Foundational Skills

Scope

This file explains NCBE's published foundational lawyering skills — the seven skills, the four groups they are organized into, and the defined tasks used to measure them — and the foundational concepts and principles (the subject areas) against which those skills are tested on the NextGen UBE, as specified in NCBE's official content scope and related materials. It also covers how professional-responsibility content (select ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct) fits into the exam. The focus is NCBE/national; New Jersey-specific facts appear only where the adoption affects NJ candidates. It does not cover the full subject-matter outlines for each concept, sample questions, scoring mechanics, or NJ transition logistics (covered in the other module 03 topics).

Legal Explanation

What foundational skills are (NCBE/national). NCBE describes the NextGen UBE as testing "a broad range of foundational lawyering skills, utilizing a focused set of clearly identified fundamental legal concepts and principles needed in today's practice of law" [S4]. NCBE's content scope identifies seven foundational lawyering skills: legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management [S1][S3]. The content scope PDF (August 1, 2025) uses the label "legal writing and drafting" for the writing skill; the published list is otherwise identical [S2]. NCBE states the exam is "designed to balance the skills and knowledge needed in litigation and transactional legal practice" [S5].

The four skill groups (NCBE/national). The content scope organizes the seven skills into four groups, each with a stated purpose [S2]:

• Group A — Issue Spotting and Analysis; Investigation and Evaluation: assesses "the extent to which an examinee can apply fundamental legal principles and legal reasoning to analyze given fact patterns" [S2].
• Group B — Client Counseling and Advising; Negotiation and Dispute Resolution; Client Relationship and Management: assesses the extent to which an examinee "can identify lawyering strategies within the lawyer-client relationship, based on the relevant rules and standards and consistent with a client's objectives, interests, and constraints" [S2].
• Group C — Legal Research: assesses the extent to which an examinee "can identify and implement legal research strategies, including preliminary issue-spotting, working with provided resources, developing and refining a theory of the case, and reaching closure on research questions" [S2].
• Group D — Legal Writing and Drafting: assesses the extent to which an examinee "can complete a legal writing or drafting task based on the relevant rules and standards and consistent with a client's objectives, interests, and constraints" [S2].

How the skills are measured (NCBE/national). The foundational skills are assessed "in the context of one or more of the Foundational Concepts and Principles or other areas of doctrinal law," and each skill is measured through a defined set of 28 tasks [S2]. Any task may assess skills from any group; an icon accompanying each task indicates the group most closely aligned with that task's primary focus [S2]. Representative tasks include: identifying which legal concepts and principles are likely to affect the outcome of a matter (task 1); identifying which facts are likely to be relevant or dispositive (task 2); identifying applicable standards of review and/or burdens of proof (task 3); identifying strengths and weaknesses of a party's position (task 4); identifying which facts need investigation or the best investigation strategy (task 5); assessing the probable outcome of a claim, motion, discovery matter, defense, or objection (task 6); identifying which claims, remedies, evidence, arguments, or defenses to recommend, consistent with the client's objectives, interests, and constraints (task 8); identifying the research questions that need to be answered (task 15); identifying efficient legal research strategies, methods, or tools, including appropriate search terms (task 17); identifying the roles, characteristics, and authoritative weight of provided sources (task 18); identifying facts analogous to or distinct from dispositive facts in provided judicial opinions (task 19); identifying sources, search terms, or strategies to update or supplement a provided collection of sources (task 20); drafting or editing correspondence to a client (task 23); identifying language that should be changed in draft sections of a complaint or answer, and how (task 24); identifying the best affiant and best language for draft affidavits (task 25); identifying, explaining, and suggesting changes to draft contract provisions (task 26); and drafting specified sections of a document such as a memo, a persuasive brief or letter, or another common document (task 27) [S2].

Foundational concepts and principles (NCBE/national). From July 2026 through February 2028, the NextGen UBE tests the following foundational concepts and principles: business associations and relationships; civil procedure; constitutional law; contract law; criminal law and constitutional protections of accused persons; evidence; real property; and torts [S1][S3]. Starting with the July 2028 administration, family law is added to the list of foundational concepts and principles [S1][S4]. The standalone multiple-choice questions test the eight foundational concepts "in approximately equal numbers," and some questions may test more than one concept [S3]. Integrated question sets "may test more than one of the Foundational Concepts and Principles and/or [a] non-Foundational area of doctrinal law," and the concepts are not equally distributed among the sets [S3].

Starred and unstarred topics (NCBE/national). Within the content scope outlines, topics followed by a star require the examinee to rely solely on recalled knowledge and understanding; they are tested without provision of legal resources [S2][S3]. Topics without a star may be tested with or without legal resources; when tested without resources, the examinee is expected to rely on recalled knowledge sufficient to recognize that the topic is at issue in the fact scenario [S2][S3]. The select Model Rules of Professional Conduct assessed on the exam are included in the starred category [S3].

Other areas of legal knowledge as context (NCBE/national). Other areas of legal knowledge appear on the exam to provide context for testing one or more foundational skills, but examinees are "not expected or required to develop a base of knowledge in those areas"; for those questions, the necessary legal resources (e.g., statutes, regulations, and case law) are provided [S1][S3]. From July 2026 through February 2028, family law and trusts and estates appear in these skills-focused questions on every exam — including in a performance task on every exam — and may also be included in integrated question sets; during this period they are tested with the provision of legal resources [S1][S2][S4].

Professional responsibility: select ABA Model Rules (NCBE/national). Issues related to the rules of professional conduct frequently arise in the context of the Group B skills (client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management) [S2][S3]. The content scope enumerates twelve American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) that "may be assessed in the context of assessment of Group B Foundational Skills within integrated question sets but will not be assessed in the sections of the exam consisting of standalone multiple-choice questions" [S2]: MRPC Rule 1.0 (Terminology); Rule 1.1 (Competence); Rule 1.2(a) and (d) (Scope of Representation and Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer); Rule 1.3 (Diligence); Rule 1.4 (Communications); Rule 1.6(a) and (c) (Confidentiality of Information); Rule 1.7 (Conflict of Interest: Current Clients); Rule 3.1 (Meritorious Claims and Contentions); Rule 3.3(a)(1)-(2) (Candor Toward the Tribunal); Rule 4.1 (Truthfulness in Statements to Others); Rule 4.2 (Communication with Person Represented by Counsel); and Rule 4.3 (Dealing with Unrepresented Persons) [S2]. Assessment of the MRPC is limited to application of the enumerated rules; the comments accompanying the rules are not assessed, and references within the rules to rules or subsections not enumerated are not assessed [S2]. Questions assessing MRPC knowledge require the examinee to rely solely on recalled knowledge, without provision of legal resources [S2][S3]. These are the ABA Model Rules — a national model code — and the content scope references no state-specific professional-responsibility rules [S2]; this topic does not address New Jersey's separate professional-responsibility rules for NJ practice.

Exam context (NCBE/national; one NJ-specific fact). The foundational skills are tested through the exam's three item types: standalone multiple-choice questions (49% of the total score), integrated question sets (21%), and performance tasks (30%) [S3]. The exam is administered over one and a half days, with two three-hour sessions on day one and one three-hour session on day two [S4]. Official scores are reported as a single number on a scale from 500 to 750, with each jurisdiction establishing its own passing score within that range [S4]. Transition to the NextGen UBE is scheduled between July 2026 and July 2028 in most jurisdictions [S5]. NJ-specific: by notice dated November 17, 2025, the New Jersey Supreme Court adopted the NextGen UBE, with a first New Jersey administration in July 2028 [S6].

Currency note. Every claim in this file was checked against the cited official NCBE pages and the NJ Courts notice on August 20, 2026 [S1][S2][S3][S4][S5][S6]. The content scope PDF (August 1, 2025) states that it applies to the July 2026 and February 2027 administrations and that any updates to the content scope will be announced at least one year in advance of the administration in which they will first appear [S2]; the content scope web page states the July 2026–February 2028 lists quoted above [S1].

ELI-10: Explain It Like I'm 10

[HYPOTHETICAL — NOT A REAL CASE] Suppose a city decides to license chefs with a brand-new test. The old test asked you to recite the whole cookbook from memory. The new one works differently. First, the examiners publish a short list of seven "chef skills": reading a recipe, tasting and fixing a dish, talking to a customer, haggling with a supplier, keeping your station tidy, writing the menu, and looking up a technique you forgot. Then they group those seven into four families: thinking skills (reading the situation, tasting), people skills (customers, suppliers, your own station), look-it-up skills (finding the answer), and write-it-down skills (menu and order lists). The test isn't "recite the cookbook." It's a bunch of small jobs — "here's a busy kitchen scene, what's going wrong?" or "a customer wants a dish you've never made — which page of the handbook do you check first?" — and each job mainly uses one of the four families.

The examiners also mark some things in the syllabus with a star. Starred things — like what a roux is, or the rule that you must tell a customer if a dish contains nuts — you must know from memory, no book allowed. Everything else, you get the actual handbook pages during the test, because real chefs look things up all day. And there's a little rulebook about how chefs must treat people: don't lie about what's in the food, keep a customer's private order secret, don't take orders from two rival restaurants at once. Those rules are part of the "people skills" scenarios — they never appear as standalone trivia, and you must know them from memory, not look them up.

New Jersey's city joins the program in July 2028 and uses the exact same license.

Translating back to the real rule: the seven chef skills are NCBE's seven foundational lawyering skills — legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management [S1][S3]; the four families are the content scope's Groups A through D [S2]; the small kitchen jobs are the 28 defined tasks, each tagged with the skill group it mainly exercises [S2]; the starred syllabus items are the starred topics tested from recalled knowledge, while the handbook you may open is the legal resources provided for unstarred topics and context areas [S2][S3]; the chef rulebook about customers is the enumerated ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, tested only inside Group B skills within integrated question sets and from memory [S2]; and New Jersey joining in July 2028 is the NJ Supreme Court's adoption of the NextGen UBE with a first administration in July 2028 [S6].

Real Case Reference (if applicable)

No published judicial decision squarely addresses the NextGen UBE's foundational skills, foundational concepts, or their assessment — these are administrative exam specifications, not litigated doctrine. The governing authority for the skills and concepts is NCBE's official NextGen UBE content scope [S1][S2], and for New Jersey the governing action is the New Jersey Supreme Court's November 17, 2025 notice adopting the NextGen UBE with a first administration in July 2028 [S6].

Key Takeaways

• The seven foundational lawyering skills — legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, client counseling and advising, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management — are NCBE/national, organized into four groups (A–D) with published purposes [S1][S2].
• Skills are measured through 28 defined tasks; any task may assess skills from any group, and each task carries an icon showing the group it most closely aligns with [S2].
• The eight foundational concepts tested from July 2026 through February 2028 are business associations and relationships, civil procedure, constitutional law, contract law, criminal law and constitutional protections of accused persons, evidence, real property, and torts; family law is added starting July 2028 [S1][S4].
• Starred topics are tested from recalled knowledge without legal resources; unstarred topics may be tested with or without resources, and other areas of legal knowledge (including family law and trusts and estates on every exam through February 2028) appear as context with legal resources provided [S1][S2][S3].
• Professional-responsibility content (NCBE/national) is limited to twelve enumerated ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, assessed only within Group B skills in integrated question sets and from recalled knowledge — never in standalone multiple-choice questions [S2].
• Exam context: standalone multiple-choice 49% / integrated question sets 21% / performance tasks 30% of the score, one-and-a-half-day administration, 500–750 score scale [S3][S4]; NJ-specific: first New Jersey administration in July 2028 [S6].

Sources

• [S1] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen UBE Content Scope (web page)," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/content-scope (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S2] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NCBE NextGen UBE Content Scope, July 2026-February 2027 (PDF, August 1, 2025)," https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE%20NextGen%20UBE%20Content%20Scope-Aug%202025.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S3] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "Official Examinees' Guide to the NextGen UBE, July 2026-February 2027 (PDF)," https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Examinees-Guide%20J26-F27.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S4] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "About the NextGen UBE," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/about-nextgen (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S5] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen Bar Exam (main page)," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S6] New Jersey Courts, "Notice - Supreme Court Adopts the 'NextGen' Uniform Bar Examination - First Administration in July 2028" (Nov. 17, 2025), https://www.njcourts.gov/notices/notice-supreme-court-adopts-nextgen-uniform-bar-examination-first-administration-july-2028 (verified 2026-08-20).

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