How Do You Get Admitted to the Texas Bar?

The Texas Board of Law Examiners, based in Austin, administers bar admission under the Supreme Court of Texas' Rules Governing Admission to the Bar.

The board is separate from the State Bar of Texas.

Exam applications, filing deadlines and fees all run through the board, whose site is ble.texas.gov.

Texas gives the Uniform Bar Exam — the Multistate Essay Examination, two Multistate Performance Test tasks and the Multistate Bar Examination, coordinated by NCBE — and first administered it in February 2021.

The minimum passing UBE score in Texas is 270.

Texas also requires the Texas Law Component, a jurisdiction-specific requirement that sits on top of the uniform exam for every applicant; it is covered in more detail below.

Students who have begun their law study at ABA-approved schools in Texas file a Declaration of Intention to Study Law in their first semester — the board's example deadline for fall entrants is October 1.

The exam fee schedule names five applicant categories: in-state law students, out-of-state law students, attorneys licensed in another state, foreign-trained applicants and re-applicants.

Our research did not capture the board's full eligibility rules beyond these categories, so read the current rules before you apply.

Texas requires an MPRE scaled score of 85 or higher.

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

Scores are reported on a scale from 50 to 150, and each jurisdiction sets its own passing score.

For students at Texas law schools, the review starts early: the Declaration of Intention to Study Law filed in the first semester begins the character and fitness review, and filing late adds a late fee.

Background investigations are part of the admission process in every jurisdiction, but NCBE, which conducts investigations for many jurisdictions, makes no decisions or recommendations — each jurisdiction decides who is fit to practice.

In Texas the body that administers admission is the Board of Law Examiners.

How the board weighs an individual history is not established in our research; questions about specific circumstances belong with the board.

Texas admits licensed lawyers from other states without an exam through admission without examination (AWOX).

Applicants must hold an ABA-approved JD, be licensed in another state, and have been actively and substantially engaged in the lawful practice of law as their principal business or occupation for at least 5 of the 7 years immediately preceding the application.

AWOX applicants also need an MPRE score of 85 or higher and the Texas Law Component, the fee is $1,040, and lawyers admitted this way must complete the Baker Guide to Ethics and Professionalism in Texas within 12 months of licensure — our research did not confirm whether that guide also applies to lawyers admitted by examination.

Texas has accepted transferred UBE scores since December 1, 2019, with transfer fees from $300 to $1,140 depending on applicant category and a 5-year maximum score age listed by NCBE.

Transferring a score does not skip character and fitness: each receiving jurisdiction runs its own review.

Exam application fees are $450 for in-state law students, $640 for out-of-state law students, $1,190 for attorneys licensed in another state, $1,290 for foreign-trained applicants and $545 for re-applicants; the Declaration of Intention to Study Law is $190.

For the February exam, the timely filing deadline is September 1, the late deadline November 1 ($150 fee) and the final deadline December 1 ($300); for the July exam, the timely deadline is February 1, the late deadline April 1 ($150) and the final deadline May 1 ($300).

No applications are accepted after the final filing deadline.

Our research did not establish a current Texas pass rate or when the board releases results, so the board is the source for both.

Texas plans to first administer the NextGen UBE in July 2028, with the final legacy UBE in February 2028 — the exam Texas gives today, which NCBE says it will administer through February 2028 (NCBE information as of September 2026).

Since July 2026, the board has accepted transferred NextGen scores of 620 or higher; NextGen scores are reported as a single number on a 500–750 scale rather than separate component scores.

The NextGen UBE is taken on the examinee's own laptop at in-person, proctored testing locations, and NCBE lists a $149 exam software/technology fee on top of the board's application fee.

Every Texas applicant must complete the Texas Law Component before licensure.

Exam takers may complete it up to one year before taking the bar exam and up to five years after passing it, but no one is licensed until it is done.

This is the kind of jurisdiction-specific law component some UBE jurisdictions add on top of the uniform exam.

Our research did not capture the Texas Law Component's format or cost, so check the board's pages for how it works.

The board's fee schedule includes a $1,290 category for foreign-trained bar exam applicants, and foreign-trained applicants have their own UBE/NextGen score-transfer fee of $1,140.

Our research did not capture the board's education requirements for foreign-educated applicants, so those belong directly with the Board of Law Examiners.