Notice - Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee on the "NextGen" Bar Examination - Request for Comment – Comments Requested by March 19, 2025

The New Jersey Supreme Court created the Ad Hoc Committee on the “NextGen” Bar Examination to review and recommend to the Court whether New Jersey should adopt the NextGen exam as a replacement for the state’s existing bar examination format.

The Court has administered the current exam -- the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) -- since February 2017. The UBE is created by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (the NCBE) and contains several professionally developed testing components. Beyond assessing competency to practice law, the UBE provides the additional benefit of portable scores that can be used in applications for admission in the forty plus jurisdictions that administer the UBE.

Following a three-year study to ensure that the bar exam continues to test the knowledge, skills, and abilities required for competent entry-level legal practice, the NCBE has announced that it will be providing a newly refined bar exam. The NCBE will stop producing all components of the UBE after the February 2028 bar exam administration and thereafter will offer only the NextGen exam. Also, distinct parts of the NextGen exam will not be available for separate use; the test must be used as a whole. Thus, there will no longer be available a multi-state examination component that may be combined with a locally developed bar exam. The Supreme Court has charged the Ad Hoc Committee with studying the NextGen exam, elevating public awareness of the issue and decision-point faced by the Court, soliciting input from stakeholders and the public, and, ultimately, submitting a report setting forth their views and a recommendation on whether New Jersey should adopt for use the NextGen exam.

With that as its charge, the Ad Hoc Committee hereby requests written comments from the legal community and interested members of the public. Comments may be sent by March 19, to the Ad Hoc Committee on the NextGen Bar Examination, Attention: Committee Staff Karen June, Supreme Court Clerk’s Office, Richard J. Hughes Justice Complex, P.O. Box 973, Trenton, New Jersey, 08625-0973. Comments may also be submitted via e-mail to the following address: Comments.Mailbox@njcourts.gov

 Those submitting comments by mail should include their name and address, and those submitting comments by e-mail should include their name and e-mail address. The Ad Hoc Committee will not consider comments submitted anonymously. Comments are subject to public disclosure.

Justice Jaynee LaVecchia (retired), Chair
Ad Hoc Committee on the NextGen Bar Examination