WILL THE NEXTGEN BAR TRULY TEST LEGAL RESEARCH? A CRITICAL EVALUATION OF SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Ashley Arrington

            The upcoming transition from the Uniform Bar Exam to the NextGen Bar Exam will be significant, in large part due to the new, heavy emphasis on practical lawyering skills. Indeed, the percentage weight allotted to the not-yet-before-seen “foundational skills” portion of the NextGen exam is anticipated to be 50-60% of the exam. Of the foundational skills to be tested, legal research stands to be the most heavily weighted skills area on the exam. This weight is in part due to the NCBE’s plans to test legal research as both a skills area and a knowledge area where skills are applied. Read full essay...

DESIGNING LEGAL WRITING PROBLEMS FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

Jaclyn Celebrezze, Lauren Sancken, Carrie Sanford, Amanda Kate Maus Stephen & David Ziff

            In July of 2026, Washington will be one of the first states in the nation to administer the NextGen bar exam, the exam that will replace the current Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). The underlying goal of NextGen is to ensure newly licensed attorneys “possess the minimum knowledge and skills to perform activities typically required of an entry-level lawyer. ”NextGen identifies four groups of foundational skills for entry-level attorneys: (A) issue spotting and analysis, investigation, and evaluation; (B) client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management; (C) legal research; and (D) legal writing and drafting. Read full essay...

ASSESSING LEGAL WRITING SKILLS IN THE NEXTGEN & AI WORLD

Kimberly Y.W. Holst

           Memos and briefs covered in feedback. Live grading with students watching their professor read and react in real time to what they have submitted. When we think about assessing our students’ writing, these are the hallmarks of legal writing pedagogy. Quizzes and exams are the stuff of casebook colleagues; to the extent they “work” for legal writing, quizzes and exam are reserved for research and citation assessment.

         Given the convergence of rapidly developing generative artificial intelligence tools and the looming implementation of the NextGen Bar, it may be time to rethink whether the gold standard of assessment and feedback used by most legal writing professors is sufficient in assessing student skills. Read full essay...

SOCIAL JUSTICE AND THE LEGAL WRITING CLASSROOM: TEACHING KAIROS THROUGH IMMERSIVE EXPOSURE TO CURRENT AND HISTORICAL STRUGGLES FOR CIVIL AND HUMAN RIGHTS

Rachel Croskery-Roberts

            Those of us who teach legal writing do so much in the legal writing classroom, and yet it may not be enough if we ignore the world the students are living in as we teach them the fundamentals. Introductory legal writing, analysis, and research skills can feel rote or formulaic to students, which can be a real disadvantage if we hope to get buy-in as we ask them to spend hours and hours mastering difficult skills. Read full essay...