 Good afternoon. My name is Michael Donnelly Boylan. My pronouns are he, him, and his, and I am the Assistant Dean of Admissions here at Roger Williams University School of Law. I would like to welcome all of you to the law school and to orientation. We in the admissions office have had the distinct pleasure of getting to know you over the last year. Thank you for sharing your amazing stories with us. I know you've spent much of today getting to know each other already, but I hope there are still some fun things that I can teach you about your class today. Students in your class have attended a wide variety of colleges and universities around the country including Boston University, Juniata College, Pace University, Penn State, UConn, and the University of Montana, and all of those schools have two or more students here in the class. But some schools sent us more than others. The top five feeder schools to your class are UMass, Dartmouth, and Johnson & Wales in fifth place with four students. Providence College is in third with five students. Our own Roger Williams University is in second place with ten students enrolling, and the top feeder school to your class is the University of Rhode Island with 16 students enrolling 9% of your class. In your class you will find a holistic health counselor, a community organizer, a librarian, two real estate agents, an insurance agent, an accountant, an actor, and a model. Your classmates have had many interesting internships. In the room tonight you have classmates that have interned with the House of Commons in the UK, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and the Rhode Island Attorney General's office. One of your classmates interned at a historic home once used as a stop on the Underground Railroad. Another interned with the Peace Corps in Washington DC. One of you served as an archaeology tech and documented petroglyphs and arborglyphs in Lassen National Forest in California. We looked for some trends that make your class unique. One thing that stood out this year was a strong class theme of music and dance. Seven of you tell us you have been deeply involved in the world of dance, ranging from being on your college dance teams, to participating in the Festival Ballet in Providence, to competing in the World Championships of Irish Dance. Five of you told us you play piano, and three of you said that you were songwriters. We have the vice president of a gospel choir in Tennessee, a tuba player in the Boston University Band, and a saxophone player in the nation's oldest collegiate marching band, the University of Notre Dame. Go Irish! A number of you told us about your work with animals. Someone spent ten years volunteering at a horse sanctuary, someone else traveled to Australia to work with endangered species, and another classmate traveled to Honduras to work with Macaws. Your classmate has a number of Division I athletes in sports like crew, baseball, volleyball, and ice hockey. A few of you have founded companies. One of you is the CEO and founder of the Providence Cultural Equity Initiative. Another holds patents for baseball equipment. Your class has spent a lot of time on the front lines fighting for social justice. You have led the march for our lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, served as Casa guardians for children in Nebraska and Florida, and volunteered to build water wells for pygmy tribes in the Congo. A classmate has worked on suicide prevention in tribal communities in Oregon. Another worked on economic development in Pittsburgh, and yet another has worked empowering our veterans in Chicago and Boston. A number of your classmates have worked with the victims of domestic assault and sexual violence. All around the country, including in Colorado, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. One of you founded the Pan-African Community Development Initiative in the Bronx, and another classmate works with Dorcas International to provide immigration relief. One of you, an immigrant yourself, has taught U.S. citizenship classes. Your classmates have been in the Peace Corps, in Jordan, City Year in Providence and Boston, and AmeriCorps in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Texas, and Oregon. Your class has been politically involved. You have interned for senators and Congress people on both sides of the aisle, including Senator Collins of Maine and Reid of Rhode Island, as well as representatives Gibson of New York, DeSantis of Florida, and Langevin of Rhode Island. In your class, there is a Republican Leadership Initiative fellow. A field representative for the Rhode Island Democratic Party, the executive director of a New Jersey County Republican Committee, the communications director for the Young Democrats of Rhode Island, and a campaign assistant for the Ohio Republican Party. Well balanced on both sides. One of you even worked with ABC News and Good Morning America during the 2016 New Hampshire primary presidential debates. But what is really unique to your class is the high level of involvement you have had at the local political level. Over 10% of your class told us about work they had done on local and state campaigns. At the law school that houses the highly regarded Marina Fairs Institute, it should not be surprising that a number of your classmates have done interesting things on and around the water. Your classmates have mapped the ocean floor using sonar, have worked as harbor launch drivers in Greenwich, Connecticut, and have manned river barges along the Mississippi. 5% of your class served in the United States military, representing the Army, Marines, Coast Guard, Navy, and National Guard. We thank you for your service. More than a couple of your classmates took the long journey from earning a GED to attending community college before earning their BA and earning admission to law school. We honor your journey here today. Some of you were focused on paying for college and making ends meet for the last few years. We celebrate your journey as well. This class has a number of baristas. I was just like you in college. In fact, one of the ways I paid for college was as a barista in South Bend, Indiana. We have people who made pizza, worked at deli counter at stop and shop, and worked at Christmas tree farms in Vermont. No matter who you are, you all enter law school with a blank slate. We are dying to see the lawyers that you will become and how you will change your worlds. 27% of your class is made up of Rhode Islanders, meaning well over two-thirds of your class are relocating to the ocean state. A quarter of your class hails from the other New England states, and another quarter comes from the rest of the Northeast. 7% of your class comes from the South, 6% from the West Coast, 5% from the Midwest, and 3% from the Mountain West, as well as 2% from all over the world. Your class has another interesting geographic quirk. For the last few years, New York State has had a growing presence at this law school. This year, it surpassed Massachusetts as our number two feeder state, and it wasn't even close. Massachusetts has 20 students in the class, but there are 32 from New York. Last year, I told the class about an interesting cluster of folks from New York City, and that remains true for your class as well. It's smaller, but there are eight students from New York City and its boroughs. But what really stands out is that there are 13 students from Long Island. In fact, Long Island sent us more students than the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania combined. A large number of your classmates are refugees or immigrants from countries like Brazil, Colombia, Namibia, Venezuela, India, and Russia. In fact, your classmates were born in 16 different countries, with over 11% of your class being born abroad. Therefore, it may not be surprising that a large number of your classmates are coming to law school with a strong interest in practicing immigration law. They have seen all sides of the national debate. Your classmates speak an unusual number of languages. Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, French, Italian, Portuguese, Punjabi, Hindi, Creole, Fulani, and American Sign Language. The average age of your class is 25, meaning half of you are younger than this 26-year-old law school. 15% of you are over the age of 30. A number of you are married and some of you have children. 26% of your class comes from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in the legal profession. 13% of your class identifies as members of the LGBTQ community, a record high for this law school. I would be surprised if some of you hadn't already figured out another unique feature to your class after spending some time together today. 61% of your class is made up of women. 38% of the class is men. Your class has by far the highest percentage of women of any class in this law school's history. Finally, I am very pleased to welcome two new masters of the Studies in Law students to RWU. These students bring their own unique backgrounds to the classroom, one as an investigative journalist and the other as the vice president of a bank. These students in the MSL program are mainly working professionals who will be taking classes alongside our JD students as they earn their MSL degree. You will encounter a number of them throughout your time here and I think you will value the perspective that these students add to the classroom. It has been a true pleasure getting to know all of you over the last year. Please don't be strangers to the admissions office. We want you to feel free to stop in and to say hello and we want to hear about your journeys. 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 that we chose you for a reason. We see your potential and we are on this journey with you. We know that you can change your world. On behalf of all of us at Roger Williams University School of Law, welcome to law school. So it is now my distinct privilege to introduce Dean Michael Yolnowski who will be introducing our distinguished guest for this evening. In the spirit of my earlier remarks, Dean Yolnowski 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 Yolnowski clerked for a federal judge and practiced with a major Philly law firm. He is a founding member of the RW law faculty having been here on the very first day and has been a popular teacher of civil procedure employment law and employment discrimination ever since. He earned his BS 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 2022 over to Dean Michael Yolnowski. Thank you, Michael. Thank you, Tom. Tom here. Wendy. It's Wendy here. Kate. It's Kate here. They're the team in the admissions office that brought you together the matchmakers. And I want to thank them for doing such a terrific job. Michael Donnelly Boylan is a national leader in law school admissions. And I think he exemplifies sort of what we look for in faculty and staff that we recruit somebody who is very good at what they do, but also an honorable and decent and terrific human being. So Michael, congratulations and thank you so much for what you've done. Most importantly, congratulations and welcome to all of you. I met some of you during the admissions season and I look forward to meeting all of you. And I promise to do what I can to help our talented faculty and staff give you the best legal education you can get. We've tried to put together an interesting and meaningful program for you that concludes with our visits to the experiential campus and Providence and law offices there on Friday. It will seem like a lot of information coming at you because there will be a lot of information coming at you. But please know that we really have tried to do our best to focus on what we think will be most helpful to you. One thing you're going to get in abundance over the next couple of days is advice. Some of it will be good. I can't resist the temptation to give you some. I'm going to give you three quick suggestions. First, I urge you to engage. Studying law is hard work, but it's really some of the best kind of work that you can do. It's interesting. It's meaningful. You think about criminal justice and immigration law and gun control and electronic contracting and privacy and affordable housing and the opioid academic. I could go on and on. All of these are issues that you are going and many, many others that you're going to be talking about and studying about in law school. And our objective here is to help you succeed. We respect you enough to give you a program that is sufficiently rigorous to prepare you for success when you leave here. But we also respect you enough to help you get there, not in spite of us, but with our help. Secondly, we do not believe at this law school that the best and most important days of law practice are behind us in some idyllic bygone era. Law and lawyers matter as much today, if not more than they ever have. And finally, this is a community, a large, diverse and supportive community. You are not alone. One of our goals in the next couple days is to begin introducing you to your new home and to your new neighbors. So please engage, remember that law matters, and become a member of this community. That community, your community, extends beyond this campus and our campus in Providence. It includes David Bazar, for example, who recently became the president of the Rhode Island Bar Association. He practices law in East Providence. We at Roger Williams called this the fall semester, but we all know it's the middle of summer right now. And David is here, and you might ask, why? And it's not because he's a graduate of this law school. He's not a graduate of this law school. He's here because the organization that represents all of Rhode Island's lawyers embraces this law school and embraces each one of you. And the members of that organization will add value to your legal education. I recently read David's president's message, his first, in the Rhode Island Bar Journal, and he shares my view that law matters today. Lawyers, he wrote in that message, preserved the foundation on which our society is built. And this is my editorializing. That foundation is a bit creaky right now, so we need you. Please join me in welcoming David Bazar. Thank you, Dean. I want to join in congratulating, and move this thing, all of you on your acceptance to law school. As Dean Donnelly Boylan indicated, we all take a different path to this place. For me, when I went to college as a freshman, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, medical school. So there I was in physiology, and we were cutting the heads off of live rats and draining the blood in the sink. And I discovered something about myself. I hate blood. Mine, anyone else's, it didn't matter. So I was in French as a sophomore, and I loved my French professor. So I went up to her, and I said, I'm really thinking of majoring in French. And she looked at me, and she said, you're from Rhode Island, aren't you? I said, may we? She said, with your accent, that would be six years in Paris to do a French major. So I was a junior in History 101 with about 250 freshmen. And the chair of the department taught History 101, and he said, why would anyone want to major in history? So he told a story. He told the story of a bright young Trinity College grad who had majored in history and was working at a major New York City business. And the owner of the business came in, and he said, I want to promote you from vice president to executive vice president and double your salary. And the young man said, well, thank you very much. And the owner of the company looked at him and said, you went to Trinity College, you majored in history, and all you can say is, thank you very much. Thank you very much, dad. So I knew, right then and there, history would be my major. Back then, we didn't have computers. We had a type papers, and in history, everything was a paper. My brother was in law school, so I went to visit him because he had the typewriter. And he said, what are you going to do when you graduate? I said, I'm a history major. I'm going to go work for dad. He said, don't do that. Go to law school. So I looked into it, I was interested, and I went to law school. And by the way, I'm one of those strange people who loved every minute of law school, but we can talk about that later. When I graduated, I said to my brother, let's practice law. He looked at me, he said, who wants to practice law? I'm working for dad. He was always a step ahead of me. But the answer to that question, who wants to practice law, is I do, and I did. And so you may have stolen a little of my thunder, but I'm going to return it anyway. Because what we do as lawyers is important. Each and every case we handle is important. However, even more significant than the individual cases is that we do help to maintain the integrity of our legal system and the rule of law. And I put into my first presidential message a fable I had recently heard. It's about three stonecutters, but it really symbolizes the role of lawyers in preserving liberty. The first stonecutter is asked to describe his work, and he focuses on how the job benefits him. He says, I earn a living. The second stonecutter is asked about his work, and he narrowly focuses on his personal role. I'm cutting stone. The third man exhibits a different perspective. His fate slights up as he explains what the work means to others. I am helping to build a cathedral. As lawyers, we help to preserve the foundation on which our society is built. The law is the barrier that stands between democracy and anarchy. Faith in our laws and our courts is the basis for commercial transactions, keeping people free from governmental interference, and providing an avenue to resolve differences through a peaceful and logical process. The Bar Association helps to ensure that we can provide this service to society. I urge all of you as law students to join the Bar Association. I talked to my executive director, and I got her to agree that for first year law students, we would waive any dues. What that will provide to you beyond all the help that we can give you is you have digital access to the bar journal so you can read my next presidential message. You should all have pens as law students, so I'm going to share one more thing with you. A telephone number. 401. I'll wait. 401. 437. 4450. If you need help with anything, call anytime. That's the number of my predecessor president of the Bar Association. No, it's not. That's my telephone number, and I would welcome a call from you if there's anything I can help you with. Again, congratulations. Thank you. So you are also fortunate to have a very supportive alumni association with members from here to Shanghai, and they'll help you while you are here and thereafter. The vice president of the Law Alumni Association, Greg Hoffman, is here to speak on behalf of the association. Greg is a graduate of Juniata College. I know there are two other Eagles out there. And he graduated Magna Cum Laude from this law school in 2013, then clerked for judge Sarah Taft Carter of the Rhode Island Superior Court, followed by a clerkship with Justice Flaherty of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, one of Chief Justice Sattel's four colleagues on that court, and is currently an associate in the Providence Office of Barton Gilman. Greg spoke to your predecessors last year, and I, in what could probably be described as a sophomoric move, pointed out to the assemble that he was a Baltimore Orioles fan, and that the team was on pace to lose 114 games out of 162, which is about 2.96 wins every 10 days. The team actually went on to lose 115. This year, I decided I was going to write a new speech. I didn't want to do that to Greg, but I ran out of time, so I just tweaked last year's speech, and it doesn't take much tweaking. The Baltimore Orioles, as we assemble here today, are on pace to lose 107 games this year, 3.39 wins every 10 days, and this is an improvement, granted, but there are 40 and a half games out of first place, last in their division, and this assessment of the club from New Jersey dot com, a website, SportsWriter, sounds much like my speech last year. Quote, the Baltimore Orioles stink, really stink, really, really stink. Close quote. Please welcome and take pity on Greg Hoffman. On my way down here, similar to last year, I, thinking about everything that I wanted to say to you guys today, and I had really settled on my first line, which was, Dean Yalnowski, thank you for the kind words. So we're going to scrap that, and we're going to move on to the next talking points. So there are just two thoughts that I want to talk about briefly with you guys. We've heard the word foundation mentioned multiple times by the different speakers already, and in thinking of that word and how that, the role that lawyers play in our society today, I want you guys to keep in perspective where you are in your journey in the law, and remember, right now you're laying the bedrock for what will be your careers to help stabilize and maintain the foundation of our law and our society. So these three years it will be a grueling process, but also extremely enjoyable, and fulfilling and developmental. Keep perspective of what it is that you're doing here during that time, and laying that foundation in the bedrock for what you're going to do not only tomorrow or next year, but in your career as you go forward. The second thing that I want to briefly talk about is the word community, and I'm sure as you guys have experienced with Dean Donnelly Boyland's admissions staff and the recruiters and the people that you spoke to during your campus interviews, the exchanges that we've had here, this law school is a community. I'm here to speak to you on behalf of the Law Alumni Association. I think of it as the law alumni community. Obviously, we're made up of graduates from this school over the past 20-plus years that are practicing law in jurisdictions across the country. That started with all of them sitting in a room like you. The people sitting next to you are going to be your colleagues. They're going to be your adversaries on cases. They're going to be the people that are going to refer cases to you or be able to suggest an expert to you that can help your case. And that's whether you're practicing in the same jurisdictions or you're practicing across the country. As you can tell, our Bar Association here in Rhode Island is extremely supportive. David might not look like it, but he's a force on the basketball court. I play pickup basketball with him throughout the fall and winters. His elbows are a lot sharper than they look. I had the distinct pleasure to clerk down the hall from Chief Justice Sattel and was able to extract as much knowledge as I could from not only himself, but also his colleagues. And I would say, get involved. Come to the alumni events. We like to make them lighter than what other law events might be. Begin the networking process with your classmates, with members of the bar that are closer to where you are than David or Dean Yolanovsky might be. But start to get involved. Start to build those relationships with your fellow classmates. It will pay dividends in the future. The Alumni Association is here to help you. Feel free to reach out to myself or any of the other members in that organization. And I would strongly encourage you to come to our events. That information regarding those events will be published on the events section of the law school as well as on Dean Yolanovsky's official Twitter account. So look into that. Come, have some drinks. Learn about what we all do. It was instrumental for me figuring out what it was that I wanted to do with my career and my degree when I left here. So I would encourage you to grab the ear of as many alumni as you can and that might help shed some light on where it is that you guys want to go in the future. With respect to the Orioles, I have nothing. I had nothing last year. They stink and they're not as bad as the Tigers, but I hope we get the first pick. So thank you all for your time. Kelvin Santos is the president of your Student Bar Association. He was born in Cape Verde, moved with his family to Boston. He's a graduate of Salve Regina in Newport, 2013. And before coming to law school, he did public interest work with Boys Town, New England, providing family support services. And he became a registered behavioral technician providing treatment and support to children. He spent this summer at the law firm of Hinius Carroll. Hinius Carroll, I just heard from Kelvin that they have an office for him already that he'll be able to use this year. I know he don't want me to jinx it or somebody will hear that he's walking around saying he's got an office already, but anyway, they're going to hire him. He'll work there during the year. He makes this place better every day, just by being here and being the caring, warm, fun-loving person that he is. But he's going to expand his positive impact by serving as president of the SBA and I want to thank him for doing so and welcome him to the podium. That was much too kind, I'll start by saying. My name is Kelvin Santos and on behalf of the Student Bar Association, it's my privilege and pleasure to welcome you all to the Roger Williams University School of Law. So first, congratulations on everything you've accomplished and you should all be very proud of yourselves as you're preparing to enter one of the most fundamentally important, exciting, and dare I say respected professions in our community and our country. I'll begin by humbly asserting that I can fully empathize with just about all of you right now. It's not long ago that I sat right where you are with the slightly paradoxal sensation of sheer confidence and absolute fear. After two years of law school, what I can tell you with absolute certainty is that no matter what the challenges that you face, be it a cold call, a memo, a midterm or final, there's always light at the end of the tunnel. However, during your first year, you'll discover that that light is actually a train that's coming at you top speed. But hopefully I can say a few words that will help you to lighten the blow and get back on track, pardon that terrible pun, or even better, help you dodge the train altogether and not be afraid to continue pursuing the true light. First of all, consider your mindset and your approach. Each one of you is capable of reading and memorizing information. You're each capable of understanding and regurgitating complex concepts, otherwise you would not be sitting where you are. But this is simply not enough in law school. For example, to relatively elementary concept that the proper way to shoot a basketball is to step up to the line, keep your balance, keep your elbows straight, focus your eyes on the rim, and follow through when you release the ball. The knowledge is important and necessary for success, but it is not sufficient. The key is that without putting these concepts into practice, it is very difficult to actually shoot a basketball. And that is, in my opinion, the basic essence of academic success in law school. You will learn a concept or series of concepts, and you will understand them because you're all very bright people. Your professors will help you through some arguably barbaric and evil tactics to learn them and apply them. But if you do not take the time to quite literally practice applying them on your own, you're ultimately going to struggle on game day when the pressure is on. So when you're encouraged to go see people like Professor Thompson or Dr. Kishbaugh, who I have underutilized, I've noticed in my time here, I highly encourage you to go there and see them because they're the people who can help you navigate the nuances of what you've learned and help you sharpen your skills. Second, I'd like to stress what may seem intuitive in theory, but sometimes very difficult in practice, and that's the importance of routine, structure, and teamwork. You're each here making an investment of your time and money, so treat it as such. This is now your job, so treat it like one. Develop a system that works for you, surround yourself with like-minded classmates, and be consistent. Thirdly and most importantly in a way, respect all of those around you. Being a diverse institution means that there will likely be a multitude of opinions and beliefs that you will simply not agree with. But if you want to be a lawyer, then it is very critical, I believe, to understand that your job is to welcome differences in opinion, even if to learn to better refute them in the interests of your own truth or justice. More so, it is critical to understand that while this profession is adversarial by nature, each one of your adversaries will also be your peer within a small community of people who have gone through the same hell that you're about to go through to get where they are. Noam Chomsky once said that if you don't like what someone has to say, argue with them. And I encourage you all to do the same, because that is how we will learn here. Einstein has been quoted as saying, I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of university. And I believe it was Socrates who said, even though you can't hear them at all, a person is a person no matter how small. Though, there might be Dr. Seuss, I don't know how old you all are, throw it out there. But it is very important to never forget the importance of mutual respect. Finally, remember to be true to yourself and to be yourself. The level of work, stress and fear, particularly of cold calls that you will face will be unlike anything many of you have ever experienced. And you will struggle to face that challenge if you are not true to yourself. Being a law student is not mutually exclusive with continuing your hobbies and doing the things that make you, that make you you and that make you happy. On the contrary, I'd argue that they are necessarily accompanying. The best way to overcome the challenges you're going to face is to remember who you are, RIP Mufasa, and why you are here. And as far as cold calls go, I promise you the professors don't hate you. It is their job to challenge you intellectually and sometimes it's things. But if I can steal a bit from one of my favorite comedians, Bill Burr, and at the risk of getting myself into a tiny bit of trouble here with the dean, I'd put it this way. When it comes to cold call and the fear of experiencing, you're all eating a giant shit sandwich. Some people might seem like they've got it on a better slice of bread, but you're all in it together. And you are far from alone. Don't look for a trick or a secret or a code to crack in law school. The only trick there is is putting in the time and having the passion. So work hard, develop a team of like-minded people, appreciate the importance of diverse opinions, embrace those who hope to seek, who seek to help you, and be yourself. I'm humbled by the opportunity to serve as the SBA president and I look forward to getting to know you all this upcoming year and please do not hesitate to stop by the SBA office and we look forward to taking on two of you as 1Ls onto our team. Thank you very much for your time. I really appreciate it. Having consumed some shit sandwich in the mid-80s in Philadelphia, I can say Calvin's right on. So the main event this afternoon is the administration of the oath of professionalism to formally mark your entrance into the Roger Williams University law community and the broader community of law students and the Chief Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court, Paul Satel, will administer that oath. I could go on and on about the Chief Justice. 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 is a member of this law school's board of directors. He is the face of the Rhode Island judiciary and a great role model for the judges on all of our state's courts. He too is here not because he is a graduate of this law school but because he believes in what we are doing here. I don't know this for sure, but I'm 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. I want to thank the Chief for all his support and welcome him warmly to the podium to administer the oath to you. Thank you. I'm just happy the Dean and I are both Chicago Cubs fans. I couldn't bear the indignation if the Cubs were having a bad year. Good afternoon and welcome. On behalf of the men and women of the Rhode Island judiciary, I wish to welcome you all to Roger Williams School of Law. On the one hand, this does seem like a rather rude interruption of a very nice summer vacation. It is August 14th after all. But on the other hand, it is very nice to see your smiling faces and to see a new group of first-year students. And I gather from the classification of this first-year class, I mean, this is a very interesting group of people. I certainly expect a lot of joyous music when I come to the law school. A lot of singing. And I'm very heartened to hear that so many of you are politically active. I always recommend to young lawyers that they get involved either locally or at the state level. I myself served eight years in the Rhode Island House of Representatives and I have very fond memories of that experience. And I can guarantee you there are fewer and fewer lawyers serving in state legislatures these days. And that is really not a good thing. We need to have more lawyers willing to serve. So I hardly recommend it to all of you. And the fact that there are 61% that are women is remarkable. Last year, the law school had a very nice honor to all the women that were admitted to the Rhode Island Bar before 1980, I believe. And I believe there's a listing of those women somewhere in the hallway. Some are still judges. Others are still practicing. If you should run across them, I think you ought to introduce yourselves because they are the true pioneers. And the interesting thing was the women admitted in I think 1979, the last year that was recognized, were equal in number to the women that had been admitted from 1920 through what, just about 1978. So we've come a long way and it's great to see so many women here today. Now my role this afternoon is to administer the oath of professionalism to you, which I think is a great tradition that the law school has and very symbolic of the close relationship between the law school and the judiciary. There are many advantages to being the only law school in the state and particularly when the state is as small as Rhode Island. Now several of our judges are adjunct faculty members and I'm sure you'll be taking courses from them. The Supreme Court judges the Esther Clark Moot Court competition finals every year. Usually we do it at the Supreme Court in Providence. Many of you will have the opportunity to serve externships with judges in both the appellate and the trial courts. And a few of you will be hired after your graduation as law clerk in either the Supreme Court or the trial courts. I like to think of the judiciary as the largest single employer of Roger Williams graduates and I think we still hold that distinction, Dean, so that's wonderful. Now I also wish to make a very special welcome to the two-thirds of you that are from out of state. As the Chief Justice, I take the responsibility upon myself to try to convince you to stay in Rhode Island after you graduate. We don't want to lose the talent. And to those of you that may be new to the state, I always like to point out that you're located on this beautiful campus in Bristol which is a quintessential New England seaport town, very historic. Providence with its wonderful restaurants and thriving arts community is about a half hour to the north. Newport with a very robust nightlife is a half hour to the south. Boston and Fenway parks only an hour and a half away. And even New York and the ski slopes of northern New England are an easy weekend excursion. But for the next nine months at least, you're not going to have time to enjoy any of that. Because that train that Kelvin was talking about, it's a common. But perhaps we do exaggerate a little. I hope you do take the opportunity to enjoy what Rhode Island has to offer. We are the smallest state but with the longest name. Our official name is the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. But what we lack in size, we make up with a very rich and unique history including a fascinating legal history. We were the first colony to declare our independence on May 4, 1776 fully two months before the Declaration of Independence was signed in Philadelphia. In point of fact, we renounced our allegiance to King George III but we hedged our bets a little bit on Parliament. I like to think that we were brave, courageous and bold but not entirely foolhardy. Yet when it came time to reconsider the Articles of Confederation and form a new government, we refused to send delegates to the Constitutional Convention and we were the last state to ratify the new Constitution and then only reluctantly by a two-vote margin. Nor did we rush to adopt our own state constitution. Rather, we operated under the Royal Charter granted to the colony by King Charles II in 1663 for 180 years until 1843 when we finally did adopt a state constitution. That Charter, which is on display at the State House if you ever get a chance, it's well worth seeing it's truly a remarkable document representing an extraordinary grant of self-autonomy and religious freedom to a colonial government. To understand its significance, you need to know a little about the school's namesake, Roger Williams, the principal founder of Rhode Island. He was a beacon for religious tolerance, liberty of conscience as he would call it. Long before Thomas Jefferson, he spoke of the wall of separation between the Garden of the Church and the wilderness of the world. So I encourage you to read, if you can, about Roger Williams while you're here. First and foremost, however, you need to concentrate on your studies because at the end of law school is that pesky little irritant known as the bar examination. Now if you're a typical law student, and I suspect that you are, some of you will seemingly absorb the materials effortlessly. You will have no problem at all with the bar exam. But you were the people I never liked when I was in law school. But now I love you because I can hire you as my law clerks. But for most of you, like me, there is simply no substitute for hard work. And I can assure you that everyone at this law school, everyone in the judiciary, everyone in the groups represented by the speakers this afternoon wants to see you succeed. And I think everybody has spoken of that and that is very true. You will have some unique opportunities over the course of the next three years. Take advantage of them. Roger Williams has some of the best clinical programs in the country. All law schools will teach you about the substantive law, but very few will teach you how to practice law. Here virtually every student has the opportunity to participate in a hands-on clinical program, whether it be criminal defense, immigration law, corporate law, the pro bono collaborative, or externships with the court. You are about to embark on a very exciting three-year journey. You will be challenged intellectually, you will meet and get to know some very interesting individuals, and many new doors will be open to you. But before I do administer the oath, I would like to give you a word or two of caution. There are three requirements to become a member of the Rhode Island Bar. You need to graduate from law school, you need to pass the bar exam, and you need to pass muster with the committee on character and fitness. And by fitness, we don't mean how fast you can run a mile or how many push-ups you can do. Rather, it refers to your moral fitness to practice law. We take this very seriously in the Supreme Court. We would rather deny admission to a person of questionable character than deal with them through the disciplinary process after a client has been injured. The good news is that it is highly unlikely that anything you have done in the past will prevent you from being admitted to the bar. Provided you disclose it in your bar application and provided that you did disclose it on your law school application. The committee in court are well aware that if youthful indiscretions were a disqualification, there simply wouldn't be any lawyers. Nor would there be any judges for that matter. So if there is anything that you failed to disclose in your law school application, my suggestion is to clear it up sooner than later. As I said before, this law school wants you to succeed. They are not likely to rescind your acceptance. If you fail to disclose it, however, it could come back to haunt you and derail your efforts to become a member of the bar. And one final piece of advice. It is highly likely, given statistics that we know throughout the country, that some of you will be challenged by addiction and mental health issues before you graduate. Statistics show that the incidence of such issues is higher among law students than students in medical, business, or other professional schools. If you should find yourself struggling, please reach out. The law school will help. The Bar Association has a great support network. And if all else fails, call me. Very serious, call me. I'll try to get the right help for you. I'm not going to give you my phone number, because I don't want the dean to have it. But I'm not hard to find, so... Now, the oath that I am about to administer signifies that you are today entering a profession. Entering on the ground level, perhaps, but a profession, nevertheless. The law can be tremendously rewarding and fulfilling career. It is the rule of law that holds our society together, that gives life to our Constitution, and that attempts to ensure fairness and equality to all of our citizens. Whether it be public service, private practice, as corporate counsel, or indeed in the field other than the law, the knowledge and skills you learn during the next three years will be invaluable. The legal profession, however, is a profession in which honesty, candor, and civility are its currencies. There is no getting around it. Starting today, you will be held to a higher standard. We expect honesty, candor, and integrity from our lawyers, and we expect honesty, candor, and integrity from our law students as well. So I congratulate you all and wish you well, and ask that you now stand and raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, and please 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 Code of Student Responsibility. We get the idea, don't you, Dean? They're beholden to it. This do I swear. Congratulations. Welcome to the doctrine of what's referred to as implied consent. So, we're gonna gather in the atrium to celebrate this momentous occasion. I'm delighted to be able to tell you, because I know there are so many of you who are not from Rhode Island, that there will be some uniquely Rhode Island treats offered in the atrium. For those of you who have heard of, well, if you've never heard of coffee milk, but even if you haven't, you've never had it, coffee milk awaits. So congratulations. See you tomorrow.