Convocation 2010: onward and upward

By Lucianna Ciccocioppo

It was an emotional day. “Pride, satisfaction and trepidation,” says Mike Valo, when asked what was running through his mind on June 4, 2010.  “I’m happy, tired and relieved,” added Jessica Latimer. After three years at law school, 204 graduates could finally say “We did it!”

Hundreds of family, friends, faculty and guests feted, congratulated and motivated our newest alumni to be creative in their careers and shape their own successes beyond these campus borders.

“Seize control of your own narrative,” said Tim Gilbert, LLB 1988, guest speaker. “Don’t rest on your laurels, or go on auto-pilot. But don’t be a jerk either.” Gilbert stressed law graduates should do whatever they wanted, whether in traditional law practice or outside. But more importantly, he urged grads to “remember your family and friends. Make sure you’re a great person in the community.”

Valedictorian Carolyn Rock spoke of their hard-earned law degree as “a tool to open doors.”  And Prof. Lorne Sossin gave a hilarious “Hail and Farewell” speech, his last as a faculty member of this law school, describing what went on in the heavy metal and thrasher rock world in 2007—when this law class first begun. “Google is not always your friend,” said Sossin to a laughing crowd over lunch on the back lawn of the law school.

Convocation speaker Justice Stephen Goudge, LLB 1968, cited American jurist Benjamin Cardozo when he told graduates that “being a lawyer is a privilege and responsibility.” While he spoke of the globalization of law, and a legal world that sought information—and clients— increasingly beyond its borders, he did stress a traditional value: “Good lawyering is not fundamentally a business—it’s a profession.”  

And to the Faculty of Law’s newest recruits to the profession, we congratulate the class of 2010!

View our photo gallery here.

Photos: Diana Balogh-Tyszko