Press Release, NCBE Announces Update to NextGen Exam Content, Extends Availability of Current Bar Exam:
The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) announced today two important changes to plans for the NextGen bar exam, which is currently under development and will launch in July 2026.
In response to feedback from jurisdiction high courts, and after careful consideration by the NCBE Board of Trustees, NCBE has determined that family law will be added to the list of foundational concepts and principles to be tested on the NextGen exam beginning with the July 2028 administration. NCBE has begun the process of developing a subject matter outline for family law, which will be added to the NextGen Content Outlines currently available online. Doctrinal knowledge of family law will not be tested on the NextGen exam prior to the July 2028 administration.
NCBE is also announcing that, to help ensure a smooth transition for all jurisdictions, the current bar exam will remain available to jurisdictions through the February 2028 administration. The current exam and the NextGen exam will be offered concurrently for two full years, making the current UBE and its components—the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), Multistate Essay Exam (MEE), and Multistate Performance Test (MPT)—available through February 2028. …
As previously announced, starting in July 2026, conflict of laws, family law, trusts and estates, and secured transactions will not appear on the MEE component of the current bar exam but may still appear on the MPT.
Reuters, Current Bar Exam's Farewell Is Delayed Until 2028:
The current version of the bar exam won’t disappear in July 2027 after all.
The National Conference of Bar Examiners, which designs the national components of the test, said on Wednesday that it will continue to offer the existing Uniform Bar Exam through February 2028 while also offering the new Next Gen Bar Exam starting in July 2026. The NCBE said in September that the test in its current form would retire after the July 2027 exam.
The change means that states will have the option to use either bar exam for two years, after which the uniform exam will be retired, making the next gen version the only one available. The decision of which bar exam each state uses lies with individual state courts, bar associations or law examiners
