Stanford Law School celebrates the 2025 graduating class

Dean George Triantis, JSD ’89, Richard E. Lang Professor of Law, welcomed the graduates and attendees, noting that the support the graduating students received from their families, friends, professors, law school staff members, and others contributed to their success. “Your love, encouragement, and support have been key to bringing them to this moment, and we celebrate you at the same time as we celebrate the class of 2025,” Triantis said. “Class of 2025, our community is noticeably stronger than when you arrived. You embark now on different paths, having built wonderful friendships, mutual respect, lasting bonds, and the shared experience of Stanford Law School.”

Legal institutions under stress

In his charge to the class, Triantis reflected on the complex issues facing the legal profession.

“We are now in a period where many challenging classroom hypotheticals have become real and vivid,” he said, noting that “law and legal institutions are under great stress and examination.” These institutions, he emphasized, are the bedrock of democracy and rule of law and that those who have benefited from legal education “bear a particular responsibility to serve and support them.”

Triantis drew inspiration from the poem Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy, encouraging graduates to maintain the “rare excitement” that animated their time at Stanford Law. That excitement, he said, will come from continuing to learn with an openness to new ideas and diverse viewpoints.

Triantis closed by urging the class to “lean on and into the connections, community, and networks that you’ve built here.” Speaking on behalf of the faculty and staff, he wished graduates “much excitement, joy, and fulfillment in your careers,” and added, “we are confident you will each contribute in big and small ways to improve the world we all live in… and will be proud to know you as Stanford Law alumni.”

LLM and JD students offer advice and thanks

The graduating class selected two of their peers to speak at the ceremony: LLM graduate Yen San Leung and JD graduate Carson Olivia James Smith.

Leung, who is from Malaysia, reflected on the diversity and camaraderie among the advanced-degree students. “At SLS, we learned more than just law,” she said. “We had the privilege of exploring each other’s cultures, food, and go-to karaoke songs.” Acknowledging the global challenges of recent months, she added: “We are graduating in an unprecedented time. It’s been a rollercoaster of world events. Our hearts go out to all the international students, who have faced not only the usual academic pressure, but also visa uncertainty and travel restrictions. Regardless, we made it through graduation together.”

Smith, who prepared her remarks after interviewing several classmates, focused on the collective effort behind every law degree. “Over the past three years, we’ve leaned on one another and committed ourselves to lifting each other up. And we didn’t do it alone,” she said. “Families, mentors, staff, service workers, and professors all helped carry us to this grand finale.”

Quoting classmate David Jiang, Smith added, “‘We are all products of the various villages that have raised us. The people I want to honor as we walk across the stage are all the hundreds of unsung heroes who brought us to this point in our lives.’” Commencement was not just a celebration of individual accomplishments, she said, but a recognition of all that the class had endured and achieved together.

Faculty, staff, and student awards

JD Class President Jarrett Prchal and Advanced Degree Class President Cynthia Jade Makory together presented three awards that are annually given during commencement:

A Hurlbut Teaching Award for Pamela Karlan

The graduating class selected Pamela Karlan, Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law, for the John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, given to a Stanford Law professor who “strives to make teaching an art.” 

In a speech that ended with a standing ovation, Karlan combined humor, gratitude, and a call for moral clarity. She opened by humorously acknowledging the many communities represented under the graduation tent, including “outgoing people, reserved people, people in the reserves … people who’ve been living in Munger, people who are going to Munger,” before quoting Yogi Berra: “I want to thank you all for making this day necessary.”

Karlan spotlighted the work of graduating students across clinics, pro bono projects, and classes, emphasizing their tangible contributions to justice, from securing asylum for families to examining how intimate partner violence feeds the prison pipeline. She also reflected on the enduring values of American law and democracy, drawing from Justice Robert Jackson’s opinion in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, which underscored “the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.” That freedom, she suggested, remains as urgent today as it was in 1943, when the Supreme Court upheld the right not to salute the flag.

Acknowledging current challenges to the rule of law, Karlan highlighted the courage of Stanford Law alumni defending core democratic principles – naming lawyers resisting executive orders that target law firms, those representing universities in academic freedom cases, and career civil servants who decided they had to leave their jobs at the Department of Justice in order to continue to defend the rule of law. She urged graduates to resist the pull of conformity, warning against the temptation for “very bright people to enter organizations and lose their moral compass.” Drawing from C.S. Lewis and Hannah Arendt, she encouraged students to hold themselves, and one another, accountable, and to be ready to say, “I won’t,” when asked to compromise fundamental values.

Karlan closed with a personal gesture: gifting each graduate a stamped postcard and a pen, inviting them to write a thank-you note to someone who had helped or inspired them along the way. “Expressing gratitude to others reminds me of how good it is to be alive.”

Staff and student awards

The 2025 Staff Appreciation Award went to Helen Gettinger, assistant director of community activities. Gettinger is charged with organizing numerous community-building events at the law school in order to foster connections among students, faculty, and staff. Each year, the graduating class selects a staff member for the award, which honors someone who has “played an integral role in the lives of the graduating students.”

“Helen has been the heartbeat of student life and social engagement,” Makory said. “With grace, warmth, and unwavering dedication, Helen has curated a vibrant community experience that transcends the demands of legal education, from coordinating thoughtful, tailored events to ensuring the smallest details – be it sushi spreads or Shake Shack afternoons.”

Amanpreet Singh received the 2025 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service to Stanford Law School. The award recognizes a graduating student who has made a “distinctive and exceptional contribution to legal education or the quality of student life at Stanford Law.” Award recipients are chosen by their peers and the law school faculty and staff.

“Amanpreet has been a champion both of building community and of using the law to advance justice since they arrived at Stanford,” Prchal said. “Their advocacy work in law school has reached a number of different issues, including involvement in an extensive list of student organizations and multiple pro bono projects. Amanpreet has also been involved in advocacy for the greater graduate student community. As a community member, they have been a consistent leader for our class. They recognize and build up the contributions of others while always volunteering themselves when there is a need.”

Watch the entire commencement ceremony.