State Board of Law Examiners

State Board of Law Examiners

North Dakota Bar Examination
General Information

Applicants granted permission to write the bar examination will be advised of the date and time and furnished admission cards not less than two weeks before the examination.
Requests for special accommodations must accompany the bar examination application and will be referred to the State Board of Law Examiners for consideration. Appropriate current documentation is required.
The bar examination is a two-day exam administered the last Tuesday and Wednesday in July, and in February if offered. The examination consists of:
- Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) - consists of six questions based on fundamental legal principles, each designed to be answered in thirty minutes. Topics covered may include agency and partnership; commercial paper; conflict of laws; corporations and limited liability companies; decedents' estates; family law; federal civil procedure; sales; secured transactions; and trusts and future interests.
  Effective with the July 2007 administration of the North Dakota Bar Examination, the Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) topics will be expanded to include those topic areas also tested on the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE).
  Effective with the July 2007 North Dakota Bar Examination, the MEE will be a written three-hour examination consisting of six questions from the following topics: Agency and Partnership, Commercial Paper, Conflict of Laws, Corporations, Decedents' Estates, Family Law, Federal Civil Procedure, Sales, Secured Transactions, Trusts and Future Interests, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. Some MEE questions may include issues in more than one area of the law.
- Multistate Performance Test (MPT) - designed to test ability to complete a task using fundamental lawyering skills in a realistic situation. Each MPT includes a file consisting of source documents containing all the facts of the case, and a library that might include transcripts of interviews, depositions, hearings or trials, pleadings, correspondence, client documents, contracts, newspaper articles, medical records, police reports, lawyers' notes, cases, statutes, regulations and rules. MPT problems may arise in a variety of fields of law.
- Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) - an objective multiple choice six-hour examination covering the following subjects: Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Torts, Real Property.
Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination
This is a national exam given three times a year at law schools. As a requirement for admission, applicants must pass the MPRE exam by achieving a scaled score of 80 or more. MPRE scores achieved more than five years from the date of application will not be accepted. APPLICANTS MUST REQUEST SCORES TO BE REPORTED TO NORTH DAKOTA. For information regarding score transfer requests, contact: National Conference of Bar Examiners, MPRE Records Department, P.O. Box 451, Iowa City, Iowa 52243. Phone: 319-337-1304.
MPRE applications may be obtained from the office of the State Board of Law Examiners, 1st Floor, Judicial Wing, 600 E Boulevard Ave Dept. 180, Bismarck, ND 58505-0530 or from the Office of the Dean, UND Law School, University Station, Grand Forks, ND 58202.
Thirty days before each examination, the State Board of Law Examiners will file the pass/fail policy with the Supreme Court and the Dean of the University of North Dakota School of Law. The Board may utilize such grading or scoring system as the Board deems appropriate.
Revised August 2005

North Dakota Bar ExaminationGeneral Information

North Dakota Bar Examination
General Information