Tennessee Board of Law Examiners

The Synergy Application System is down for maintenance. It is anticipated that the system will be back online by mid-day today, January 17, 2023. Please check here for updates.

As of 11:35 a.m. CST, the Synergy Application System is back online. It is recommended that you clear your browsing history prior to trying to access the website at https://synergy.tnble.com.

The Tennessee General Instruction Manual (“Manual”) for the February 2023 Examination will be emailed to all eligible examinees on or before 5:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, January 11, 2023. Please check your Synergy account in Letters if you do not receive the email by that time. In the Manual, you will find pertinent information regarding the exam location, testing policies, and exam day procedures. You will be required to acknowledge that you have received and read the Manual by returning the Acknowledgment Form that you will be sent. The Acknowledgment Form must be uploaded to your Synergy account by 3:00 p.m. CT, January 20, 2023. A copy of the Manual has been posted to the website under Admission by Examination – Examination Locations and Schedule.

EXAMSOFT REGISTRATION: ExamSoft registration for eligible Tennessee applicants opens on Wednesday, January 18, 2023, at 9:00 a.m. CT and closes on January 25, 2023, at 3:00 p.m. CT. You will receive an email from ExamSoft with the registration information.

If you wish to handwrite the exam, you do not need to respond to the registration emails.

The Tennessee Board of Law Examiners filed a Petition to Amend Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 6 Governing Admission of Attorneys and Rule 7 Governing Licensing of Attorneys (No. ADM2022-01449). A copy of the Petition, which includes a summary of the proposed changes, as well as a red-line version and a conformed copy of the proposed changes can be found on the Governing Authorities page of this website.

The Supreme Court has ordered that comments be submitted to the Clerk of the Appellate Courts on or before January 20, 2023.

UPDATE 10/10/22 The List of Successful Exam-Takers and Statistics for the July 2022 Uniform Bar Examination in Tennessee have been posted to the website. The overall pass rate is 62.36% for 736 exam-takers. There were 622 first-time exam-takers, 433 of whom passed the exam for a first-time pass rate of 69.61%.

Examinees have received an email with results. Any attachments to the email can be viewed in the email or in the “Letters” tab in the examinee Synergy account.

Scores were released April 8, 2022, for the February 2022 Uniform Bar Examination in Tennessee. The list of applicants passing the exam can be found here. Of the 273 examinees, 111 achieved a score of 270 or higher, a pass rate of 40.66%. Statistical information for the February 2022 UBE in Tennessee can be found here.

By order filed March 14, 2022, the Tennessee Supreme Court has temporarily granted the Board discretion to waive the late fee imposed by Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 7, § 10.01(h) for registration of lawyers working remotely as in-house counsel for a Tennessee company. As stated in the Order, “the widespread use of employees working remotely has created uncertainty concerning when a lawyer has established a ‘systematic and continuous presence’ in Tennessee” under Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 8, RPC 5.5(d)(1) and Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 7, § 10.01(a), governing registration of in-house counsel. A lawyer approved for registration under this provision is deemed approved as if the registration had been timely filed.

Applications for Admission without Examination (Comity) have been delayed due to the extensive amount of time the Board and staff members have had to dedicate to administering and processing the remote examinations given between October 2020 and July 2021. At this time, review of comity applications and approval by the Board are taking an average of 14 months. The Board and staff are committed to completing the pending cases and reducing the time between application submittal and Board decision.

To permit attorneys who have been affected by the delays to continue to practice pending admission as provided in Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 7, Sec. 10.07, the Supreme Court filed an order on November 9, 2021, modifying Rule 7, Sec. 10.07. Lawyers who submitted and paid for an application for admission by comity prior to July 1, 2021, and who have registered or subsequently register to practice under section 10.07, may continue to practice pending admission until July 1, 2022, absent a terminating event as provided in section 10.07(b).

The Tennessee Supreme Court adopted amendments to Rule 7, Tennessee Supreme Court Rules on August 6, 2020. The amendments clarify the applicable standard for character and fitness, clarify the conditions that may be imposed for conditional admission , and make corrections to the rule for uniformity and consistency. A copy of the Order can be found here. Rule 7, as amended, can be found under Governing Authorities.

The link for Law Schools to use to upload completed Law Degree Verification Forms is now available. Law School Officials responsible for completing the forms should email the TBLE office for the link. Please save each form as a separate .pdf file, named: student-last name_student-first-name_Law-School-name_LDV.pdf prior to uploading the document.

NOTE: This link is not for Applicants to use. Applicants upload documents to their Application in Synergy.

The Board approved amendments for recommendation to the Supreme Court to Board Policy P-6.02, setting the size of Investigatory Committees, and adding new policy P-12.01, “Ethical Considerations.” Two technical amendments, a typographical error in P-3.02 and deleting a provision now included in Rule 7, in P-4.07, were recommended as well. The Supreme Court approved these recommendations on March 25, 2020. The revised Policies and Procedures have been added to the website under Governing Authorities.