How Do You Get Admitted to the Colorado Bar?

The Colorado Supreme Court Office of Attorney Admissions runs bar admission in the state; its site now brands itself the Office of Attorney and LLP Admissions, at coloradolegaladmissions.com.

NCBE coordinates the exam Colorado uses, but the admission decisions are Colorado's: NCBE's own materials say each UBE jurisdiction independently decides who may sit and be admitted, along with educational requirements, character and fitness, retake limits, local-law components and passing scores.

Annual registration for admitted Colorado lawyers is a separate step, covered at the end of this page.

Colorado gives the Uniform Bar Exam, which NCBE coordinates from three parts: the Multistate Essay Examination, two Multistate Performance Test tasks and the Multistate Bar Examination.

On the legacy version of the exam, the MBE is weighted 50%, the MEE 30% and the MPT 20%, and total scores are reported on a 400-point scale.

Colorado's minimum passing score is 270, and the same 270 applies to a transferred legacy UBE score.

Colorado has no Colorado-specific law component on the legacy UBE.

NCBE's jurisdiction summary for Colorado flags that a J.D. from an ABA-approved law school is not strictly required to sit for the Colorado exam, with the caveat that the details depend on Colorado's own rules.

Our research did not establish the full educational eligibility rules for Colorado or a law-office-study route, so confirm the education route that applies to you with the Office of Attorney Admissions before you apply.

Colorado requires an MPRE scaled score of 85 or higher for exam, admission-on-motion and UBE-score-transfer applicants, and the MPRE must be passed before an applicant is cleared to take the oath.

A passing score has a shelf life: per the Office, an 85 or higher is valid if it was achieved at an exam taken not more than five years before the date of the application for admission to Colorado.

Experienced lawyers may not have to retake it — applicants licensed elsewhere in the U.S. with 15 or more years of active practice, no public discipline, and an MPRE already taken for an earlier admission are not required to take the MPRE.

The MPRE itself is NCBE's two-hour, 60-question multiple-choice exam, offered three times a year.

Colorado runs its own character and fitness investigations: NCBE's jurisdiction page says Colorado does not use NCBE's character and fitness services and directs applicants to contact Colorado for filing instructions.

Our research did not cover how the Office weighs an individual applicant's history, so questions about a specific record belong with the Office of Attorney Admissions.

Yes, in two ways — the paths sometimes grouped under Colorado bar reciprocity.

Admission on motion requires active practice for 3 of the past 5 years, and the application is $1,800.

A UBE score transfer requires a legacy UBE score of at least 270, the same minimum Colorado applies to its own exam takers, and the application is $810, plus NCBE's $30 fee for the official score transcript.

Both routes also need the MPRE at 85 or higher.

NCBE's score-age table lists Colorado under '3 years/5 years', its marker for a longer window for applicants with practice experience, so confirm the window that applies to your score with the Office.

The Office's fee schedule also lists a military spouse certification ($500) and a single-client (in-house) counsel certification ($1,000).

The exam application is $710 if filed in the timely period and $910 in the late period, per the Office's 2026-27 fee schedule.

The timely window is February 1 to March 31 for the July exam and September 1 to October 31 for the February exam; the late windows that follow are April 1 to April 30 and November 1 to November 30.

Our research did not confirm the latest Colorado first-time pass rate or a results-release month; the Office posts bar examination results and statistics on its site and is the source for both.

Colorado's final legacy UBE is the February 2028 exam, and its first NextGen UBE is the July 2028 exam; NCBE's adoption table lists Colorado in the July 2028 wave.

The NextGen exam runs 9 hours over 1.5 days, taken on the examinee's own laptop at in-person, proctored testing sites rather than commercial test centers, and is reported as one score on a 500-750 scale.

The 270 legacy minimum does not convert: NCBE says legacy and NextGen scores should not be compared directly, and Colorado's NextGen passing score was not among the announced scores in the NCBE material we read, so confirm it with the Office.

The switch dates are the Office of Attorney Admissions' own:

Every Colorado attorney and LLP applicant must complete the one-day Practicing with Professionalism course: exam applicants finish it before the oath, while on-motion, UBE-score-transfer and limited-license admittees have six months after admission.

Admitted lawyers also complete an annual registration, with fees and deadlines published at coloradolegalregulation.com: the 2026 fee is $395 for lawyers first admitted (anywhere) before January 1, 2023, $190 for those admitted after that date, and $160 for inactive status under age 65.

The registration statement is due by February 28; a $100 late fee applies, plus an additional $200 if the statement and payment are not received by March 31.