How Do You Get Admitted to the Massachusetts Bar?

Supreme Judicial Court Rule 3:01 sets out the routes into the Massachusetts bar: petitioning to sit for the Uniform Bar Examination, to transfer a UBE score earned in another jurisdiction, or for admission on motion.

The Massachusetts Board of Bar Examiners, based at the John Adams Courthouse in Boston, handles bar admission, and admission petitions are filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County.

Massachusetts gives the Uniform Bar Examination, coordinated by NCBE: the Multistate Essay Examination, two Multistate Performance Test tasks and the Multistate Bar Examination.

On the legacy UBE the MBE is weighted 50%, the MEE 30% and the MPT 20%, with total scores reported on a 400-point scale.

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

Massachusetts' minimum passing UBE score is 270, and that passing score applies both to applicants who sit the exam in Massachusetts and to those who transfer a UBE score in.

Rule 3:01 frames the routes: exam applicants petition to sit for the UBE, and UBE jurisdictions set their own policies on who may sit, what education qualifies, how many retakes are allowed and what testing accommodations are available.

Our research captured Massachusetts' admission routes but not the full text of its legal-education eligibility rules, so read the Board of Bar Examiners' requirements before you apply.

Massachusetts requires an MPRE scaled score of 85.

The MPRE is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice exam on the established standards of lawyer conduct — NCBE notes it does not measure an individual's personal ethical values — offered three times a year, with scores reported on a scale from 50 to 150 on which each jurisdiction sets its own passing score.

Background investigations are part of the admission process in every jurisdiction, and NCBE runs investigations for many boards while making no character and fitness decisions of its own — each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practice.

In Massachusetts, NCBE conducts investigations only for those seeking admission on motion.

Our research did not capture how the Board of Bar Examiners reviews exam-route applicants, so questions about a specific history belong with the Board.

Yes, in two ways.

Admission on motion requires 5 years of admission elsewhere plus the active practice or teaching of law in a state, district or territory of the United States for 5 of the past 7 years immediately before filing, and Massachusetts extends the same route to lawyers who graduated from a Canadian law school and are admitted in a Canadian province or territory.

Every motion applicant still certifies successful completion of the Massachusetts Law Component Examination, NCBE conducts the character and fitness investigation for motion applicants, and the fee is $1,015 plus a character and fitness fee.

The other route is a transferred UBE score: Massachusetts accepts a score achieved no more than 5 years before filing, with a 270 minimum on the legacy exam or 620 on NextGen, and transferring does not skip character and fitness — each receiving jurisdiction makes its own decisions.

NCBE charges $30 for each official score transcript a transfer uses.

NCBE's fee chart for Massachusetts lists a bar exam fee of $815 for first-time takers (non-attorneys) and a $175 laptop fee.

Admission on motion is $1,015 plus a character and fitness fee, and NCBE charges $30 for each official score transcript used in a UBE transfer.

Our research did not establish current Massachusetts pass rates or a results-release schedule, so confirm the latest pass list and results timing with the Board of Bar Examiners.

Massachusetts gives its last legacy UBE in February 2028 and its first NextGen UBE in July 2028, with a passing score of 620; NCBE's adoption table lists Massachusetts among the jurisdictions scheduled to start in July 2028, and the state has accepted transferred NextGen scores since July 2026.

NextGen results are reported as a single number on a 500-to-750 scale, and NCBE says legacy and NextGen scores should not be compared directly.

The Massachusetts Law Component is the state-specific piece that goes with the UBE — NCBE notes that some UBE jurisdictions add a pre-admission jurisdiction-specific law component.

In Massachusetts it is an examination: all persons desiring admission to the bar must certify their successful completion of the Massachusetts Law Component Examination to the Board of Bar Examiners, and that includes applicants admitted on motion.

Our research did not establish the component's format or timing, so confirm both with the Board of Bar Examiners.