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Law School Commencement Speakers

  • Akron:  Betty Sutton (Member, U.S. House of Representatives)
  • Alabama:  Richard Shelby (Member, U.S. Senate)
  • Albany:  Jonathan Lippman (Chief Judge. New York Court of Appeals) 
  • American: Seth Waxman (Partner, Wilmer Hale)
  • Arkansas-Fayetteville:  William Sutton (Partner, Friday, Eldredge & Clark)
  • Ave Maria:  Adam Cardinal Maida (Archbishop Emeritus, Detroit)
  • Baltimore: Ted Turner (Founder, CNN)
  • Baylor:  Harriet O'Neill (Justice, Texas Supreme Court)
  • Boston College:  Ben Bernanke (Chair, Federal Reserve)
  • Boston University:  Howard Dean (former Chair, Democratic National Committee)
  • Brooklyn:  Paul Volcker (former Chair, Federal Reserve)
  • BYU:  Jeffrey S. Sutton (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit)
  • California-Western:  Mary Anne Fox (Chancellor, University of California-San Diego)
  • Campbell:  Robert Edmunds (Justice, North Carolina Supreme Court)
  • Capital:  Jeffrey S. Sutton (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit)
  • Cardozo:  Rosalie Abella (Justice, Supreme Court of Canada)
  • Case Western:  Robert Duncan (fromer Judge, Ohio Supreme Court, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, United States Court of Military Appeals)
  • Catholic:  Mark Shields (Pundit, CNN)
  • Charleston:  Jim Clyburn (Member, U.S. House of Representatives)
  • Charlotte:  Allyson Duncan (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit)
  • Cincinnati:  Cris Collinsworth (Football Analyst, NBC's Sunday Night Football)
  • Columbia:  Gray Davis (former Governor, California)
  • Connecticut:  Sheila Bair (Chair, FDIC)
  • Cleveland State:  Valerie Caproni (General Counsel, FBI)
  • DePaul:  Larry Rogers (Partner, Power, Rogers & Smith)
  • Drake:  Mark Bennett (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa)
  • Drexel:  Rudy Giuliani (former New York City Mayor)
  • Duke:  David Sentelle (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit)
  • Elon:  David Gergen (Pundit, CNN, U.S. News & World Report)
  • Faulkner:  W. Keith Watkins (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama)
  • Florida International:  Stanley Fish (Professor, Florida International)
  • Fordham:  Joel Klein (Chancellor, New York City Schools)
  • Franklin Pierce:  James Baker (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces)
  • George Mason:  Jim Webb (Member, U.S. Senate)
  • George Washington:  Gregory Garre (former U.S. Solicitor General)
  • Georgetown:  David Vladeck (Co-Director, Institute for Public Representation; Director, Center on Health Regulation and Governance)
  • Georgia:  Lisa Godbey Wood (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia)  
  • Georgia State:  Leslie Turner (General Counsel, Coca-Cola)
  • Harvard: Elena Kagan (U.S. Solicitor General)
  • Howard:  Eric Holder (U.S. Attorney General)
  • Idaho:  N. Randy Smith (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)
  • Illinois:  Ray LaHood (U.S. Secretary of Transportation)
  • Indiana-Bloomington:  Michael Maurer (Chairman, National Bank of Indianapolis)
  • Indiana-Indianapolis:   John Pistole (Deputy Director, FBI)
  • Iowa:  David Wilkins (Professor, Harvard Law School)
  • Lewis & Clark:  Robert Bennett (Skadden, Washington, D.C.)
  • LSU:  W. Eugene Davis (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit)
  • Louisville:  Mitch McConnell (Minority Leader, U.S. Senate)
  • Loyola-L.A.:  Ruth McGregor (Chief Justice, Arizona Supreme Court)
  • Loyola-New Orleans:  Neal Kaytal (Deputy U.S. Solicitor General; Professor, Georgetown)
  • Maryland:  Elijah Cummings (Member, U.S. House of Representatives)
  • Miami:  Denny Chin (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York)
  • Michigan:  Gregory Garre (former U.S. Solicitor General)
  • Michigan State:  Michael McConnell (former Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; Professor, Stanford)
  • Minnesota:  Michael Davis (Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota)
  • Nebraska:  Theodore Sorenson (former Special Counsel to President Kennedy)
  • UNLV:  Shelley Berkley (Member, U.S. House of Representatives)
  • New England:  Margaret Marshall (Chief Justice, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
  • New York Law School:  Gregory Williams (President, City College of New York)
  • North Carolina:  Michael Mukasey (former U.S. Attorney General)
  • North Dakota:  Peter Pantaleo (Managing Partner, DLA Piper, New York)
  • Northeastern:  Stephen Oleskey (Partner, WilmerHale; co-lead counsel, Boumediene v. Bush)
  • Northwestern:  Richard Tallman (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)
  • Oklahoma:  Tom Colbert (Justice, Oklahoma Supreme Court)
  • Oklahoma City:  Vicki Miles-LaGrange (Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma)
  • Oregon:  Stephen Wax (Federal Public Defender, Oregon)
  • Pace:  Nina Totenberg (former Legal Affairs Correspondent, NPR)
  • Penn:  Jennifer Yvonne Mokgoro (Judge, Constitutional Court of South Africa)
  • Penn State:  Lewis Katz (Owner, New Jersey Nets)
  • Pittsburgh:  Benjamin Jealous (President, NAACP)
  • Richmond:  Rick Klau (Business Product Manager, Google)
  • Roger Williams:  Federico Hernández Denton (Chief Justice, Puerto Rico Supreme Court)
  • Rutgers-Newark:  Freda Wolfson (Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey)
  • St. John's:  Dennis Jacobs (Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit)
  • St. Thomas (MN):  Patricia Wald (Senior Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit)
  • San Diego:  Steven R. Altman (President, Qualcomm) 
  • San Francisco:  Marian Wright Edelman (President, Children's Defense Fund)
  • Santa Clara:  Bryan Stevenson (Executive Director, Equal Justice Initiative)
  • South Dakota:  Daryl Hecht (Judge, Court of Appeals)
  • South Texas:  Bill White (Mayor, Houston)
  • Southern Illinois:  Vanita Banks (Past President, National Bar Association)
  • Stanford:  Pamela Karlan (Professor, Stanford)
  • Stetson:  John Lewis (Member, U.S. House of Representatives) 
  • SUNY-Buffalo:  Raila Amolo Odinga (Prime Minister, Kenya)
  • Syracuse:  Everett Gillison (Deputy Mayor, Philadelphia)
  • Temple:  Ed Rendell (Governor, Pennsylvania)
  • Texas Tech:  Karl Rove (former Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush)
  • Thomas Cooley:  Wallace Riley (former ABA President)
  • Thomas Jefferson:  Margaret McKeown (Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit)
  • Tulsa:  Claire Eagan (Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma)
  • UC-Berkeley:  Erwin Chemerinsky (Dean, UC-Irvine)
  • UC-Hastings:  Jackie Speier (Member, U.S. House of Representatives)
  • UCLA:  Kamala Harris (District Attorney, San Francisco)
  • USC:  Edmund Brown (Attorney General, California)
  • Utah:  Hauwa Ibrahim (Human Rights Lawyer, Nigeria)
  • Valparaiso:  Robert Rucker (Justice, Indiana Supreme Court)
  • Vermont:  Frances Beinecke (President, Natural Resources Defense Council)
  • Villanova:  Wilton D. Gregory (Archbishop, Atlanta) 
  • Virginia:  Evan Thomas (Assistant Managing Editor, Newsweek)
  • Wake Forest:  Robert Ehrlich (former Maryland Governor and Member of the U.S. House of Representatives)
  • Washburn:  Kay E. McFarland (former Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court)
  • University of Washington:  Rob McKenna (Attorney General, Washington)
  • Washington & Lee:  Addison Phillips (President, Supreme Court of the United Kingdom)
  • Wayne State:  Marilyn Kelly (Chief Justice, Michigan Supreme Court)
  • West Virginia:  Joyce McConnell (Dean, West Virginia)
  • Western New England:  Pauline Schneider (Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe)
  • Whittier:  David Carter (Judge, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California)
  • Willamette:  Virginia Linder (Justice, Oregon Supreme Court)
  • William & Mary:  Tom Brokaw (NBC News)
  • William Mitchell:  Lori Swanson (Attorney General, Minnesota)
  • Wisconsin:  Russ Feingold (Member, U.S. Senate), Louis Butler (former Justice, Wisconsin Supreme Court)
  • Wyoming:  Alan Simpson (former U.S. Senator)

See 2008 Law School Commencement Speakers.


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