By Ramy Khadra
On January 23rd, 2026, the State Bar of California voted to consider multiple options for the 2028 California State Bar exam. The primary consideration is the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ (NCBE) NextGen Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), without a California specific component. This decision followed a long year of controversy and criticism stemming from the widely criticized 2025 February Bar exam, which resulted in the State Bar of California filing a lawsuit against the distributors of the exam. The current California Bar exam heavily relies on the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE), which the NCBE has stated will be phased out by 2028. Since the NCBE plans to replace the current bar exam by 2028, states that rely on NCBE components, like California, must now evaluate whether to adopt the NextGen UBE, or design their own alternative.
While NextGen UBE was the primary consideration during deliberations, the State Bar must consider other options as well. These options include the development of a new California Bar exam consistent with the Supreme Court’s October 2024 directive, during the development of which they would revert back to using Kaplan services to administer the exams until 2028. The State Bar will also consider a new California exam which would follow the Nevada model to reduce California’s reliance on NCBE materials and make the exam more customizable for California law.
This decision follows the State Bar’s extensive surveying to determine the best course of action for the state. In November of 2025, the State Bar began surveying California law school deans, and extended this survey to the Board and CBE in December 2025. Finally in January 2026, the State Bar extended the scope even further to include current licensees, current and prospective applicants who registered with the state bar in the past 5 years, and a plethora of legal organizations within California. The State Bar received nearly fourteen thousand responses. Of the ABA accredited law schools and deans who were surveyed, a majority still preferred a California-specific component within the new NextGen UBE. This suggests that although interested parties are in favor of modernization, many institutions are still reluctant to completely abandon longstanding California Bar exam traditions.
The Board of Trustees also approved implementation of new business requirements and a new rubric for assessing future exam administrators. This move was intended to prevent a repeat of the numerous pitfalls that plagued the February 2025 exam. These requirements outlined expectations for technical capabilities, security, candidate experiences, and implementation. This rubric will allow the State Bar to score potential vendors in order to make a more informed and reliable decision when selecting exam administrators.
Altogether, these developments mark a potential turning point for the California Bar Exam. Over the next few years, the Board of Trustees must decide whether the State Bar should preserve its historically independent structure, or to move towards a more nationally inclusive approach. This decision will not only determine how attorneys are admitted in California but may have a lasting impact on California’s accessibility and mobility for attorneys across the country.