What You Should Know About the 2022 DC Bar Exam

While DC has had low pass rates in the past decade, pass rates have been rising since its first UBE administration in July 2016. Below are the pass rates for the DC Bar Exam over the past several years:

Source: Committee on Admissions | District of Columbia Courts

DC limits the number of attempts candidates have to earn a passing UBE score. You may only sit for the UBE up to a maximum of four times to become licensed by examination or score transfer in DC. However, if you exceed this amount, you may still be able to become licensed by waiver of experience (e.g., having been licensed and in good standing for at least three years).

Yes, unsuccessful applicants should submit the review request form to the Director within 30 days of the publication of the examination results. Here is a link to the contact information of the DC Bar Examiners: DC Bar Admissions Contact Information.

You can become licensed in DC by achieving an MPRE score of 75 or higher either before or after you sit for the bar exam. Unlike many other jurisdictions, DC does not have a time limit for when a score becomes “stale.” In other words, you could use an MPRE score you achieved more than five years prior to applying for licensure in DC.

By July 2022, there will be 40 jurisdictions that administer the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE). Because each jurisdiction is ultimately responsible for the policies they enact for attorney licensure, each UBE jurisdiction has agreed to administer the same exam and accept the validity of the other jurisdictions’ UBE scores.

As a result, applicants who’ve sat for the UBE in one jurisdiction can transfer their score from that jurisdiction to other UBE jurisdictions to become licensed in them. However, each jurisdiction sets its own minimum score that an applicant would need to achieve. In other words, you can pass in one UBE jurisdiction but not pass in another UBE jurisdiction.

As long as you get the minimum passing score in your target jurisdiction(s), you can transfer your UBE score to become licensed (subject to other requirements imposed by the target jurisdiction(s), e.g., Character and Fitness). Here’s a table with information about the minimum UBE score for each jurisdiction:

*Note that Pennsylvania has not yet announced what their minimum UBE score will be. Since DC is a UBE jurisdiction and has agreed with all other UBE jurisdictions to accept the UBE scores of each others’ examinees, you can transfer your DC UBE score to become licensed in other UBE jurisdictions. You may also use the UBE score from another UBE jurisdiction to become licensed in DC, provided that you have at least the minimum score for the target jurisdiction. 

If you are transferring from another jurisdiction to DC, your score would have to be at least 266. To transfer a UBE score, you would have to electronically submit a request for UBE score services through your NCBE Account and pay the transfer fee. You would also follow the target jurisdiction’s application process.

You may transfer your UBE score from another jurisdiction to D.C. for bar admission as long as you do so within five years of obtaining a passing score. Other jurisdictions may be the same length of time or shorter.

Here is a table with the maximum score age for each UBE jurisdiction:

*Note that Pennsylvania has not announced what their maximum age of a transferred UBE score will be yet.

Yes, by rule, the District of Columbia has reciprocity with all other UBE jurisdictions. Additionally, DC will grant licensure by waiver for applicants who’ve been licensed and are in good standing in a US jurisdiction for at least three years.

You can also transfer your MBE score in isolation to another jurisdiction through a similar process as transferring the UBE score to some non-UBE jurisdictions (i.e., going to NCBE’s score services to transfer the MBE score to a target jurisdiction).

Virginia, for instance, under application Option 2B, allows applicants to transfer and use an MBE score from a different jurisdiction so that the applicant would only need to sit for the Virginia portion of the exam (while still benefiting from the MBE score they achieved previously). For more information about Virginia’s process, refer to the Virginia Board of Bar Examiners webpage.

The Committee on Admissions typically releases DC Bar Exam results within 9-10 weeks of the exam date. You may check your results by visiting their webpage.