Law students graduate with 'new sense of purpose'

BY ANN DETHLEFSEN

Law School Dean Kathleen Sullivan told members of the school's graduating class Sunday they were leaving Stanford with "a new sense of sobriety and purpose" in the wake of Sept. 11 and the burst of the dot-com bubble.

"You know better than those who graduated just before you how important the balance between public and private values is," Sullivan said in Law School graduation ceremonies attended by about 1,500 people in Memorial Auditorium.

Barbara J. Merz, co-president of Stanford Law School's Class of 2002, received a congratulatory hug following the school's commencement ceremonies Sunday. Photo: Russ Curtis

"You know that men and women in blue uniforms, white helmets and gold badges are not some anonymous face of invisible government but heroes whose sense of public duty saved lives as it cost them theirs," said Sullivan, the Richard E. Lang Professor of Law and Stanley Morrison Professor of Law.

"You know that markets need regulators and accountants need standards lest irrational exuberance be revealed as resting on foundations fit only for the paper shredder. You know that the privacy we enjoy in a newly digitized world interacts with concerns about national security. In short, you know why it is that we teach both private law and public law and urge you all to steep yourselves in both aspects."

Sullivan said that the graduates have before them myriad opportunities, and that they need only look to the ranks of Stanford Law School's alumni for inspiration.

"Whatever you do, we hope we have prepared you to do it with intelligence, wisdom, judgment and panache; with fearlessness and generosity; with grace, integrity, civility and tact," she said.

The ceremony took place a month before the university's general commencement ceremonies because the school follows a semester system and law classes end in May. Among those participating in the ceremony were 182 candidates for the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence (JD), 24 for the degree of Master of the Science of Law (JSM), and 13 for the degree of Doctor of the Science of Law (JSD). Pending exam scoring and grade recording, the graduates will receive their degrees this summer.

Pamela S. Karlan, the Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law, was presented with the 2002 John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching by Carlos M. Bermudez, one of the two class presidents. Chosen by a vote of the graduating class, Karlan was also the event's keynote speaker.

Law School Professor Pamela S. Karlan received the 2002 John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching at SundayÕs Law School Commencement ceremonies in Memorial Auditorium. Photo: Russ Curtis

Karlan, who teaches civil procedure, civil rights litigation, criminal procedure and legal regulation of the political process, is particularly interested in voting rights issues and has been widely quoted in the news media in the wake of the 2000 presidential election. The casebook she coauthored on the subject, When Elections Go Bad: The Law of Democracy and the Presidential Election of 2000, was the first off the press after the election.

In her remarks, Karlan reminisced about discussions with students that have "changed the direction and style of [her] scholarship." Weaving together quotes and examples from the works of Chaucer, Yogi Berra, John Milton, John Keats, W. H. Auden, Louis Armstrong, Benito Juarez, Satchell Paige, Paul Tsongas, Martin Luther King and Alfred Lord Tennyson, she urged the class to read more poetry and explained that "[p]oetry will help to remind you that law and justice and truth and liberty are connected to honor and courage and pride and pity."

Karlan asked that, as lawyers, the graduates remember the "real people behind the records and briefs you pore over, the rules you advocate, the laws you pass, the opinions you issue." And finally, she encouraged the class to do what they love: "Much of the delight in life will come from unexpected things and places and people. Some of you will make a life in the law enforcing statutes that haven't yet been passed or protecting rights that haven't yet been conceived. You can't choreograph a lifetime. Do pro bono work because it is the right thing to do and because what you're doing will make the world better, not because someone is watching. Pick projects that promote justice, or freedom, or fairness, or peace or dignity, or a cleaner environment, not ones that promote you."

The Class of 2002 selected the Robert Crown Law Library staff to receive this year's staff appreciation award for service beyond the call of duty.