 My name is Michael Donnelly Boylan and I am the Assistant Dean for Admissions here at the Law School. I would like to welcome all of you to Roger Williams University School of Law and to Orientation 2018. I am so excited to see this class, you have no idea. I welcome the class of 2021. We've been anxiously waiting for you. Today officially kicks off the law school's 25th anniversary. We in the admissions office have had the distinct pleasure of getting to know you over the last year. Thank you for sharing your stories with us. The class of 2021 has a wide range of experiences and I'm here to tell you a little bit about the folks that you will be calling your classmates for the next three years before I hand your class over to President Workman, Daniel Noski and the faculty. Students in your class attended a wide variety of colleges and universities all around the country including Fordham, Stonehill, BYU, University of Arizona and Boston College. But some schools sent us more than others. Four schools are tied for sixth place on the list of largest feeder schools to your class. Those schools are the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Connecticut Stores, the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and Salve Regina University. All of these schools had three students attending. Johnson and Wales is in fifth place with four students. The John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York is tied for third place alongside Rhode Island College, each with seven students in the class. Our own Roger Williams University is in second place with ten students and this year, not surprisingly, the top feeder school to your class is the University of Rhode Island with 21 students enrolling, 12% of your class. In your class, you will find a nurse, a physical therapist, an EMT, a professional dog trainer, an immigration paralegal, and an actress who has appeared on TV shows like Blackish and The Mentalist. Your classmates have had many interesting internships. In the room tonight, we have an extradition intern from the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office, an international law intern from the American Red Cross, a social work intern with the New York City Community Court, a legislative intern with the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, an insurance intern from Ernst & Young, and a compliance intern with Smith & Wesson. Your class has an unusually large number of students who have spent time on the front lines advocating for social justice. You have helped the victims of sex trafficking in Philadelphia, mentored unaccompanied minor immigrants in Rhode Island, worked with the medical legal collaboratives of Massachusetts, and worked with prisoners re-entering society in Alaska. You have been in the Teach for America program in Memphis, the Peace Corps in Zambia, and numerous AmeriCorps programs. A classmate assisted our veterans in the Spokane Washington VA Hospital while another served as an advocate for rape victims in Alabama. Your class has canvassed for the Human Rights Campaign, served on the board of the Latino Policy Institute, and protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. Another unique trait of your class is deep political involvement. You have interned for a number of United States Senators and members of Congress. On both sides of the aisles, including representatives Lee Zeldin of New York, Raul Crihalva of Arizona, and Jim Hines of Connecticut, as well as Senators Whitehouse and Reed of Rhode Island, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona. In your class, you will find the person who chaired the City of Central Falls Charter Commission, the principal policy analyst for the Rhode Island Senate, and someone who ran a campaign in Boulder, Colorado. You have interned for the Democratic Party in Virginia and Vermont, and worked for the Super PAC that supported John Kasich for president. In your class, you will find a former Rhode Island State Senator and a current member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. At the law school that houses the highly regarded Marina Fairs Institute, it should not be shocking that a number of your classmates have done interesting things on and around the water. Your classmates have been on their school sailing teams. They have also worked as commercial fishermen and as dockhands. One of your classmates created the University of Vermont's first environmentally focused publication, someone interned with the Palau International Core Reef Center, and another worked with Clean Water Action. Your classmates have researched oyster growth, shark reproduction, and the cardiovascular systems of zebrafish. 5% of your class served in the United States military, representing the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, and National Guard. We thank all of you for your service. Now, some of you were focused on paying for college and making ends meet for the last few years. We celebrate you as well. This class has baristas from Brooklyn, New York, Portland, Oregon, and Ypsilanti, Michigan. I was just like you in college. In fact, one of the ways I paid for college was serving as a barista in South Bend, Indiana. And better yet, my RWU colleague, Deborah Johnson, was the person who trained me on how to make lattes there. True story. Someone else in your class did three years working at McDonald's. I did six years to pay for my schooling, and I feel your pain. No matter who you are today, you all enter the law school with a blank slate. We are dying to see the lawyers you will become and how you will change your worlds. 31% of your class is made up of Rhode Islanders, meaning more than two-thirds of you are relocating to the ocean state. 27% of your class hails from the other New England states, and 22% of you comes from the northeast. 10% of your class is from the south, 6% from the west, and four from the Midwest. Your class has another interesting geographic quirk. You'd expect that Providence would be the city most represented in your class. And it is. However, Providence is tied with New York City. In fact, if you broke New York City up into its parts, Brooklyn itself would rank third, just behind Cranston. And the Bronx would rank fourth, tied with Rhode Island towns like Newport, Central Falls, Portsmouth, and Cumberland. Daniel Noski, I think there are some Yankees fans in the house tonight. A large number of your classmates are immigrants or refugees from countries like Columbia, the Dominican Republic, Ghana, Guinea, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Venezuela. In fact, over 9% of your class was born abroad. So it may not surprise you to hear then that there's an unusually large percentage of your class that is coming to law school with the goal of advocating for immigrants. The average age of your class is 25, meaning half of you are younger than this law school for the first time in our history. 16% of you are over the age of 30 or older. A number of you are married and many of you have children. 9% of your class, sorry, 10% of your class identifies as members of the LGBTQ community. Both the numbers of students over 30 in our LGBTQ population are near record highs. 56% of your class is made up of women. 44% are men. Your class has the highest percentage of women of any class in this law school's history. And continuing with the trend of historic numbers, 32% of your class comes from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the legal profession. As RWU law enters its 25th anniversary year, we are extremely proud to say that your class is the most racially and ethnically diverse class in this law school's history. I am also very proud to say that your class has the strongest GPAs of any class in the last six years. I commend all of you on your academic achievements. Finally, I'm very pleased to welcome our Masters of Studies in Law students to RWU. These students, mainly working professionals, will be taking classes alongside our JD students while they earn their MSL degrees. I think you will value the perspective that these new students will bring to the classroom. It has truly been a pleasure getting to know all of you over the last year. Please do not be strangers to the admissions office. Stop in and say hello. As I said to all of you on Facebook last night, the next three years are going to be challenging. When the task seems insurmountable and it will, I want you to remember we chose you all for a reason. We see your potential and we are on this journey with you. We know that you can change your world. And on behalf of all of us at RWU Law, welcome to law school. It is now my privilege to introduce Dean Michael Yilnowski, who will be introducing our distinguished guests for the evening. In the spirit of my earlier remarks, Dean Yilnowski is a native Pennsylvanian, taught high school social studies in Vermont before coming to law school, and is an avid runner, having completed the Boston, New York, and Philadelphia marathons. Before teaching, Dean Yilnowski did a clerk for a federal judge in practice with a major Philadelphia law firm. He is a founding member of the RWU Law faculty, having been here on the very first day, and has been a popular teacher of civil procedure, employment law, and employment discrimination. He earned his bachelor's degree from the University of Vermont and his JD from the University of Pennsylvania. With that, I am so very pleased to hand the class of 2021 over to Dean Michael Yilnowski. Thank you, Michael. Michael is truly a national leader in the world of law school admissions, and I want to thank him and his staff for bringing such an interesting group of people together. It was my pleasure to talk to and meet some of you during this process, and I really look forward to working with you and watching your journeys. We've tried to put together an interesting and helpful program for you, beginning tonight and ending with the tour of our experiential education campus in Providence on Friday. My only caution is that there will be lots of information coming at you, and it will feel like it's too much. Occasionally it might actually be too much, but please know that we have taken care to focus on what we think will be the most helpful, and lots of what you're going to hear in the next couple of days will be in the form of advice. Some of it will be good. I can't resist sharing three suggestions with you. First, engage. Studying law is hard work, but it's the best kind of hard work. It's interesting, it's meaningful, it's rewarding. Our objective here at Roger Williams University School of Law is to help each and every one of you succeed. We respect you enough to offer a rigorous program that will prepare you to achieve your goals, and we respect you enough to help you get there, not in spite of us, but with our help. So, first, engage. Second, we do not believe that the best days of law practice are behind us in some bygone, idyllic era. The practice looks different than it did 30 years ago, but changes, as they say, the only constant. And instead of lamenting those changes, we will be doing our best to prepare you for today's practice of law. Do not forget that law matters. Law matters more perhaps today than it ever has in my lifetime. So, second, don't forget that law matters. And third, become a part of this community. This is a community, a large, diverse, and supportive community. You're not alone. One of our goals for tonight is to introduce you to your new home and your new neighbors. The first new neighbor I want to introduce you to is Carolyn Barone, who is the president of the Rhode Island Bar Association. She is not a graduate of this law school. She's here because the organization that she represents embraces this law school and embraces each one of you. They know the value that this institution adds to the legal culture, and they value what they can add to your education. I recently read Attorney Barone's first president's message in the Rhode Island Bar Journal, and it really resonated with tonight's occasion. She wrote about the advice she received from her boss on her very first day of work, how the practice of law has changed, but how it has stayed the same since 1980, and how important it is for young lawyers to have mentors. I want to thank her for taking the time to be with us this afternoon, and I hope you will join me in welcoming Carolyn Barone. Thank you very much for inviting me, and perhaps I am your first live witness that for the next three years your time is not going to be your own. And for three years after that, your time will also not be your own. It will be guided by judges and your clients. Therefore, in your personal life, when you must, must, must absolutely have to be somewhere by four o'clock or five o'clock, you better tell your assistant, I have to be, must be positively out of here by two. You've got to give yourself that buffer. I am very pleased to be here on half of the Bar Association, and on behalf of that association, I welcome each and every one of you. I want you to feel free to be a part of the association, even though you are just beginning your legal careers. We do offer law school membership, which is very beneficial. We also offer programs of which you can take advantage. If you do decide to become a member, you will have access to case maker. Now, that is something you probably have 24-7 with your library. But it also comes on your laptop, on your surfaces, should you want to become a student member of the association. You also will have an opportunity to attend CLE seminars. Most importantly, because I'm not here to sell you on this association. I don't need to do that. I don't want to do that. But most importantly, I want you to take advantage of meeting lawyers. Getting your face known. Having your name also be recognized for future years. Take advantage of our court system. Take advantage if you ever have that occasion where you have a day off. Come to the courthouses. Visit Providence. Visit Kent. You're close to Newport. Newport County Family Court, the Superior Court. Introduce yourself. Come into the courthouse. Meet the clerks. Even introduce yourself to the judges. They will be happy to welcome you. Now, I'm going to do something that you're going to say. This woman is crazy. But I noticed some of you have papers in front of you. You have pens in front of you. You are going to be facing, especially your first year, your first semester, a very, very rigorous academic course. You will question, why am I doing this? Why am I putting myself through this? I'm getting into a tunnel here, and I don't know where it's going. If, and hopefully not when, but if, you get to that point. This is the phone numbers you're going to call. Serious. During the day, you're going to call 401-467-5300. That's my office. You ask for me. If I'm in court, they will know how to reach me. The other number, 401-725-0607. That's my home number. You call it whenever you need to speak to someone who has been through what you are about to begin, and who has lasted 37 years, still standing, hopefully still going strong, and you need a word of encouragement. You just need someone to say, hi, I just need to talk for five minutes. That's the number you call. Day or night, doesn't matter. I'm home, I'm picking up that phone, I'm going to speak to you. So now, to leave you on an uplifting note, truly, truly, you have a wonderful three years to look forward to. It is truly an honorable profession. You are getting an outstanding education at this university. Take in all of it, take all of it that it has to give to each and every one of you. And don't forget, pay it forward. When you finish your first year, pay it forward to the incoming class. Keep paying it forward. When you take the bar, pass the bar, pay it forward. Thank you. We also have a very loyal and supportive Alumni Association that's here to help you now and after you graduate. The Vice President of that Law Alumni Association, Greg Hoffman, is with us this afternoon. Greg graduated from this law school in 2013 with honors and then clerked for Judge Taft Carter on the Rhode Island Superior Court, followed by a clerkship with Justice Flaherty, Chief Justice Sattel's colleague on the Rhode Island Supreme Court. He is currently an associate in the Providence Office of Barton Gilman. I learned recently when doing my due diligence on Greg that he's a Baltimore Orioles fan and that it's actually on the website of Barton Gilman. For those of you who are not baseball fans, the Orioles are on pace as we stand here today to lose out of 162 games, approximately 114, which would mean that they have been winning since April, three days out of every 10. If you just Google how bad are the Orioles, seriously, because that's what I did, you get things like this. Quote, this is from a sports writer who covers the Orioles. 2018 Orioles are a miserable failure of a baseball team. They are the product of several years worth of bad planning combined with bad luck. The result is that they are the worst team in Major League Baseball by far, with poor hitting, pitching, and defense, combining to make you wonder if they will be the worst Orioles team to ever play a season. Please welcome and take pity. I was initially going to thank Dean Yonowski for his kind words. Instead, I would object to what he said on relevance. But in all seriousness, I'm very excited to be here with you today. On behalf of the Law Alumni Association, I want to extend a very warm welcome to each and every one of you, as you now are becoming part of the Roger Williams University School of Law family. Admittedly, I'm one of the biggest cheerleaders that you'll find of the law school. I firmly believe that it offers an unparalleled opportunity to you guys, not only to learn from, but also interact and collaborate with some of the preeminent law professors, practitioners, and jurists in the area. I would encourage you all to make the most of those opportunities while you're here. In hearing what Dean Donnelly Boylan said about some of the successes you've all had to date, I couldn't help but be impressed. And I know that a group like you doesn't need any reminders that there's no substitute for hard work. The efforts that you put in here over the course of the next three years will ultimately dictate the paths that your lives and careers take. And I would encourage you to put in the effort because you'll reap the benefits. That hard work will not only take place in the classrooms and the internships and your externships, but also in the forging of relationships with your classmates. As you look around here today, the people that you're sitting with will eventually become your peers in the legal community. These are going to be the people that refer you cases and recommend you for jobs and provide guidance and support when issues arise. So I can't emphasize enough the importance of building these relationships with your classmates. You're going through this battle together and you guys will all come out together on the other side. To that end, I would encourage you to be engaged like Dean Yalnowski said. Go to as many of the law school events that you can, including the events hosted by the Law Alumni Association. We are always open and encouraging for current law students to come to the law alumni events and love to have you guys there. Whether it's the fact that we want to wax poetically about back when we were in law school or just give our two cents about school and your subsequent careers. I would encourage you to come to as many events as possible and reach out to the alumni of this school for their advice, how they got to where they are, and hopefully you can avoid some of the speed bumps that we all hit along the way. So I wish you a very wonderful three years here. I know that you all succeed. And I'll leave you with the parting note that I played baseball myself growing up. I was told that three out of ten got you into the Hall of Fame. But I guess that was for batting averages and not winning percentage. So best of luck, everybody. Braxton Medlin is the president of your Student Bar Association. Braxton came to us from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the North Carolina A&T. He has infectious enthusiasm and genuine personal warmth. He makes this a better place, and it is very hard not to just hug him. Hard for me. He's committed to public interest law and has been on two alternative spring break trips at public interest law offices. He spent this summer as an intern at the public defender's office in Mecklenburg County, which is Charlotte, North Carolina. And I am really looking forward to working with him this year. Please welcome Braxton Medlin. Thank you, Dean Yonasky, for that warm introduction. Funny story, actually, was telling someone about Roger Williams over the summer because nobody in Charlotte, North Carolina knows about Roger Williams, and I accidentally referred to Dean Yonasky as my dad because he typically treats me like that, so good guy. So on behalf of the Roger Williams University School of Law Student Bar Association, good afternoon to everyone and to the incoming class of 2021, greetings. I'm humbled to have the opportunity to stand before you all with such a vibrant and impressive group of people. I'm also terrified, but it's okay. It is an honor to represent Roger Williams University School of Law as the Student Bar Association president. Roger Williams is a dynamic law school full of well-respected faculty and staff members and an administration who truly cares. I also would like to thank my SBA members who are in the room, as well as any 2Ls and 3Ls who are here as well. Before I actually begin my prepared speech, I want everyone in the room to take two deep breaths with me, is that okay? So we're going to breathe in, we're going to breathe out, we're going to breathe in, we're going to breathe out. You'll need this strategy for your first cold call. Thank me later. Thank me later. So Dean Yonasky told you a little bit about myself. I'm from Chapel Hill. I graduated from North Carolina A&T, but my law school journey has been somewhat of a trail race. I'm a runner, and so my last two years would best be described as a Spartan race. I don't know if you guys are familiar with Spartan races, but they have a lot of obstacles that you have to overcome to get to the end. And so my first obstacle being here at Roger Williams was actually a snowstorm. And so my first visit here, I was stuck in hotel for three days. First obstacle. But some of the other obstacles that I've had to endure here have been include, but are not limited to, civil procedure, torts, con law, legal practice one, legal practice two, legal practice three. And my favorite obstacle is driving to Providence because Metacom is evil. I mean, I can't be convinced otherwise. So since I recognize this is a safe space, I would just like to let you guys know that an example of what kind of person I am is that I didn't come here to make friends. I was a first year transfer student in the middle of the year, and I just wanted to make it to my second year. It was like, God, please, can I just make it to 2L? I just want to be 2L. But my first event here was the public interest potluck, which is held at the home of Dean Yonasky and his wife, Lori Barron. It was on January 13, 2017. The warm welcome and the incredible conversations that I had there was one of the many signs that I knew that I might have to change my strategy about law school. I can tell you now that not only have I made friends here, but Roger Williams feels like family, and I can honestly say that. Just like myself, you all come to Roger Williams from very interesting backgrounds, including those of you from leadership positions in the federal government, to private industry, competitive athletics, the military. You're all accomplished, intelligent, and driven. In sum, you're all in an excellent position to take full advantage of all that Roger Williams' law has to offer. As we, the student body, and also the administrators, help shape you as law students and future attorneys, our overall goal at Roger Williams' law is to provide a positive environment and a set of opportunities that will enable you to develop as effective professionals. Professionally, you learn traditional skills such as thinking like a lawyer, analyzing legal materials, and communicating those ideas through legal writing. These are just a few of the basic building blocks Roger Williams' law offers in its legal training. I encourage you to take full advantage of the many connections, experiences, and opportunities to develop your professional toolbox. These tools include effective networking, developing your listening abilities, and performing well on assignments, which requires time management and excellent organization. A critical path for developing as a professional is by testing out the tools in your toolbox in a collaborative and supportive environment. Most notably, our engaged, diverse, and inclusive community about standing students, faculty, staff, alums, and friends are all here for you. As you will see throughout your orientation, our commitment to both diversity and inclusion is a real strength of the Roger Williams' law community, as is our culture of looking out for one another and respecting each other's ideas. I know that right now it might not seem like it, but if you look to your left and you look to your right, this is your new professional network. These are your new student colleagues. What you all may now find it difficult to believe is that just knowing these people will open up new opportunities for you. Work your connections to find the experience you need to get the opportunities that you want. A key part of every law student and attorney's responsibility is to serve others and to be mindful of those in society who need our help. During your time in law school, you will have numerous opportunities to engage in public service. Like Dino Naske told you during my first and second year, I participated in Alternative Spring Break, which gave me a chance to not only see how lawyering worked in the real world, but to also work with a client and see just how important it is to help others and to give back. I strongly encourage you all to embrace this ethic of service and look for opportunities to use your gifts and talents to help those in need. Most importantly in law school, get involved. Meeting new people and stepping outside of your comfort zone is how you grow. Please feel free to use the Student Bar Association as a help to help you find resources and encourage your interests here at Roger Williams Law. I know that I've talked a lot. I tend to do that. And I hope that something I've said will stick in your brain and come to you while you're studying. But if not, I'm going to give myself three more opportunities to make an impression on you and give you three pieces of advice. Number one, you might want to write this down. Find or continue a hobby. This whole law school experience from your first cold call to passing the bar on the first try is going to be one of the hardest things you've ever done. You'll need a healthy escape. Whenever calm law got tough for me, I either went for a run or I watched Real House of Atlanta because Nini Lynx has a lot of good life advice. I mean, it's true, right? It's true. Number two, put in the work. There are literally zero shortcuts. You have to do your time just like all of us have. Reading and other assignments, it's going to take time. Sometimes you're going to have to read things twice. Lean in to that contracts case from the 19th century. Really sit down with that statement of facts from legal practice so that when it comes time to put it all together, it flows and you're fluent in your work. And finally, number three, find your learning style and do your best to get the knowledge in that way. Every professor here is different and while each one will be willing to help you in different ways, they aren't mind readers. Some of you are visual learners while others of you are auditory. Personally, I'm a kinesthetic learner, so I spent April and May in the trial courtroom, 276, making flashcards and mnemonics to learn examples of coercive conduct when analyzing seizures. It works. I still remember them. Shout out to Professor Coombs. I wish he was here. So, to wrap up, don't be afraid to ask for help. If you see me or any other familiar face in this room, we're available to you. Except during finals, leave me alone. It's not pretty. Sorry, it's just not. Thank you for your attention and I look forward to getting to know each of you throughout the school year. I'll give it back to Dean Yonasky. Thank you. So, before the main event, it occurred to me as I was listening to Braxton and I was listening to Braxton that earlier, Michael Donnelly Boylan had mentioned that on a list that Cranston came out ahead of Brooklyn. And I thought, for people who are from Cranston, I should give you the opportunity to celebrate that because that's probably the first and last time that will ever happen again. With all due respect to Cranston. Too many from Cranston. I love Cranston. So, the main event is the administration of an oath of professionalism to formally mark your entrance into the Roger Williams University Law Community and the broader community of law students. Chief Justice Paul Satell of the Rhode Island Supreme Court is here this afternoon to administer that oath. I could go on and on about the chief. He's been a judge for almost 30 years. He had a distinguished career as a practicing lawyer and a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives. He's a member of this law school's board of trustees. He's not just a great decider, but he's a great communicator, mediator, and problem solver. He is the kind of person that I'm very proud has decided to become affiliated with this law school. He too is not a graduate of the law school, but he's here because he believes in what we're doing. I don't know this for sure, but I am pretty certain that the administration of an oath like this by the Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court does not happen at any other law school. And particularly, I think it's notable that the President of the Bar Association gave you her home and work number. And the President of the University, Andy Workman, is here and I can tell you that that doesn't happen at most law schools. So I want to thank the Chief for all of his support and welcome him warmly to continue this great tradition at Roger Williams, the administration of the oath. Chief Justice Satell. Thank you, Dean. You will not get my phone number so you can put your pens down. And I'm happy to report that I'm a Chicago Cubs fan. They are leading their division and they were ahead six to two when I arrived at the law school this afternoon. It is my privilege and really an honor to administer the oath of professionalism this afternoon. But I also want to welcome you on behalf of the men and women of the Rhode Island judiciary. And I want to congratulate you not only on your acceptance to the law school, but on your decision to attend the law school. It is obviously a very diversified and interesting class. I am very heartened to hear that 56% I believe it was are women. When I first became a member of the bar over 40 years ago, the number of women lawyers in the state not only could but they did in fact have lunch at one table. And now we have over a majority of law school students as women so I think it's fabulous. You're in for a very exciting but busy three years and that's whether or not you ever choose to practice law. I suspect that some of you will go on to other careers and other pursuits but I don't think you'll ever regret having a law school education. It's invaluable no matter what profession you should enter into. And for those of you that will go on to become lawyers, you're going to find this a very interesting time. And I look forward to swearing you in in three years when you become a member of the Rhode Island bar. I'm especially delighted to welcome the two-thirds of this class that are not the native Rhode Islanders. My responsibility as Chief Justice as I see it is to make sure that all of you stay in Rhode Island upon your graduation. We don't want to lose any one of you. We are the smallest state as you know but we have the longest name. The official name of the state is the State of Rhode Island in Providence Plantations. But what we lack in size, we make up with a very rich and interesting and unique history. We were the first colony to declare our independence. That was on May 4, 1776, fully two months before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. In point of fact, we renounced King George III. We hedged our bet a little bit on Parliament. I like to think that we were very brave, courageous and bold but not entirely foolhardy. And when it came time to reconsider the Articles of Confederation and form a new government, we refused to send any delegates to the Constitutional Convention. And then we were the last state to ratify the Constitution and then only reluctantly by a two-vote margin. Nor did we rush to adopt our own state constitution. I hope you do learn something about Rhode Island legal history because it really is fascinating. We operated under the Royal Charter of King Charles II from 1663 when it was granted until 1843, 180 years. We did not have our own state constitution. And largely because the Charter is a very remarkable document. It is on display at the State House in Providence and for any of you history buffs, I highly recommend that when you're in Providence you stop and to take a look at it. It represents an extraordinary grant of self autonomy and religious freedom to any colony at the time. And to understand that, to understand why that document is so significant, I think you need to know a little about the school's namesake, Roger Williams. He was the principal founder of Rhode Island. And I've always thought that Roger Williams as well as Ann Hutchinson who founded Portsmouth, which is just on the other side of the Mount Hope Bridge, that they're somewhat underappreciated in history. And I'll give you the reader's digest version of Roger Williams, not only because I think you ought to know something about the person the school is named after, but as I look at the program I've been allotted 15 minutes and I need to fill it up somehow. You know what occurs to me when I say give you the reader's digest version, probably none of you know what reader's digest is. So I'll say it's the Wikipedia version of Roger Williams. But he was a very highly educated, intelligent man. He worked as a young boy of 12 or 13. He was a clerk or a scrivener for Sir Edward Cook. Now that is the name you're likely to hear several times before you graduate in three years. Sir Edward Cook was one of the outstanding English jurist of the time. It's the late 16th, early 17th century. And he not only was the Chief Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, probably most famously known for his statement that a man's home is unto him as his castle. But also later in his career he was a Member of Parliament and the Principal Author of the English Declaration of Rights, which of course was a precursor to the United States Constitution. But when Roger Williams arrived in Boston in 1631, his reputation as a minister preceded him and he was immediately offered a job as teacher in the Boston Church, Puritan Church. Now that's like a kid arriving in Boston today and being asked to play left field for the Red Sox. It just doesn't get any better than that, but what did Williams do? He declined, largely because of religious differences he had with the church at the time. Eventually he moved to Plymouth County thinking that that might be more amenable for him. And significantly during that period when he was in Plymouth he had many interactions with the native Wampanoag and Narragansett Indians. And he wrote a treatise at one point arguing that the king had no authority to grant land in the New World because it rightfully belonged to the indigenous peoples. Well that got him into quite a bit of hot water as well. He eventually returned to Massachusetts Bay Colony and to Salem but was eventually brought before the general court and tried for his unorthodox religious and political views and ultimately he was banished. And in the middle of a raging blizzard one January in 1636 I believe he left on foot and walked to establish a colony that he called Providence. And it was a colony dedicated or was a settlement dedicated to the principles of religious tolerance and freedom of conscious and liberty of conscience. And as a result there were soon several other settlements took place occurred around the Narragansett Bay in Portsmouth, Cranston, Warwick and Newport. But the colony itself became a haven for religious dissidents and all sorts of misfits. One contemporary wag called it the Latrina of New England. All cranks of New England retire thither. The other colonies saw it as a haven for heretics and blasphemers and they saw it as a serious threat. So Williams realizing that he needed to have some sort of formal structure for these colonies for these really loosely aligned settlements, he traveled to England to obtain a charter. This is in the 1640s. England at that time was in the middle of its own civil war and King Charles I had lost most of his power and he soon was to lose his head, literally. As Monty Python said King Charles I began his reign at five foot six and ended it at four foot eight. But eventually he did obtain the charter and not a charter at the time but it was a patent from Parliament and after the restoration some of the colonists, Williams himself, went back to obtain a charter from King Charles II. That's the royal charter. But what is significant about it is that it contains his principles of religious freedom and religious tolerance for all types of religious belief. And this Sunday at Turo synagogue in Newport, which is the nation's oldest synagogue they have an annual reading of George Washington's 1790 letter to the Hebrew congregation of Newport. And in it Washington wrote, Happily the government of this United States gives to bigotry no sanction to persecution no assistance. Now those are the principles that took root and were nurtured by Roger Williams right here in Rhode Island. So that's the man whose this school is named after and I think it's certainly worth further study on your behalf. Now I also like to point out to those of you that may be new to Rhode Island that this campus as you know is beautiful campus in Bristol which is a very quintessential historic New England seaport town. You are about a half hour in either direction from Providence in the north and Newport in the south both of which have fabulous restaurants, robust nightlife and thriving arts communities. Boston and New York are weekend excursions of ways they're not hard to get to but for the next nine months you're not going to have a chance to enjoy any of that. Actually I think that's somewhat of an exaggeration. If you follow the Dean's advice, if you're serious about your studies you will do just fine and I can assure you that everyone at this law school, everyone in the judiciary, everybody in the groups that are represented by the speakers this afternoon they all want to see you succeed. You will have some unique opportunities over the course of the next three years. Take advantage of them. The law school has some of the best clinical programs in the country. Most schools will teach you about the law but very few teach you how to practice law. At Roger Williams every student has an opportunity to participate in a hands-on clinical program whether it be criminal defense, immigration, corporate law, the pro bono collaborative or many other types of programs. And what I think is truly unique about this law school is the relationship that it has with the Rhode Island judiciary. You know it helps to be the only law school in the state and it helps even more when the state is very small. Many of the judges are members of the faculty at the school. The Supreme Court presides over the finals of the Esther Clark Moot Court competition every year. At least eight or ten students work in the Supreme Court each year as student externs. And what you will truly appreciate in three years is that the Supreme Court generally hires a healthy complement of graduates as law clerks both in our trial courts and in the Supreme Court. And I hope that at least one or two of you will be clerking for me in three years. And where else would you find the Chief Justice administer the oath of professionalism to first-year law students? I think that's a wonderful tradition but it happens only in Rhode Island. Now before I do administer the oath I do want to give you a word of caution. I'll give you two words of caution. One is keep that phone number that Carolyn Barone gave you because she's very serious about giving her a call. I've known Carolyn many years and know that she can be a great help. And sadly studies have shown that lawyers in general but law students suffer from substance abuse and mental health issues at a greater rate than some of the other professions. And you need to reach out. You need to reach out. I know she's trying to address that problem from the Bar Association and we're trying to do it in the judiciary. But it's good to be able to reach out to somebody and she's a perfect person to do that. But I also want to give you a word of caution about the hurdles that you need to overcome to become a member of the Rhode Island Bar. Now there are three hurdles two of which are fairly well known. You have to graduate from law school and you have to pass that pesky bar examination. But the third is also that you all must also pass muster with a committee on character and fitness. And by fitness I'm not talking about how many push-ups you can do or how fast you can run a mile. It refers to your moral of fitness to practice law. Now chances are very good that if there is something problematic in your background you're not going to have to worry about it. Provided you disclose it. The committee and the court are well aware that if youthful indiscretions were a disqualifying factor there simply wouldn't be any attorneys. Or any judges for that matter. We have however admitted students candidates for the bar with very serious criminal records. But they have been very honest about their histories and they have demonstrated to the committee and to the court that they truly have changed their lives around and they've admitted. So if unless you don't disclose something the most that would probably happen is perhaps an embarrassing explanation before the committee on character and fitness. In a very real sense you edit a legal profession the day you filed your law school application. And certainly after today on this first day of law school you will be held to a higher standard. We expect honesty and candor from our lawyers and we expect honesty and candor from our law students as well. So if there's anything that you may have failed to disclose in your law school application my suggestion is clear it up now. The law school is not going to rescind your acceptance. At most it may lead to that embarrassing moment before the committee on character and fitness. But if you fail to disclose it and the committee does find out and they will the background checks are quite thorough. It could derail your efforts to become a member of the Rhode Island bar. Our Supreme Court takes the position that we would rather deny admission to persons of questionable character than to deal with them through the disciplinary process after a client has been injured. So my advice is to take the oath of professionalism that I'm about to administer frame it hanging on your wall and live by its precept each and every day. And I wish you very well on this very exciting journey and would now ask you all to stand and raise your right hand. If you would raise your right hand and please repeat after me I then state your name as I engage in the study of law do solemnly swear to display integrity and civility to all with whom I come in contact. To respect the law and the legal system to seek justice and to adhere to the Roger Williams University School of Law Honor Code. This do I swear congratulations. So there's one more tradition associated with the beginning of orientation and that is a reception that will follow in the atrium I hope that all of you will join us please give yourselves another round of applause congratulations and welcome.