To practice law in California, applicants must not only pass the California Bar Examination, they must also pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). Here, we give you a few tips for conquering Professional Responsibility on the California Bar Exam. ABOUT ME: I graduated from Columbia Law School in 2007, took and passed the New York bar exam, and practiced for a number of years in New York at a large law firm. In my last post on the new California Rules on Professional Responsibility, I mentioned that many of the changes were meant to bring about consistency with the ABA Model Rules.As a result, there are a number of new rules that were never explicitly part of the California rules. Because of the limitations of a blog post, I plan to focus on only a few of these new rules. Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) Every applicant must take and pass the MPRE in order to be admitted. Professional Responsibility is one of the most daunting subjects on the California Bar Exam. The raw score is converted to a "scaled score" based on the measured difficulty of the version of the test taken; the scaled score is used to determine passing scores. Not only is it always tested in some form (on the essays or the performance test [PT] portion), but it sometimes shows up more than once on a given exam, it is often combined with other subjects, and you are expected to know both California and ABA ethics rules. In late 2012, I moved to California. Applicants can take the MPRE any time after completing one year of law study and before being licensed to practice law in California. Scaled scores range between 50 and 150, with a median very close to 100. Developed by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), the MPRE is a 60-item (50 scored questions and 10 nonscored pretest questions), two-hour multiple-choice examination administered three times each year at … It is usually in an essay (and sometimes in more than one essay). If it is not tested in an essay, you will see a Professional Responsibility issue on a performance test. As of the October 2012 administration, the test consists of 60 substantive questions. Start studying California Bar Exam: Professional Responsibility. REQUIREMENTS FOR BEING ADMITTED TO THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA In order to be admitted to State Bar of California, one must 1) pass the California Bar exam 2) pass the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam (“MPRE”); and 3) clear the Moral Character Application. Yes. DISCLAIMER: PLEASE READ: Do not rely on the legal accuracy of these outlines. Only 50 are scored; the other 10 (randomly scattered throughout the exam) are used for experimental purposes. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Professional Responsibility always shows up in some form on the California Bar Exam. The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), developed by NCBE, is a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice examination that is administered three times per year.