The State Bar of California plans to administer its own bar exam as early as February 2025, parting ways with the national attorney licensing test. On Thursday, the state bar’s board of trustees authorized officials to finalize and execute an $8.25 million, five-year contract with Kaplan Test Prep to develop bar exam questions. This decision ensures that California, which has the second-largest number of bar examinees in the country behind New York, will not switch to the new version of the national bar exam set to debut in July 2026, which 21 other jurisdictions have adopted.
The state bar projects that administering its own bar exam will save up to $4 million annually. This cost-saving measure comes from the ability to conduct the exam remotely or in small test centers, eliminating the expense of renting large event spaces twice a year. In contrast, the NextGen bar exam, the national test under development by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, will only be available in person.
The arm of the California bar that handles attorney admissions faces insolvency and projects a nearly $4 million revenue shortfall this year. After the vote, board of trustees chair Brandon Stallings highlighted that the bar exam plan allows aspiring California lawyers to become licensed in a way that considers the changing landscape of access and provides the state bar with the flexibility to meet those challenges.
Kaplan, which will stop providing commercial bar prep in California under the proposed agreement, declined to comment. In May, the national conference raised copyright concerns about Kaplan developing multiple-choice questions for California similar to those on its Multistate Bar Exam (MBE). This concern delayed the state bar trustees’ vote on the final contract. Special counsel Bridget Gramme informed the board on Thursday that state bar staff has continued working with Kaplan on the proposal and believes they have addressed those copyright concerns.
A national conference spokesperson stated on Friday that the organization has not seen the proposed agreement’s terms. “Having communicated our concerns to Kaplan and the state bar, we assume that any new examination developed by Kaplan will respect our contract and intellectual property rights,” the spokesperson said.
The proposal calls for Kaplan to start producing multiple-choice questions for the February 2025 exam and begin writing essay questions and performance tests in 2026, according to Gramme.
