The Palau Bar Admissions Committee (“PBAC”) has voted to adopt the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam (NextGen UBE) beginning in July 2026. Palau will join Guam, the Northern Marianas Islands, and seven other United States jurisdictions in becoming among the first to administer the NextGen UBE. In total, 44 jurisdictions across the United States and its territories have announced plans to adopt the NextGen exam in the next three years.
The NextGen UBE is being developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), which currently develops bar exam content for 54 of 56 U.S. jurisdictions. Like Palau, the highest court in each U.S. jurisdiction has authority over the admission of attorneys to practice in its courts, aided by its own bar admissions agency. The NextGen UBE will serve as the basis for score portability between participating jurisdictions.
Designed to reflect the work performed by newly licensed attorneys, the NextGen UBE will test nine areas of legal doctrine (civil procedure, contract law, evidence, torts, business associations, constitutional law, criminal law, real property, family law) and seven foundational lawyering skills (legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, client relationship and management). Tenets of attorney ethics will also be tested in conjunction with other topics and skills.
The new exam will balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice and will reflect many of the key changes that law schools are making to their own curricula, building on the successes of clinical legal education programs, alternative dispute resolution programs, legal research, and legal writing and analysis programs. Detailed outlines of the legal doctrine and skills that will be tested on the exam can be found on the NCBE website.
The subjects and skills to be tested were developed through a multi-year, nationwide legal practice analysis focused on the most important knowledge and skills for newly licensed lawyers (defined as lawyers within their first three years in practice).
Like the current bar exam, the NextGen UBE will be administered, and the written portions graded, by individual jurisdictions. Our sister jurisdiction of Guam has very graciously offered to help Palau with this work. The exam will be administered in three 3-hour segments over one and a half days, with six hours of testing time on day one and three hours on day two. The current bar exam is typically administered in 12 hours over two full days.
The PBAC is currently collaborating with the Judiciary of Guam to identify other areas for improvement in administering the Bar Exam. If you have any questions or suggestions, please email them to the PBAC at pbac@palausupremecourt.net.