The Next First Step

Yale Legal Historian Urges Graduates to Confront Ethical Issues

Challenge, celebration and congratulations were the order of the day at UB Law School's 119th Commencement, held May 17 in the Center for the Arts. Degrees were awarded to 237 J.D. candidates and 18 master of laws candidates.

Professor Makau W. Mutua, just named as the Law School's permanent dean, issued the first challenge to the newly minted lawyers amassed in the auditorium. "From today onward," he said, "you will be forever known for your identity as a lawyer. Today begins the rest of your life, and today you must begin to contemplate in real terms the meaning of the phrase 'the rule of law.' Whether as a judge, prosecutor, plaintiff's attorney, criminal defense lawyer, public interest lawyer, policymaker or legal scholar, you will constantly have to ask yourself the meaning of the rule of law.

"Does it mean the peaceful settlement of disputes? If so, why do we still have the death penalty?

"Does it mean that we must rehabilitate those who have offended the rules of civilization so that they can become better human beings? If so, why do we have a violent prison culture that destroys instead of reforming?

"Does it mean the least among us deserves to be heard in a court of law? If so, why are so many unable to get justice?

"Does it mean equal justice under law? If so, why are the poor and the unpopular treated differently?"

Professor Lucinda M. Finley, bearing greetings from the faculty as well as the University administration, urged the graduates to "join the growing ranks of Buffalo Believers" and advocate for the University's wide-ranging expansion plan. "The ambitious UB 2020 goal of securing UB's place as one of the great public research universities of the 21st century is interdependent with the excellence and premier status of its law alumni," she said. "UB Law is the law school of the state of New York, and we all must work together to ensure that it has the resources and commitments, including those from the state, necessary for it to flourish in that status." After a welcome by UB Law Alumni Association President Margaret P. Gryko '77, the student address was given by graduating student Katie E. Woodruff.

"When we take that oath to uphold the laws of the U.S. Constitution," she said, "we are becoming part of an iconic and fundamental system of the United States. It was lawyers who created this country and lawyers who continue to run it today. We will hold someone's freedom, children, money, marriage or property in our hands. The one thing we can hold onto as we take this plunge into esquiredom is that UB has given us everything we need to practice.

"This has been a life-altering experience. For better or for worse, we are forever changed."

She concluded with a quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.: "The world has its fling at lawyers sometimes, but its very denial is an admission. It feels, what I believe to be the truth, that of all secular professions this has the highest standards."

The keynote address was given by Robert W. Gordon, the Chancellor Kent Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. Gordon, a former newspaper reporter turned legal historian, began his teaching career at UB Law School, where he served from 1971 to 1977. "UB was my first job in law teaching, and I still think of it as my best job ever," he said."No enterprise I have been involved with since has given me such sustained excitement."

He went on to sketch out some of the professional choices the graduating class will face. "The law is very unusual in the staggering range of its opportunities and its dangers,” he said.

"Practicing law gives opportunities to do both great good and great harm. The occupation of lawyer is an eminently useful one. We give practical advice at crucial moments to people who are often in much worse trouble than they deserve. Law is a great engine for the enhancement of autonomy and life plans, and a defense against harassment and exploitation."

Gordon cited two real-world examples of legal situations in which lawyers had to make ethical choices: Justice Department attorneys who were asked to advise the government on the legality of severe treatment of detainees in the war on terrorism; and letters "written by eminent law firms" on behalf of the Enron Corp.– letters which enabled the sham financial transactions that eventually brought the company down and erased the pensions of thousands of stockholders.

"We are not talking about lawyers who are bottom feeders at the fringes of their profession, lawyers whose only office is a cell phone and who hang around in the back of courtrooms trying to drum up business, but lawyers with very fancy resumes and graduates of distinguished law schools, " he said.

The good news, Gordon said, is that "for every instance of lawyers caving in to that pressure, there were others who did not."

"There are choices to be made in how to live in this profession," he concluded. "Nobody ever regrets having been of concrete help to people in trouble. Nobody regrets trying to make our justice system more effective and efficient."

Prior to the awarding of prizes and degrees, Mutua recognized the Class of 1958, many of whom were in attendance on the dais, and noted that on that very day they had presented him with a gift to the Law School in the amount of $58, 000.Next year, he said, they had challenged the Class of '59 to do the math and make their own gift.

Receiving Latin honors

Summa cum laude
Robert A. Crawford, Priscilla E. Hampton, Tatiana Markel, Thomas M. Zambito.

Magna cum laude
Jennifer L.Buchner, Marissa A.Coheley, Brian Holland, Glenn D. Howard, Courtney R. Huckle, Dwight E. Kanyuck, Kristopher J. Kasnicki, Naz Khan, Elliot H. Kowalski, Michael D. Libretto, Christine M. Meyers, Steven C. Mindy, Adam R. O'Brian, Jennifer M. Pacella, Elizabeth Pascal, Christina M. Petrella, Joseph J. Polniak Jr. , Vanessa N. Pritchard, Regina L. Readling, Kristi M. Rich, Manik J. Saini, Gregory P. Stein, Jenna S. Strazzulla, Jon R. R. Wilson.

Cum laude
Mark R. Affronti, Craig J. Austin, Harold T. Babcock-Ellis, Jonathan H. Bard, Elizabeth M. Barnett, Vineeta S. Baronos, Kyle P. Barrett, Julia C. Brylinski, Benjamin S. Carlisle, Jennifer S. Castaldo, Daniel J. Christiansen, Erin E. Cole, Alexander C. Collichio, Jennifer M. Donlan, Liam A. Dwyer, Shannon C. Elwell, Tara S. Evans, Joshua E. Fingold, Kimberly A. Georger, Candice R. Giles, Jeffrey P. Gleason, David A. Goldberg, Kevin M. Habberfield, Daniel T. Horner, Joshua S. Hurwit, Jennifer C. Jones, Alexander Y. Karsten, Jennifer L. Buchalter Katz, Amy L. Kedron, Amber L. Kerling, Christina S. Kim, Michelle A. Koledi, Daniel P. Kuhn, Leigh A. Kwiatek, Joseph P. Lannon, Clayton J. Lenhardt, Amanda L. Lowe, John T. Lynch, Michael H. McMahon II, Brian D. Miller, Jackson E. Minich, Ryan M. Murphy, Theo Nickerson, Sunny W. Noh, Christopher N. Ollinick, Asha (Kristin) Patel, Daniel J. Pautz, Abraham J. Platt, Robert E. Quinn, Jessica M. Seay, Stephanie R. Seitz, Robert A. Shaw, Michael D. Smith, Sarah H. Sprague, Lindsay M. Swensen, Nicholas J. Tardif, Amanda L. Tuberdyck, Sam L. Valleriani, Ehret A. Van Horn, Elliott J. Veloso, Kathleen S. Weber, John M. Wells, Anne E. Wilson, Xin L. Zhu, Rochelle K. Zimpfer.

Master of Laws degree with honors
Karen M. Aavik, Zongyuan Fan, Jimmine L. Haigler, Eduardo H. S. Machado, Oscar E. Miranda-Miller, Jamie Nobles, Tomasz Podstepski, Radhika P. Varavenkatamaran, Jose B. Velez Goveo.