Colorado Supreme Court
Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel
Promoting Professionalism. Protecting the Public.
Congratulations
new Colorado attorneys!
Those who passed the July bar exam will
be sworn at a ceremony next month in Denver.
By JAMES CARLSON
Fall
2015
Colorado’s
legal community can welcome 576 new members to the profession.
Those
who passed will become official Colorado attorneys when they take the Oath of Admission at the admissions ceremony at 3 p.m., Nov. 9 at Boettcher Concert Hall
in downtown Denver.
The
swearing-in ceremony will begin with the Assembly of Lawyers, during which
current members of the legal community will rededicate themselves to the
highest standards of professionalism and integrity. The Assembly will feature a
video tribute to former Gov. Ralph Carr’s commitment
to equal protection of Japanese-Americans during World War II, and a
presentation by U.S. Magistrate Judge Nina Wang about Carr’s
legacy of justice.
The
keynote address will be delivered by Ken Salazar, who previously served as U.S.
Secretary of the Interior, U.S. Senator, and Colorado Attorney General.
Following
the Assembly, the Colorado Supreme Court will hold a special session to
administer the oath to the state’s newest lawyers.
The
Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel released the results of the July bar exam
earlier this month. Overall, 72 percent of the 799 July examinees passed.
While
Colorado’s scores on the Multistate Bar Exam followed the national trend,
declining for a second year in a row, the state’s test-takers continued a long
history of outperforming those in other jurisdictions.
The
mean scaled score in Colorado was 145.2, down four points from for the same
exam in 2013. (The July 2013 mean score was the highest recorded in the state
since at least 1975.) The national mean score for July’s MBE was 139.2, the
lowest in 28 years.
The
continuing downward trend in MBE scores has stirred a national debate over
whether the root cause is due to the quality of students entering law school or
due to the difficulty of the exam itself.
The
Office of Attorney Regulation’s website contains a full breakdown of the Colorado pass rates.
Those
who passed will become official Colorado attorneys when they take the Oath of Admission at the admissions ceremony at 3 p.m., Nov. 9 at Boettcher Concert Hall
in downtown Denver.
James Carlson is the Information
Resources Coordinator for the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel.