Nevada’s New Bar Exam - The Nevada Plan - Overview of the three-part licensing assessment

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Liam

Nevada’s bar licensing approach is being redesigned to improve how minimum competence is measured. After the Nevada Bar Study found limited correlation between Multistate Bar Examination performance and measures of lawyer effectiveness, the Nevada Supreme Court created a Bar Licensing Commission and task forces. The final “Nevada Plan” adds a three-prong process: a Foundational Law Exam, a Lawyering Performance Exam, and a supervised practice requirement, with a phased transition timeline beginning in 2026 through 2027.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages3

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

The rationale for Nevada’s new bar exam

Findings from the Nevada Bar Study

Commission and task force recommendations

The three-part Nevada Plan

Foundational Law Exam (FLE)

Lawyering Performance Exam

Supervised Practice requirement

Transition timeline and implementation

October 2025 • Nevada Lawyer 8 Nevada’s New Bar Exam: The Nevada Plan BY RICHARD TRACHOK, ESQ., CHAIR, NEVADA BOARD OF BAR EXAMINERS The landscape of legal competence assessment has undergone significant evolution, prompting states, including Nevada, to reconsider traditional methods. Central to this effort was an evaluation of whether longstanding reliance on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE)1 truly served as an accurate indicator of a candidate’s readiness to practice law. The Nevada Bar Study, completed in early 2022, showed little correlation between performance on the MBE and traditional measures of lawyer effectiveness, prompting Nevada tore-examine its licensing process. On March 9, 2022, the Nevada Supreme Court established the Bar Licensing Commission to study “the issues and concerns arising from the methodology and administration of the bar examination and the licensing procedures of attorneys within the State of Nevada.” The commission sought input from the bench, bar, and law schools. Upon completion of the study, the commission submitted its report to the court on February 13, 2023, recommending that bar licensing includes a three-prong approach: a multiple-choice exam covering the seven foundational subjects,2 a performance exam modeled after the Nevada Performance Test, and a supervised practice requirement. At the commission’s request, the court created two task forces to provide concrete steps to implement the commission’s recommendations. The court’s and the commission’s goal was to design a licensing process that aligned more closely with the practical skills and ethical considerations required of modern legal professionals. The two task forces, the Foundational Subject Requirement and Performance Test Implementation Task Force, chaired by Dean Joan Howarth, and the Supervised Practice Task Force chaired by John Desmond, quickly went to work. The task forces submitted their final recommendations in their April 1, 2024, joint report. The court supported the task forces’ recommendations subject to receiving a detailed implementation plan. The task forces submitted the plan to the court on March 26, 2025. The final recommendations called for three requirements: 1) a 100-question, multiple-choice exam on the seven foundational law subjects, which can be taken after 42 credits of a J.D. curriculum; 2) a lawyering performance exam comprised of three, two-hour Nevada Performance Tests based on the Nevada Performance Test that has been offered in Nevada since July 2020; and 3) a supervised practice requirement. Included in the implementation plan was the development plan for creating the Foundational Law Exam (FLE), the financing for the Nevada Plan development and roll out, and the structure of the supervised practice component. The court approved the Nevada Plan in its order of May 23, 2025. The Nevada Board of Bar Examiners believes the Nevada Plan is an improved measure of determining minimum competence that will better serve clients’ interests. The FLE will focus on 140 foundational legal concepts (20 foundational principles of law from each of the seven foundational subjects) required for a competent practitioner and will test these principles closer to the time the students take the courses in law school. That timing supports a greater likelihood that the material will be retained by the student because the exam will reinforce knowledge tested in courses taken less than a year prior. Contrast this situation with the current exam, testing material almost three years, sometimes more, after the subject is taken in law school and testing on dozens of principles of law that fall outside the scope of these foundational principles. Students who graduate law school in 2026 will be the last group to take the Nevada Bar Exam in its current form: two, two-hour Nevada Performance Test questions; six, one-hour essay questions, both developed by the Nevada Board of Bar Examin

FAQs

Why did Nevada reconsider the existing bar exam approach?

Nevada’s Bar Study showed little correlation between performance on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) and traditional measures of lawyer effectiveness, prompting changes to the licensing process.

What are the three requirements in the Nevada Plan?

The plan includes a Foundational Law Exam (100-question multiple-choice on seven foundational subjects), a Lawyering Performance Exam based on Nevada Performance Tests, and a supervised practice requirement.

When will the new exams take effect in Nevada?

Qualified students can begin supervised practice in January 2026, the current bar exam continues in February 2026, the first Foundational Law Exam is offered in May 2026, and the first Lawyering Performance Exam begins in January 2027.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Liam