Is The National Conference Of Bar Examiners Losing Power?

ABA Journal, Is the National Conference of Bar Examiners Losing Power?:

As the National Conference of Bar Examiners sunsets the Uniform Bar Exam in 2028, other pathways to practice outside of its exam offerings are emerging, leaving some to question the NCBE’s hold on controlling licensure.

California is moving forward with plans to develop a propriety exam with Kaplan North America, and Oregon and Washington are adding new pathways to the bar that don’t require an exam. That means fewer bar candidates will be taking NCBE-created exams.

“The NCBE has had a huge amount of power in the last 30 years,” says Ohio State University Moritz College of Law professor emerita Deborah Jones Merritt. “There clearly are now some competitors, and there may be more. In that sense, NCBE is losing power.”

Currently, 41 of 57 jurisdictions use all or a portion of the NCBE-created UBE. To date, 23 jurisdictions have signed up for the NCBE-created NextGen exam, launching in 2026.

“They basically have control of the market—and that’s the problem,” says Marsha Griggs, associate professor at the Saint Louis University School of Law and president of the Association of Academic Support Educators. “The problem isn’t necessarily the NCBE itself—the problem is that the states and the state supreme courts let us get to this place.”

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