 Good afternoon. I would like to welcome University President Dr. Donald Farish, honored members of the University Board of Trustees, honored members of the University School of Law Board of Directors, honored guests, faculty and staff of the law school, university officials, alumni, parents, family members, friends, and last but not least, the graduates to the 2014 Commencement Exercises. Please rise as Renee Delegarza sings the National Anthem. Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light, what so proud at the twilight's last gleaming, whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight, o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming, and the rockets' redding in air gave a flag, was still, oh, say, does that star-spangled banner The years ago, this year, a handful of courageous men and women, including our namesake, Roger Williams, secured a royal charter for the colony of Rhode Island and Providence plantations. Central, to the founder's vision, was their commitment to a lively experiment, which meant, among other things, path-breaking recognition for the freedom of conscience. 20 years ago this year, another lively experiment began when Roger Williams College became Roger Williams University by opening the state's only law school in Bristol. As a result, Commencement 2014 represents the completion of our year celebrating the 20th anniversary of what some wags have called the miracle on MediCon. To recognize this institutional milestone, we have asked representatives from all of our previous graduating classes to process, with the class of 2014, a tangible link of our past to our present. I would now like to introduce representatives from the classes from 1996 to 2013 who have taken their place in the legal community. Please hold your applause until the entire group has been recognized. Kimberly Ahearn, class of 2009. Jamie Bichant, class of 2012. James Bagley, class of 2012. Carly Bovay-Iefrati, class of 2000. Nicole DeLude Benjamin, class of 2006. Stephen Bernardo, class of 1998. Dina Castricone, class of 2002. Ann Corvo, class of 2001. Diana DeGroove, class of 2003. Don Oyer, class of 2010. Michael Field, class of 1997. Mark Gemma, class of 1997. Jenna Wimms-Hashway, class of 2011. Christy Heatherington, class of 2002. Genevieve Alera-Johnson, class of 1997. Mike Just, class of 2008. Anthony Leone, class of 1997. Steve McGuire, class of 1996. Eric Miller, class of 2001. Elisha Morris, class of 2004. John Pagliarini, Jr., class of 1999. Matt Plain, class of 2005. Adam Ramos, class of 2006. Margarita Vellucci, class of 2007. And Will Ray, class of 2013. Please salute these wonderful alums for the round of applause. Then three years ago, another group of intrepid men and women, the class of 2014, gathered in Bristol to begin their journey to the law. A trek through legal research and writing, memos and rewrites of memos, exams, moot court, seminars, clinics, and externships, guided by the world-class educators who make up the Roger Williams University School of Law faculty. They have graduated from the top schools, clerked for leading judges, and have had distinguished careers in a broad range of practice settings. Their excellence is manifest in the books and article they place in top law reviews. They also play an important role in the advancement of the rule of law in Rhode Island, on the national and even on the international stage. But every single one of them understands that their most important job is the training of the next generation of leaders for the bench and bar. They do this by providing a rigorous but personal education. My faculty colleagues know the law school classroom is the foundation for successful legal career. And so at this moment, I would like the entire faculty to now stand and accept the appreciation of this commencement crowd for all they have done to launch the RW law class of 2014. Faculty, please stand up. At this point, I would like to single out several people for their special contributions to student success. First, each year the graduating class selects two professors of the year, one from the full-time faculty and one from the amazing group of lawyers and judges who make up our adjunct faculty. The winner of the award for the best full-time professor in 2014 is Emily Sack. Emily, will you please rise to accept the congratulations of the commencement crowd? The award for adjunct professor of the year goes to Andrew Spocone. Andrew is of counsel to the leading firm of Adler, Pollock, and Sheehan. He can't be with us today. He's probably billing some hours. But we offer Andrew our congratulations and our appreciation from the class of 2014. Additionally, the Student Bar Association recognizes a member of the staff who goes above and beyond helping students on their voyage through law school. The recipient of the SBA staff member of the year this year, 2014, is Barbara Sapsky. Barbara, will you please stand? I want to announce award that's given out very rarely, the Dean's Distinguished Service Award. The colleague who will receive it this year has been an invaluable administrator, twice serving as interim dean, as well as a stint as director of clinics. He is creating and led our mediation clinic and has served on myriad committees and projects, not to mention regularly teaching and overload. In short, he's the perfect colleague. I am pleased to award the third Dean's Distinguished Service Award to a founding member of the RW Law Faculty, Professor Bruce Kogan. Over to Logan. The journey from law school orientation to law school commencement takes years. It's a journey marked by challenges met and results today in a dream achieved. We know that few law students make this arduous journey to the special day without the help of people outside the halls of the law school. So now is the perfect time to recognize some of the other people who provide valuable support to the graduates we honor today. First, it starts with parents. I would ask all the mothers and stepmothers and fathers and stepfathers of the class of 2014 to please stand and accept a round of applause for all you have done to bring us to this great day. One of the great safety nets is an extended family. With the siblings, aunts, uncles, great uncles, great aunts, cousins, and last but surely not least, the grandparents of the class of 2014, please rise. And finally, many law students are married or otherwise involved in long-term relationships. And these people also provide invaluable support. With all the domestic partners and spouses, common law or otherwise, plus their children, please stand and accept our thanks for all their help. The School of Law is part of a vibrant university. And we are lucky to have at our helm Dr. Donald Farrish, the 10th president of Roger Williams University. Besides being a distinguished teacher and scholar, Dr. Farrish brings deep experience as an academic administrator. The law school community is especially pleased that Dr. Farrish has a JD in addition to his PhD in biology. So he, like us, has survived the rigors of the Socratic Method, Moot Court, and the Bar Exam. I've worked closely with Dr. Farrish during his three years here, and I know that the university and the law school are very lucky to have him at the helm. I give you Dr. Donald Farrish. Thank you, Dean Logan. Distinguished guests, faculty and staff of Roger Williams University School of Law, alumni, friends and families of the graduates and the graduates themselves. Good afternoon and welcome to your day, commencement for the class of 2014. This is an exciting day for you, the graduates, because you are finally finished with your formal coursework and training and are ready to move on to the next stage of your lives. But it's also an exciting day for me because I was present when you took the oath of ethics administered by Chief Justice Satell of the Rhode Island Supreme Court at the beginning of your first year of law school when I was newly arrived at Roger Williams myself. Allow me a brief digression which kind of picks up on what Dean Logan said a moment ago. In the 1970s, I was on the biology faculty of the University of Missouri when I decided to study law. I had a bad day. And after finishing my degree and passing the bar, I accepted a position at the University of Rhode Island as the assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. I was looking forward to spending time in the law library at the law school in Rhode Island. I hadn't bothered to check whether it was that you or I had a brown. But I wasn't particularly concerned about the location. Well, this was 1979. And as you know, at that time, there was no law school in Rhode Island. It hadn't occurred to me that there would be a state with no law school. So the joke was on me. So fast forward all these years, and I find myself at the University of the Law School. And that's only because Roger Williams University decided to create one. During my first year as Roger Williams president, Judge Salia told me something of the history of the school and how he had been approached to do a feasibility study to create a law school. And he declined because he didn't believe at the time that a law school was necessary in the state given the availability of law schools in nearby states. Judge Salia now admits he was incorrect, as were many others in the law profession at the time. We have seen in the 20-year history of this school how profound the impact of a law school has been on the workings and culture of the state of Rhode Island. Something Judge Krause, who will receive an honorary degree today, was speaking about an event at my home just last night. In addition to obvious improvements in the quality of legal practice and the much greater availability of legal services to the public, there is also no question that our law school has played a significant role in how to put this delicately enhancing ethical behavior on the part of the public officials. Corruption has certainly not been eliminated, but it is on the wane in Rhode Island because the Rhode Island bar and bench and the public itself have greater expectations that public officials will behave ethically and lapses in such behavior will incur both public and judicial condemnation. And those thoughts lead me to this next point. It is traditional at commencement everywhere for the president of the campus to charge the graduates. And since we at Roger Williams enjoy honoring academic traditions, I have the responsibility of charging you now. You have entered an honorable profession. As a nation that follows the rule of law, we depend on some of each generation's sharpest minds, becoming lawyers and ensuring that the rights of society are balanced with the rights of the individual. We need talented lawyers to protect society from those who would cause it harm, to defend the individual against overly aggressive regulation and governmental bureaucracy, to ensure that all members of our society have access to legal representation when they need it, in short, to keep society's machinery running smoothly. These activities must be carried out of the highest ethical levels so as to ensure that society never becomes mistrustful of the legal process. These are significant responsibilities, but asking anything less of you is to diminish the importance of the roles you will play. Graduates of the Roger Williams University School of Law Class of 2014, go forth with confidence and resolve. And as you do so, remember your professors and those who helped you get to where you are today and make them proud. Thank you. As a young law school, it is imperative that we bring leading lawyers and judges into our orbit. Mark Mandel is one of America's leading attorneys for injured people. He has served as the president of both the Rhode Island Bar Association and the American Trial Lawyers Association. Some of you may recognize his name from his work as counsel for the victims of the Hurvick Station nightclub fire. Mark is on the podium in many capacities today. He is a trustee of Roger Williams University. He is the chair of our board of directors here at the law school. And he is a popular member of our adjunct faculty. To bring greetings from the board of directors, I am pleased to introduce to you Mark Mandel Esquire. I want to share, and Dean Logan and President Farish is welcome to you all. I want to just thank both of them for the great honor they've given me to be able to work with them as chair for the last three to three and a half years, and even before then with Dean Logan. I especially just want to talk to the graduating students just for a few minutes today. Please know we're honored. We're really honored that you came to law school here. And we're honored to have had you as our students. And I'm talking to my own students as well as everyone. We're proud of what you've accomplished and of your being here today. And we look forward to sharing in your success and your accomplishments in the future. So just a few thoughts from somebody who's been practicing almost 40 years now. A few years ago, my wife Yvette, who's one of my law partners, and I went to see a movie called Saving Private Ryan. And it's a movie that takes place at the beginning of the end of World War II. And it's a simple but pretty compelling story. So four brothers go to war, three die in combat. Command decisions made in Washington, DC to save the fourth brother, James Ryan. And he was an airborne ranger. He had been parachuted behind enemy lines the night before the D-Day invasion. So they picked a squad of eight people, eight men, to make this rescue mission. Each of these eight men questioned why so many people had to risk their lives to save just one soldier. And each squad member was willing to give their life, to sacrifice their life, to stop national socialism in the world, but not to save just one ordinary man. And as it turns out, only two of those eight rescuers survived themselves. But they were successful. And at the end of the movie, Sergeant, excuse me, Private Ryan is with his wife, children, and grandchildren, his having survived the war, in the St. Laurent military graveyard, paying homage to his rescuers. So perhaps the most critical scene in that movie is in a battle over one of the last intact bridges. The Nazis, the Germans, vastly outnumbered the few Americans who were protecting the bridge and Private Ryan. And at the end of the battle, the captain who led the rescue patrol, played by the actor Tom Hanks, is dying. And he has Private Ryan come close to him, and he whispers to him, earn this, James, earn this. So Tom Hanks, the captain's message, is pretty powerful and pretty clear. Private Ryan needed to earn the gift of life he had been given by living the balance of his life charitably, honorably, and ethically. Only by doing that could he have made the sacrifice of lives worth that rescue. And as he stands later in that cemetery with his family, he asks his wife of many, many years, am I a good man that I lead a good life? So to me, one life is worth saving. Also, all injustice is worth preventing. As Martin Luther King said, injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We, all of us, must earn the right, and now you have to earn the right, too, that we've been able and will be able to practice law. To me, it's a sacred profession. I've been doing it 39 years. It is an absolutely sacred profession because the principal goal is to attain justice. And it's the only profession I know of where that is the principal goal. I've been in the presence of justice, thank God, a few times at least, and there's almost nothing like it. So we earn our place by living honestly and ethically, by acting as role models for others about everything that can be decent in this world, by dedicating ourselves to public service and public interest work, and by ensuring that our families are safe and your children are wiser, more understanding, and better than we are. We, and you all, we all need to look beyond ourselves. The only good, the real good we do in this world is the only measure of our ultimate wealth. The legacy, you all, that all of us will lead behind is gonna be determined directly by our charity, by our compassion, and by our understanding. And each of our epitaphs will be written based on how we live our lives, not by any calculated effort we may engage in to construct that epitaph. We'll be remembered not by what we have, but by what we have given. And as Anne Frank said, nobody, not anybody, ever became poor by giving. So as we teach you, our students, we need to know that you can be our teachers as well as our students. We need to listen to you as intently as we tried to teach you. And we need to know, all of us need to know, that in fact, in reality, you are our legacy to the world. So we all wish you absolutely the very best in everything that happens to you and all good fortune in your lives. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mark. Just a little ad lib here. Today is the last day that Mark Mandel will be chair of the board of directors of the law school because at the board of trustees meeting earlier today, the board accepted the nomination from the law school board of directors that the new chair of the board would be federal judge Will Smith. And I just ask Judge Smith to stand, if you would please. Or the school of law is indeed fortunate to be able to award honorary degrees today to Robert M. Barge, the Honorable Robert D. Krause and the Honorable Judith S. Kay. Would school of law board of director Robin Steinberg please escort Robert M. Barge to the podium? Robert Mansfield Barge, it has been 35 years since you first arrived in Rhode Island, a recent graduate of UCLA law, to work on the front lines as a staff attorney for the non-profit law firm, Rhode Island Legal Services Incorporated. And it has been nearly 25 years now since you became that organization's executive director. Under your dedicated leadership, Rhode Island Legal Services has dramatically enhanced its representation of low income Rhode Islanders in a wide variety of civil matters. Nor are these profound improvements just a matter of opinion. The Legal Services Corporation, the nation's single largest funder of civil legal aid for low income Americans has specifically recognized your leadership and commitment to a high level legal services program and commended your programmatic vision and innovative initiatives. Prior to your appointment as executive director, you developed a deep expertise in the area of housing law, eventually rising to manage and direct Rhode Island Legal Services inner city advocacy project, an outreach project serving the minority communities of Rhode Island. Attorney Barge, in addition to your outstanding direct legal contributions, you have advocated change throughout any number of community organizations and civic panels, including the Thurgood Marshall Law Society, the Tsetzi Gallery, and the African American Project Directors Association. Attorney Barge, for your tireless efforts in the cause of justice and equality for all, we are honored today to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, given this 16th day of May, 2014. Would trustee Gerald Divine please escort the honorable Robert D. Krause to the podium. Judge Krause, since your appointment to the bench in 1986, you have presided over hundreds of trials and administered Supreme Court calendars in every county of the state of Rhode Island. The experience and expertise you acquired along the way, steadily preparing you for your present role as senior associate justice of the Rhode Island Superior Court. You have also served as chairman of the advisory committee on the Rhode Island Superior Court Rules of Criminal Procedure, and you were a member of the state's first judicial nominating committee. In your earlier career, you served as assistant U.S. attorney for the district for Rhode Island, and prior to that, you were assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California, where you were also chief of the appellate section, managing all of that district's appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Nacrause, above and beyond your extensive legal and judicial pursuits, you have earned a reputation as a skilled photographer and digital artist whose works have been featured in the Providence Journal, displayed in a local gallery and museum, and not to mention in a number of Rhode Island courthouses. Several of your photographs were selected for a publication in a book on Americana. Judge Nacrause, for your lifelong service to law and justice in Rhode Island and beyond, we are honored today to confer upon you the degree of Doctor of Law's honoris causa, given this 16th day of May, 2014. Would Professor of Law, Emily Sack, please escort the honorable Judith S. K. to the podium. Judge K., we honor you here today, not only as the first woman ever to serve on New York's highest court, but as the first woman to ascend 10 years later to the position of chief judge of the state of New York, a role you fulfilled with consummate skill, compassion, and innovation for more than 15 years. From that powerful perch, you developed a national reputation for your groundbreaking decisions and innovative reforms to the New York court system. You wrote important decisions on a wide variety of contentious legal issues, from rights for gay couples to the death penalty. You also left your mark as a creative reformer, streamlining the state's jury system and establishing specialized courts addressing such issues as drug addiction, domestic violence, and mental health. And you created the Adoption Now program to better serve children and foster care in their families. Your reforms have since been implemented by many other state courts nationwide. Part of a judge's duty, you once said, is to, quote, serve the public wisely and diligently, soundly and innovatively, preserving and carrying forward the best of the past to meet the demands of a rapidly changing society, end quote. By these standards, your career has been an extraordinary success. When you retired as chief judge in 2008, you said, there can be no doubt that I've had the role of a lifetime, a privilege beyond description, to labor in the cause of justice alongside the greatest people on earth. Judge Kay, for your lifelong service to law, justice, and the betterment of society, it is our privilege today to confer upon you the degree of Dr. Law's honoris causa, given this 16th day of May, 2014. And I now invite the Honorable Judith Kaye to make the commencement address. Thank you so much, President Farrish, Dean Logan, honored faculty, administration staff, honored graduates, and guests. Thank you so much for the privilege of addressing you on this extraordinary occasion. By that greeting, of course, I have in mind first and foremost, the fabulous graduates, class of 2014. Congratulations to each and every one of you, and congratulations as well to your families and your friends. So many of them gathered here under the tent with us in every sense, no limit on invitees. The people who have worked so diligently and lovingly to help you reach this great moment. Now, today, the letters JD are permanently added to each of your names, to your luggage tags, and to your voyage all through life, JD. And of course, by extraordinary occasion, I have in mind as well that this is the climax of an entire year celebrating the 20th anniversary of Rhode Island's first and only law school premier in every single way. Here stands Roger Williams University School of Law at the brink of 21, now into its third decade. Now, that's full maturity in every sense. And imagine, more than half of this law school's wonderful history has flourished under the baton of your remarkable dean, David Logan. Congratulations, Dean Logan. Now, you have surely earned a return to your first love, which is full-time teaching with our boundless gratitude. And yes, indeed, we have a lot to celebrate today, and I'm so pleased to be here celebrating with you. Believe me, it is entirely my honor to be with you, an honor I'm pleased to share with my distinguished co-honorary degree recipients. That's two Roberts we have with us, Robert Bard and Robert Crass, Judge Crass. We now also become alums, we become alums. And you know, I think I'm going to be substituting RWU Law School, class of 2014, for NYU Law School, class of 1962. Makes me feel an awful lot younger, more energized, more invigorated, more inspired to go out and change the world right along with you. Right. Now, having spent more than 50 years as a lawyer and judge, oh my God, it should not surprise you to know that I like to follow good precedents. So I'm going to take a cue, one cue, from famed civil rights attorney Morris Dees by echoing his words at last year's commencement ceremony. Like Morris Dees, I too can say unequivocally today that I am so very proud to be a lawyer. And I will take my second cue from remarks recently published by your great dean. A lot has changed in the legal profession, particularly in the last few years. Some of it good and some of it not so good. But I'm going to begin with the unequivocally good news. Welcome to a great profession, one that has helped assure over the past two plus centuries that this indeed remains a land of justice and equal opportunity dedicated to the values of our founders. Indeed, if you think back on our nation's beginnings, this has been a law-oriented society from day one. Do you know that more than half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were actually lawyers, as were many of the delegates to the Philadelphia Convention, many of the leaders in the revolutionary movement and drafters and signers of the Constitution? Throughout history, our most pressing social and economic and political issues have been framed in law terms with profound problems of social order resting in the hands of lawyers and judges. I know no better evidence than the fact that we gather for your graduation on the eve of one of the nation's landmark events, the 60th anniversary of Brown against Board of Education, a powerful unanimous decision of the Supreme Court of the United States issued on May 17, 1954. I remember it well. That was the year of my graduation from high school, changed my life and lots of other lives, to declaring the right to equality of education. In just a very few eloquent pages, and I urge all of you to have a look at Brown against Board of Education, the Supreme Court overruled a longstanding president and boldly reaffirmed an enduring foundational principle of this great nation. We are not separate but equal. We are equal in every sense, equal in every sense. And to this day, the lawyer stands as the essential intermediary in our nation's social progress, the resolution of every key issue from global internet privacy to neighborhood individual property at the core determined by statutes and rules and regulations and judicial and administrative decisions. In all my decades of experience, I have yet to discover any other calling that offers so many opportunities for serving society generally and helping people individually, whether by writing a will or closing on a home or a massive corporate merger or defending against criminal charges or seeking compensation for a slip and full or for catastrophic injury. Without any particular artistic or architectural skill, lawyers can make a symphony go forward or an exhibit open, a low income housing project go up or a blight on the environment come down. Now within this profession, I have been able to enjoy both a stimulating career and a very fulfilling family life. I even had the exquisite pleasure some years ago, like so many of you in the audience today under this tent of attending my own child's graduation from law school. Now that happened also to be the place and year of the graduation of a very close friend of my daughter, your wonderful professor, Emily Sack, she's my daughter too. Teacher of the year, Emily Sack. Now her life, Emily's life at Roger Williams as I have kept in touch throughout the years has dedicated to social justice, offers yet another example of our opportunity to make this a better world. Just think, she's a dedicated teacher. We've talked a lot about her love of her students. She's a dedicated leader in our fight against domestic violence. She's the co-author of the terrific book in the field. She's the president of the board of a local domestic violence shelter and an advocacy group as we have together, all of us together, lawyers at the forefront, led in the transformation of a vital social and legal response to the scourge of domestic violence. Yes, most definitely I agree with those bright, positive, optimistic thoughts that brought you to the doorstep of this law school. You indeed can help to make this a better world. And that brings me to the doorstep of Dean Logan's mindset or opinion article on the changing, challenging face of the legal profession today in Rhode Island and might I say far, far, far beyond Rhode Island. And this is the mixed news part of my remarks today. Perhaps the most obvious change and we have only to look around us is the very long overdue growth of diversity in our profession starting right here. At Roger Williams and I've studied all of your statistics, I know more than half the class is female, more than a quarter from groups traditionally underrepresented in the profession, including older graduates, first generation college and law school graduates, people embarking on a second career. Now I have to tell you, forever unforgettable for me are the days when I was one of barely 10 women at NYU Law School. That's why I'm moving over to RWU Law School. I was barely one of 10 women in a class of 300 at NYU Law School. That was a time when firms openly turned us away with the line, our quota of women is filled and the quota probably was zero. When court appearances, rare court appearances were often greeted by the words lady, get a lawyer. They were days of sharply unequal pay and corporate policies mandating, mandating, firing in the seventh month of a pregnancy. So cause for celebration as we look around us? Absolutely, absolutely. But as the dean points out in his excellent article, these are only signs of promise, a stake in the ground for equal opportunity throughout our profession, as we set out to spread the message throughout the highest levels of society. This task is far from over, believe me. If you look at the still daunting statistics throughout law firm partnerships, the judiciary and the government for just starters, women for example, are definitely doing a lot better in law school, but years later in actual practice, we're nowhere close to duplicating those sunny statistics. And herein lies one of your challenges, one of the dean's challenges, one of my challenges, a really serious challenge, not simply to study and gather and assemble and mourn the statistics, but to go out in the world and rewrite the statistics. Having had the pleasure of chatting with your classmate, Garrett Marshall, I'll use his word, thank you Garrett for helping me, I'll use his word and describe this as a gateway moment, a time you can, you have to, you must push through the gateway to make your opportunity equal opportunity, genuine diversity a reality. And might I say your law school, our alma mater, mine too, has prepared you very, very well for the task. Supporting, working with the community is a hallmark of the school. Public service is part of your DNA. Throughout the profession and the world, assuring equal opportunity, public service, those are heavy tasks that lie with you, but surely you have been well-primed and well-prepared to move them forward. And here again, here again, I offer another lesson from my own decades as a lawyer and a judge, and I've boiled them down to just two words, hang in, hang in. Having been born on a farm in upstate New York to immigrant parents, I have to tell you that never in my own wildest dreams did I imagine that I could become a judge, first woman judge on the high court of the state of New York, let alone the chief judge of the state of New York, the most glorious role imaginable in the entire universe. From the beginning of time, human instinct always seems to produce negativity, pushback, all the bad reasons why you can't have or can't do something you want, but you, you are the ones who have to be believers. You have to believe in yourself. You have to push back. You have to stay focused to pursue the dream that has brought you to this glorious day. Now that's easier said than done, I know. And you are bound sometimes to make missteps to disappoint yourself even from time to time, personally, to fail. But I also know the group I am addressing. You wouldn't be here today if you weren't believers in push forward, hang in, push forward, be positive, seize the day. Those are the qualities that have brought you to this day and those are the qualities that will take you through the gateway. And just think, even you might be fortunate enough to be the commencement speaker at your Alma Mater's 50th anniversary. That should be your goal because let me tell you, this is a real treat. But perhaps of even greater concern today are two of the dean's reflections and I'm still focused on his article on today's new challenges. And again, he's unquestionably right on target. First of course, in a day of law school debt is the dramatically changed marketplace of legal employers demanding that new hires be equipped to add value from day one. The days I remember so well of tagging along, having the comfort and expectation of constructive mentoring. Today those days have changed dramatically. But being the good news person I am, the positivist, the optimist, I have put this genuine concern together with the dean's reflections on the many today in desperate need of legal assistance and the burgeoning innovative programs, especially right here at your campus and your law school, linking lawyers to work with service organizations to help the homeless, to help at-risk youth, to help low-income families. With genuine concern and with genuine sympathy, I have watched the coming together of these two populations on the one hand seeking out and on the other hand finding new ways to define and redefine our professional values in a most constructive way. I know no better example than your many, many collaboratives here on campus and believe me, we are hard at work all through the profession and through the nation to put the two populations together, to multiply the innovative programs for those that serve people desperately in need of legal services on both sides, need for legal services and opportunity to fulfill those needs. There can only be brighter days ahead, I promise. So that brings me to the dean's final reflection. On a decade of profound change and that is the most intriguing of all, the challenge of improvement in the rule of law. The very purpose underlying the founding of this law school and to use his words, he calls it a lively experiment. The very purpose of this lively experiment was to raise the level of debate and discourse on important issues while also enhancing public respect of law. In other words, this law school was to be and remain and again I'm quoting the dean, an unbossed and unbought source of opinion on the issues of the day. Now that's a tall order too, but looking out on you, having read and learned a great deal about you, I would say you are well up to the challenge. Now just take a look at a few of the hot issues of the day, affirmative action and campaign finance and voting rights if you just look at some of the recent Supreme Court decisions, issues that go to the very heart and soul of our great nation. Has the last word been spoken? Absolutely not, I certainly hope not. I've watched state by state avid taste for death penalty dwindle, certainly in New York, thankfully, and I see changing attitudes about our nation's mindless mass incarceration and mindless juvenile detention. On the subject of change in the law, perhaps most sweeping of all, we've witnessed the recognition of the right to marriage, to same sex marriage. All issues with the rule of law at their very core, at their very center, fodder for graduates who are graduates of an unbossed and unbought law school. On this day, we are infused with pride in you in this law school and in the unbossed and unbought model you now have for earning and enjoying appreciation for public service, for good work. I agree wholeheartedly with Dean Logan. The rule of law will continue to improve in Rhode Island and far beyond Rhode Island as all of you, each of you, your faculty and alumni, and most especially my class, the class of 2014, continue to tackle important issues that make this state, this nation, this world a better place for every single one of us. Congratulations to all of you, especially to my fellow alums, the great class of 2014. I hope that the good sense and the good fortune that have brought you to this moment will be with you all through your lives. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Judge Kay, for your thoughtful remarks. At this point in the commencement ceremony, the 19th of the School of Law, I invite the class of El Victorian, Samantha McCoy-Clark to offer remarks on behalf of the terrific class of 2014. Samantha? Good afternoon, Dean Logan, President Farish, members of the Board of Trustees and the Board of Directors, members of the faculty and staff, parents, family, friends, and of course, welcome to the class of 2014. It's an honor to speak to you today. At first, I wanted to give the speech from the end of Legally Blonde because I already had it memorized, but my family told me not to. Then I thought, why not use famous quotations, time-tested, well-loved by millions, mostly from Star Wars, but my family told me not to. There's a theme here, and it's not just that I turned to pop culture when things get awkward. No, when I need advice, support, or just someone to tell me that singing, let it go at a commencement speech isn't appropriate, my family is there. Now, when I say family, I don't just mean my mothers and fathers, my boyfriend, my uncle, my cousins. I mean all of you, all of us. We're a family, but you're hardened lawyers now. You don't believe me yet. That's all right. I've been preparing my case all week. Here is my evidence. We share memories, we share values, and we share a name. First, our memories, the good ones, like parting a barrister's ball, making outrageous bids at the auction, taking over Aiden's after finals and scaring away the lunch crowd. I promise you, some of our good memories even happened during school hours. We learned an astonishing amount. All of us worked harder than we ever thought we could, forging friendships in 48-hour study binges, writing endless memoranda and briefs, reading every night, attending symposia, debating passionately in class. We made late-night coffee runs and early-morning gym visits, some of us. Somewhere in there, we met five United States Supreme Court justices. We dined with professors at Potluck's, and, of course, we watched Josh Xavier rap to juicy, flawlessly, frequently, and sometimes with backup dancers. It wasn't all Biggie Smalls and Sonia Sotomayor. We had some tough days. All of us felt that same sense of impending doom whenever Professor Ritchie looked down at his seating chart. Many of us remember the first day we survived the sack attack. And, after what seemed like nearly three years of apocalyptic blizzards, hurricanes, and blackouts, we all became masters at studying by candlelight. But those are the stories that we remember, Class of 2014. That's not what's gonna be remembered about us. Instead, others are gonna remember our values. They'll remember our commitment to service, those late nights at the ACI, the spring breaks and summers that spent providing legal services to those who needed it most, the compassion shown by all the student attorneys and the clinics, the internships, externships, tax assistants, panels, outreach, and more, much more, too much to list. And, often, the work didn't have a name or a class credit associated with it. We just did it. We did it to serve. That's what they'll remember. They'll remember our drive and our passion, all the late nights, practicing for moot court and trial team competitions, the three editions of Law Review this year out, first time in a decade, all three. Our work at private firms and corporate offices and the fact that day in and day out, we prove that we belong there. That's what they'll remember about us, Class of 2014. So what's left? A family with memories and values and a name. We share one now. When we introduce ourselves and people ask us where we went to school, we'll give the same answer, Roger Williams. And because the Class of 2014 is made up of such an incredible group of people, wherever we go, our classmates' reputations and successes will precede us. Knowing this, I feel privileged that I will share a name with you. But even so, today is bittersweet for me. Because after you walk across that stage, you're gonna walk away from Roger Williams and you're gonna walk over to a different family. To the parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins and friends, all the loved ones who are so proud of you and came to see you today. And I'm gonna run over to my moms and dads and I'm not gonna be able to figure out who to hug first, but that's okay. I think I've made a solid case to you that no matter what, no matter what happens after we cross that stage, Class of 2014, we're a family now. And so, family, explicitly against your advice, I'm going to end by quoting Legally Blonde anyway. Congratulations, Class of 2014, we did it! Thank you, Sam. Tough act to follow. As you leave the familiar grounds of law school to undertake your career in the law, I challenge you to retain that sense of hope and optimism that you brought with you on your first day of law school. Remember the lessons taught about personal and professional responsibility so that you will always be proud of who and what you are. And keep ever in mind that as a lawyer, you are empowered, indeed, duty-bound to make a difference in the lives of your clients, who you will serve and the society in which you will live. We will now confer the law degrees and present the degree candidates for the Class of 2014. Will the candidates for the degree of a Juris Doctor please rise? President Donald Farish, I certify on behalf of the faculty of the School of Law that these candidates are eligible for the degree of Juris Doctor. By virtue of the authority granted by the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations and delegated by the Board of Trustees of Roger Williams University, I confer upon you the degree of Juris Doctor with all the rights, privileges, and responsibilities pertaining thereto. Will the candidates please come forward? The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Diana Hassel, will present each candidate. Samantha McCoy-Clark, Summa Cum Laude. Letitia Cunha Tavares, Cum Laude. Josette Rocha, Jocelyn Rocha, Cum Laude. Susanna Santana, Alexandra Davis, Summa Cum Laude. Elizabeth Ann Blank, LMMA, Magna Cum Laude. Jay Sokolov, Horse Bloom, Cum Laude. Thomas Leonard Moran, Cum Laude. Drake Benjamin, Lee Roberts. Paul Carmody Jr., Elizabeth Christum. Lynn Sarah Smith, Caitlyn Virginia McGuire. Anne Hamilton, Caitlyn Mary Wollstonecroft, Cum Laude. Catherine Robbins, Cum Laude. Jennifer Ann Sherman, Kerlyn Reed, Magna Cum Laude. Rose Parker, Shanna Curland, Magna Cum Laude. Magna Cum Laude, Verdi, Magna Cum Laude. Wilson Christina Murphy, Cum Laude. Ashley Ann Brinkman, Magna Cum Laude. Johann G. Denal, Anthony Jordan Coistra. Xander Liu, Cum Laude. Papaginae, Ray M. Sheehan. Elizabeth Smalley, Cum Laude. Daniel C. Tevedo, George Chacarino, Cum Laude. Grace Stockley, Uncribbin III. Paragamo, Jennifer H. Whitmore. Tasha Karine Ludwig, Alicia J. Perry. Asia Sierra T. Millette, Cum Laude. Peterson, Cum Laude. Richard Fyalkoff, MSC, Magna Cum Laude. Jessica Jody Hale. Stegerson Zildmi, LMMA. Elizabeth McNamara, XLMMA. Marcus Jacob Swift, Magna Cum Laude, Odi Yingbo, Obatista, Tentas Jr., Cum Laude. Elsie Christine Ann Leone, Inc. Summa, Cum Laude. Tenaccio, Anton Chase Schrander, Christina, Christine Diana Hutley, Morgan Rodriguez, Cum Laude. Leslie Jackson, Stephanie C. M. Bartholet, Stina Lynn Connor, Elizabeth McCarthy, Ann Marie Francis, Elizabeth Essex, Jennifer Ashley Roth, Jennifer M. Vosberg, Rose De Dio, Tracy Andrea Deceivo, Alexander Denise Esquire, Magna Cum Laude. Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2014. Before you depart our lovely campus, I urge you to savor this moment. The class of 2014 has achieved greatness both individually and as a group. And on behalf of the faculty and staff, we look forward to being there for you as you embark on the next phase of your journey. At the conclusion of the ceremony, I encourage the graduates and their families to come back to the law school building for light snacks on a chance to shake hands, hug, do some selfies, some photo bombs, with your faculty and friends. I wanna close this commencement as I've closed many before with a message from Garrison Keeler. Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. Thank you and will the audience be seated and remain seated while the platform party and graduates have filed out.