Competency Study – 2021 to 2023

On June 21, 2021, the Minnesota Board of Law Examiners (Board) published a Public Notice announcing plans to commence a comprehensive two-year study of the bar examination for the purposes of providing the Minnesota Supreme Court with a report and recommendation no later than June 1, 2023.

The public notice advised that the dates, times, and locations of public meetings will be posted to the Board’s website.  The Committee held four public meetings in the fall of 2021. The agendas, minutes, and additional information related to those meetings can be found below.

The Committee sought broad stakeholder input on this important issue and developed a Project Timeline that included five months of Working Groups to bring together divergent viewpoints.  The Committee identified Stakeholder Groups and invited robust participation in the Board’s Working Group process.  Three Working Groups  formed to carefully consider this issue and make recommendations to the Board.   Additional information on the Working Groups, including membership of the Working Groups, may be found below.

The Working Groups provided their reports to the Board, and the Board provided these reports to the Bar Admissions Advisory Council (BAAC) for further input. The full reports are provided below.  The Board used the information provided by the Working Groups to further the study of this issue for the purpose of making recommendations to the Court in June 2023.

In July 2022, the Board held two public listening sessions seeking input on the Working Group reports.  In November 2022, the Board issued preliminary recommendations.  Two additional public listening sessions were held in December 2022.  Instructions were provided to those interested in providing written comments or presenting at the listening sessions.  On March 20, 2023, the Board published revised recommendations.   On June 1, 2023, the Board filed its report and recommendations with the Court.On September 11, 2023, the Court put the matter out for public comment. The Court held a public hearing on October 25, 2023.  The Court issued an Order on March 12, 2024, adopting the NextGen examination and forming an Implementation Committee to develop a curricular-based pathway and provide further recommendations on a supervised practice pathway.

 

Working Groups:

The Working Group process began in January 2022 and continued through May 2022. The three Working Groups have each submitted a report with recommendations. A public notice announcing the publication of these Working Group reports may be found here. Additional information on the scope and membership of the Working Groups may be found here. If you are interested in additional information, please contact the Board office.

Working Group Reports:

  • Working Group 1 supports multiple pathways to licensure and, based on what is known so far, recommends the NextGen examination as one pathway. The Working Group noted in its report that while the proposed changes to the examination appear to be positive, it still is a standardized test. Lawyering abilities are difficult to measure in a standardized test.  NextGen appears to be an improvement in testing foundational skills, but the protype of the new exam has not yet been released. A benefit of adopting the NextGen is that will continue to allow portability into other jurisdictions. Additional information from the NCBE on how the examination addresses disparities in examination performance between demographic groups would be helpful.  Additional information is included in the full report.
  • Working Group 2 recommends developing a curricular pathway that would allow law students to meet the competency component of licensure upon graduation. The recommendation includes the creation of minimum competence standards to certify curricular and experiential pathways at each of the Minnesota law schools.  Additional information on the guiding principles and recommendations is included in the full report.
  • Working Group 3 recommends the development of the Minnesota Supervised Practice Pathway for licensing. Under this program, graduates would complete lawyering tasks under the supervision of a licensed attorney for a specified number of hours of practice and submit documentation of those tasks through a portfolio of work to the Board to demonstrate minimum competence.  Additional information is provided in the full report.

Past Committee Meetings:

Past Working Group Meetings:

    • Group 1:
      • March 3, 2022: 11 A.M. to 12: 00 P.M.
      • March 29, 2022: 8:00  to 10: 00 A.M.
      • April 21, 2022: 11:30  A.M. to 1: 30 P.M.
    • Group 2:
      • March 21, 2022: 11 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
      • April 20, 2022: 2:00 to 4:00 P.M.
      • April 25, 2022: 11 A.M. to 12:00 P.M.
    • Group3:
      • March 8, 2022: 4:00 to 5:00 P.M.
      • March 16, 2022: 9:00 to 10:00 A.M.
      • March 22, 2022: 12:30 to 1:30 P.M.
      • April 12, 2022: 3:00 to 4:00 P.M.
      • April 26, 2022: 4:00 to 5:30 P.M.
      • April 27, 2022: 9:00 to 10:00 A.M.
      • May 4, 2022: 4:00 to 5:30 P.M.

Listening Sessions and Additional Events: