Screams of joy broke out in homes, offices, and one law school across the San Joaquin Valley as the 2020 graduates of SJCL learned that 72% of them had passed the October California Bar Exam on the first attempt.
That pass rate put them well ahead of the average of all state-accredited schools (40.5%). In fact, San Joaquin College of Law graduates represented more than one-fourth of the passing graduates from state-accredited law schools.
California ABA schools passed at a rate of 84% while out-of-state ABA schools passed at 78%, within striking distance for SJCL. The SJCL class of 2020 outperformed two California American Bar Association accredited institutions, tied with one, and came within a point of another. SJCL also outperformed six out-of-state ABA institutions, including Northwestern, Tulane, and the University of Nevada at Las Vegas.
Representative of the San Joaquin Valley’s great population diversity, 78% of SJCL’s first-time bar passers self-identify as people of color, including 48% identifying as Latinx. The latest figures from the State Bar show that only 7% of current California attorneys are Latinx. Sixty-five percent (65%) of the SJCL passers are women.
Due to COVID restrictions, a heart-felt Virtual Toast was held via Zoom in January to celebrate the graduates’ success. Faculty, alumni, and staff joined the honorees as they shared their bar-results-day stories and plans for future employment.
The entire SJCL community extends a hearty CONGRATULATIONS to the passers! Your hard work paid off and we are extraordinarily proud of and happy for you!
Congratulations to Nathalia Aguirre, Amanda Busick, Tamera Casey, Brian Chin, Daniel Cisneros Jr., Courtney DiPinto, Jacobo Espindola, Jane Faulks, Zachary Groothuyzen, Claudia Juárez, Jennifer Lemus-Fernandez, Esmeralda Kinney, Kelly Liu, Virginia Madrid-Salazar, Syuzanna Martirosyan, Adriana Mendoza-Gurrola, Anthony Muia, Jordan Ott, Lanae Oviedo, Manuel Parra, Jr, Jesus Pereda Jr., Sabrina Prindiville, Angad Singh Puniani, Monica Rast, Denise Ruiz Wall, Zena Sin, Nicole Tucker, Pazong Vang, Yao Vang, Elizabeth Villanueva, and Evan Wright.