New York will give new bar exam in July 2028

By Karen Sloan

Jan 9 (Reuters) - New York said on Wednesday that it will use a new version of the bar exam for lawyers' admission to practice starting in July 2028.

The revamped bar exam, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, will become the licensing test for about 14,000 law school graduates who sit for New York's exam each year. New York licenses more lawyers each year than any other jurisdiction.

The decision to adopt the new test was made by the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court, and brings New York in line with 29 other states and jurisdictions that have announced the switch to NextGen, which will begin rolling out in July 2026. The National Conference of Bar Examiners provides the current version of the bar exam used by nearly all U.S. states.

The NextGen bar exam is the first major redesign of the national lawyer licensing test in 25 years. The National Conference of Bar Examiners began developing it in 2021 with the goal of creating a test that emphasizes legal skills and relies less on the memorization of laws.

It does away with the three separate components of the current test — the 200-question, multiple-choice Multistate Bar Exam, the Multistate Essay Exam and the Multistate Performance Test. It will also be shorter, at nine hours, compared with the current 12-hour test, and will be given entirely on computers. Scores on the NextGen test can be transferred for bar admission in other states. States will continue to set their own passing scores, however.

States can choose to switch to the NextGen bar exam as early as July 2026 or as late as July 2028. The National Conference of Bar Examiners will stop offering its current exam following the February 2028 administration.

Thus far, only California and Nevada have said they will not use the NextGen bar exam. California is developing its own bar exam based on the current test that will debut in February and can be administered remotely. Nevada is developing an alternative lawyer licensing process that includes a supervised practice requirement.

Nine states, including Florida and Virginia, have joined New York in moving to the NextGen test in July 2028. Illinois has announced it will give the new test but has not released its timeline.

The New York Court of Appeals also said on Wednesday that it has formed a committee to study and present options for a New York-specific bar exam component in addition to the new test.

Read more:

Overhauled bar exam approved by majority of U.S. jurisdictions

California finalizes deal to give its own bar exam

(Reporting by Karen Sloan)

((Karen.Sloan@thomsonreuters.com;))