Maryland State Board of Law Examiners
2011-F Commerce Park Drive
Annapolis, MD 21401
TEL: 410-260-3640
www.mdcourts.gov/ble
The procedures for gaining admission to the bar of the State of Maryland are set by the Court of Appeals and enacted into law by the General Assembly. The Rules Governing Admission to the Bar of Maryland can be accessed either through the link below (both current as of 2016), or in the Rules pamphlets of the Annotated Code of Maryland.
The Out-of-State Attorney's Exam is an abbreviated form of the Maryland Bar Exam designed for admission of eligible members in good standing of the bars of sister states. As the State of Maryland does not grant reciprocity to other states, the Out-of-State Attorney's Exam and the regular Maryland Bar Exam are the only two paths to unrestricted entry to the Bar of the State of Maryland.
The Out-of-State Attorney's Exam is a handwritten open-book test administered in one three-hour session. The permitted books are:
Annotated Code of Maryland, Rules Vols. I & II
Annotated Code of Maryland, Courts & Judicial Procedure title
Annotated Code of Maryland, Criminal Procedure title
Detailed information on the exam and eligibility can be found here: Out-of-State Attorney's Exam Information
The process by which applicants gain admission to the bar of the State of Maryland has several steps:
For unrestricted admission to the bar, some form of examination is required, whether the regular Bar Exam, or the Out-of-State Attorneys' Exam. Maryland also allows restricted admission for attorneys associated with an organized legal services program sponsored or approved by the Legal Aid Bureau, Inc., for a period of no more than two years.
For additional information on the application process, see General Bar Exam Information and Bar Application Checklist.
The Maryland Bar Exam is administered by the State Board of Law Examiners twice annually, on the last Wednesdays of February and July, and the immediately preceding Tuesdays. The Maryland-specific written portion is administered on the Tuesday, while the Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) is administered on the Wednesday.
The morning session for the written portion consists of the Multistate Performance Test (MPT) question and the first three essay questions, while the afternoon session contains the remaining seven essays. Suggested time budget is 90 minutes for the MPT and 25 minutes apiece for the state-specific essays.
The minimum passing score is a 406 (Bar Application Checklist).
According to Board Rule 4, the written portion of the Bar Exam covers the following subjects:
Exam Questions & Answers
Exam Questions & Answers Archive 1998-2006
Like all U.S. jurisdictions, the State of Maryland requires a character and fitness review of all applicants for admission to the bar. However, Maryland is one of only three jurisdictions (Wisconsin and Puerto Rico are the other two) that do not require the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (MPRE). Maryland's Character and Fitness review for regular applicants is conducted by the Board of Law Examiners, and by one of seven regional Character Committees composed of volunteer practitioners.
The Character Questionnaire (Part II of the bar application) requires applicants to document everything that might potentially impact one's fitness to practice law, including employment, academic, and criminal history (down to parking tickets). The applicant's references are then contacted by an assigned committee member and the application vetted.
Finally, applicants must submit to a personal interview with a member of the review committee.
For out-of-state attorneys, the review is conducted by the NCBE. The process for both types of application is outlined at: Character and Fitness Process for General Bar Admission
On October 11, 2017, an advisory committee assembled by the Maryland Judiciary voted 11-1 to recommend adoption of the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE) no earlier than July 2019. On November 16, 2017, the Court of Appeals voted unanimously to adopt the UBE along with a Maryland law supplement effective some time during the 2019 calendar year. The remaining information on this page is valid for at least the February and July 2018 administrations.