How Do You Get Admitted to the Indiana Bar?

The Indiana State Board of Law Examiners handles bar admission, and its staff sits in the Indiana Supreme Court's Office of Admissions & Continuing Education.

The exam and score requirements this page describes sit in the Admission and Discipline Rules — Rule 17 carries the Uniform Bar Exam, its 264 passing score and the MPRE requirement.

Whether Indiana has a mandatory (integrated) bar was not verified from a primary source in our research, so direct membership questions to the board.

Indiana gives the Uniform Bar Examination coordinated by NCBE, the National Conference of Bar Examiners: the Multistate Essay Examination, two Multistate Performance Test tasks and the Multistate Bar Examination.

Indiana first administered the UBE in July 2021.

The UBE is administered over two days, with the MEE and MPT on the Tuesday and the MBE on the last Wednesday of February and July.

To qualify for admission upon examination, an applicant must achieve a scaled score of at least 264 on the Indiana bar examination, and that passing score applies to applicants who transfer a UBE score in as well as to those who sit in Indiana.

Admission and Discipline Rule 13, effective Aug.

1, 2026, requires a JD from an ABA-approved law school — one that was on the approved list when the applicant graduated.

Rule 13 also requires two cumulative semester hours of legal ethics or professional responsibility completed in law school.

The board may grant a waiver to some non-ABA and foreign-educated applicants; waiver questions belong with the board.

Indiana requires a scaled MPRE score of 80, and the score must be earned no earlier than two years before the date the applicant successfully sits for the Indiana bar exam.

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

Scores are reported on a scale from 50 to 150, on which each jurisdiction sets its own passing score, and NCBE's jurisdiction page for Indiana listed the same 80 minimum in October 2026.

Background investigations are a part of the admission process for all jurisdictions, and the admitting body decides who is fit to practise: NCBE runs investigations for many jurisdictions but makes no determinations or recommendations of its own.

A transferred UBE score does not bypass the review — each receiving jurisdiction runs its own character and fitness decisions.

Our research captured that national framework but not how the Indiana board weighs an individual history, so specific questions about anything you would disclose belong with the Indiana State Board of Law Examiners.

Yes, in two ways.

Admission on motion under Rule 6, effective Aug.

1, 2026, is open to lawyers who have actively engaged in the practice of law for at least 3 of the 5 years immediately before applying, and the motion fee is $875.

A motion applicant is ineligible if they failed the Indiana bar or scored below 264 on any UBE within the five years before applying.

Rule 6's provisional admission is a separate, narrow lane — it applies to military spouses still waiting on an MPRE score, not to the general motion route.

The second way is a transferred score: Indiana accepts legacy UBE scores of 264 or higher up to five years old and, since July 2026, transferred NextGen scores of 614 or higher.

A transfer costs a $500 fee to Indiana plus NCBE's $30 score-transcript charge, and it does not skip character and fitness — each receiving jurisdiction decides for itself.

The bar exam fee for first-time takers (non-attorneys) is $250, per NCBE's Indiana profile.

For the July 2026 exam the filing deadline was April 1, with a late deadline of April 15.

On that exam the first-time pass rate was 77% among 375 first-time takers, and the overall pass rate was 65%.

Our research did not establish a general results-release schedule; the July 2026 figures came from the Office of Admissions & Continuing Education's admissions results page, so check there for current results.

Admission on motion costs $875, and a UBE score transfer costs $500.

NCBE's current NextGen examinee guide lists a $149 software and technology fee for NextGen examinees, on top of the state's application fee; confirm the fee for Indiana's July 2028 exam with NCBE.

February 2028 is Indiana's last legacy UBE, and Indiana plans to first administer the NextGen UBE in July 2028, with a passing score of 614.

Since July 2026 it has accepted transferred NextGen scores of 614 or higher.

The NextGen exam runs one and a half days — two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two — and it is taken on the examinee's own laptop at an in-person, proctored testing site, not at a commercial test center.

NextGen scores are reported as a single number on a 500-to-750 scale, so the 614 is not comparable to the legacy 264; NCBE says the two scales should not be compared directly.

The Indiana Law Course is Indiana's jurisdiction-specific component on Indiana law — NCBE notes that some UBE jurisdictions require a jurisdiction-specific law component before admission.

Indiana's differs: it comes after licensure, and exam admittees must complete it not later than six months after the date of their admission.

Our research did not capture the course's format, provider or cost, so confirm those details with the Office of Admissions & Continuing Education before you rely on them.