Wisconsin Is In, and Just Like That, the “Final 7” Becomes 6
- Tommy Sangchompuphen
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
Well, that didn’t take long.
Just hours after I posted about the "Final 7” jurisdictions that had yet to decide whether to adopt the NextGen bar exam, the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued an order adopting the Legacy Uniform Bar Examination beginning in July 2026, with a transition to the NextGen UBE in July 2028.
So, yes, my earlier post ("South Carolina Is In, So What About the Final 7") aged quickly. But in another sense, it aged pretty well. Wisconsin was one of the jurisdictions I predicted would likely adopt the NextGen UBE, even if the proposed implementation timeline felt ambitious.
What Wisconsin Actually Did
The Wisconsin Supreme Court’s order does several important things at once.
First, it replaces Wisconsin’s current bar exam with the Legacy UBE beginning in July 2026.
Second, it expressly provides that beginning in July 2028, Wisconsin will administer the “successor to the UBE,” meaning the NextGen UBE.
Third, it allows applicants to seek admission through transferred Legacy UBE scores of 260 or higher, so long as the qualifying score is submitted within a 36-month period.
The court also approved a Wisconsin-specific educational component in place of the state’s existing essay portion. Under the order, applicants admitted through the UBE or by transferred UBE score must complete 21 hours of Wisconsin law and practice education, and they will have up to 12 months to do so. That piece is especially notable because it shows that Wisconsin was not simply choosing between national portability and state-specific preparation. It chose both.
Just as notable, the court did not adopt the full fee increases that had been proposed. It rejected the requested increase of the bar exam application fee from $450 to $950 and also reduced the proposed fee for admission by transferred UBE score from $850 to $450. That detail may not grab headlines, but it suggests the court was willing to embrace structural change while still exercising restraint on cost.
