Client Counseling Scenarios

Scope

This file explains how client counseling and advising is tested on the NextGen UBE — the exam NCBE will administer nationally from July 2026 onward, which New Jersey will adopt in July 2028 [S1][S3][S5] — covering NCBE's definition of client counseling and advising as a foundational lawyering skill (Group B of the Content Scope Outlines) [S2], the professional-responsibility rules NCBE says may be tested in counseling contexts [S2], how counseling scenarios appear in the exam's question formats (counseling-style integrated question sets) [S3][S4], the released sample set that best illustrates the format (the "Flooded Apartment" set) [S4], and New Jersey's adoption timeline [S5]. It does not cover negotiation and dispute resolution or client relationship and management as separate skills (the module's sibling topics cover those), law-school clinical training, or the full body of attorney-ethics doctrine; it covers only the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct that NCBE enumerates for assessment within integrated question sets [S2].

Legal Explanation

Client counseling and advising as a published foundational skill (NCBE/national). NCBE lists "client counseling and advising" among the exam's seven foundational lawyering skills on its About the NextGen UBE page, alongside legal research, legal writing, issue spotting and analysis, investigation and evaluation, negotiation and dispute resolution, and client relationship and management [S1]. The NextGen UBE Blueprint (prepared June 2, 2025, covering the July 2026 and February 2027 administrations) states that, from July 2026 through February 2028, the exam will test these Foundational Skills together with eight Foundational Concepts and Principles [S3]. NCBE's Content Scope Outlines (dated August 1, 2025) organize the seven skills into four groups, with Client Counseling and Advising grouped with Negotiation and Dispute Resolution and Client Relationship and Management as Group B [S2]. The stated purpose of Group B "is to assess 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]. The Content Scope also provides that any task may assess skills from any group, and that the skills are assessed in the context of one or more of the Foundational Concepts and Principles or other areas of doctrinal law [S2].

The counseling-relevant tasks (NCBE/national). The Content Scope measures each skill through a numbered list of tasks (pages 3–5 of the Outlines), and the tasks whose language most directly implements the Group B purpose are: identifying which claims to recommend bringing, which remedies to recommend seeking, which evidence to present, which arguments or defenses to raise, and — in a transactional matter — which provisions to recommend including, based on the relevant legal rules and standards and consistent with the client's objectives, interests, and constraints (task 8); identifying two benefits or two drawbacks of a proposed resolution of a dispute, consistent with the client's objectives, interests, and constraints (task 11); identifying potential terms of a contract or settlement agreement that could advance negotiation or resolution (task 12); in a matter in which a client has multiple stated objectives, explaining why a legal rule or principle, as applied to the client's situation, may make one of those stated objectives attainable or unattainable (task 13); and determining the best strategy to identify the client's needs and achieve the client's stated goals and objectives (task 14) [S2]. Two features stand out. First, the tasks are option- and tradeoff-centered: examinees identify recommended courses of action, weigh benefits against drawbacks, and explain why a rule constrains one of the client's goals [S2]. Second, the client's "objectives, interests, and constraints" are the operative constraint on nearly every Group B task, so a correct answer must fit the client's situation as stated in the facts rather than a generic ideal outcome [S2].

Professional responsibility inside the counseling context (NCBE/national). The Content Scope includes a "Foundation Skills Group B Note" stating that issues related to an enumerated list of American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct (MRPC) "frequently arise in the context of Group B Foundational Skills" [S2]. The enumerated rules include MRPC Rule 1.0 (Terminology), 1.1 (Competence), 1.2(a) and (d) (Scope of Representation and Allocation of Authority Between Client and Lawyer), 1.3 (Diligence), 1.4 (Communications), 1.6(a) and (c) (Confidentiality of Information), 1.7 (Conflict of Interest: Current Clients), 3.1 (Meritorious Claims and Contentions), 3.3(a)(1)–(2) (Candor Toward the Tribunal), 4.1 (Truthfulness in Statements to Others), 4.2 (Communication with Person Represented by Counsel), and 4.3 (Dealing with Unrepresented Persons) [S2]. NCBE states that knowledge of these rules "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," that assessment is limited to application of the listed rules and does not include the accompanying comments, and that questions assessing knowledge of the MRPC "require an examinee to rely solely on recalled knowledge and understanding, without provision of legal resources" [S2]. These are ABA Model Rules as enumerated by NCBE — a national exam-design point; the Content Scope makes no reference to New Jersey's own Rules of Professional Conduct, and NJ-specific ethics rules are not the assessment target [S2].

How counseling scenarios appear in the question formats (NCBE/national). NCBE's Blueprint describes three categories of question types — standalone multiple-choice questions (49% of the total score), integrated question sets (21%), and performance tasks (30%) — administered as three three-hour sections over one and a half days [S3]. Client counseling appears primarily in the integrated question sets (IQS) [S3]. The Blueprint describes IQS as "question sets based on a common fact scenario," appearing in two formats — "drafting sets" and "counseling sets" — where "drafting sets contain medium-answer questions" and "counseling sets contain multiple-choice and short-answer questions" [S3]. There are two IQS per section and six per exam, with an expected time of approximately 24 minutes per set; partial credit is available for short- and medium-answer responses and for select-two multiple-choice questions; and one of the six sets is a pretest question set that does not contribute to the examinee's score [S3]. The Blueprint does not state how many of the six sets on a given administration will be counseling sets rather than drafting sets [S3]. NCBE's sample-questions page adds that "some integrated question sets will be focused on drafting or editing a legal document; other sets will be focused on counseling and/or dispute resolution," that each set is based on a common fact scenario and "may include some legal resources (e.g., excerpts of statutes or judicial opinions) and/or supplemental documents (e.g., a police report or excerpt from a deposition)," and that just over a quarter of the exam time will be devoted to integrated question sets [S4].

The released sample: Integrated Question Set 1 – "Flooded Apartment" (NCBE/national). NCBE's sample integrated question sets page presents two sets, and the first — "Integrated Question Set 1 – Flooded Apartment" — is the released sample closest to the Blueprint's counseling-set description (checked 2026-08-20) [S4]. The examinee plays a solo practitioner who agreed, through a bar's volunteer lawyers program, to take on a pro bono matter; the set opens with an excerpt of the lawyer's notes from the initial interview with the client — a tenant whose apartment flooded during a storm, whose property manager refuses repairs and points to a lease clause disclaiming all responsibility — and then provides an excerpt of the jurisdiction's residential landlord-tenant statute (§ 6-20-5), including its nonwaivable duty to maintain premises in a condition fit for human habitation, its provision making lease provisions that waive that duty unenforceable, and its treble-rent cause of action [S4]. The set's six components mix select-one multiple-choice, select-two multiple-choice, and short-answer questions with roughly one-sentence answers: applying the statute to the client's situation (Component 1, which the page designates "Skill A.6"), listing facts supporting a habitability violation (Component 2), listing actions the landlord could take under the statute (Component 3, which the page designates "Skill B.13"), selecting facts providing the most support to a cause of action under § 6-20-5(f) (Component 4), listing two additional drawbacks to the client of the landlord's settlement proposal without restating the proposal's terms (Component 5), and listing facts supporting piercing the landlord LLC's veil (Component 6) [S4]. The page publishes answer explanations, representative correct answers, and a scoring guide for selected components, and each component carries a content-scope designation linking it to the Content Scope's skills and subject-matter outlines — e.g., the "Skill B.13" designation for Component 3 and, for Component 5, the request for drawbacks of a proposed resolution, which tracks Content Scope task 11 [S2][S4]. The statute in the set belongs to the set's fictional jurisdiction and is not a real statute [S4].

Grading and scoring context (NCBE/national). Official NextGen UBE 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 [S1][S3]. Integrated question sets — including the counseling sets — make up 21% of the total exam score, with partial credit available for short- and medium-answer responses and for select-two multiple-choice questions [S3].

New Jersey context (NJ-specific). New Jersey adopted the NextGen UBE by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025, with the first New Jersey administration in July 2028; New Jersey will continue to administer the legacy UBE in its current form through the February 2028 administration [S5]. The notice announces no NJ-specific design for counseling questions; the client counseling and advising skill and the counseling-style integrated question sets are part of the national NextGen UBE design that New Jersey adopted [S5]. The notice states that the Ad Hoc Committee on the "NextGen" Uniform Bar Examination will reconvene to study the available literature on grading and recommend a passing score, which the Court will then establish for New Jersey [S5]. Everything above about how client counseling is defined and tested is NCBE/national and applies to New Jersey candidates sitting for the NextGen UBE [S5].

How to prepare (editorial; beyond NCBE's published guidance). Four practical points follow from the official materials, none of which NCBE states in so many words. First, practice the closed-universe mindset: counseling questions come with a fact scenario and, where doctrine outside the Foundational Concepts and Principles is involved, the relevant legal resources are provided, so the skill tested is disciplined application of the provided materials to the client's situation [S2][S4]. Second, memorize the enumerated MRPC rules: they are the one body of authority NCBE says is tested from recall in the IQS context, and the Content Scope lists exactly which rules, so the examinable set is bounded [S2]. Third, practice the tradeoff moves the tasks reward — stating two benefits or two drawbacks of a proposed resolution, and explaining which of a client's stated objectives a rule makes attainable or unattainable [S2]. Fourth, work NCBE's free sample questions, including the Flooded Apartment set, to internalize the counseling-set rhythm of short, fact-keyed answers [S4]; NCBE itself recommends starting with its free sample questions and a free exam software preview [S1].

Currency note. NextGen exam details are still evolving. Every claim in this file was checked against the cited NCBE and New Jersey Courts pages on August 20, 2026, and reflects those pages as of that date [S1][S2][S3][S4][S5].

ELI-10: Explain It Like I'm 10

[HYPOTHETICAL — NOT A REAL CASE] At Westside Middle School, the student newspaper's best job is being the "advice editor." Every Tuesday, a reporter comes to the advice editor with a story problem. This week, Maya the reporter has two headline ideas for a story about the school's recycling program: "Recycling Rules" and "Recycling Saves the Cafeteria." The advice editor's job is not to pick the headline — it is to open the big gray School Handbook, check the page about what the recycling program may and may not claim, and tell Maya three things: which headline the handbook actually supports, two good things and two bad things about running each headline, and — if Maya says she wants both headlines in the paper — which one the handbook makes impossible, and why. The advice editor must also remember, even without the handbook in front of her, the school's standing rules: never print a student's private information, never promise Maya a headline the facts cannot support, and never tell the principal anything untrue about the story. When the handbook is missing a page, the standing rules still count. And every answer has to fit Maya's real situation — the facts the reporters gathered, what the school allows, and what Maya actually wants for her story.

Translating back to the real rule: the gray School Handbook is the legal resources NCBE provides with its question sets — "excerpts of statutes or judicial opinions" and supplemental documents like an interview excerpt [S4]; Maya is the client, and her headline wishes are the client's stated objectives [S2]; "which headline the handbook supports" is applying the provided rule to the client's situation, and "which one is impossible and why" is Content Scope task 13, explaining why a legal rule, as applied to the client's situation, may make one of a client's multiple stated objectives attainable or unattainable [S2]; "two good and two bad things" is task 11, identifying benefits or drawbacks of a proposed resolution consistent with the client's objectives, interests, and constraints [S2]; "remember the standing rules without the handbook" is the Content Scope's Group B Note, which says knowledge of the enumerated ABA Model Rules — such as MRPC 1.4 on communications and 1.6 on confidentiality — may be assessed in integrated question sets from recalled knowledge, without provision of legal resources [S2]; and "fit Maya's real situation" is the Group B purpose itself — identifying 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]. On the NextGen UBE, that Tuesday-afternoon desk is the counseling-style integrated question set, and New Jersey's future lawyers first sit at it in July 2028 [S3][S5].

Real Case Reference (if applicable)

No published judicial decision addresses how the NextGen UBE tests client counseling and advising — the skill and its question formats are defined by exam specifications, not by litigated doctrine. The governing authority is NCBE's official exam materials: the Content Scope Outlines, which define Group B, its counseling-relevant tasks, and the enumerated MRPC rules testable in this context [S2]; the NextGen UBE Blueprint, which defines the counseling-set format of the integrated question sets and the exam's scoring design [S3]; NCBE's sample integrated question sets page, which publishes the "Flooded Apartment" set with answer explanations, representative correct answers, and scoring guidance [S4]; and NCBE's About the NextGen UBE page [S1]. 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 and a passing score to be established later [S5]. The statute and cases inside NCBE's sample sets are fictional [S4]: the "Flooded Apartment" set presents a fictional jurisdiction's residential landlord-tenant statute (§ 6-20-5), and the page's second sample set ("Integrated Question Set 2") cites fictional "Franklin" decisions — Wexler Properties LLC v Raymond Construction (Franklin Supreme Court, 2022) and Pelleteri v Howser (Franklin Supreme Court, 2017) — none of which are real cases [S4].

Key Takeaways

• Client counseling and advising is one of the seven foundational lawyering skills NCBE publishes for the NextGen UBE, grouped with negotiation and dispute resolution and client relationship and management as Content Scope Group B — assessing "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" (NCBE/national) [S1][S2].
• The counseling-relevant tasks ask examinees to recommend claims, remedies, evidence, arguments, defenses, and contract provisions; identify two benefits or two drawbacks of a proposed resolution; identify settlement terms; explain why a rule makes one of a client's stated objectives attainable or unattainable; and determine the best strategy to identify the client's needs and achieve the client's goals (NCBE/national) [S2].
• NCBE enumerates the ABA Model Rules testable in this context — including 1.4 Communications and 1.6(a) and (c) Confidentiality — and states they may be assessed within integrated question sets from recalled knowledge without provided legal resources, but not in standalone multiple-choice questions (NCBE/national) [S2].
• Counseling sets are one of the two integrated-question-set formats — containing multiple-choice and short-answer questions; two sets per section, six per exam, approximately 24 minutes each, and 21% of the total exam score (NCBE/national) [S3].
• NCBE's released "Flooded Apartment" sample shows the counseling-set shape: initial-client-interview notes, a provided statute, select-one/select-two multiple-choice and short-answer components, including a drawbacks-of-settlement component and a component designated "Skill B.13," with published answer explanations, representative correct answers, and a scoring guide (NCBE/national) [S4].
• New Jersey-specific: first NextGen UBE administration in July 2028 by Supreme Court notice dated November 17, 2025, with the legacy UBE continuing through the February 2028 administration and New Jersey's passing score to be established later [S5].

Sources

• [S1] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "About the NextGen UBE," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/about-nextgen (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S2] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "NextGen UBE Content Scope Outlines, July 2026–February 2027" (PDF, Aug. 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, "NextGen UBE Blueprint, July 2026–February 2027" (PDF, prepared June 2, 2025), https://www.ncbex.org/sites/default/files/2025-07/NCBE-NextGen-UBE-Blueprint_5.pdf (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S4] National Conference of Bar Examiners, "Sample Integrated Question Sets (NextGen UBE sample questions)," https://www.ncbex.org/exams/nextgen/sample-questions/integrated-question-sets (verified 2026-08-20).
• [S5] 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).

Not Legal Advice