MD law schools prepare for new bar exam rollout

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Maryland’s two law schools will be among the first in the nation to adopt a new bar exam next year.

The NextGen exam, designed to assess law graduates’ grasp of practical legal skills instead of their ability to memorize legal doctrine, focuses on core competencies such as negotiation, legal research and client counseling.

“The traditional focus of the bar exam has been, in large part, to test the general knowledge base of law school graduates,” said Micah J. Yarbrough, director of bar programs at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. “The NextGen aims to move the needle even farther toward aptitude assessment. The goals are to license more practice-ready applicants prepared to take on the challenges of the modern-day practitioner.”

While the new exam aligns with law schools’ increased focus on experiential, or practical, learning, the two Maryland law schools also will adjust some course offerings to better jibe with the test questions.

“Maryland Carey Law’s curriculum is already quite robust in the areas that will be tested on the NextGen bar exam,” said Deborah Thompson Eisenberg, vice dean and Piper & Marbury professor of law. “One adjustment will be ensuring that we have adequate course offerings for subjects not previously tested on the bar exam, such as negotiation and dispute resolution.”

Law professors are also modifying their teaching approaches.

“Many faculty review the content scope outlines when developing their syllabi for doctrinal courses tested on the bar exam,” Eisenberg said. “Our legal research faculty have been assessing how to redesign their curriculum to meet the needs of students for the NextGen and for other rapidly evolving aspects of modern legal practice.”

Neal Kempler, professor of the practice and director of bar success at the University of Baltimore School of Law, noted that legal writing courses have been restructured to better align with the NextGen exam’s emphasis on practical skills.

“We started a couple of years ago by looking at some major curriculum reform,” Kempler said, highlighting a move to have the school’s legal writing program taught by experts in writing for the legal profession.

Despite the law schools’ efforts to prepare students, uncertainty remains about how the NextGen exam will affect bar passage rates.

“ ‘Concerned’ is an understatement in regard to the adoption and rollout of the NextGen exam,” Yarbrough said. “For everyone involved, this is a brand-new step toward what we hope is improved and fair testing and forecasting the success of new practitioners.”

Kempler is not worried about a decline in UBalt Law’s bar-passage rate.

“I don’t think pass rates will change dramatically,” Kempler said. “Changing the format doesn’t change student competency. The test makers need to make sure the exam is valid. The writing and the exam questions get scaled to the multiple-choice scores, so they are still measuring the competency of the group.”

Two challenges for law schools are the lack of NextGen practice questions and a dearth of detailed information about grading and portability, or test takers’ ability to transfer their scores to different states.

“There are still some unknowns,” Kempler said.

Said Maryland Carey Law’s Yarbrough: “It’s hard to hit a bull’s-eye on a moving target.”

Law school administrators advise students to stay informed and adaptable.

“First, students should not panic. There are guardrails in place,” Yarbrough said. “Second, students should stay informed to the best of their ability. Third, students should remain flexible because the exam is likely to be revised as it is administered. We saw this with the (Uniform Bar Examination).”

Despite some skepticism, many legal educators see the move to the new exam as a positive step.

“I think the shift away from rote memorization toward a more analytic approach that combines doctrinal knowledge and foundational lawyering skills is a positive step for the bar exam,” Eisenberg said. “This hopefully leads to more innovative law teaching that integrates legal doctrine, legal theory and practical applied skills.”

The two Maryland law schools are set to administer the new exam in 2026, joining law schools in Connecticut, Guam, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon and Washington state, according to the National Conference of Bar Examiners.