... And Texas Could Make 35

Over the past six months, several states announced the adoption of the Uniform Bar Exam, with another state, Texas, recently announcing that its state supreme court has accepted the recommendation of a task force to accept the UBE beginning with the February 2021 examination, pending a public comment period that ends in December.

In 2017, a total of 27 jurisdictions administered the UBE: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming, and Virgin Islands.

One additional state, Massachusetts, administered the UBE for the first time in 2018, bringing the total to 28 jurisdictions.

Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Tennessee—who all announced the adoption of the UBE this year—plan to administer the UBE for the first time in 2019, bringing the total to 33 jurisdictions. Ohio will increase the total to 34 jurisdictions when it administers the UBE in 2020. And, if—or, more likely, when—Texas adopts the UBE after the notice-and-comment period, the total number of jurisdictions will jump to 35, and that is assuming no other jurisdictions jumps on board in the meantime.

The UBE has come a long way since Missouri became the first jurisdiction to adopt the UBE in 2010, and with the first three jurisdictions (Missouri, Alabama, and North Dakota) administering the UBE for the first time in 2011.

The UBE is created and licensed to jurisdictions by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The two-day test is composed of the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), two Multistate Performance Test (MPT) tasks, and the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). It is uniformly administered, graded, and scored by UBE jurisdictions and results in a portable score that can be transferred to other UBE jurisdictions.

So, what is giving rise to the increased interests by jurisdictions adopting the UBE?

You can probably point to New York as the reason for the increased number of states adopting and forming various task forces to examine the feasibility of adopting the UBE.

New York announced in 2015 that it had adopted the UBE and that it would first administer the UBE starting with the July 2016 examination.

In 2014, only 14 jurisdictions administered the UBE, with no new jurisdictions signing up in 2015. But 2016 saw more than a 40% increase in the number of jurisdictions administering the UBE. In addition to New York, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, and Vermont started administering the UBE the same year.

Given New York’s prominence in the legal world and its large number of bar examinees—in 2017, more than 14,000 applicants sat for the bar exam, which equals about 10% of the total examinee population that year—most people expected the move by The Empire State to result in a “domino effect” with the remaining states.

And to an extent, it has.

Using 2017 statistics from the National Conference of Bar Examiners, only 7,223 examinees sat for the UBE in the 14 jurisdictions that had adopted the exam by 2015.

However, 2016 saw a massive jump of more than 200% in the number of examinees sitting for the UBE when 23,778 examinees sat for the UBE in the 20 jurisdictions that had adopted the exam by 2016, again using 2017 statistics from the National Conference of Bar

In 2017, 27,352 examinees sat for the bar exam in 27 UBE jurisdictions. Using 2017 statistics, that number will increase to 29,224 in 2018 (with the addition of Massachusetts); 36,441 in 2019 (with the addition of Illinois, Maryland, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Tennessee); 37,813 in 2020 (with the addition of Ohio); and more than 42,000 in 2021 with the likely addition of Texas.

Taking the likely adoption of the UBE by Texas into account, the number of examinees taking the bar exam in jurisdictions administering the UBE will make up 59% of the total examinee population in all jurisdictions, based on 2017 statistics. In 2017, 70,757 first-time and repeat takers sat for the February 2017 and July 2017 bar exam.

Looking at the remaining jurisdictions, which is most likely to move to the UBE?

If Texas adopts the UBE—which could happen by the end of the year—states surrounding the Lone Star State, including Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, could seriously consider following Texas’ lead.

After all, that was the case with New York when Connecticut, Vermont, and New Jersey quickly adopted the UBE after New York’s announcement.

What about the two most populous states that have not yet adopted the UBE—California and Florida? The addition of these two states to the existing UBE jurisdictions (and Texas) would represent 84% of all examinees. However, I see no indication that either of these states will make any announcement in the near future.

History of Jurisdictions Administering the Uniform Bar Exam

2011 – 3 (Alabama, Missouri, and North Dakota)

2012 – 6 (addition of Arizona, Colorado, and Idaho)

2013 – 11 (addition of Montana, Nebraska, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming)

2014 – 14 (addition of Alaska, Minnesota, and New Hampshire)

2015 – 14 (no new jurisdictions)

2016 – 20 (addition of District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont)

2017 – 27 (addition of Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, South Carolina, Virgin Islands, and West Virginia)

2018 – 28 (addition of Massachusetts)

2019 – 33 (addition of North Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, Illinois, Rhode Island)

2020 – 34 (addition of Ohio)

2021 – 35 (potential addition of Texas)