ProfessorTommy.Tips

As the NextGen UBE gets closer, I'm seeing a very common misunderstanding about the star symbols in the NCBE’s NextGen UBE Content Scope Outline . The NextGen UBE is the NCBE’s redesigned bar exam, created to better measure foundational lawyering skills (reading, analysis, reasoning, writing, and using legal materials) while still testing a defined set of doctrinal concepts. The exam is designed to feel more like the work lawyers actually do, often with a mix of what you know

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are currently underway. I thought it would be fun to imagine the MBE subjects as Winter Olympic sports. The point isn't to become a sports expert overnight. The point is to use the sports as a simple way to remember what each subject feels like on test day, what it rewards, and what usually causes people to lose points. Civil Procedure = Curling Curling is the sport that looks like “shuffleboard on ice.” Two teams slide heavy granite st

If you’re not a football person (or a pop-music person), here’s the quick context: The Super Bowl is the NFL’s championship game (and one of the most-watched events in the U.S.) At halftime, the league puts on a massive halftime show with a headline performer. This year’s headliner is six-time GRAMMY-award winner Bad Bunny , a globally popular artist whose hits include “ DÁKITI ,” “ Tití Me Preguntó, ” “ Me Porto Bonito ,” and “ Ojitos Lindos .”) So why am I writing about th

Yesterday, the National Conference of Bar Examiners released a new document: " NextGen UBE Constructed Response Guide ." It's touted as the "NCBE’s Official Resource for Understanding and Responding to the Written Components of the NextGen Uniform Bar Examination.” The document is attached for your reference. If you're taking the NextGen UBE in July 2026, I highly recommend that you review this new document and the previously released resources found at the end of the documen

Last week, journalists Don Lemon and Georgia Fort were arrested and charged in connection with coverage of a protest at a church in St. Paul, Minnesota, with the government pursuing the charges through a grand jury indictment. I’m not weighing in on whether these indictments are correct, justified, constitutional, politically motivated, or anything else. I’m using the headline as a clean bar-exam hook to answer a question you may see in some form: What does it take to return