Vt. Law Students Told
They CAN Change World
By Bill Busha

Eric Johnson of Boston tries to stay dry while pausing on SouthWindsor Street to catch a photo of his neice, Rebecca Garland, as she marches with her class at the Vermont Law School commencement Saturday in South Royalton. (Herald / Tim Calabro)

Sheltered from a persistent rain beneath a huge white tent on the South Royalton town green, 196 graduating students and a capacity crowd of supporters celebrated the 32nd commencement of Vermont Law School on May 19.

Also attending were members of the VLS Class of 1982, who gathered for their 25th reunion.

"This is really a terrific time to be going off to practice law and to take on our environmental challenges," said President and Dean Geoffrey Shields in his opening remarks. "The times we are living are filled with challenges—to the environment, to basic legal rights at home and abroad, and to the moral fiber of our country."

"All of these challenges, whether local or international, whether environmental or commercial, await you, and your involvement.

"You are trained to address these issues, and you have a tremendous opportunity to have an impact on your neighbors, your community, your country, and the world. Every day, you will be in a position to help others through the expertise you carry from South Royalton."

Keynote speaker Kathleen Sullivan, former dean of Stanford Law School, blended humor and wisdom in an address she titled "My Life as a Brief."

The type of work a lawyer chooses and where it is pursued often reflect that person’s background and values, she explained, and she urged the new graduates to forge lives and careers about which they could be passionate.

"It doesn’t need to be big; it doesn’t even need to be beautiful. It just needs to be you. Go, become what you were meant to be," she told them.

Sullivan told the group that a legal education would help them not only to earn a living, but would guide them in their personal lives as well.

"Can I serve the environment by working with developers to make a project more sensitive to the environment, not just by suing them? Can I do more for civil liberties working inside the government rather than working as a criminal defense attorney? Am I shortchanging my children if I am on trial in another city for three consecutive weeks of bedtime?"

Career Questions

"Your career will be full of such questions and choices, and there is no algorithm or equation that will give you the right answers."

She advised the graduates to remember that their work with the law can have long-range ramifications, even if that does not seem apparent at the moment.

"Sometimes you may experience euphoria with an immediate victory. But other times you will have to wait, and learn patience. A brief, written one year, may be ahead of its time, but may still come good at a later date," she said, citing an incident in her own career in which a 17-year interval passed between her original work on a case and its enactment into law.

"Law is a lot more than litigation. It is comprised of many things, including legislation, policy-making, and persuasion, as well as negotiation, planning and counseling."

It will be important for the graduates to maintain faith in themselves and a belief in their work, she said. "Whatever your views, whatever your project, your brief and you can change the world, although not necessarily by yourself."

Honorary degrees were presented to Sullivan, as well as to New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice John T. Broderick, and to Roger Kennedy of the Center for the Environment at Harvard University, formerly director of the National Park Service.

Jill Pfenning, a former teacher at Burlington High School, received the Learned Hand Award for Academic Excellence, given to the graduating student with the highest cumulative average.

Lauren Whitley received the Maximilian W. Kempner Award for the "highest standards of competence, integrity, respect, fair-mindedness, and public service." Barbara Boe Morgan and Raven Perry were co-recipients of the Alumni Association Award for Contributions to the School.

Of the 196 graduates, 148 earned a Juris Doctor degree. An additional 32 students earned dual degrees, a Juris Doctor and a Master of Studies in Environmental Law. Seven graduates earned a degree in Master of Studies in Environmental Law, five in Master of Laws in Environmental Law, and four in Master of Laws in American Legal Studies.