This month, California passed three new laws to improve monitoring of the state’s bar exam and investigate the reasons for the breakdown of its February attorney license exam.
The State Bar of California’s Committee of Bar Examiners must give two years’ notice before moving from in-person to online testing, and eighteen months’ notice before switching the vendor that provides the exam’s multiple-choice questions. This is the most comprehensive of those bills, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on Tuesday. Additionally, if artificial intelligence is used to generate exam questions or in grading, the state bar must notify the public.
In reaction to the state’s disastrous February test, California Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Tom Umberg supported the bill, which would lock the state bar within its conventional bar exam format and substance through 2027.
In place of the long-used Multistate Bar Exam created by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the state bar expedited the creation of a hybrid online and in-person February bar exam with multiple-choice questions created by Kaplan Exam Services.
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Lawmakers Push for Transparency After February Bar Exam Failure
Although it was anticipated that the transition would save the state bar up to $3.8 million a year, the February test was plagued with several technological issues, which have cost the bar upwards of $6 million to fix. In July, California resumed in-person testing of the MBE.
On October 1, Newsom signed a separate bill filed by Umberg that mandates an audit of the February bar exam by the California State Auditor, with the state bar covering the cost. The California Supreme Court and state legislators must get that audit “as soon as possible.”
The two proposals “will provide public insight into what happened and perhaps ensure that all subsequent bar exams are administered fairly and competently,” Umberg stated on Wednesday. The state bar did not immediately respond, but when its Committee of Bar Examiners meets on Friday, it will likely examine some of the recently passed laws.
Before changing the bar exam, the state bar’s Committee of Bar Examiners must do a cost-benefit study and determine whether California should switch from the existing state-specific bar exam to a uniform one that is accepted by other states, according to the final bill that was signed into law this month. The National Conference of Bar Examiners’ UBE is currently the only uniform bar exam available; however, it will be replaced in July by the NextGen UBE.
California Considers Transition to NextGen Uniform Bar Exam
The NextGen UBE, the first significant revision to the national bar exam in 25 years, was previously rejected by the state bar. The goal of the revised test is to place less emphasis on memorizing the law and more on actual legal abilities. As of right now, 45 states and jurisdictions have declared their intention to implement the NextGen UBE.
