Academic and Bar Support Scholarship Spotlight

This week in ASP/ Bar Support scholarship:

1.  Lux, Erica (Texas Tech), Put Me in Coach: Enhancing Foundational Lawyering Skills Across the Curriculum with Neurodivergent Law Students in Mind Ahead of the NextGen Bar Exam (forthcoming, 2024).

From the abstract:

As more adults discover that they are neurodivergent, the law student population is likely to be no different, and legal education must adapt to support the support the skill development needs of these students as they seek to enter the profession. Neurodivergence is a non-medical term that refers to a variety of conditions resulting from changes to a person’s brain structure and function. More commonly, academic discussions around law student neurodivergence focus on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—both of which have not been properly diagnosed over the past several decades. However, neurodivergence also incorporates anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and learning disabilities (each of which are often co-morbid with other neurodivergent conditions)—and several of which will also be discussed in this Article. Neurodivergent law students process, synthesize, and impact the legal world differently from their neurotypical peers. This in turn influences neurodivergent law students’ foundational skills in studying, testing, and professional interactions, including those with peers, professors, clients, and colleagues in law school and in practice. Further, now that the bar exam is changing to incorporate assessment of several foundational lawyering skills, neurodivergent law students will likely need additional support in developing relevant skills to meet their needs in testing and in practice. This Article identifies educational, communication, professional, and interrelationship skills and support mechanisms that law schools can implement to help neurodivergent law students develop skills they may struggle to develop through traditional law school pedagogy and curriculum. This Article further proposes ways that legal education can adapt current curriculum with neurodivergent law students in mind in a way that helps all law students develop and improve their foundational skills for the NextGen bar exam and future practice.

2. Koso, Lindsay (Roger Williams), Findings of Research Studies on Reading Comprehension Between Digital and Print Formats: Implications for the NextGen Bar Exam (forthcoming, 2024).

From the abstract:

This paper explores the comparative effects of reading comprehension between digital and print formats, particularly in the context of the upcoming NextGen Bar Exam, which is expected to be administered in an electronic format only. Through an extensive review of meta-analyses and primary research studies, this work highlights that print-based reading generally leads to superior comprehension compared to digital reading. Key findings include the persistence of "screen inferiority," especially under time constraints, and the advantages of print in areas such as recall, deep understanding, and metacognitive awareness. Additionally, the paper addresses the impact of digital reading on individuals with ADHD, who tend to struggle more with comprehension when reading from screens. The implications of these findings suggest a need to reconsider the shift towards digital-only formats in high-stakes testing environments, such as the Bar Exam, as the research strongly suggests that the switch to digital-only testing will hinder overall comprehension and performance.

3. Parness, Jeffrey A. (Northern Illinois), State Law Tests and Apprenticeships With the New Uniform Bar Exam?, 58 Creighton L. Rev. (forthcoming, 2024). 

From the abstract:

A new approach to the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE), propounded by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), will be available in July 2026. The current approach to UBE testing will no longer be available from the NCBE in a few years. Over one third of the states have already signed on to be the new UBE.

All indications are that the revised UBE will reflect a seismic shift in how bar applicants are assessed. It will likely also prompt at least some changes in how and what students are taught in law schools. The stated goal of the NCBE in pursuing a revised UBE is for the “next generation of the bar exam” to focus on “topics and tasks . . . that are most essential for newly licensed lawyers.”

In undertaking assessments of bar applicants differently, the new UBE will not have, as it has now, separate essay, performance, and multiple-choice components. Further, it is scheduled to run a day and a half, not two days. This allows states to test local subjects more easily. The new exam will contain, unlike now, “integrated” exam questions that use “scenarios that are representative of real-world types of legal problems” that newly-licensed lawyers encounter.

To date, there are no indications that state and local bar associations, the judiciaries, interested private groups or individuals in the states committed to, or interested in, the new UBE have examined significantly the possibility of a half day state law testing component that would supplement the UBE. Alternative methods of examining state law subjects, as is often done with separate testing of professional responsibility issues, have also not been significantly explored. Explorations are needed. 2026 is fast approaching. The experience in New York with its New York Law Examination, that supplements the MPRE and the UBE, should be helpful in the explorations.

There are also no indications that apprenticeship requirements have been considered when pondering the adoption of the UBE. Yet several states have pursued apprenticeships and the like as alternatives to UBE testing. Where apprenticeships are deemed useful even with UBE testing, apprenticeships could also be required of bar applicants, with opportunities for pre or post law school satisfaction made easily available. When mandated, public/community service could be a component.

The time is ripe for dialogue on state law tests and apprenticeships that would supplement the use of the new UBE.

[Posted by Louis Schulze, FIU Law]