How Do You Get Admitted to the Kansas Bar?

The Kansas Board of Law Examiners handles admission to the Kansas bar, working through the Kansas Attorney Admissions Office at the Kansas Judicial Center, 301 SW 10th Ave., in Topeka.

The office is where Kansas publishes its application information, minimum scores and the Rule 719 route it calls admission by reciprocity.

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

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

Kansas requires a minimum UBE score of 266, and the state adds no Kansas-specific component — no local law course or test — although NCBE notes that some UBE jurisdictions do require one.

Our research did not find the education and documentation requirements Kansas sets for exam applicants, so treat the Attorney Admissions Office's application instructions as the authority and check them before you apply.

The one education requirement our research did confirm sits on the motion route, not the exam track: admission by reciprocity under Rule 719 requires a bachelor's degree and a J.D. from an ABA-approved law school.

Kansas' exam filing windows — March 1 for the July exam and October 1 for the February exam — are covered under the fees-and-deadlines heading below.

Kansas requires a minimum MPRE score of 80, and the requirement applies to all exam and UBE transfer applicants.

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

MPRE scores are reported on a scale from 50 to 150, and each jurisdiction sets its own passing score; Kansas' is 80.

Kansas runs its own character and fitness investigation: NCBE's jurisdiction page for Kansas states that the state does not use NCBE's character and fitness services and directs applicants to Kansas for filing instructions.

Nationally, background investigations are part of the admission process in all jurisdictions, and while NCBE conducts investigations for many jurisdictions, it makes no determinations or recommendations of its own — each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practice.

Our research did not establish how Kansas weighs an individual applicant's history, so questions about anything you would disclose belong with the Attorney Admissions Office.

Yes, in two ways.

Admission by reciprocity under Rule 719 is open to a lawyer admitted by examination in another jurisdiction who holds an active licence, has lawfully engaged in the active practice of law for 5 of the 7 years immediately preceding the application, and holds a bachelor's degree and an ABA-approved J.D.; the reciprocity fee is $1,250.

The second way is a transferred score: Kansas accepts UBE scores of 266 or higher earned in another jurisdiction if the application is made within 60 months of the exam date — the same 266 minimum that applies to applicants who sit in Kansas — and the filing fee is $1,250 plus NCBE's $30 charge for each official score transcript.

Since July 2026 Kansas has also accepted transferred NextGen UBE scores, with the minimum score listed as varying.

A transfer does not skip character and fitness — Kansas runs its own investigation.

NCBE lists Kansas' exam filing deadlines as March 1, with a late deadline of April 1, for the July exam, and October 1, with a late deadline of November 1, for the February exam — the dates NCBE published were tied to the July 2026 and February 2027 exams.

The application instructions our research captured, last revised in March 2023, list a $700 exam application fee plus a $200 late penalty; the current fee was not confirmed in our research, so check the Attorney Admissions Office's current instructions before you file.

The fees the research did confirm are the $1,250 UBE score transfer filing fee and the $1,250 admission-by-reciprocity fee.

Kansas' first-time pass rate was not collected in our research — the Attorney Admissions Office is the body to ask.

February 2028 is Kansas' last legacy UBE, and NCBE's jurisdiction page lists Kansas' first NextGen UBE administration as July 2028, with the NextGen minimum passing score shown as TBA.

Kansas has accepted transferred NextGen UBE scores since July 2026, with the minimum score listed as varying.

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, and NCBE says the legacy and NextGen scales should not be compared directly, so a future Kansas NextGen minimum should not be compared with today's 266.