Can you sit the bar in your state without an ABA JD?

Before you pick a way into law school, decide where you want to practice. That answer rules routes in and out, and it's the step people skip.

The National Conference of Bar Examiners asks every jurisdiction who may sit its bar exam and publishes the answers. I sorted those answers into three groups for a reader who doesn't plan on an ABA JD. Find your state, then its group.

Where each state falls

For a reader who doesn’t plan on an ABA JD. Find your state, then its group.

Point at a state, tap it, or choose it here

Territories

Pick a state

Can you sit the bar there with a law degree that isn’t an ABA JD? Every state answers differently. This map sorts them into three groups.

Group 1. An ABA JD, or nothing.
Group 2. Open on paper, after years somewhere else.
Group 3. The fewest restrictions.
Groups 2 and 3. Which one depends on your degree.
Groups 1 and 2. Group 1 with a non-ABA US degree, Group 2 with a foreign one.
Group 1 for a US degree, with a route for a foreign one.
Florida, and Ohio for a US degree. The rule no longer names the ABA.

A state in two colors sits in two groups. Read the rule written for your degree.

*Closed on paper, with a way to ask for a waiver: Kansas and Nebraska. †Alabama’s wider rule starts with the February 2027 exam.

This map gives general information about bar admission. It is not legal advice. Before you act on anything here, check with the bar admission authority in the state where you want to practice.

LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admission Council, Inc., which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this book.

How to use the map

Look up three places, starting with home. Pick three states or regions where you'd be willing to live and work. Put home first if home is where you want to stay, and if you live near a state line, count the state next door.

A state can sit in two groups, depending on your degree. New York is open to a foreign graduate with an LL.M., and it makes a graduate of a non-ABA school practice elsewhere for years first. Read the rule written for your degree.

What the map can't tell you

The map gives you the shape of it. Your state's own rule still controls, and it may have changed since I checked in October 2026. You can find the rule by googling "bar admission rules," the state's name, and "foreign legal education."

Then email the bar in your first-choice state and ask whether your planned education will let you sit. Keep the answer. The position you don't want to be in is going through all this legal education and not being able to sit a bar.

What the book adds

The map shows each state's group. Chapter 7 of Skip the LSAT? has what sits behind it:

✓the detail for each group, state by state
✓for every place in Group 3, what opens the door and the condition to check first
✓three worked examples, checked against each state's own rules in October 2026: a reader in Maryland who wants to work in the D.C. area, a reader in the middle of Texas, and a reader in Mississippi who can move
✓the D.C. condition, which decides whether your degree counts as a law degree at all

Chapter 8 turns your three places into a five-year plan with dates on it.

Buy the book → Print the five-year plan worksheet →