Beyond Just an Occupation

Speakers at bar swearing-in ceremony discuss importance of ethics in legal profession

Chief Justice Nathan Coats presided over his first swearing-in ceremony as the head of Colorado’s judicial branch for hundreds of new attorneys. A total of 529 people can call themselves new lawyers in Colorado after passing the bar exam in July, and they took the oath Nov. 5 in Boettcher Concert Hall in Denver’s Performing Arts Complex.

In closing remarks before he led the new inductees in their oath, Coats urged them to think about the significance of its contents that go beyond its historical and ceremonial importance.


“[The oath] expresses the values that make us a profession, rather than merely an occupation.”

The group who passed July’s bar exam in Colorado represent a 70 percent pass rate, which includes already licensed attorneys getting admitted to the state bar. That represents a slight dip from July 2017, when 73 percent passed the exam.

Colorado Bar Association President John Vaught, U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello and 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Carlos Lucero also addressed the inductees. A common thread running through all the speakers’ remarks seemed to be the message that law practice is a profession, not merely a career path, and strong ethics and professionalism mark the difference between the two. Vaught spoke about the importance of finding mentors who can help teach that.

At one point, he motioned to the dozens of jurists and bar association presidents seated on the stage behind him. “What if you got to ask them: What are the characteristics of a great lawyer? What would they say?” He said. “I suspect we’d find really a very disparate list of the qualities of a great lawyer if we asked all 44. … But if we dug down deep enough … they would tell you that there is a single quality in every great lawyer, and that quality is a personal commitment to civility, to ethics and to professionalism.”

Lucero, the ceremony’s keynote speaker, rooted his speech in history  to remind the bar’s newest members of their responsibility to uphold and protect the U.S. and Colorado constitutions. Although he stopped short of taking any stance on the treatment of First Amendment freedoms in the current political climate, he said the rights to free speech, press, expression and religious exercise are key to knowledge in a free society.

“Knowledge always includes an element of truth,” he said. “And when you take your oath today, you are going to take the oath to subscribe only to do those things that are truthful.”

Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Nathan Coats talks about the importance of taking the oath for law practice as he welcomes the state bar’s newest inductees. / HANNAH BLATTER, LAW WEEK

Bryan Hall, who will continue his work in the Colorado Office of the Public Defender now that he’s sworn in, said Lucero’s comments about truth as an attorney’s “true north” resonated with him. “As a public defender, you have to find that truth,” he said.

Arguello reminded Colorado’s new attorneys about the role they should aspire to in their profession.

“You have a special responsibility to help restore the rule of law as a living, breathing, working value in American society and to help us restore confidence in the judicial branch of our government.”

— Julia Cardi

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