NCBE Annual Bar Admissions Conference 2022

The NCBE Annual Bar Admissions Conference is an educational event designed for members of the bar examining and admissions community. Attendees include justices from jurisdictions’ highest courts, bar admission administrators, and members of boards of bar examiners, all of whom direct the bar admissions process in their jurisdictions. The Conference focuses on the issues that influence the licensing of lawyers both today and in the future.

NCBE held its 2022 Annual Bar Admissions Conference in New Orleans on April 28–May 1. Fifty-three jurisdictions were represented by the 291 attendees, which included 107 first-time attendees and 32 justices from jurisdictions’ highest courts.

Thursday afternoon kicked off conference programming with a roundtable for the justices in attendance, followed by the evening opening reception. Suzanne Richards, NCBE Board of Trustees Chair, welcomed attendees on Friday morning and introduced Hon. Carl E. Stewart of the United States Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, who delivered the keynote address. NCBE President Judith Gundersen, NCBE Education Committee Chair Hon. Ann Scott Timmer, and Council of Bar Admission Administrators Chair Bradley Skolnik welcomed attendees on Saturday.

Keynote speaker: Hon. Carl E. Stewart of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals

Judith Gundersen, NCBE President and CEO

Pieter Teeuwissen, NCBE Education Committee, and Hon. Carl E. Stewart

Hon. Ann Scott Timmer, NCBE Education Committee Chair

Suzanne Richards, NCBE Board of Trustees Chair

Bradley Skolnik, CBAA Committee Chair

Plenary Sessions

The conference’s five plenary sessions covered a gamut of topics, including bar admissions; diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); exam validity; and generational shifts in the legal profession.

Vincent Warren and Cliff Johnson

From Intention to Action

Cliff Johnson and Vincent Warren

Two returning presenters discussed DEI work within bar admissions, and how organizations can go beyond the ubiquitous DEI statements to true action.

John Hosterman, PhD

The Impact of COVID-19 on Bar Admissions

John Hosterman, PhD

How does and will COVID-19 affect high-stakes testing and admissions at large? An accessibility expert presented on issues related to exam delivery, candidates seeking accommodations and the resulting review processes, and the larger knock-on effects facing bar admission organizations.

Ken Kraus

Validity and the Law

Ken Kraus

NCBE’s Corporate Counsel examined the interaction of case law and exam validity, covering rulings involving equity and fairness, uniform guidelines and test standards, passing standards and scoring challenges, accommodations, and security. (See this issue’s Testing Column for Ken Kraus’s article based on his presentation.)

Kellie Early and Hon. Cynthia Martin

Update on the Next Generation of the Bar Exam

Kellie Early and Hon. Cynthia Martin

NCBE continues to make progress on the new bar exam; this presentation provided updates on current work being done and what’s planned for in the near and medium term.

Kristelle Siarza and Monica Teixeira de Sousa

How Generation Z and First-Generation Lawyers Will Change the World

Kristelle Siarza and Monica Teixeira de Sousa

A law professor and CEO of a digital marking company discussed what makes Gen Z tick and how that cohort will approach the legal profession.

Breakout Sessions and Workshop

The 2021 Survey of Law Student Well-Being

Katherine Bender, PhD, David Jaffe, and Jerome Organ

David Jaffe, Katherine Bender, PhD, Paul Schwiep (moderator), and Jerome Organ

Coinvestigators of this broadened survey reported on findings regarding the effect of respondents’ mental health and interactions with substance use issues on preparing for and passing the bar exam, and what students think law schools do or could do to better support their students’ well-being. (See this article based on the speakers’ presentation.)

Raul Ruiz and Zoe Niesel

Innovations in Legal Education

Zoe Niesel and Raul Ruiz

Drawing on experience at their respective institutions, two legal education leaders discussed how dynamic programs that respond to new and forthcoming shifts in the legal profession help serve students and the justice system at all levels.

Verónica Gonzales-Zamora

Workshop: Design Sprint: Expanding Access to Justice

Verónica Gonzales-Zamora

Access to justice is uneven across and within jurisdictions. This interactive workshop focused on quickly identifying such issues and then proposing and testing solutions using tools jurisdictions may already have on hand or may easily acquire.

Samuel Ortiz, PhD

Language Disorder vs. Language Difference

Samuel Ortiz, PhD

A professor of psychology presented on the distinction between, and the indicators of, language disorders and differences. The former is a disability, whereas the latter comes from extrinsic experiences.

Rachel Watkins Schoenig

Test Security in the Age of Social Media

Rachel Watkins Schoenig

A test security expert spoke to how social media can affect exam security and how testing programs can protect their content.

Diana Uchiyama, PsyD

Evaluating Ongoing Competence

Diana Uchiyama, PsyD, and Sophie Martin

This session considered fitness to practice as attorneys grow older and the distinction between expected aging processes and more serious cognitive conditions.

Continuing the NextGen Conversation: An Open Q&A

Kellie Early, Judith Gundersen, and Rosemary Reshetar, EdD

Rosemary Reshetar, EdD, Kellie Early, and Judith Gundersen

This session provided a forum for more in-depth discussion regarding the next generation of the bar exam that was introduced in the prior plenary session.