Twenty-seven Marin County residents passed the latest state bar examination, the last major hurdle to becoming a licensed lawyer in California, the organization announced.

The State Bar of California administers the test twice a year and announces the results several months later. The latest round of results are for the exam in July.

The state bar said 3,284 applicants passed the July test, or 40.7 percent. Fifty-five percent of the passers were taking the test for the first time.

Eight of the Marin passers reported Mill Valley addresses. They are Jack Lofaro Budish, Fiona Katherine Duffy, Andrew Cromwell Johnson, Carl Joseph Kaplan, Gabrielle Violet Lion, Hugh McSwain, Robin Christine Smith and Michael Conrad Zimmermann.

Seven passers have San Rafael addresses: April Angelina Alongi, Sheridan Lee Caldwell, Sarah Sue Duryee Moran, Nicole Lee Tiger, Lucia Christina Martel-Dow, Matthew Scott Olhausen and Ashley Naomi Rippolone.

Martel-Dow is already a prominent legal figure in Marin, where she has won accolades as an advocate for migrant rights. She is the director of immigration and social services for the Canal Alliance in San Rafael.

Martel-Dow, 41, has a law degree from her native Venezuela and is licensed to practice there, and she has a master’s degree in law from the University of California, Hastings, in San Francisco. She said taking the bar exam and getting her California law license will enhance her work here.

“I think it allows me to continue being an advocate for the clients I work with and puts me in a better position to change policy,” she said.

Five Marin residents who passed the bar exam reported Novato addresses: Eric De Luna, Alyssa Marie Fielding, Maysa Saeed, Matthew James Dean and Katerina Linnea Siefkas.

Two passers, Lisa Rose Bugni and Marine Camille Papillaud, have addresses in the 94920 zip code for Belvedere and Tiburon. The other passers were Imran Moses Dar, of Bolinas; Nicholas Wilkerson Dugdale, of Corte Madera; Emily Frances Lynch, of Larkspur; Drew Alexander Lawson, of San Anselmo; and Bryn Murtagh Paslawski, of Sausalito.

The state bar, an arm of the California Supreme Court, is responsible for licensing lawyers, regulating the profession and enforcing ethics standards. The testers who pass the state bar examination are eligible to practice law after taking the attorney oath.

Leah Wilson, executive director of the bar, said the organization is “troubled” by the relatively low pass rate. It is down nearly 9 percent over the July 2017 rate, exceeding the declines in New York and Texas.

Wilson said the bar has been reviewing the content and relevance of the tests to see if changes are in order.

The state has nearly 200,000 active licensed lawyers.