Legal Research

Via Betsy McKenzie at Out of the Jungle: A recent report in stltoday.com indicates that Missouri has become the first state to adopt a plan to create a single bar exam for lawyers who want to practice anywhere in the United States. Lex Universal also has a write-up of the story. Missouri plans to have the exam ready for those sitting for the bar in February 2011.

Both the American Bar Association and the National Conference of Bar Examiners have signed off on the idea. The test might be universal, but passing the new exam will not mean automatic admission to every state bar in the U.S. First, states have to affirmatively sign on to participate. Then, each participating state will be able to set its own passing grade, as well as other state-specific bar admission policies. According to the stltoday article, several states are considering adopting the uniform bar exam. Lex Universal, citing USAToday, names Arizona, Colorado, North Dakota, and Washington, D.C. as potential adopters.