The School of Law’s Class of 2009 was recognized in a commencement ceremony on Saturday, May 9, where Dean of Students, Professor and Alumna Lori Shaw (UDSL class of ’87) gave the following address.

President Curran, Provost Saliba, Dean Kloppenberg, distinguished faculty and guests, family, friends, and graduates of the Class of 2009: It is an honor for me to share in this special day with you.  To begin, let me offer my most heartfelt congratulations to our graduates.  It has been my privilege to travel with you on your journey from 1L to JD, and I truly could not be more proud of each and every one of you. 
As honored as I am to be standing here today, I must confess that when I thought about writing this speech, I felt apprehensive.  Commencement speakers are supposed to send graduates into the world inspired to great things by their soaring rhetoric.  But I am a teacher, not an orator.   So I decided to fall back on that which I know best—giving a homework assignment.

Members of the Class of 2009, your final law school assignment is quite simple—I want you to change the world—quickly—and for the better.  If you think that sounds like a daunting task, you are right—it is. (But then when has the fact that an assignment was daunting or even seemingly impossible ever stopped a law professor from making it?)  Somewhere out there is a manufacturer who can create 500 new jobs if it can win a zoning appeal.  Marci Morgan—it’s waiting for your help.  Somewhere out there is a teen in trouble and in desperate need of an advocate.  Lisa Gilkey—he needs you.  Somewhere out there is a scientist with a therapy that may cure breast cancer—a therapy that will never see the light of day unless it’s patented.  Rebecca Greendyke—get to work on that patent!

We are a world crying out for change.  We face national and international challenges ranging from terrorism to record-setting foreclosures to swine flu, and we face local problems ranging from a shrinking employment base to a growing homeless population to underperforming schools.

As lawyers you will bear a singular responsibility to be problem solvers.  You have opted to enter a profession, not a trade. In its simplest terms, being a professional means it’s not all about you. It’s about the client and the justice system; it’s about filling a vital and unique public role. When we succeed in our role, society prospers, and when we fail, society suffers.  

Class of 2009, look to your right and your left.  How many other places in the world would you find such a concentration of talent?  As law students you are exposed to so much brainpower on a daily basis that it becomes easy to lose sight of its existence, but less than four-tenths of one percent of the U.S. population has earned a JD.  You are surrounded by exceptionally gifted and hardworking people.  Who is better equipped intellectually to tackle the challenges of our time than you and your fellow graduates? 

And where else would you find such a thoughtful and intense discussion of what the rule of law is and what it should be?  In the words of Alexis de Tocqueville, you are “masters of a science which is necessary, but which is not very well known.”  You are trained to understand what the law can and cannot do.  You know how to make it work for your clients and for society.

Think about the skills you have acquired at Dayton Law—the ability to effectively and efficiently gather facts about a problem; to research, read and understand complex materials related to the problem; to reason through the problem; and to communicate about the problem orally and in writing.  You have been taught to look at a problem from all sides and that the majority view is not always the right view. 

You have learned to act as an advocate, a voice for the voiceless. You have also been trained to act as a facilitator—to bring warring parties together to find a mutually beneficial resolution.  Who is better equipped as a problem solver in a world filled with problems?  And if you cannot change the world, who can?

No assignment would be complete without detailed instructions.  So how can you change the world for the better?  One day at a time—one case at a time—one person at a time. First, make excellence a habit.  In the words of Martin Luther King, “All labor that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.”

I’ve seen that commitment to painstaking excellence in the Class of 2009.  Lanourra Phillips, Mark Evans, Chandler Hodge, Scott Everett, Jenna Dahman and all of those wearing our honor cords of gold, red, green, and orange today have risen to the many academic challenges posed by our faculty.  Your conscious decision to couple your natural talents with good old fashioned hard work on a daily basis has made you unstoppable.

I have witnessed this commitment to excellence in Ryan Beck, Elizabeth Relitz, Jade Smarda and the other members of our outstanding Moot Court and Mock Trial teams.  I have seen it in Manon Newell, Breann Hill, Mike Dean and our other gifted Law Review writers and editors, and in Shaun Hassett, Enrique Rivera-Cerezo, Jeff Ferguson, Tom Doyle, Michael Woloshin and the countless other students I’ve witnessed working in the library late into the night.  (Shaun, you spent so much time in the library that we considered starting to charge you rent in addition to your tuition!  Your hard work inspired us.)

Perhaps most of all, I have seen it in those of you who struggled with academics early on and when faced with possible failure quite simply refused to give up.   Michael Jordan once said, “I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”  

Second, commit yourself to being servant-leaders.  After putting so much blood, sweat, and tears (and so many dollars) into your legal education, it becomes easy to say, “I’ve earned the right to practice law.” But, in reality, the practice of law is more a privilege than a right. As lawyers, we enter into a contract with society—our license to practice law grants us a monopoly on the practice of law. The consideration for that monopoly is our service to society.  
True professional fulfillment can only be found in service to the client and to the larger community.  Sadly, over the years, society in general and the legal profession in particular seem to have lost sight of the need for civic engagement and community building.  Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam has warned that in less than four decades Americans’ “civic engagements” (voting, volunteering, etc.) have declined anywhere from 20 to 40 percent.  We don’t participate; we observe from afar.   It’s become easy to trade the real world and its challenges for the virtual world. 

Despite the demands of law school, the Class of 2009 has stayed connected with the world around it.  A record number of you, thirty-three, are being honored with a Pro Bono Commitment to Community Award.  The purple cords you see today represent more than 2,500 hours of community service.  I wish I had time to tell the story behind each cord, but I can only mention a few.  From Dayton, where Julie Reiter Pellerite helped organize your efforts to provide income tax assistance to Spanish speaking residents, to New Orleans where Ashley Russell, Richard Huff, and many others aided the victims of Hurricane Katrina, you have opened doors for the poor and the marginalized.

Our Student Bar Association and student organization officers have shown exceptional leadership, organizing symposia, speakers, and conferences; spearheading food, clothing, and toy drives for charity; and sponsoring the Community Thanksgiving Celebration, Diversity Fest, Barristers Ball, and a host of other events.  This was a group that was not afraid to jump in and get its hands dirty to get the job done.  Mark Webb, Monica Saylor, Jake Hoover, Ryan Voelker, Andrew Madden, Shawn Evans, Cher Collins, Alicia Draines, Chelsea Campbell, Jamie Tanaguchi, and all of our other student leaders, you are leaving behind a Dayton Law community that is stronger and better for your willingness to serve.  (And Mark, Prime Time Party Rental called and left a message that if you decide against the law thing, you have a future in chair setup!  Mark, thank you for all of your hard work as SBA President.) 

And then there is the quiet leadership shown by so many of you.  You would be surprised at how many times someone came to see me to say, “Dean Shaw, I’m worried about my friend.  Will you talk to him?”   You’ve acted as your brother and your sister’s keeper, not for glory, not for a title, but because it’s the right thing. 
I can’t help but believe that both the growing lawyer dissatisfaction with the profession and the continuing decline in public trust in the profession relate directly to our disconnect from public life, our failure to lead through service to others.  In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, "You will find yourself in service to your fellow man, your country, and your God."

Third, make the choice to find time for family, for friends, and most of all for yourself.  To love what you do is a wonderful thing, but to define yourself by your job alone is a mistake.  Professional success is only one component of personal fulfillment, and frankly without personal fulfillment, professional success itself is usually fleeting.
I cannot recall a class with more family ties and more family support than the Class of 2009.  Dustin Hughes arrived with his quadruplets, Amme Morgan with her twins, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Along the way we’ve celebrated engagements, weddings, and births, and we’ve mourned the loss of beloved family members.  Your families and your friends have served as your strength, your refuge, and your inspiration.  You would not be who and what you are today without them.  Thank them today, and keep them at the center of your world forever.

Finally, please don’t forget yourself.  Emerson wrote, “We must be our own before we can be another's.”  Megan Rehberg, keep sharing that beautiful voice—opera  and law are not mutually exclusive.  Hold onto to that which brings you joy.

I wish I had more time so I could mention each class member individually, but I suspect you are more than ready for the hooding to begin.  Please know that I carry with me fond memories of each of you. The Class of 2009 has changed the world at UD Law for the better.

I wish you all the best and I cannot wait to see how all of you do on your final assignment!  The curve will not apply, and I am expecting all A’s! Thank you and God bless.