Multistate Essay Examination (MEE): Issue Spotting and Rule Application
What the MEE tests
Six 30-minute essays in three hours. Subjects: the seven MBE subjects plus Business Associations, Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and Secured Transactions (UCC Article 9). Essays often combine subjects. You must spot issues, state rules, apply facts, and conclude - no answer choices.
Approach
- Outline before writing: list each call and the rule it triggers.
- Use headings matching the calls; short IRAC paragraphs.
- State the governing rule precisely (Restatement, UCC section, majority rule), then apply facts.
- Answer every sub-question, even briefly.
- For Business Associations, separate agency, partnership, LLC, and corporation rules; for Conflicts, identify domicile and the choice-of-law method before applying the other state's rule.
Worked example
A promoter signs a two-year office lease "as agent for Acme Inc., a corporation to be formed." Acme is incorporated but never adopts the lease. The landlord sues the promoter. Under agency law, a promoter is personally liable on a pre-incorporation contract unless the third party agrees to look only to the corporation. Adoption requires an express or implied assumption by the corporation; here there is none. Therefore the promoter is liable. Had Acme adopted the lease and the landlord agreed to release the promoter, a novation would end personal liability.
Traps
- Writing a general essay instead of answering the calls.
- Reciting rules without applying facts.
- Ignoring a second subject embedded in the facts.
- Failing to choose a side when the call asks "who wins."
- Citing a statute number without stating its operative rule.