CO Bar study guide
CO Bar · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Colorado Bar Examination is the licensing exam administered under the authority of the Colorado Supreme Court for people who want to be admitted to practice law in Colorado. It is aimed at law graduates from ABA-accredited schools, foreign law graduates who obtain pre-authorization, and attorneys from other U.S. jurisdictions who are admitted by examination elsewhere and are pursuing admission. The exam is a written, two-day sitting. Topics on this exam: Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) subjects, Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) subjects, Multistate Performance Test (MPT), and Colorado-specific law (essay). The CO Bar study guide has 4 sections and about 1,576 words.
01Multistate Bar Examination (MBE) Subjects
The MBE is the six-hour, 200-question multiple-choice component of the Uniform Bar Examination. It contains 175 scored questions and 25 unscored pretest questions, divided into two three-hour sessions; each question has four choices. The exam tests seven subjects: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Real Property, and Torts. The MBE is not a memory test alone: most questions require you to select the rule that resolves the precise call after eliminating choices that are true but irrelevant.
402 words, about 2 min02Multistate Essay Examination (MEE) Subjects
The MEE is a three-hour, six-question essay component of the UBE; each question is designed for 30 minutes. It draws from twelve subjects: Business Associations, Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Constitutional Law, Contracts, Criminal Law and Procedure, Evidence, Family Law, Real Property, Torts, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions. Questions frequently combine subjects, so the call may require a rule from one area applied to facts that raise another. Use IRAC or CREAC, but make the rule statement compact and spend most words applying facts.
389 words, about 2 min03Multistate Performance Test (MPT)
The MPT is the skills component of the UBE: two 90-minute tasks. Each task supplies a File (facts, client documents, correspondence) and a Library (statutes, regulations, cases). You must produce a practical lawyering document-an office memo, client letter, brief, contract provision, or discovery plan-using only the supplied Library and File. The MPT tests legal analysis, fact analysis, organization, and communication, not recall of substantive law.
372 words, about 2 min04Colorado-Specific Law (Essay)
The Colorado-specific essay component tests state law and policy that the UBE does not: the Colorado Constitution, home-rule authority, water rights, employment and civil-rights statutes, governmental immunity, and open-government law. The questions reward precise use of Colorado authority and attention to how state law displaces or supplements general UBE rules. XX gives home-rule municipalities charter and ordinance power over local matters. A home-rule ordinance is presumed valid, but state law prevails on matters of statewide concern and when express, implied, or operational conflict exists.
413 words, about 2 min