My Graduation Speech

Fellow Graduates, Faculty and Staff, Dean Van Zandt and our Special guest of honor, Senator Obama, Welcome. We meet today to celebrate the end of one journey and the begining of another one. I remember the oath we all took in Lincoln Hall when the Chief Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court swore us in after giving us the oath. DVZ has always promoted this school as student run. We interview incoming students, we welcome admitted students at Day at northwestern and we are truly glad when they come.

Before I continue, let me give honor to one man who made my day early in January of 2003, to Dean Rebstock, who for all of us sitting here, was the bearer of good news that you have all been accepted to this great institution to study law and learn other things while we were at it. By the way, I am glad that on the first day, unlike my undergrad, the Dean did not ask us to "turn to the left and turn to the right, one of you wont be here at graduation." He believed in our staying power.

Classes started with much apprehension on our minds, most of us came to law school despite reading Scott Turow's book - One L, we started to learn abbreaviations like CLR, RB, LM and DVZ . I have to say that I am not sure what DVZ means but I have come to conclude that whether its David Van Zandt or Dean Van Zandt, either way, I was right. We learnt not to buy lunch on most days because one of the student organizations on campus will have an event and feed us with Pizza or burritos. Sometimes, we are lucky and many more than one will have an event and we would have to choose the event we attended by the food we serve. February was always a favorite for me, it was then I got to taste Mrs. Keys soul food especially her sweet potatoes.

What is law school without Bar Review. While many of my non-law school friends thought I was going out to study hard every thursday night, I met my class mates at one of the bars chosen by the social committee. We bought $2 pitchers of beer, talked about Lion Wolves and Water and got to know ourselves better without having to use a power point presentation. It was at one such bar review that I met Eric Olshan who I told about the four wives I never had, For sure, Mr. Olshan will not forget me and I will not forget him for that brief moment when he must have wondered how I could cope with having four wives and attend law school at the same time.

For those we did not meet at Bar Review, we met in the Atrium - the center of the Northwestern Law Students existence, that is, until you became a 3L and the only class you had were the Tuesday and Wednesday class from 6-9pm.

We discovered self scheduled exams even if my computer did crash during my sec reg exam but that doesn't matter anymore, but anytime I hear the word 10b-5, Sarbanes Oxley or the '34 Act, I cringe.

How could I forget my compatriots on the Journal of International Law and Business. As Editor in Chief, I tried to look at the big picture, but what use is the big picture if no one is paying attention to the details. Kate Fugina has done such a good job of making sure the commas were in the right place, that the printers got our articles on time, she kept me on my toe the whole year and for that I thank you. JILB members, I thank you all for your work, my fellow journal compatriots, we spent time on the 5th floor trying to do service to many articles that cross our desks and the evidence is in the publications that now line our journal offices for this year.

If you were in Section 1, you certainly will not forget Prof. Ron Allen, our Civ Pro professor, who is retiring today to start the Law firm of Lion Wolves and Water. I still remember him debating Miranda Warnings with Yale Kamisar on the Justice Talking show at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. After listening to that debate, all I can say is Yale Kamisar, eat your heart out!!

As we all go back out in the world, lets not forget where we came from, where we started and the people we leave behind. When Northwestern Law starts calling to raise money, don't forget to be generous. After all, its tax deductible.

I have learnt a lot in my three years in law school and I will end with those things.
1. That you should never start a listserv war you cannot end.

2. That any listserv war that Blake has not contributed to, does not qualify as a listserv war.

3. Law school has taught us that there is such a thing as a free lunch - even though we now realize that it comes as part of our tuition and we still have work off all that burrito at the gym

4. That SFPIF could raise more money if I could pronounce and spell it properly

5. That I have a classmate who looks spartan, is knowledgeable, can wax philosophical, is called Bishop even though he is not a priest

6. That he same people investigating the Joan Benet Ramsey Murder are the same people investingating Merlin's missing green nalgene bottle. We all know that would never be solved.