Oregon is among the first states in the nation to adopt the NextGen Bar Exam in July 2026 – and Oregon Law’s new investments in bar and licensing for practice readiness are meeting that moment.
Tailoring Bar and Licensing Support
Recognizing some students still plan to sit for the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) or state-specific exams outside Oregon, while others will enroll in Oregon’s new practice-based licensure program, Oregon Law is tailoring its bar and licensing support to every student’s pathway – maximizing readiness and positioning them for success wherever they choose to practice. “We want students to be familiar with the bar and the licensure processes, what it looks like, what it takes to do it successfully,” said Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Erik Girvan, who is also the Bernard B. Kliks Professor of Law. “It’s hard to know how to achieve a goal when you don’t know what the goal looks like.”
The new investments began in January with the addition of Director of Bar Preparation and Licensure Angela Ruocco, an experienced lawyer and judge.
Preparing Students for the Bar Exam
Ruocco collaborates extensively with the Oregon State Bar, peer law school institutions, the National Conference of Bar Examiners, and the Law School Admission Council. She is developing a dynamic curriculum that prepares students for the new skills-based exam, with an eye toward best practices in pedagogy for skill retention and practice readiness. Rucco compares her work with students to a funnel, expansive at the beginning and gradually becoming more tailored as they work toward graduation.
Bar and licensing investments now include:
- Connecting with all first-year students in Civil Procedure and Contract classes, to offer students customized support and access to study materials
- Workshops designed to offer repeated exposure to multiple-choice questions, integrated skill sets, and performance tasks on a small scale
- A new mandatory, first-in-the nation mock bar exercise for second- and third-year law students, built in collaboration with the Law School Admission Council. Administered the week before fall classes began, the exercise tests NextGen bar concepts, as well as foundational competencies.
- Integrated Skills: A Capstone for Practice-Ready Lawyering course serves as a culminating experience for third-year students, blending doctrinal review with immersive, skills-based learning. Through integrated practice scenarios, students apply judgment in client counseling, draft professional legal documents, and navigate the ethical dimensions of modern practice - preparing graduates to transition confidently from law school to licensure.
“The beauty of this multi-tiered approach is that it’s exposing students to and almost desensitizing them to the bar exam experience, which is a profound challenge state,” Ruocco said. “Passing the bar is the greatest professional exercise that they will likely have encountered in their academic and professional career. So, we have to prepare them for the seriousness of it.”
Launching Law Ducks
These investments work to not only propagate bar passage, but to also create the next generation of skilled, ethical colleagues in the practice of law. In particular, the NextGen bar exam requires being able to complete skills-based exercises of the type that a lawyer would use in practice. Preparing for the test is simultaneously preparing for legal practice. “These integrated question sets give students more access to the professional judgment that gets built over time.” Ruocco said. “We want our graduates to be able to hit the ground running when they go out and become attorneys.”