return to the NCBE’s Multistate Bar Examination until the organization sunsets the UBE in 2028. Under California law, there must be at least a notice of two years before the state can make substantial changes to how the exam is administered.
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