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’ day-long 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.