Building Bar Skills Initiative

Central to this initiative is the work of the Building Bar Skills Initiative’s Module Building Teams. Now in its second year, the second cohort of Module Building Teams are doctrinal and skills faculty and staff drawn from seven different law schools. These teams are developing and testing innovative curriculum units that expand upon the existing offering of Bar Skills Modules. Complete with student learning outcomes, assessment materials, and professor guides, Bar Skills Modules equip law faculty and instructors with the easily adopted assignments for use in doctrinal courses that are designed to cultivate the skills tested on the NextGen bar exam.

If you haven’t already, you can request your free access to the Bar Skills Modules below.

AccessLex Institute is currently recruiting teams of authors for the third cohort of Module Building Teams.  

Teams are faculty and staff from the same law school. One member brings skills expertise to the Module team, with experience in academic, bar success, legal writing, legal research, ADR, client counseling or similar. The second team member is a faculty or staff member who teaches the doctrinal course that is the focus of the Bar Skills Module. We are actively recruiting teams to develop Modules in the subjects of: Constitutional Law, Family Law, Criminal Law and Procedure, and Business Associations. Teams receive a stipend and expenses for travel associated with the roughly 18-month engagement. Teams must be able to utilize their Modules in a fall 2025 offering of the course at their institution. 

For more information, see the request for proposals.      

AccessLex Institute has welcomed back three authors from the first cohort of Module Building Teams. This Senior Module Building Team serves as expert coaches, advising our newest cohort of Module authors, while collaborating to expand the catalog of AccessLex Bar Skills Modules to include the first ever multi-subject Module set for use in upper-level law school courses targeting the development of NextGen bar exam skills.  

AccessLex Institute’s Bar Skills Modules are a series of easily adapted Modules, aligned with bar-tested doctrinal subjects. Bar Skills Modules introduce law students to the skills tested on the NextGen bar exam through formative assessments and exercises. Developed by Module Building Teams comprised of law school skills and doctrinal staff and faculty, each set of Modules was utilized in a classroom setting and updated based on law student response and performance. Each Bar Skills Module set includes associated skills-based student learning outcomes, professor’s notes, assessment exercises and rubrics, and model answers to support easy adoption by law faculty and instructors.

Bar Skills Modules are available at no cost to faculty and instructors at AccessLex Member Law Schools.