California state bar leaders on Thursday approved in concept a five-year, $8.2 million contract with Kaplan North America to write a new multiple-choice bar exam that can be administered to test-takers starting in February.

The deal was announced during the board of trustees' daylong meeting and was approved with no discussion by board members and no written details provided to the public. The approval marked a stark turnaround from a month ago when Kaplan backed out of talks about creating a new exam when the National Conference of Bar Examiners, the author of the multiple-choice exam currently used in California, warned Kaplan about possible intellectual property infringement.