Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
Domain 2 - Multistate Essay Examination (MEE)
The MEE is a three-hour exam of six essays, thirty minutes each. It tests the seven MBE subjects plus Business Associations (agency, partnership, corporations, LLCs), Conflict of Laws, Family Law, Trusts and Estates, and UCC Article 9. Graders look for issue identification, accurate rule statements, application to the given facts, and a clear conclusion for every subpart. Each essay typically has three to six subparts, and each subpart must be answered separately.
Core rules
- Agency and business entities: actual authority (express or implied) versus apparent authority, ratification, respondeat superior, general partner joint and several liability, LLC charging orders, corporate fiduciary duties of care and loyalty.
- Conflict of laws: domicile, choice-of-law approaches (vested rights, most significant relationship, governmental interest), full faith and credit, recognition of marriages and divorces.
- Family law: common-law marriage, prenuptial enforceability, equitable distribution versus community property, best-interests custody, income-shares child support.
- Trusts and estates: intestacy, will formalities, revocation, incorporation by reference, ademption, abatement, Rule Against Perpetuities, trustee duties, spendthrift protection.
- Secured transactions: attachment (value, rights in collateral, security agreement), perfection by filing, possession, control, or automatic PMSI in consumer goods; the 20-day PMSI rule for equipment; priority; repossession without breach of the peace.
Worked example
On June 1 a debtor takes possession of a $40,000 oven bought on credit, and the seller files a financing statement on June 15. A bank had filed a blanket lien on May 1. Who has priority? The seller holds a purchase-money security interest in equipment and filed within 20 days after the debtor received possession, so it beats the earlier bank filing. Had the seller filed after the 20-day window, the bank's earlier filing would control.
Traps
Do not write an MBE answer. Each subpart needs a rule, application to these facts, and a conclusion. Do not skip a subpart or merge two questions. When the call says "discuss," address both sides. Avoid reciting rules untethered from facts; graders reward analysis. Check whose law applies when the call specifies a jurisdiction.