Uniform Bar Examination

The Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) is a standardized bar examination, developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE). It consists solely of the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE), the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), and Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and offers portability of scores across state lines. As of October 2016, the Uniform Bar Exam has been adopted in 25 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, the American Bar Association also endorsed the UBE at its 2016 Midyear Meeting.

Missouri became the first state to adopt the UBE; both that state and North Dakota were the first to administer the UBE, doing so in February 2011. Following Missouri's lead, several other jurisdictions, all of which were among the 22 that already were using all three components of the UBE, are expected to adopt that examination. However, many of the largest legal markets – California, Florida, Illinois, and Texas – have so far chosen not to adopt the UBE. New York began using the UBE in the summer of 2016, as did the District of Columbia. South Carolina, Connecticut and New Jersey began using the UBE in February 2017. Maine, West Virginia, and the Virgin Islands will begin using the UBE in July 2017. Massachusetts will begin using the UBE in July 2018, bringing the total number of jurisdictions using the UBE to 28 (26 states plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands). Among the concerns cited with the adoption of the UBE were its absence of questions on state law and the fact that it would give the NCBE much greater power in the bar credentialing process.

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a standardized, multiple-choice examination created and sold to participating state bar examiners.

It is administered on a single day of the bar examination in 49 states and the District of Columbia, as well as in Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Republic of Palau. The only state that does not administer the MBE is Louisiana, which follows a civil law system slightly different from the law in other states. The MBE is given twice a year: on the last Wednesday of July in all jurisdictions that require that examination, and on the last Wednesday of February in the same jurisdictions, except for Delaware and North Dakota.

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