Law School celebrates 2016 Commencement

On Saturday, May 28, the 2016 Commencement ceremony was held at which 178 graduates received juris doctor degrees from Lewis & Clark Law School, while others received degrees in masters of laws and masters of studies in law.  

The ceremony began with a welcome from Dean Jennifer Johnson, followed by words from Lewis & Clark President Barry Glassner who noted the law school’s one hundred year history. Glassner spoke to the graduates saying, “We want you to be as active as alumni as you have been as students, we want you to share with the students who are here now – and those who will come after you – the mentoring, networking and collegiality that you experienced here.”

U.S. Senator Mary Kathryn “Heidi” Heitkamp was the featured commencement speaker. Senator Heitkamp, a 1980 graduate of the law school, mentioned specific professors who taught her concepts and ideas that she still recalls and uses in her work in the senate. She shared lessons that she says are basic, ethical tenants to follow throughout one’s life. Those lessons are to “Be nice”, “Be empathetic”, “ Be a believer”, and “Be grateful.”

The senator closed her speech by encouraging graduates to “Go do great things. Go do brave things. Go do courageous things. And go make our world even better than what it is.”

Additional highlights of the ceremony were speeches by the 2016 valedictorian, Gabriel Hinman, and the presenting of the Leo Levinson Award for Excellence in Teaching to Professor Juliet Stumpf, who was selected by the graduating class.

Members of the Class of 2016 join almost 10,000 graduates – among them seven state Supreme Court Justices, Oregon’s current governor, and scores of trial judges, district attorneys, legislators, and distinguished private practitioners – who enrich the legal community throughout Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and the nation.

Watch a recording of the full Commencement ceremony.