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OK. Ladies and gentlemen. It is my great pleasure to represent the LLM class of '87 in his graduation ceremony. The LLM is a one year master's degree program mainly designed to familiarize foreign lawyers with the American legal system. It allows for lawyers to have a substantial exposure

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to American law. And to prepare them to work effectively with American lawyers in future dealings. The professional interests of being enrolled in the program are obvious. But the academic aspect of it is far from being exclusive. This is not clear by the fact that the LLM program

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is made out of 46 students representing more or less than 24 countries. By people who are already lawyers. And who come from very diversified and interesting backgrounds. It has been enjoyable. And enriching for us to get to know each other. It has been at least

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as interesting and as engaging for us to get to know the JDs. And to establish with them relationships and the friendships. We hope and expect that their friendship with us has been as fruitful for them as it has been for us. And that we have

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been successful in conveying to them a touch of our cultures, of our mentalities and of our opinions on the most diversified subjects. So we have been at times surprised by the excellent understanding of our countries shown by our American friends. And we were able to feel

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a willingness among most Americans to be further aware of events that are taking place in different parts of the world. Such a willingness should certainly be encouraged. One of the main goals of our presence here was to gain a better understanding of this country. To get

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to know Americans. And their mentalities. And their opinions on various matters. Including, of course, matters of mutual concern. Spending a year in this school, in the United States. was very valuable in that it allowed us to meet with Americans, students and non-students. To talk to them.

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To try to understand each other's views. And to bring our views a little bit closer. There is nothing such as frankness and dialogue to resolve differences. Whether they be based on solid grounds or misunderstandings. And in that sense, we feel that the presence here of such an

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international group. has been a real challenge to stereotypes and the preconceived ideas. If our presence here has modestly helped to fill the gap in our understanding of each other, then the presence would not have been in vain. It would have been particularly important in light

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of the proposition that we as lawyers from so many countries have to see to it that international disputes be resolved through negotiations and not by force. On behalf of the LLM Class of 87, I would like to wish all the students graduating today the best of luck

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and success in their careers. Thank you. I would now like to present to you the president of the class of 1987, Michael S. Agostino. Thank you, Dean Mundheim. President Hackney, Dean Mundheim, Vice Dean Marshak, Senator Biden, Mr. Kurzban, families, friends, and fellow graduates. Preparing this speech

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has been one of the most difficult things I have had to do in the past 3 years. I do not mean to imply that law school has been so easy. Or that I am somewhat impaired. Rather, I wanted to say something that you would all enjoy,

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something that every graduate could identify with, maybe express a profound thought or two, and keep the speech brief. As of yesterday morning, the speech still was not written, and that's when it dawned on me, res ipsa loquitur. Res ipsa loquitur means the thing speaks for itself. The

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fact that we are gathered here today says so much. It says that our democracy is working. It says that the American educational system is working and perhaps most importantly, it says that we will soon be working. Our democracy is working as we are free to assemble

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here in a public place and to say what is on our minds. The American educational system is working as most of us have mastered at least two of the three R's, reading and writing. Supposedly lawyers don't need to know much arithmetic except for how to add

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billable hours. Arithmetic is what MBAs and accountants are for, or so I'm told. But there are some things to which res ipsa loquitur does not apply. This ceremony by itself cannot convey to spectators the many thoughts and feelings shared by the graduates today. Perhaps the most pervasive

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thought at this moment is, God, it's hot under these caps and gowns. But seriously, the most pervasive thought is it's hard to believe that we are done with law school. It seems like only a few days ago, I was wearing a cap and gown at my

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college graduation. I remember how the excitement of having made it through college was sobered by the thought of beginning law school. Similarly, the thrill of today is somewhat tempered by the reality of taking the bar exam in July. But that too shall pass just like our

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days at Penn Law. I can vividly recall some of my first days at Penn Law School. I remember looking around the school for a goat. I was told during orientation to meet at the goat. I had no idea where the goat was, but I figured if

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I could get into Penn Law, I could find the goat. Sure enough, in the middle of the law school lobby, there stands a goat. This goat inevitably becomes the center, the common meeting place for the social life of most students at Penn Law. Little did I

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know then that that was to become the focal point of my life as well. I also remember my first law class, civil procedure. Let's just say civil procedure is to law school what basic training is to the army. During the past 3 years, my classmates and I

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have spent a lot of time together. We studied the same subjects together. In the same classrooms together. Using the same books, eating lunch in the same places, and otherwise occupying the same confines of the same building together. Quite frankly, I welcome the end to all of

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this togetherness. But at the same time, I am somewhat sorry that it's over. I sincerely enjoyed learning from and laughing with many of my classmates. Together we complained about and endured the Socratic method, final exams, and placement interviews. Together we made it through law school. And

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getting through Penn Law was not the grueling scholastic hell many of us anticipated. Rather, a number of faculty members and administrators went out of their way to greet us, to encourage us, and to inspire us. Hooray for those professors who were committed to teaching, who really

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prepared for their classes, and who endeavored to develop our legal skills. And let us also acknowledge those administrators like our beloved registrar Gary Clinton. People like Gary Clinton who proctored exams like no other Proctor could and who virtually eliminated bureaucratic red tape at the law school.

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I have been taught by many highly qualified professors throughout my college and law school years. But of all my teachers, the ones that have taught me the most are not associated with any university. They are my parents. Through their words and actions, my mother and father

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have taught me to be an involved citizen. A considerate person and a responsible adult. They have given me direction and stability. Indeed, most of us are fortunate to have families and special friends that have provided consistency and grounding to our lives. From our very first steps

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through those we take today throughout the various stages of our education, the many beginnings and just as many ends, they have been there for us. For me, my parents have always been there, and I hope they continue to be there since I'm moving back in with

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them tonight. In closing, I would like to thank my classmates for giving me this privilege. I have truly enjoyed being your representative, your colleague, and your friend. Thank you. I'm going to make one little departure from the printed program, and I'm

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going to ask Jennifer Rosato to come up and make a very brief presentation. Thank you, Dean Mundheim. It's been a unique experience for each of us, but one thing that all of us have had to go through is the common experience of the law school bureaucracy. 3 years of

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it, taking exams, scheduling courses, and this could have been a grueling, impersonal, and frustrating process, but it wasn't because of two people in the law school that made it so. Gary Clinton, our registrar, and Gloria Watts, our assistant registrar. Their dedication, their patience, and their undying

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enthusiasm made the law school a more humane and a more personal place to be. With them, the door was always open to answer our questions. Profound, stupid, simple, or hard. And I am honored to present on behalf of the entire class of 1987 gifts that were given

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by the entire class to Gloria and to Gary. We can't thank you enough. Thank you. Gary, I'm so glad you left that chair for me. You always helped

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me out, and allowing me to sit down for the rest of the ceremony is another mark. Thanks. The law school has signaled its particular interest in public service lawyers by selecting each year an honorary fellow. Now the purpose of the honorary fellow award includes

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one, affirming dramatically the law school's ideal of combining professional life with public service, honoring lawyers who have made significant contributions to the ends of justice at the cost of personal risk and sacrifice and who can articulate the problems and satisfactions of the way of the public

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lawyer. And 3, being an example to inspire our students to emulate these men and women. The 1987 Honorary Fellow is Ira J. Kurzban. Mr. Kurzban is a 1976 graduate of the law school at Berkeley. He is a partner in Kurzban, Kurzban, Weiner, and Holtzburg in Florida.

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And he has given a great deal of his time and effort to safeguarding human rights. He has particularly devoted himself to the cause of Haitians who sought refuge in this country. And I would now like to read the citation which we are giving to

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Mr. Kurzban. The faculty of the University of Pennsylvania Law School receives and welcomes you, Ira Joe Kurzban. You have exemplified signal service to every aspect of our profession. While still a law student, you helped start a foundation through which lawyers could be partly supported by their

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more financially secure classmates. As a partner of a law firm, you have served your private clients with high professional competence, and you have manifested extraordinary devotion to civil liberties, in particular in your representation, sometimes at risk to your life, of Haitians who have sought asylum in

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this country. Achieving results described by the court as beyond monetary value, end of quote. We hold you in esteem. And commend your example to the generation of lawyers who go forth from this school. Members of the faculty. Honored guests. Students. I was asked to speak with

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you today about practicing public interest law. And I don't believe that there is anything called practicing public interest law. I believe that there's practicing law with courage, with a sense of morality, and with a sense of justice. Today we live in a society that places as

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its highest values, wealth, power and intellect. How much do you have? Who do you know? How smart are you? The traditional values, the values that we call platonic values of courage, wisdom, justice, temperance seem all but erased from our conscience. Worse, in a way they seem

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naive in a world that is seen as a tough world where you have to get ahead. Even our colloquial expressions echo that sentiment. We tell our friends to go for it. The commercials tell us to catch the wave before it's too late. And some of us,

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even those committed to doing this type of work, ask, if a society emphasizes wealth, why should I tilt at windmills? If it emphasizes power, why should I side with the powerless? Besides, with money and power, it is said, I can help the powerless, the disenfranchised. All

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the platitudes in the world, it is thought, cannot feed the hungry. Well, and intelligence in that scenario becomes viewed as basic elements of society, as building blocks for those, even for those who seek to help others. But today we see the disintegration of those values. Stockbrokers

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without moral guidance or temperance in their chase for wealth are arrested on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. In Washington the powerful who were neither temperate in their views nor just in their disposition face their own deepening crisis. An intelligence without wisdom has made

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the best and brightest of America commit blunder after blunder in Vietnam, in Iran, in Nicaragua. When faced with the moral determination and courage of others, even the two greatest military powers in the world became powerless. And in the 1960s, Doctor Martin Luther King changed forever the course of

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United States history. Not because of any wealth. But because of the moral authority of his position. Practicing law without practicing morality and justice is nothing but a technical exercise, and the founding fathers of our country recognize that quite well. Like the philosophers of ancient Greece, they

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recognize that justice and morality is an activity. It's not just a goal, it's an activity. Just as we work at creating wealth, we must work at creating justice. In Federal 17, Hamilton recognized that it was not the ends of justice that counted, but he said it

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was the administration of justice that he described as that great cement of society. That impressed upon the minds of people in this country the importance of government. Like justice is an activity. You practice it. It's not a product you own or a gift you can store away to be

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added to ceremonies such as this. If you practice law, without morality and justice, then you're engaged in an empty ritual, no matter how high the salary and no matter, no matter how prestigious the law firm. In practicing law, I urge you to be courageous, be as courageous

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as you can. Have the wisdom to challenge authority when it is improper and the temperance to bend to it when it is not. Justice is lost when its defenders no longer have the moral courage to support it. The need for that courage is more important today.

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than at any time in the past. We live at a time when those values embodied in our Constitution and particularly in the Bill of Rights are precarious. I hope you will accept the challenge. Because you are truly the last defenders of liberty and equality in our

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society. Thank you. Perhaps because Philadelphia tends to be pretty warm in the middle of May, this law school does not have a tradition of commencement speakers. But the class of 1987 thought that the special time and location of

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this ceremony called for a commencement speaker, and I think we have the perfect speaker for the occasion. He is a lawyer. He is a great success in his chosen field of politics. He was elected to the United States Senate at the age of 29 in 1972.

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And his young age and election and early stature recall the early days of the republic. He is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and thus the guardian of the quality and fair-mindedness of the judiciary, the keystone to maintaining a government under law.

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He is also a person who is spoken of as a leading candidate to receive the Democratic nomination for the presidency. I take great pleasure in presenting to you the class of 1987's choice as commencement speaker, Senator Joseph H. Biden Jr. Mr. President, President D'Agostino.

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That has a nice ring to it, Mr. President, doesn't it? I, I kind of like that. Graduates who can hardly wait to get the hell out of here. Distinguished faculty members who could hardly wait for you to go. Parents that are delighted that you're going to

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start to pay your own bills.. Wives who will be happy to see you home after the bar exam is over to help with the children and husbands who put their lives through equally as overjoyed. This is in fact a happy moment for you all. And a privileged moment for me. I, like your class president.

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I was wondering what to say today. I find commencement speeches the single most difficult type of speech to give. Your parents would like me to say something that has some meaning, you would like me to say nothing notwithstanding the fact you invited me. And I, in my

00:27:38.880 - 00:28:06.339

effort to accommodate both concerns was recently looking at some of the more memorable commencement addresses that have been given to seek guidance. And one that struck me as possibly appropriate was run by Art Buck Buckwall. Speaking, I believe it was the Georgetown University commencement in the

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late 70s, he stood up and he said, graduates. We, your elders have left you a perfect world. Now don't screw it up. And sat down. We even had a more memorable commencement address, I think the shortest in history, he stood up, acknowledged those present, looked

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at the graduates ad said, don't go and sat down. I learned from my days in law school, by the way, you said getting through law school is not a challenge. Hasn't law school been the biggest bore you've ever been engaged in? I mean, really, all

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those cases you have to read all that time. I don't know about you, I went off to law school on a full academic scholarship and could hardly wait to get out throughout the whole time. As a matter of fact, my dean thought I had left somewhere

00:29:10.709 - 00:29:31.130

around my freshman year. And Dean, I hope you're as generous to some of your students here, as my dean at Syracuse University Law School was. A revered gentleman named Dean Miller, who's now deceased. I went to Dean Miller and I asked for a recommendation,

00:29:31.130 - 00:29:47.979

a letter of recommendation to one of the more prestigious firms in New York City. He always liked me and I liked him, but he was a very, very honest and fastidious man, and he said, John, I'd be happy to write you a letter of recommendation, but

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I must be truthful. And I said, well, Dean, I will be guided by your judgment. He sent off this letter, blind copy to me, and it said, Dear Sirs, if you can get Joe Biden to work for you, you will be indeed fortunate, signed Dean Miller.

00:30:08.170 - 00:30:26.560

A man of honesty and integrity. And also a desire to help a student who might not have warranted it. I'd like to compliment the class of '87 inviting me to speak. I am one of the most important men in America. I'm sure not a one of you, when

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you heard your son or daughter said the commencement speaker was going to be Joe Biden, I'm sure not a one of you said, Who in God's name is Joe Biden? Just to let you know how far my fame has spread, I want to tell you a true story

00:30:43.160 - 00:31:04.390

that happened just about a month and a half ago. I was speaking for one of my colleagues in Cleveland, Ohio. And as I walked into this room for 1200 people at this particular function, I walked into the room with the host, the MC who was going

00:31:04.390 - 00:31:20.369

to be conducting this roast. I was one of the roasters. And it was Danny Thomas and all the television cameras went on. There were 5 in this room like the cameras here, and they turned on those lights. And they all came rushing toward me. And I

00:31:20.369 - 00:31:36.160

thought, well, I've finally arrived. Things are really moving. They walked right by me and went straight to Danny Thomas to ask him questions. So I thought maybe, maybe I need a little more work. This is absolutely a true story, unfortunately. A little more work and about 15 minutes later

00:31:37.560 - 00:31:53.119

they're gonna ask me about judicial nominations. They're going to ask me about my ABM resolution, my prospects for the presidency, and while I was trying to anticipate what they were going to ask me, the young man arrived, thrust the microphone in my face, and said to

00:31:53.119 - 00:32:14.910

this very important United States Senator, and I quote, Commissioner, Commissioner, Ueberroth, what brings you here today? True story, unfortunately. I looked at him. For those who don't know, Commissioner Ueberroth is the commissioner of baseball. I looked at him. This is absolutely true. I looked at him and I said,

00:32:14.920 - 00:32:33.719

drug testing He said, I beg your pardon. I said drug testing for the media. And with that he turned to his camera person and said, Let's get the heck out of here. This guy's not Ueberroth. You are indeed fortunate to have a man of

00:32:33.719 - 00:32:54.560

my caliber here. I am flattered to be here. I think, ladies and gentlemen and fellow attorneys, and those of you soon to take the bar. As my mother would say, no purgatory for you, dear, straight to heaven. You're about to go through it. I would

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rather run for president than take the bar again. We all just heard the commencement speech. The speech that is the one as you walk away from here, you should remember the most. In fact, it is a, we attorneys, we lawyers. have not been looked upon

00:33:19.420 - 00:33:45.890

by our fellow professionals, fellow citizens of late, as the citadels of virtue and courage, as the protectors of tolerance and understanding. We have undergone over the last 10 years a slight metamorphosis which in fact could and should and will be changed if you're

00:33:45.890 - 00:34:09.189

willing to listen to your honoree today. I want to make a slightly different point. Hopefully it's complimentary to what your honoree spoke to, And that is that I believe that this is an exciting time for you to be graduating and going out to put your hard

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earned degrees to work for you because I think today this country stands at a watershed period in our history. Not because of the good or bad judgments made by previous presidents, Democrat or Republican, but as a consequence of the passage of time. We have arrived at a point

00:34:33.110 - 00:34:57.448

in our history where in the very near term, in the next 2,4, or 6 years, this country will make a judgment of what course it is going to follow on a whole range of very important subjects. We will make judgments about everything and what the legal system will look like for it is now going through a

00:34:57.448 - 00:35:20.889

period of significant transition. To whether or not we'll nuclearize the heavens or have an arms control agreement and a great deal in between. It's not an exaggeration to say, in my view, you who are graduating today will be afforded an opportunity that has been afforded to only 6

00:35:20.889 - 00:35:48.840

generations in our history. Because there are times a position of responsibility and power and authority, and that's what you're moving into, when the world is ready to change. When a nation is ready to change. And there are other times, when you make your case. You make

00:35:48.840 - 00:36:15.969

your statement in a world that is not prepared to change very much. And my, you are about to enter a period where this nation is ready to change. To change in many ways. For I think Americans understand, having nothing to do with political persuasion, having

00:36:15.969 - 00:36:39.479

to do with their assessment of the state of their country, I think Americans understand that today the threats to our nation are a little more subtle but equally as dangerous as they were when our parents stepped out into their chosen world, their chosen role in the world.

00:36:42.969 - 00:37:12.649

Today, our nation on the surface is a nation at peace. There are no wars engaging American soldiers. On the surface. we're a nation of prosperity. 10 more American workers work today than at any time in our history. And on the surface we're a tranquil nation. A nation whose cities are absent the riots and demonstrations

00:37:12.870 - 00:37:50.360

of my youth. Ladies and gentlemen, my fellow lawyers to be, I think that today, America is a nation adrift. And we are in the process of deciding whether or not we will be the world leading economy going into the 2nd century of our birth. Whether or not we can be a nation that continues

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to practice what is said on all the plaques you'll find around this building. A nation that continues to say we welcome the homeless, the tired, and the poor. For we are being tested whether or not we can and will be a nation that is prepared to deal with

00:38:20.479 - 00:38:50.840

the phenomenal diversity that is increasing, not diminishing, in our society. And whether or not we're going to be a nation that can find a way to make the economic bounty of the new technological age available to all Americans. And as you suggested today we, in my

00:38:50.840 - 00:39:23.489

view, have not been doing too well. The brightest graduate students seek the quick riches of investment banking rather than the producers of wealth. We have for much too long sacrificed personal excellence and community values for the merit accumulation of things. In the last decade, particularly the last

00:39:23.810 - 00:39:54.580

5 or 6 years, self-aggrandizement has become the full throated cry of this society. I've got mine now you go get yours, or what's in it for me. We have reached the bizarre point, that almost a year ago today, speaking at a prestigious university in the west, Ivan Boesky, prior to his

00:39:54.580 - 00:40:21.620

fall, as the commencement speaker said, and I quote, Greed is good. And got a standing ovation at Stanford University. Which reinforces your good judgment in coming to Penn. Ladies and gentlemen, I don't want to turn this into a sermon in the heat. We can kid ourselves. Or we

00:40:21.620 - 00:40:44.459

can face up to the fact that something's wrong. Something's wrong in our society. We are not about to go over the edge and collapse. We are not about to find ourselves propelled into a war. But something's wrong. That bottom line that we all speak about

00:40:44.459 - 00:41:04.120

so freely where I work, and where all of you are about to work, at bottom line we tell you everything about your life except that which makes it worth living. And we'll tell you everything about this country, except that which is going to make you proud to

00:41:04.120 - 00:41:24.429

be American. And so today as you graduate it seems to me we stand at a real crossroads. We are going to make fundamental decisions, not unlike the ones our parents made at the end of World War II. The America that emerged from the war was a nation

00:41:24.429 - 00:41:49.409

fundamentally different than the America that entered the war. We set in motion an entire new foreign policy, domestic policy, and social policy. History has now delivered this nation to a similar point. We we're about to make in a very short term similar decisions that will bind me and

00:41:49.409 - 00:42:06.889

my children and your children well into the next decade. I was going to mention some of them to you, but in the interest of time and the heat, I will pass. Except to suggest to you that the challenges confronting the legal profession today are in large

00:42:06.889 - 00:42:26.330

part, in my view, how to renew the commitment to the poor and the wrong and the defenseless in our society, as well as protecting the rights of those who are wealthy and powerful. How to make up the ground lost in civil rights and social justice, in

00:42:26.330 - 00:42:50.520

my view, in the last decade, in the intervening years of inflation, recession, and an economy badly dislocated by phenomenal deficits. The problem of forging a new consensus in this country under circumstances that make it more difficult to make the case for the poor and the needy is not going to

00:42:50.520 - 00:43:06.179

be easy and maybe the most difficult thing we're going to have to deal with. And I say this to some of the parents out there who are attorneys. Think of the last time in this country we actually had, at the time a class was graduating from

00:43:06.179 - 00:43:32.030

school, actually had to wonder and debate about what books would be banned in our high school. Whether or not Huckleberry Finn or Moby Dick somehow were part of secular humanism and therefore could not be read in our schools. And you, you the attorney, who are about to go out into the

00:43:32.030 - 00:43:52.659

world, are viewed by those folks out there and the people walking by in the streets as a part the arbiters of what in fact can and cannot be demanded of a society. You have been in the past, we have been viewed as the arbiters in a sense of good faith.

00:43:53.429 - 00:44:14.679

We have been viewed in the past as the profession that was looked to to make judgments about what in fact was tolerable and not tolerable under our Constitution. And in the past when we've made those judgments, we've made them in a circumstance where we understood that the central

00:44:14.679 - 00:44:55.030

social as well as economic challenge to our society was that of reclaiming a sense of community. As President Reagan. Ladies and gentlemen, we've now reached a point of skipping the rest of my speech, we reach a point where your generation has a lot of bets placed on it.

00:44:55.830 - 00:45:15.389

Most of the commentators out there think you're a pretty cynical bunch. I assume if you've been reading what's been written, that you in fact don't care a whole hell of a lot about anybody other than yourself. Most of them assume that you are more concerned about having gotten your

00:45:15.830 - 00:45:51.330

law degree and your BMW than you are about anything else that affects your society. When I graduated from law school in 1968 it was a different time. I graduated from law school in 1968. We had a different series of problems we had to face. And there was still a bit of idealism that was lost. And I stopped to think today on the way

00:45:51.330 - 00:46:28.189

up here. I stopped to think about whether or not the cynics are right. Or I'm right. I believe with every fiber of my being that those of you who are graduating today still have a sense of idealism about you. Still care about something other than your immediate well-being. And I believe that you understand something that I can't understand with those

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bells going on. That you understand something that I think many adults who have been out in the practice of law for the last 25 years have forgotten. When I was young, we changed America. Changed America not by its votes. But by its ideals and its idealism. When

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we marched in the civil rights movement in my small state to the south, which is segregated by law, we did not march with some 15 point program in hand. We marched to change attitudes. When the women's movement began, it did not begin with a constitutional amendment. It began by people changing

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attitudes. And whether that was the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the environment, or the war in Vietnam, we profoundly changed the face of America. And I think that when all is said and done, no matter what the political leadership, the presidential leadership, the academic leadership in this country is,

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when all is said and done, the things that have to be done in order to put this country back on track are going to emanate from you. Because unless we understand that Americans have to change their attitudes about their future and about what this country can

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be, unless we understand that we are not going to prevail, all the new laws in the world on education aren't going to make our children study any harder. All the laws written in the world are not going to affect the consumption of drugs in this country.

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And all the laws written in the world are not going to make that factory work on the assembly line tighten the bolt a little tighter, nor are they going to make the manager look to the next 10 years rather than the next quarter. And now that

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our generation has reached the conservative age of mortgage payments and pediatricians' bills and concern for our children's welfare, they also think that we've forgotten what guided us when we were young. And I believe that they've misjudged us and that they've misjudged you. I can still remember

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how I used to feel when I was your age. I've been a senator for so long now, for over 15 years, I almost forgot why I got involved in public life in the first place. I can tell you what the PSI of an SS-18 Soviet silo

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is. I can tell you what paragraph 2 of the GATT agreement says. I can tell you more detail about our laws you never want to know. But I almost forgot why I got involved in the very first place until, until about 2 years ago, and this

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will sound corny to you, but I mean it. About 2 years ago, sitting in my church, I heard for the first time a communion hymn based on the ninety-first Psalm. And it goes like this. And says that he will raise you up on eagle's wings and

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bear you on the breath of dawn and make the sun to shine on you. When I graduated from law school, I thought that's what lawyers were supposed to do. To raise this country up. On eagles' wings. To bring a breath of a new dawn to people who have

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been left behind. Not just those who could take care of themselves. And to let the sun shine on recesses of this society that have had no spokespersons for a long, long time. Ultimately, unless we understand that that is the ultimate function of the law and we

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lawyers, we are going to be in a situation where things are going to get worse, not better, and where our children are going to begin to wonder why we celebrate the 200th bicentennial anniversary of this country. Let me conclude by suggesting to you, I think it's

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time to raise this country up. I think it's time to restore America's soul. I think it's time that those of you who are going out in the practice of law, you've worked hard, you have every single right to be paid well. You have every single right

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to reap the rewards of your efforts, but you also have a phenomenal obligation to understand that you are viewed by the rest of the public and you should view yourselves as the protectors of the law. And the guarantors of everyone's right to have access to the

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law, because if you fail to understand that, you quite frankly don't deserve to be lawyers. I have confidence that you do, and I have confidence that we are about to enter a new period of involvement in this country. Just like the one that occurred 35 years

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ago. I welcome you to the practice. I wish you luck on your bar examination, and I hope to see at least some of you women and men in the Senate and in the Congress in not too long. Thank you very much.