The bar admission ceremonies for the 1,360 new attorneys who passed the July 2023 Bar Exam will be held on Thursday, November 9, in all five judicial districts of Illinois. These will be the first bar admission ceremonies held in-person since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The First Judicial District ceremony sessions will be held in Chicago at 10:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. with Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis, Justice P. Scott Neville, Jr., and Justice Joy V. Cunningham swearing-in candidates.

The Second Judicial District ceremony will held in Elgin at 10:00 a.m. with Justice Elizabeth M. Rochford swearing-in candidates.

The Third Judicial District ceremony will be held in Joliet at 2:00 p.m., with Justice Mary K. O’Brien swearing-in candidates.

The Fourth Judicial District ceremony will be held in Springfield at 10:00 a.m., with Justice Lisa Holder White swearing-in candidates.

The Fifth Judicial District ceremonies will be held in Carbondale at 9:00 a.m. and in Champaign at 3:00 p.m. with Justice David K. Overstreet swearing-in candidates.

View additional ceremony information.

“On behalf of my colleagues, I would like to congratulate the new admittees on passing the bar exam and becoming attorneys,” Chief Justice Theis said. “We welcome you to the legal profession and urge you to remember the oath you will be taking to support the Illinois and U.S. Constitutions.”

All of the candidates set to be sworn in have passed a bar examination and a required ethics examination and were certified by the Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness.

The number of admittees for each district is as follows: 

• First District:  1,111
• Second District:  67
• Third District:  77
• Fourth District:  55
• Fifth District:  50

The new attorneys sworn in at the bar admission ceremony will bring the total number of licensed attorneys in Illinois to approximately 98,000.