Commencement Speakers: Coming To A Law School Near You
Will a commencement speaker this year cause a controversy?
So far this year, we haven’t had any huge commencement kerfuffles over graduation speakers at law schools. Last year, you’ll remember that Michigan Law was in a tizzy over Dean Evan Caminker’s pick of Ohio Senator Rob Portman as a commencement speaker. Portman is one of those anti-marriage equality types, and Michigan Law students actually organized a walkout to protest his divisive views.
This year, Michigan has gone with a much more conservative choice.
Paul Caron at Tax Prof Blog has published his annual list of law school commencement speakers. Michigan Law’s choice is boring, but let’s see if we can’t find somebody else on this list to get excited about…
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You can see the full list over at Tax Prof Blog. Note that Michigan Law is going with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Right-wing nut jobs will surely have a problem with him — and they are free to walk out of the commencement ceremony if they’d like. But Holder seems like a pretty mainstream choice. Holder will be pulling double commencement duty; he’s also the graduation speaker at Harvard Law School this year.
Also pulling double duty this year is Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court. He’ll be speaking at UC Davis and USC. I hope his commencement address is all about overcoming haters.
I want a full report from the students at University of Kentucky Law. ABA President William Robinson will be the commencement speaker there. Robinson, you’ll remember, seems to think that law students could pay for their tuition by selling their cars, and he’s an alum of Kentucky Law. I can’t imagine how tone-deaf he’ll be on the stump; it’ll be like Successful Troll is giving a graduation address.
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U.S. Solicitor General Don Verrilli will be speaking at Columbia Law. So, uhhh, I think that Columbia students, law students, umm, will have to eat broccoli before they graduate.
Probably my favorite speaker/school combination this year is Harvard Law School Dean Martha Minow addressing the students at SUNY Buffalo. I just wonder what she’s going to say. Will she tell the Buffalo students how to kick her Harvard students’ asses? Or will she tell them just to give up? I’d just like to see how she handles it.
What stands out for you from this commencement lineup? Let us know in the comments.
2012 Law School Commencement Speakers [Tax Prof Blog]
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