For nearly a decade, the biggest knock against the uniform bar exam was that no large jurisdictions had embraced it. Not anymore. New York state's adoption this month of the standardized examination further fuels the drive toward a national test that lets aspiring lawyers transfer scores among jurisdictions.

“Obviously, New York adopting the uniform bar exam has accelerated this issue — not only for Florida, but for a number of other states,” said Gregory Coleman (left), president of The Florida Bar, which is studying the idea despite concerns among rank-and-file lawyers about an influx of competition. “I think you will see the Northeast fall and go to the uniform bar exam, and then you'll see an acceleration of other states adopting it.”

New York was the 16th state to adopt the uniform test offered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners and will start using the test in 2016. Less populous Midwestern states dominate the jurisdictions that use or plan to use the test. Kansas, with fewer than 400 bar takers annually, became the 15th uniform bar exam state in February. New York, by contrast, has the largest single cohort of bar takers at about 15,000 per year.