2018 Graduation Speaker Roundup

Who will thrill the graduating students this year?

As the school year winds down, we begin the annual law school prowess measuring competition of comparing commencement speakers. Has your school secured a more prestigious speaker than your rival? Has some school gone outside the box and nabbed a cool, unorthodox speaker? This is where you go to find out.

We’ll constantly update this list throughout the graduation season. It’s relatively sparse right now, but this is where we need your help! A lot of schools send us their press releases when they lock down a premier speaker, but others fly under the radar. If you’re a law student or faculty member and know who’s speaking at your school’s graduation, email us the info (subject line: “[Law School] Graduation”).

Albany — NY Court of Appeals Judge Michael Garcia
American University — Former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta
Arizona State — Attorney, author, and podcast host Rabia Chaudry
Boston University — NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent Nina Totenberg
Campbell — Deputy Attorney General (for now) Rod Rosenstein
Cardozo — Judge Patricia Millett
CUNY — Georgetown Law Professor Paul D. Butler
Columbia — Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson
Dayton — Citi Global Head of Corporate and Investment Banking Raymond J. McGuire
Drexel — Former NAACP President Rev. Cornell Brooks
Duke — Paul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell
Duquesne — Third Circuit Judge Thomas M. Hardiman
Florida A&M — Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch
George Washington — Google Global Privacy Legal Team Director Keith Enright
Hamline — Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Anna McKeig
Harvard — Senator Jeff Flake (and not Lawyers.com Spokesperson Lindsay Lohan)
Hofstra — NY Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore
Loyola — Former U.S. Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr.
Mississippi College — U.S. Magistrate Judge John C. Garguilo
Northeastern — Richard Painter
Northwestern — Sharon Bowen
NYLS — Justice Stephen Breyer
Penn — Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
Pepperdine — Ken Feinberg
Roger Williams — National Immigration Law Center Executive Director Marielena Hincapié
Rutgers-Camden — Brandeis Professor Anita Hill
Rutgers-Newark — NJ Attorney General Gurbir Grewal
St. John’s — Former SDNY U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
Seton Hall — Cardinal Joseph Tobin
Suffolk — NH Supreme Court Chief Justice Linda S Dalianis
Syracuse — Former SDNY U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara
Temple — Former Philadelphia City Solicitor Sozi Pedro Tulante
University of Arizona — Anna Maria Chávez, Chief Growth Officer at the National Council on Aging
UC Berkeley — Dolores Huerta
UC Davis — Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court Tani Cantil-Sakauye (due to her injury, Justice Sotomayor had to back out)
UC Hastings — Representative Adam Schiff
UC Irvine — Cohen Milstein partner Kalpana Kotagal
UCLA — Gene Block (Representative Ted Lieu canceled due to the ongoing UC labor dispute)
UConn — D.C. Circuit Judge Cornelia T.L. Pillard
University of Detroit-Mercy — Former Michigan Court of Appeals and Court of Claims Chief Judge Michael J. Talbot
University of Florida — Joe Scarborough
University of Houston — Star Jones
University of Illinois — Seventh Circuit Chief Judge Diane Wood
University of Iowa — District of Arizona Senior Judge Susan Bolton
UMass — Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey
University of Michigan — Snap Judgment host Glynn Washington
UNLV — Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval
University of New Hampshire — Representative Tim Ryan
UNC — Jay Bilas
University of Tennessee — North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley
University of Utah — Dahlia Lithwick
Vermont — U.S. Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough
Washington University St. Louis — Anne-Marie Slaughter
William & Mary — Morgan Stanley Managing Director Marilyn F. Booker

Keep ’em coming.


HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

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