When bar exam administrators in New York decided earlier this year to adopt a standardized version of the test already approved in 16 other states, they put significant pressure on New Jersey to do the same—more for logistical reasons than by pure force of example.

According to legal educators, New York's implementation of the uniform bar exam beginning next summer is expected to disrupt a schedule that traditionally has accommodated the very high proportion of New Jersey-based test-takers who seek licensure on both sides of the Hudson River.

“The fact that New York is doing it does change a lot,” said Mark Alexander, associate dean for academics at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, and a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court's newly formed Ad Hoc Committee on the Uniform Bar Examination.