2016 Law School Graduation Speaker Roundup
How cool is your law school? It depends on who you've snagged as a graduation speaker.
It’s that time of year again where law graduates get to judge their relative self-worth. Not by scouring their place in the U.S. News rankings or the ATL Top 50 rankings that are right around the corner, but by comparing commencement speakers among peer institutions. Has your law school invited a legal luminary or an A-List comic? Or are you hearing from Pauly Shore about the impact of Jury Duty? This is the real barometer of law school awesome.
So who are law schools hearing from this year? Well, we don’t have a complete list yet, but we wanted to get the ball rolling with what we do have (we’ll also include particularly noteworthy university commencement speakers, since law grads can crash those festivities too). We don’t have much yet, but consider this a call for more intel. As reports flow in we’ll update accordingly:
Albany Law School: Fox News Anchor & ’95 Graduate Megyn Kelly
American University: Attorney General Loretta Lynch
Arizona State: New America President and CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter
Baylor: Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett
Boston University: U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz
Cardozo: Second Circuit Chief Judge Robert Katzmann
Catholic: Former Solicitor General Paul Clement
Columbia Law School: Former Attorney General Eric Holder & Lin-Manuel Miranda (Full University) (it appears Miranda only got an award at Columbia and is not speaking at graduation)
Cornell Law School: James Franco (Full University)
Drexel: Former NYU President John Sexton
George Washington: Senator Cory Booker (Full University)
Harvard: Sarah Jessica Parker & Steven Spielberg (Full University)
Howard: Attorney General Loretta Lynch
John Marshall Law School (Chicago): Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Rita Garman
LSU: Governor John Bel Edwards
Northwestern: 1871 CEO Howard Tullman & Seth Meyers (Full University)
Notre Dame: Vice-President Joe Biden, Former Speaker John Boehner, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Martin Dempsey (all three Full University)
Pace: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman
Pepperdine: ABA President-Elect Linda A. Klein
Pitt: Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
Richmond: FBI Director James Comey
Roger Williams University: Secretary of Labor Tom Perez
Rutgers: President Barack Obama (Full University)
SMU: U.S. Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart
South Texas: U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General Vice Admiral James W. Crawford III
St. Mary’s: Attorney Thomas J. Henry
Stanford: Ken Burns (Full University)
Syracuse: Vice-President Joe Biden
Texas A&M: Attorney and member of the Texas A&M University System board of regents Anthony G. Buzbee
Texas Tech: Texas Supreme Court Justice Don Willett
Texas Southern: Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Leslie D. King
University of Arizona: Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick (Fun fact: The university-wide speaker was supposed to be Bill Cosby… it’s not anymore)
University of California, Berkeley: NBA Players Executive Director Michelle Roberts (Law School) & Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg (Full University)
University of California, Davis: Rep. John Lewis (also the best cosplayer at Comic-Con)
University of Georgia: Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates
University of Houston: ABA President Paulette Brown
University of Maryland: Secretary of Labor Tom Perez
University of Michigan: Former Mayor Michael Bloomberg (Full University)
University of Minnesota: Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar
University of New Hampshire: Federal Circuit Court of Appeals Chief Judge Sharon Prost
University of Pennsylvania: Attorney General Loretta Lynch & Lin-Manuel Miranda (Full University)
University of Texas: Ford Foundation President Darren Walker
University of Virginia: Crossword Master & ’77 Graduate Will Shortz
University of Wisconsin: Former Attorney General Eric Holder
William & Mary: Senator Tim Kaine
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Know of a speaker slated for graduation that we don’t have yet? Please email us.
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