NY Reaches Reciprocity Agreement with Other States for Transfer of Remote Bar Exam Scores

This article was originally published August 19, 2020.

As we previously covered, New York’s next bar exam will be administered online on October 5-6, 2020. My colleague Nicole Hyland and I also discussed the issue in our Remotely Ethical episode. Recently, the New York Board of Law Examiners announced that it had entered into reciprocity agreements with various other jurisdictions to allow candidates taking the remote bar examination in those jurisdictions to transfer their scores to New York. Under New York’s rules for attorney admissions, an applicant who transfers his or her exam score to New York must still complete the New York Law Course (NYLC), the New York Law Exam (NYLE), as well as the character and fitness process.

The announcement stated that, at present, the Board has entered into agreements with the following states: Connecticut, District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Vermont. However, the Board also noted that the list of jurisdictions may be expanded.

According to the announcement, the following candidates are eligible to transfer their remote bar exam scores to New York:

1) Any candidate who graduated from an ABA-approved law school with a J.D. degree and who has not previously sat for a bar exam in any U.S. jurisdiction;

2) Any foreign educated candidate who graduated from an ABA-approved law school with an LL.M. degree and who has not previously sat for a bar exam in any U.S. jurisdiction;

3) Any candidate who graduated in 2018 with a J.D. degree from an ABA-approved law school and who sat for one prior administration of the UBE but who has not sat for more than one prior bar exam in any U.S. jurisdiction; and

4) Any candidate who graduated in 2019 or later with a J.D. degree from an ABA approved law school and who previously took the UBE and failed no more than two times.