06/15/93
CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558
STANFORD -- Stanford Law School awarded the degree of Doctor of Jurisprudence to 178 students Sunday, June 13, during the school's annual commencement ceremony. An additional seven students received other law degrees.
The event, held on the sunny green north of the Law School, followed the commencement exercises of Stanford University. Dean Paul Brest welcomed the graduating class and a throng of relatives and other well-wishers.
The John Bingham Hurlbut Award for excellence in teaching was presented this year to Professor Barton H. Thompson Jr. Chosen by a vote of the graduating class, Thompson also was the keynote speaker at commencement
Matthew Lepore, president of the class, presented the Hurlbut Award to Thompson. Lepore, in brief remarks before the presentation, reflected on the "exceptional" educational opportunities that he and most of his classmates had enjoyed throughout their lives, cited the efforts of the recently deceased Thurgood Marshall to achieve more equity in schooling for all, and urged his classmates to carry on the late justice's work.
"I offer as a challenge to all of you to be aware of the educational opportunities available to all the children in your communities, and do what you can to improve those opportunities for the less fortunate," Lepore said.
Thompson offered the graduates some personal advice based on his own considerable experience as a practicing attorney. Lawyers, he said, need to take a more "broad and creative approach to tackling legal issues."
There is, he said, in every legal case - no matter how boring or routine it may appear - both a "human dimension" and "a unique policy question." By focusing on these elements, Thompson said, the graduates will be more successful with every case, whether in or out of court. Equally important, he said, the graduates can help change the negative views of a public that "sees us more as part of the problem than as part of the solution."
In the closing remarks of the ceremony, Dean Brest spoke of the "virtues" of a good lawyer. These virtues are tested, he said, in two kinds of situations: "In deciding on whose behalf you will exercise your professional skills, and in deciding how to exercise those skills." He urged the graduates to make time in their practices for volunteer work on behalf of the less fortunate, particularly "communities of color."
"This is not a partisan or an ideological issue," Brest said. "Whether out of enlightened self-interest, a sense of justice, or the idea of what it means to be one nation, lawyers must use the skills we possess to help bring about social and economic change in the nation's minority communities."
Andrew Brown of Boston, Mass., was named the Nathan Abbott Scholar for earning the highest cumulative grade point average in the graduating class.
Jennifer Horne of Menlo Park, Calif., received the Urban A. Sontheimer Third-Year Honor for having earned the second highest cumulative grade point average in the graduating class.
Eighteen members of the class were elected to the Order of the Coif, the national law honor society. Membership in the order is extended to graduating students who rank in the top 10 percent of the class academically and are considered worthy of the honor.
In addition to Brown and Horne, the newly elected members of the Order of the Coif are Samuel Cooper of Houston, Texas; Michael Fitzpatrick of Washington, D.C.; Melissa Gleiberman of Lancaster, Pa.; Andrew Komaroff of Scarsdale, N.Y.; Anton Leof of San Francisco; Jonathan Levy of Palo Alto, Calif.; Demetrios Metropoulos of Saginaw, Mich.; Eileen Mullen of Cranston, R.I.; Michael Murphy of Saratoga, Calif.; Geralyn Smitherman of Houston, Texas; Janet Cory Sommer of Sacramento, Calif.; Alan Stern of Denver, Colo.; Timothy Teter of Sunnyvale, Calif.; Keith Villmow of Chicago; Suzanne Woods of Wellesley, Mass.; and Cheryl Krause Zemelman of Wynnewood, Pa.
A total of 45 students - one-quarter of the Class of 1993 - graduated "with distinction," an honor recognizing high academic achievement during their studies at Stanford Law School.
In addition to the 18 new Order of the Coif members, the students graduating with distinction were: John Brooks of San Diego; Carmen Chang of Taipei, Taiwan; Jennifer Claassen of Boulder Creek, Calif.; Christopher Cooper of Orlando, Fla.; Susan Coppedge of Dalton, Ga.; Wesley Felix of Richland, Wash.; Louise Miller Franklin of San Francisco; Robert Freedman of Sudbury, Mass.; John Glazer of Orinda, Calif.; Jeff Harris of Owensboro, Ky.; Eric Hostetler of Washington, D.C.; Michael Iglesias of Norfolk, Va.; and Steven Janda of Ellsworth, Kan.
Also: Daniel Kessler of St. Louis, Mo.; Paul Kinsella of Andover, Mass.; Robert Kulperger of Buffalo, N.Y.; Robert Madsen of Salt Lake City; Yxta Murray of Los Angeles; Thomas Nolan of Buffalo, N.Y.; Deepak Pai of Las Cruces, N.M.; Florence Pan of Tenafly, N.J.; Roslyn Powell-Lima of Teaneck, N.J.; Janet Carroll Richardson of San Francisco; Daniel Schulze of New Canaan, Conn.; Jonathan Steiner of Honolulu; John Thomas Waldron III of Pittsburgh; and Andrew Weidhaas of Woronoco, Mass.
Louise Miller Franklin and Cheryl Krause Zemelman received the Mr. and Mrs. Duncan L. Matteson Sr. Award as the best overall team of advocates in the 1993 Marion Rice Kirkwood Moot Court competition. Zemelman also earned the Walter J. Cummings Award as best oral advocate, while both Franklin and Zemelman were given the Walter J. Cummings Award for best moot court brief.
In the same competition, Michael Quinn of Delmar, N.Y., and Florence Pan received the Mr. and Mrs. Duncan L. Matteson Sr. Award for the runner-up team of advocates. In the preliminary rounds, the team of Jonathan Biran of New York and John Glazer received the Moot Court Board Award for best petitioner's brief.
Seven members of the class have been honored for work on the Stanford Law Review.
Jonathan Biran and Melissa Gleiberman were presented with the Board of Editors' Award for outstanding editorial contributions to the Review. Gleiberman's outstanding service to the Review during her second year also earned her the Jay M. Spears Award.
Eileen Mullen earned the Irving Hellman Jr. Special Award for the outstanding student note published in the Stanford Law Review.
John Glazer received the Johnson & Gibbs Law Review Award for having made the greatest overall contribution to the Review during his second year.
James Carpenter of Greenwood, Mo., and Sandra Chavez of Uvalde, Texas, were awarded the Stanford Law Review Special Service Award in recognition of exceptional contributions to Volume 45 of the Review.
John Bogart of Chula Vista, Calif., earned the United States Law Week Award for outstanding service and unfailing commitment to the Review.
Several other members of the graduating class also have been recognized for exceptional achievements during their three years at the Law School.
Cheryl Krause Zemelman received the first-year honor for the highest cumulative grade point average at the end of her first Stanford year. Eileen Mullen was awarded the second-year honor.
Kenneth Baime of Glenview, Ill., was given the 1992-93 Frank Baker Belcher Award for the best academic work in Evidence.
Five students received the Steven M. Block Civil Liberties Award for distinguished written work on issues relating to personal freedom. The co-winners were Michael Iglesias; Jamie Kershaw of Endwell, N.Y.; Mark Strasser of Fairfield, Conn.; Michael Weber of Saint Paul, Minn.; and Cheryl Krause Zemelman.
Timothy Teter received first place in the Nathan Burkan Memorial Competition for excellent legal writing in the area of copyright law. Jonathan Franklin of Palo Alto, Calif., was the second-place recipient in the competition.
Robert Madsen and Demetrios Metropoulos were co- recipients of the Carl Mason Franklin Prize for the best paper in International Law.
Eileen Mullen was the recipient of the Olaus and Adolph Murie Award for the most thoughtful written work in Environmental Law. Louise Miller Franklin was the 1991-92 second-place co- recipient of the award.
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