2019 Law School Graduation Speaker Roundup

Send us your 2019 law school graduation speaker lineup!

onApril 26, 2019 at 1:13 PMMay 10, 2019 at 10:21 AM

(Image via Getty)

As the school year winds down, we get to measure law schools on one of the most interesting power rankings by 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. 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 at tips@abovethelaw.com (subject line: “[Law School] Graduation”).

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From Pilot and Above The Law

Check back here routinely to see who’s landed who in the commencement stakes!

Albany: NY Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janet DiFiore
Arizona State: Senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Brooklyn: NY Solicitor General Barbara Underwood
Cardozo: Former Senator Claire McCaskill (her daughter is in the graduating class). Sir Paul McCartney will also receive the International Advocate for Peace award (stepson in the graduating class).
Columbia: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
Drexel: Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge Wendy Beetlestone.
Duke: Fourth Circuit Judge Allyson K. Duncan.
Emory: Ambassador Andrew Young.
Fordham: Eastern District of New York Judge Pamela Chen.
Hofstra: Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch.
Mitchell Hamline: Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Thissen
New York Law School: Nicholas Haysom, Special Advisor on Sudan to the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General and the former Chief Legal and Constitutional Advisor in the office of South African President Nelson Mandela.
NYU: Representative Hakeem Jeffries.
Northeastern: American Bar Association president-elect Judy Perry Martinez.
Ohio Northern University: Chief Justice of Indiana (Ret.) Randall T. Shepard
Pepperdine: Cable company spokesman Ajit Pai.
Rutgers-Camden: Former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.
Rutgers-Newark: President and CEO, The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human and former DOJ Civil Rights Division head Vanita Gupta.
Suffolk: Representative Joe Kennedy III.
Syracuse: Founder and CEO of Girls Who Code, Reshma Saujani.
Temple: Writer and Yale Law lecturer Emily Bazelon
University of Akron: Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio.
University of Arkansas (Fayetteville): Regina Hopper, journalist and CEO of Miss America.
UC-Davis: Judge Troy L. Nunley, Eastern District of California.
UC-Hastings: San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
UC-Irvine: Kriti Sharma, artificial intelligence and ethics technologist, Sage Group.
University of Dayton: Ohio Supreme Court Justice Melody J. Stewart.
University of Georgia: Former Georgia Governor Nathan Deal
University of Miami: Roy Black.
University of Nebraska: Founder and executive director of Prosecutor Impact Adam Foss.
University of North Carolina: UNC Vice-Chancellor Winston B. Crisp.
University of St. Thomas: Eighth Circuit Judge David Stras
Washington & Lee: Founder and Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative Bryan Stevenson.
William & Mary: Fourth Circuit Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory.

Headshot Joe Patrice is a senior 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. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search.