Wayne Law is committed to helping our students pass the bar examination and succeed in their legal careers. This journey starts as you begin to master the first-year courses, and continues throughout your time in law school. Information about support programs will be posted as the academic year progresses.

Student Affairs oversees bar exam preparation. For more information, contact lawsao@wayne.edu or (313) 577-3997. The office is located in Suite 1255 on the first floor of the Law School.

Michigan Bar application

Application, fees and deadline information are on the State Bar of Michigan (character and fitness and personal history information) and Michigan Board of Law Examiners (examination application and FAQs) websites. You will need to have signatures notarized on your bar application.

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Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam

The Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam is a two-hour exam consisting of 60 multiple-choice questions administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The exam tests your knowledge and understanding of the ethical standards of the legal profession chronicled in the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct and Model Code of Judicial Conduct.

The exam is offered nationwide each March, August and November. Many students take the exam sometime after their first year of law school, but typically after taking Professional Responsibility. Passing exam scores vary by jurisdiction but are often transferable between states when the score requirement can be met. A passing score of 85 is required for admission to the State Bar of Michigan. Many bar prep course providers offer MPRE prep courses for free.

The MPRE is given on computers and administered at Pearson VUE testing centers nationwide. If you need accommodations on the exam, you must make your request before you register for the exam. Make your request far in advance of the registration deadline; it may take up to 25 days to receive the decision.

Application, fees and deadline information are on the National Conference of Bar Examiners website.

If you have any questions about applying for the MPRE or accommodations for the MPRE, contact lawsao@wayne.edu or (313) 577-3997. The office is located in Suite 1255 on the first floor of the Law School.

Michigan Bar Exam

Overview

The Michigan Bar Exam is a two-day exam, administered in East Lansing on the last Tuesday and Wednesday of February and July.

Beginning in February 2023, Michigan is administering the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). The UBE is coordinated by National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) and is composed of the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE), two Multistate Performance Test (MPT) tasks, and the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE). The UBE tests knowledge of general principles of law, legal and factual analysis, reasoning, and communication skills to determine readiness to enter legal practice in any jurisdiction. It is uniformly administered, graded, and scored and results in a portable score that can be transferred to other UBE jurisdictions. Jurisdictions that use the UBE may also require applicants to complete a jurisdiction-specific law component. Michigan requires all applicants to take the Michigan Law Basics online training, which, as of October 2022, is in development.

Day 1: Michigan Exam

There are 400 points available on the UBE; you must achieve a 268 to pass in Michigan. Other jurisdictions may have different cut score. The MBE is 50% of your score, the MEE is 30%, and the MPT is 20%.

Day 1: Essay exams

The essay portion is administered Tuesday, the first day of the exam. There are six thirty-minute essays in the MEE, which you will have three hours to complete. The essays cover all of the subjects on the MBE, plus Business Associations, Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions (UCC).

On Tuesday, you will also take the MPT, which is designed to test an examinee's ability to use fundamental lawyering skills in a realistic situation and to complete a task that a beginning lawyer should be able to accomplish. The MPT is not a test of substantive knowledge. Rather, it is designed to evaluate certain fundamental skills lawyers are expected to demonstrate regardless of the area of law in which the skills are applied. You are given a File, which includes the facts of the legal issue that you are analyzing. You are also given a Library, which includes the law you need to analyze the issue at hand.

Day 2: Multistate Bar Exam (multiple choice)

The MBE is administered Wednesday and consists of 200 total multiple choice questions (175 scored and 25 "test questions"). You will have three hours to complete 100 questions in the morning, and three hours to complete the second half in the afternoon. 

Seven subjects are tested: Constitutional Law, Contracts/Sales, Criminal Law/Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, Torts and, Civil Procedure. They are weighted about equally.

Other jurisdictions

Planning on taking the bar exam outside of Michigan? Visit this List of bar exam agencies by jurisdiction for information and applicable deadlines for each state.

New York State Bar Skills Competency Requirement

JD students who commenced their law studies after July 2016 who apply to the New York State Bar must use one of five pathways to establish satisfaction of the Skills Competency Requirement and Professional Values Bar Admission Requirement.

All Wayne Law JD students meet the requirements for Pathway 1, which "allows an applicant to satisfy the skills competency and professional values requirement by submitting a certification from the applicant's law school confirming that (1) the law school has developed a plan identifying and incorporating into its curriculum the skills and professional values that, in the school's judgment, are required for its graduates' basic competence and ethical participation in the legal profession, and has made this plan publicly available on the law school's website; and (2) the applicant has acquired sufficient competency in those skills and sufficient familiarity with those values."

The law school certifies all students as having acquired sufficient competency in skills and professional values that, in the law school's judgment, are required for basic competence and ethical participation in the legal profession if they complete and receive credit for the following coursework, as part of the overall 86 credits required for the J.D. degree:

1. 1. Legal Research and Writing (4 credits)
   2. Professional Responsibility (2 credits)
   3. Experiential Learning (6 credits), which must include participation in an externship or clinic.
   4. Upper-Level Writing Requirement (ULWR)
   5. The other required courses Civil Procedure, Contracts, Constitutional Law I, Criminal Law, Property, and Torts covering a variety of skills such as research, analysis, problem-solving, use of facts, written communication, and oral communication.

Completion of these requirements fulfill the learning outcomes of Wayne Law, as adopted by the faculty.