California Supreme Court approves NextGen Uniform Bar Exam for July 2028
The California Supreme Court has approved a recommendation to replace the current California Bar Examination with the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, a change scheduled to begin with the July 2028 test administration.
The recommendation came from the State Bar of California. The replacement exam is administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners, which develops bar-admission examinations used by jurisdictions across the country.
The decision changes the examination California plans to use to assess applicants for admission to practice law in the state. It is not an immediate change: the first administration under the new exam is set for July 2028.
A statewide licensing change
The action applies to California’s statewide attorney-licensing system. It will be relevant to law students and other applicants preparing for admission in California, as well as to law schools, employers and bar-exam preparation providers that work with prospective lawyers.
California Courts Newsroom reported the Supreme Court’s approval on July 23, 2026. The indexed release described the approval as occurring the preceding Wednesday, but did not provide a separate exact approval date in the available excerpt.
The court approved the State Bar’s recommendation; the record describes the decision as an approved transition rather than a proposal still awaiting court action. The scheduled July 2028 administration is the key implementation date identified in the release.
What is changing — and what has not been specified
Under the approved change, the current California Bar Examination will be replaced by the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam. The National Conference of Bar Examiners administers the NextGen exam.
The available release does not provide California-specific details about scoring, test locations or transition rules. It also does not say whether additional California-specific licensing requirements will remain in place alongside the new exam.
Those omissions are significant for applicants planning around the transition. The approved information establishes the exam that California will begin using in July 2028, but it does not yet resolve every practical question an applicant may have about preparation, administration or other state requirements.
The release also does not compare the current California examination with the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam. There is no basis in the available material to characterize the new examination as easier or harder than the current test.
Timeline for applicants and institutions
The July 2028 administration is the first identified administration of the NextGen Uniform Bar Exam in California. That date gives applicants, law schools and organizations serving prospective lawyers a defined point at which the examination change is scheduled to take effect.
The court’s action follows the State Bar’s recommendation, making the transition an approved policy decision rather than an unadopted recommendation. The announcement does not identify a further court vote, public-comment deadline or other implementation milestone before the July 2028 administration.
For now, the confirmed facts are limited but clear: California’s current bar examination is set to be replaced, the replacement will be the National Conference of Bar Examiners’ NextGen Uniform Bar Exam, and the change begins in July 2028. Further state-specific guidance would be needed to answer questions not addressed in the release.