Ipse Dixit by William L. Dwyer

Author:William L. Dwyer
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780295801254
Publisher: University of Washington Press

Centennial Expectations

SCHOOL OF LAW COMMENCEMENT

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

June 13, 1999

DEAN HJORTH,1 MEMBERS OF THE FACULTY, HONORED guests, new graduates, parents and friends. It is a great pleasure and honor to speak to you on this happy day.

This is a moment that calls for a look at the big picture. The first thing I notice about that picture is that fifty years have sped by since my classmates and I began law school at the University of Washington. It was the fall of 1949. The world's population was less than half what it is now; NATO was formed that year; the Communists took over China after a long civil war; the Russians, to our great alarm, tested an atomic bomb; George Orwell's book 1984 was published; there was still officially imposed segregation in the United States (Brown v. Board of Education would not come down for another five years);2 and the Yankees beat Brooklyn in the World Series, four games to one. (Brooklyn was the home of the Dodgers, and in a more perfect society it still would be.)

Our class was diverse in terms of age. Some were World War II veterans—savvy, mature, and focused on what they wanted to do, which was to graduate from law school as quickly as possible. Others, myself included, were young and ignorant and had wandered into old Condon Hall more or less on the theory that everybody has to be somewhere. But in other ways we were not diverse. We were almost entirely a group of white males; there were only three women and one student of color. Anyone who doubts that progress can be made should compare the makeup of our class and the one graduating today.

Some other things have changed too. These days it is very hard to get into a first-rate law school, but the student, once admitted, is nurtured toward a happy ending. Half a century ago, the University of Washington, like other law schools, operated on a survival-of-the-fittest basis: it was easy to get in but hard to get out in one piece. About half of the first-year class was flunked out. Another large contingent was cut loose in the second year. By the end of the third year, a little band of haggard survivors remained. We had learned a great deal. We had learned from professors who used the Socratic method to instill some mental rigor in our soft heads. Like any group that struggles together through a common ordeal, we students bonded and became friends. To this day, some of my best friends are fellow survivors of that law school class. Only later did we realize how good our training had been. This was a fine law school back then; today it is a great one, and in your century it will be even greater.

We are here to celebrate, but beyond congratulating you who have just earned your law degrees, I want to tell you a little about what you are getting into—about what you can expect as lawyers in the twenty-first century.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.