Advisory committee recommends adoption of Uniform Bar Examination in Md.

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After months of gathering information and soliciting comments from the legal community, an advisory committee assembled by the Judiciary has endorsed Maryland adopting the Uniform Bar Examination.

Committee members voted 11-1 to recommend the adoption of the UBE along with a state-specific supplement to the exam, according to a report made public this week.

“(The) Committee views the portability of the UBE as beneficial to the legal profession as a whole, as well as to the general public, in that highly qualified applicants are more likely to apply for – and accept jobs as – lawyers in Maryland,” says the report, which was submitted to the Court of Appeals on Aug. 31.

The committee recommended the UBE be adopted no earlier than July 2019 to allow time to create a Maryland-specific online section, monitor new information that comes out about the UBE, give law schools time to adjust, make logistical changes and submit a rule change to the Maryland Rules of Procedure, according to the report.

The Court of Appeals is accepting written comments on the committee’s report until Nov. 8. The state’s highest court has not scheduled when it will vote on whether to adopt the committee’s recommendation.

Increased flexibility

The UBE is coordinated by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and is administered, graded and scored by the individual jurisdictions that have adopted the exam. Those who take the UBE can transfer their scores to any participating jurisdiction during a three-year period to seek admission. Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted the UBE in its entirety.

Currently, Maryland test-takers sit for two days: the first day is the Maryland General Bar Exam, which is an essay test; the second day is the Multistate Bar Examination, a multiple-choice exam that is part of the UBE. Those who wish to practice in another state must pass that state’s bar exam or can waive in a reciprocating state’s bar if such an agreement exists between the two states.

One of the main advantages of adopting the UBE is its portability, the report states, noting increased flexibility for Maryland examinees looking for a job and for out-of state lawyers seeking employment in the state.

Court of Special Appeals Judge Christopher B. Kehoe, committee member who also served on the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners for several years, said in the report he has had law clerks express an interest in getting a job in neighboring states or in Maryland who would benefit from a portable score.

Donald Tobin and Ronald Weich, committee members and deans of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and University of Baltimore School of Law, respectively, said law students prefer the UBE because students are uncertain about where they will live after graduation. Tobin also said in the report that adoption of the UBE would likely raise Maryland’s law school rankings and make graduates more employable.

Committee member Andrew D. Levy, of Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP, said in the report his firm had recruitment problems during its recent expansion because qualified out-of-state lawyers interested in joining the firm could not be hired because they would have to sit for the Maryland bar exam.

The report also points to data and anecdotal evidence that applicants as a whole prefer to take the UBE, noting the drop in Maryland examinees after Washington started offering the uniform exam.

Setting the score

One concern about the UBE is that half of the exam is multiple-choice questions, compared to 33 percent multiple-choice questions in the current Maryland exam. There is some evidence that female test-takers do better in essay questions. There is some speculation about whether minorities also perform poorly on multiple choice tests but the committee found a lack of sufficient data on the topic because the National Conference of Bar Examiners and local jurisdictions do not collect data on race.

Given that information, the advisory committee concluded that disadvantage is outweighed by many other benefits and can be mitigated through the exam board’s regrade process.

Maryland will also get to control the quality of its applicants by setting the passing score, and the State Board of Law Examiners will absorb the increase in costs per applicant to take the exam. The board currently pays $80 per person and would pay $114 under the UBE, according to the report. Jeffrey C. Shipley, chairman of the board, said it “would likely not pass” the costs on to applicants.

With respect to possible increased competition with out-of-state lawyers, the committee found such an influx did not happen in other states that adopted the UBE. Committee members also felt it would be “inappropriate” to weigh that concern and would amount to “protectionism.”

In an interview with The Daily Record in June, committee member and then-incoming Maryland State Bar Association President Sara Arthur said the committee had a series of “long, hard discussions.”

“I stated early on, what I wanted to make sure of is that there were no unintended consequences. That it would not have negative consequences to the practice of law in Maryland or to the attorneys that were taking it,” said Arthur, of the Arthur Law Group LLC in Annapolis. “This committee has thoroughly vetted the issue and I’m very comfortable with the final decision and the recommendation that’s been made.”

The UBE advisory committee consists of judges, attorneys and members of the State Board of Law Examiners and is chaired by Court of Appeals Judge Sally D. Adkins, who was not available for comment Wednesday. The report did not indicate who voted against adopting the UBE.