PROFESSIONALISM AND LEGAL ETHICS INFORMATION SHEET
Prepared for Professionalism Program on April 1, 2025 (Updated April 9, 2025)
Georgia State University College of Law
www.clarkcunningham.org/PR.html
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What is the MPRE?
The Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE), administered by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE), is required for bar admission in Georgia and most other states. It consists of a two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice examination. The MPRE is based on the law governing the conduct and discipline of lawyers and judges, including the disciplinary rules of professional conduct in the American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, and controlling constitutional decisions and generally accepted principles established in leading federal and state cases and in procedural and evidentiary rules. It can be taken while in law school. See: https://www.ncbex.org/exams/mpre
The MPRE is scored from 50 (low) to 150 (high). These scores do NOT directly reflect the number of correct answers. The NCBE explains that it uses “a statistical process known as equating that is commonly used on standardized examinations. This statistical process adjusts raw scores on the current examination to account for differences in difficulty as compared with past examinations.” Each state sets its own pass score. Georgia currently has a VERY low pass score: 75 (that is only 25 points above the lowest possible score). The vast majority of persons who take the MPRE achieve a passing score.
When is it administered?
The MPRE is administered three times a year. Here are the 2025 exam dates:
Passed:
It is recommended that you take the MPRE after you complete one of GSU’s required legal ethics courses. Therefore, if you are currently a 1L, you should wait to take the MPRE until 2026 unless you take Professional Responsibility in Summer 2025.
MPRE accommodations
The MPRE is administered on computers provided by Pearson VUE at its testing centers. Students must request test accommodations if they have an impairment that necessitates any deviation from the standard test administration (such as extended testing time). Students requesting accommodations should submit their request as far in advance of their desired test administration as possible, and ideally no later than the Recommended Submission Date for that test date. The recommended submission date for the November 2025 test is July 30, 2025. For more information: https://www.ncbex.org/exams/mpre/test-accommodations
Free study resources, best used for review after you complete your legal ethics course:
The NCBE provides examples of test questions similar to those on the MPRE, see MPRE Sample Test Questions at https://www.ncbex.org/exams/mpre/preparing-mpre
--BarBri: Free On-line MPRE Course (recommendation: go straight to practice questions and use “Mini Review” inside questions section if practice shows you don’t fully understand some topics)
-- Kaplan: Free On-line MPRE Course
See also:
-- On-Line Practice MPRE Exam from the NCBE ($50)
-- Patrick Longan, Questions & Answers: Professional Responsibility
MPRE-related law school courses at GSU
GSU requires completion of one of the following courses on legal ethics. All of these courses prepare students to take the MPRE.
Amanda Cole serves as associate supervising attorney in GSU’s Health Law Partnership (HeLP) Legal Services Clinic. She practiced law as a senior attorney at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. She began her career as a prosecutor for the Cook County State Attorney's Office in Chicago, and she also spent three years as an associate for a Chicago firm practicing medical malpractice defense.
Clark Cunningham is the W. Lee Burge Chair in Law & Ethics, Director of the National Institute for Teaching Ethics & Professionalism, and Editor of the online International Forum on Teaching Legal Ethics & Professionalism. He has been an active public interest lawyer, as a legal aid lawyer and civil rights litigator prior to his academic career, and through law school clinical teaching. At GSU he and his students have appeared on behalf of criminal defendants, including a complex multi-defendant murder case, and have represented domestic violence victims in civil protection order proceedings. He has litigated a number of federal class action lawsuits and argued before both state and federal courts of appeal. He has been an expert witness on legal ethics in state and federal courts in Alabama, California, Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri.
Timothy Floyd is the Tommy Malone Distinguished Chair in Trial Advocacy and Professor of Law at Mercer Law School. He has published three books and is the author of numerous articles in the area of legal ethics, law and religion, and criminal law and the death penalty. His most recent book is The Formation of Professional Identity: The Path from Student to Lawyer.
Tia Gibbs is director of Academic Advisement and Bar Success at GSU. She previously served as Director of Bar Success at Florida State University, where she also taught a section of the required Professional Responsibility course, and as an Associate Professor of Academic Success and the Director of Academic Success at St. Thomas University School of Law. As a former real estate attorney, she represented lending institutions across the state of Florida. She previously served on the Florida Bar Student Education and Admission to the Bar Committee and Florida Bar Grievance Committee – 17th Circuit Section E. She currently serves on Georgia Bar’s Formal Advisory Opinion Board.
John Thielman is the associate chair of the Department of Risk Management & Insurance, GSU Robinson College of Business. He is a former prosecutor, chief counsel with a Fortune 500 insurance company, managing attorney, and trial attorney. He is a subject matter expert on litigation, litigation management, insurance, alternative dispute resolution, the legal environment of business, and ethics.