How Do You Get Admitted to the District of Columbia Bar?

The Committee on Admissions of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals handles bar admission, and its site at admissions.dcappeals.gov publishes Rule 46 and its exam fee and registration information.

The admission rules sit in DC Court of Appeals Rule 46, which sets out the three routes and the character-and-fitness requirement.

Admission is not the last step: the DC Bar is a mandatory unified bar, so anyone practising law in DC must be enrolled as an active member — the DC Bar's 2026 license fees are $357 for active members, $222 for inactive and $160 for judicial.

DC gives the Uniform Bar Examination, which NCBE coordinates and which consists of the Multistate Essay Examination, two Multistate Performance Test tasks and the Multistate Bar Examination.

Under the current rule, the exam is the legacy UBE until DC switches to the NextGen UBE in February 2028, and NCBE also lists July 2027 as the final legacy UBE administration in DC.

To pass, an applicant must attain a combined UBE scaled score of 266 or greater.

One eligibility provision stands out in DC Court of Appeals Rule 46: a graduate of a law school not approved by the ABA may take the bar examination only after successfully completing 26 credit hours at an ABA-approved law school in subjects tested on the UBE.

Our research did not capture the rule's full educational requirements for other applicants, so read Rule 46 on the Committee on Admissions' site for the complete eligibility list before you apply.

DC requires a passing MPRE score of 75, and NCBE lists no time limit on when the score was earned.

The MPRE itself is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice exam offered three times a year, and it measures knowledge of the established standards of lawyer conduct rather than personal ethical values.

Scaled scores run from 50 to 150, and each jurisdiction sets its own passing score.

Every DC admission route — the exam, a UBE score transfer or admission without exam — also requires proof of good moral character and fitness under Rule 46.

The application carries a separate NCBE character investigation fee, and NCBE raised its character report application fees effective October 1, 2026, so check NCBE for the current amount.

NCBE runs investigations for many, though not all, jurisdictions but makes no decisions: each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practise, and transferring a UBE score does not skip DC's own review.

Our research captured the requirement but not the Committee's detailed process, so questions about a specific history belong with the Committee on Admissions.

Yes — Rule 46 gives lawyers admitted elsewhere two ways in without sitting for DC's exam.

Admission without exam is open to lawyers who have actively practised law as members in good standing of a bar of a court of general jurisdiction in the United States for at least 3 of the last 5 years before applying, and DC sets no reciprocity condition.

The second route is a UBE score transfer: DC accepts legacy UBE scores of 266 or above earned in other jurisdictions when the score is no more than five years old when the transfer is requested, and it has accepted transferred NextGen scores since July 2026 with a minimum transfer score of 616.

Under NCBE's portability rules, a UBE jurisdiction's passing score applies the same way to people who tested there and to people transferring a score in.

The motion application costs $595 and the transfer application $405, each plus the NCBE investigation fee.

The bar exam application fee is $405, plus a separate NCBE character investigation fee, and laptop exam software costs $150 for the July 2026 exam.

Registration for the July 2026 exam ran from March 2 to March 31, 2026, and could close earlier if seating capacity filled sooner.

On the motion side, DC charges $595 for admission without exam (the Committee lists the line item as 'Motion by 3 Year Provision') and $405 for a UBE score transfer, each plus the NCBE investigation fee.

Our research did not capture a current DC first-time pass rate or the Committee's results timetable: NCBE publishes bar pass rates by jurisdiction, and the Committee on Admissions posts exam fee and registration information on its site, so check both for current figures.

DC gives the legacy UBE until it switches to the NextGen UBE in February 2028; NCBE's adoption table, last updated September 25, 2026, lists DC in the February 2028 group.

NCBE lists DC's NextGen passing score and its minimum transferred NextGen score as 616, and DC has accepted transferred NextGen scores since July 2026.

NextGen scores are reported as one number on a different scale from legacy UBE scores, and NCBE says the two should not be compared directly — 266 and 616 are not the same kind of number.

NCBE's table lists DC's jurisdiction-specific NextGen requirement as still to be announced (TBA), so check the Committee on Admissions before you register.