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Bar Examination Information

A bar examination is an examination conducted at regular intervals to determine whether a candidate is qualified to practice law in a given jurisdiction.

Contents

Brazil

In Brazil there is a bar examination that occurs in each State in March, September and January. These examinations are organized by Ordem dos Advogados do Brasil, the Brazilian Bar association. The exam is divided in two stages—the first one consists of 100 multiple choice questions covering all the disciplines learned at the University, where the candidate must answer at least 50 questions correctly. Being approved, the candidate must pass through the second part of the exam, consisting in five essay questions and the elaboration of a motion or opinion document, of a chosen discipline (Administrative Law, Civil Law, Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Labour Law, Criminal Law, or Tax Law, and their respective procedures), with a pass mark of 60%.

China, People's Republic of

Main article: State Judicial Exam

England and Wales

In England and Wales, the series of exams taken to become a barrister is sometimes known as Bar Vocational Course or BVC. These exams are usually taken as part of the BVC.

Etymology: The expression "call to the bar" is said[who?] to have originated from a conversation between two benchers in the smoking room of Inner Temple. Members sometimes cite "the conversation" to pupils admitted to Inner Temple. The details of the conversation are said to have been lost. Like Mornington Crescent "the conversation" is a red herring and has no formal content, and often leads to apocryphal embellishments.[citation needed]

Hungary

In Hungary, the Bar Examination is called "Jogi Szakvizsga", can be translated as "Legal Profession Examination". This exam is composed of three parts:

  1. Criminal Law, Criminal Procedural Law and Law of Criminal Enforcement
  2. Civil Law, Civil Procedural Law and Business Law
  3. Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Labor Law, Social Security Law and Law of the European Union.

After passing these exams the candidate can practice law as an attorney-at-law /barrister or as a secretary/judge at the court or as a prosecutor at the public prosecutor's office or in-house legal counsel or may operate individually at any field of law.

Ireland

The bar exams in Ireland are the preserve of the Honorable Society of King's Inns, which runs a series of fourteen exams over ten weeks, from March to June each year, for those enrolled as students in its one-year Barrister-at-Law degree course. These exams cover such skills as advocacy, research and opinion writing, consulting with clients, negotiation, drafting of legal documents and knowledge of civil and criminal procedure. For those who fail to meet the requisite 50% pass mark, repeats are held in the following August and September.

Malaysia

Main article: Certificate in Legal Practice (Malaysia)

Philippines

The Philippine Bar Examination is administered once every year during the four Sundays of September. It covers eight areas of law, namely: (1) Political Law, (2) Labor Law and Social Legislation, (3) Criminal Law, (4) Civil Law, (5) Commercial Law, (6) Taxation Law, (7) Remedial Law and (8) Legal ethics and practical exercises.

Poland

In Poland, the bar examination is taken after graduating from a law faculty at a university. It allows a person to undertake practise,[clarification needed] duration of which varies depending on the specialisation. After the practical period applicants pass the exam held by the Professional Chambers with some members of the Ministry of Justice assistance.

United States

It has been suggested that National Conference of Bar Examiners, Multistate Bar Examination, Multistate Essay Examination, Multistate Performance Test and Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
See also: Admission to the bar in the United States

Bar examinations in the United States are administered by agencies of individual states. In 1763, Delaware created the first bar exam with other American colonies soon following suit.[1] A state bar licensing agency is invariably associated with the judicial branch of government, because American attorneys are all officers of the court of the bar(s) to which they belong.

Sometimes the agency is an office or committee of the state's highest court or intermediate appellate court. In some states which have a unified or integrated bar association (meaning that formal membership in a public corporation controlled by the judiciary is required to practice law therein), the agency is either the state bar association or a subunit thereof. Other states split the integrated bar membership and the admissions agency into different bodies within the judiciary; in Texas, the Board of Law Examiners is appointed by the Texas Supreme Court and is independent from the integrated State Bar of Texas.

The bar examination in most U.S. states and territories is at least two days long (a few states have three-day exams)[2] and consists of:

Multistate standardized examinations

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) is a U.S. based non-profit organization that develops national standardized tests for admission to the bar in the United States. The organization was founded in 1931.[3] The best known exams developed by NCBE are the Multistate Bar Examination (1972), the Multistate Essay Examination (1988), the Multistate Performance Test (1997), and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (1980).[4]

Multistate Bar Examination

The Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is a standardized, multiple-choice examination created and sold to participating state bar examiners by the National Conference of Bar Examiners since 1972.[5] The MBE contains 200 questions which test six subjects based upon principles of common law and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (covering sales of goods) that apply throughout the United States.

Multistate Essay Examination

The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) is a collection of essay questions largely concerning the common law administered as a part of the bar examination in 26 jurisdictions of the United States.[6]

The MEE can cover any of the following areas:[7][8]

MEE questions are actually drafted by the NCBE Drafting Committee, with the assistance of outside academics and practitioners who are experts in the fields being tested. After initial drafting, the questions are pretested, analyzed by outside experts and a separate NCBE committee, reviewed by boards of bar examiners in the jurisdictions that use the test, and then revised by the Drafting Committee in accordance with the results of this process. Each MEE question is accompanied by a grading guide, and the NCBE sponsors a grading workshop on the weekend following the bar exam whose results are provided to bar examiners.[9]

The examination is always administered on a single day of the bar examination, specifically the day before the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). Through February 2007, the NCBE consisted of seven questions, with most jurisdictions selecting six of the seven questions to administer. Unlike the MBE, which is graded and scored by the NCBE, the MEE is graded exclusively by the jurisdiction that administers the bar examination. Each jurisdiction has the choice of grading MEE questions according to general U.S. common law or the jurisdiction's own law.[7]

The MEE is generally partnered with the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), a written performance test developed by the NCBE and used in 33 U.S. jurisdictions.[10]

Multistate Performance Test

The Multistate Performance Test (MPT) is a written examination administered as a part of the bar examination in 33 jurisdictions of the United States. Generally, a performance test is intended to mimic a real-life legal task that future lawyers may face.[10][11] The test was first created in 1997.[4] The NCBE summarizes the goal of the MPT as follows:[9]

“ The MPT is not a test of substantive knowledge. Rather, it is designed to examine six fundamental skills lawyers are expected to demonstrate regardless of the area of law in which the skills arise. The MPT requires applicants to (1) sort detailed factual materials and separate relevant from irrelevant facts; (2) analyze statutory, case, and administrative materials for principles of law; (3) apply the law to the relevant facts in a manner likely to resolve a client's problem; (4) identify and resolve ethical dilemmas, when present; (5) communicate effectively in writing; (6) complete a lawyering task within time constraints. ”

The required tasks may include writing a legal memorandum, drafting an affidavit, or drafting a settlement offer letter to opposing counsel. Each test includes what NCBE calls a "File" and a "Library". The File contains source documents detailing all facts of the case, plus a memorandum from a supervising attorney detailing the task required. The File will include relevant and irrelevant facts, and often facts may be ambiguous, incomplete, or contradictory. The Library includes cases, statutes, regulations, and rules, which may or may not be relevant, but are sufficient to complete the required task.[12]

The tests are actually drafted by an NCBE committee with expertise in developing performance tests. After initial drafting, the questions are pretested, analyzed by outside experts, reviewed by boards of bar examiners in the jurisdictions that use the test, and then revised by the drafting committee in accordance with the results of this process. Each individual test is accompanied by a grading guide, and the NCBE sponsors a grading workshop on the weekend following the bar exam whose results are provided to bar examiners.[9]

The MPT is always administered on a single day of the bar examination, specifically the day before the MBE. This means that it is administered on the same day as the MEE. Jurisdictions are provided two separate MPT tests, each designed to require 90 minutes in all, and may choose to require examinees to work one or both tests.[11]

Because of this scheduling fact, the MPT is more often than not administered alongside the MEE, an essay test developed by the NCBE and used in 19 U.S. jurisdictions.[13]

Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination

In almost all jurisdictions, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), an ethics exam, is also administered by the NCBE, which creates it and grades it. The MPRE is offered three times a year, in March, August and November.

Non-standardized examinations

A majority of U.S. jurisdictions also require a performance test, which is intended to be a more realistic measure of actual lawyering skill. The candidate is presented with a stack of documents representing a fictional case and is asked to draft a memorandum, motion, or opinion document. Many jurisdictions use the Multistate Performance Test (MPT), which was first created in 1997, while California and Pennsylvania draft and administer their own performance tests.

NCBE has developed a Uniform Bar Examination (UBE), which consists solely of the MBE, MEE, and MPT, and offers portability of scores across state lines. Missouri became the first state to adopt the UBE with the first UBE test to be administered in Missouri in February 2011.[14] Following Missouri's lead, several other jurisdictions, all of which were among the 22 that already were using all three components of the UBE, are expected to adopt that examination. However, many of the largest legal markets—New York, California, the District of Columbia, Florida, Illinois, and Texas—have so far chosen not to consider a change to the UBE in the near future. However, given Illinois' proximity to Missouri and shared market for St. Louis lawyers, the state is currently pondering adopting the UBE, and would thus becoming the first of the "big market" states to adopt the test.[15] Among the concerns cited with the adoption of the UBE were its absence of questions on state law and the fact that it would give the NCBE much greater power in the bar credentialing process.[16]

When exams occur

Each state controls when it administers its bar exam. Because the MBE is a standardized test, it must be administered on the same day across the country. That day occurs twice a year as the last Wednesday in July and the last Wednesday in February. Two states, Delaware and North Dakota, administer their bar exams only once, in July, since they do not have enough applicants to merit a second sitting. Most bar exams are administered on consecutive days. Louisiana is the exception, with the Louisiana Bar Exam being a three-day examination on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, Louisiana's examination is the longest in the country in terms of examination time, with seven hours on Monday and Wednesday and seven and one half hours on Friday for a total of 21.5 hours of testing.

The MEE and MPT, as uniform though not standardized tests, also must be administered on the same day across the country—specifically the day before the MBE.

Preparation for the exam

Most law schools teach students common law and how to analyze hypothetical fact patterns like a lawyer, but do not specifically prepare law students for any particular bar exam. Only a minority of law schools offer bar preparation courses.

To refresh their memory on "black-letter rules" tested on the bar, most students engage in a regimen of study (called "bar review") between graduating from law school and sitting for the bar.[17] For bar review, most students in the United States attend a private bar exam review course which is provided by a third-party company and not their law school.[18]

Controversy

Arguments against bar exams

A statement by the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)[19] articulates many criticisms of the bar exam. The SALT statement, however, does propose some alternative methods of bar admission that are partially test-based. This statement was also published in 54 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 442–458.

Arguments in favor of bar exams

The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) regularly provides articles relating to the bar examination process.

Arguments for alternatives to the bar exam

The NCBE published an article in 2005 addressing alternatives to the bar exam, including a discussion of the Daniel Webster Scholar Honors Program, an alternate certification program introduced at Franklin Pierce Law Center in New Hampshire in that year.

See also

References

  1. ^ California Bar Background information, accessed April 21, 2009
  2. ^ William Burnham, Introduction to the Law and Legal System of the United States, 4th ed. (St. Paul: Thomson West, 2006), 135.
  3. ^ Official Homepage (accessed April 21, 2009)
  4. ^ a b Bar Admissions statistics PDF (accessed April 21, 2009)
  5. ^ Bar Admissions background, PDF
  6. ^ "Jurisdictions Using the MEE in 2010". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mee/mee-faqs/jurisdictions-using-the-mee/. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
  7. ^ a b "Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mee/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  8. ^ "Description of the MEE". http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mee/mee-faqs/description-of-the-mee/. Retrieved 2009-06-13. "The Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)...inaugurated in July 1988"
  9. ^ a b c "Why Jurisdictions May Want to Implement the MEE". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mee/mee-faqs/why-implement-the-mee/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  10. ^ a b "Jurisdictions Using the MPT in 2007". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mpt/mpt-faqs/jurs1/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  11. ^ a b "The Multistate Performance Test (MPT)". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mpt/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  12. ^ "Description of the MPT". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mpt/mpt-faqs/why/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  13. ^ "Jurisdictions Using the MEE in 2007". National Conference of Bar Examiners. http://www.ncbex.org/multistate-tests/mee/mee-faqs/jurisdictions-using-the-mee/. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  14. ^ [1]
  15. ^ [2]
  16. ^ Jones, Leigh (2009-10-12). "Uniform Bar Exam Drawing Closer to Reality". The National Law Journal. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202434472731&Uniform_Bar_Examination_Drawing_Closer_to_Reality. Retrieved 2009-11-23.
  17. ^ Mark E. Steiner, "International Conference on Legal Education Reform: Cram Schooled", 24 Wis. Int'l L.J. 377, 392 (2006). This article contrasts American bar review courses against the 18-month cram schools used in Japan, Germany, Korea, and Taiwan, and argues that the short length of American bar review is due to the superior pedagogical methods of American law schools and the American tradition of relatively easy access to the legal profession (in comparison to most countries).
  18. ^ Wayne L. Anderson and Marilyn J. Headrick, The Legal Profession: Is it for you? (Cincinnati: Thomson Executive Press, 1996), 103.
  19. ^ SALT

External links

Categories: Legal profession exams

 

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