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.