UCLA swears in new lawyers
By Gil Hopenstand
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
For better or worse, California will have 200 more lawyers by nightfall.
UCLA's School of Law will swear in its recent alumni tonight to both state and federal bars at a Schoenberg Hall ceremony. Even though they have passed the bar exams, the graduates only become accredited lawyers once they have been officially sworn in.
Holding both state and federal events together is now common, said UCLA law professor and faculty sponsor Cruz Reynoso, adding that having a special law school ceremony is rare.
"I think it's a very good idea. It's a service to the students and also it's a more personal approach to conducting a swearing-in ceremony," he said, contrasting the small UCLA event to the normal occasion attended by hundreds of lawyers in Pasadena.
The new lawyers will be sworn in by judges Audrey Collins from U.S. district court, central district of California, Alex Kazinski from the ninth circuit court of appeals, and William Masterson from the state court of appeals, second district.
Masterson, a UCLA undergraduate and law school alumni, said he was delighted to be asked to attend the ceremony, only the second private ceremony UCLA has held in as many years.
"I just leapt at the chance. It's a real thrill for me," he said, adding that he will speak on the "difficulties of entering practice and the satisfaction that can be derived from being in practice."
Collins, who graduated in 1977, will also address the UCLA audience.
"I will deliver the message that they are at the beginning of a wonderful journey in law. The profession is so broad and so rich with opportunities," she said.
Christina Bold, a 1994 graduate and ceremony participant, said she was "thrilled" to find that she had passed the bar. She also said she is thankful for the UCLA ceremony.
"It's really nice because on a social level, you can be there with all your friends. It will be nice to cross that threshold with the people I worked with and people I respect in the law school," Bold said. "It would be a more intimate setting with all my pals there."
The ceremony participants are part of the 320-person graduating class of 1994 who passed the recent bar exam. Of the 234 Bruins who took the bar, 216, or 92 percent, passed. The percentage is the UCLA's highest average ever and is one of the highest in the state this year. The graduates join this year's record number of students to pass the State bar.
School officials said the state average for recent years has been about 78 percent passing the bar, adding that California has one of the most "stringent" tests in the nation.
When told of the students' lofty success rate, Bold responded, "They can let everyone in as long as they let me in."