Stanford Law School held its graduation ceremony May 10 at Memorial Auditorium, with more than 1,500 family members and friends on hand for the Sunday morning celebration. Participating in the ceremony were 179 JD candidates, 39 Master of Laws candidates, and seven candidates for the degree of Doctor of the Science of Law.

Dean Larry Kramer delivered the traditional charge to the class, and Professor Pamela S. Karlan, the winner of this year’s John Bingham Hurlbut Award for Excellence in Teaching, was chosen by the graduating class to deliver the keynote address. The Class of 2009 also honored classmate Tamika Butler with the inaugural Dean’s Award for Excellence in Service and Chidel Onuegbu, associate director of student affairs, with the 2009 Staff Appreciation Award.

Co-president of the graduating class Robert Gonzalez also delivered remarks during the ceremony, in which he thanked his classmates and the law school faculty and staff for their support during the past three years and for being a second family to him.

“From the day we arrived here on campus, we have been telling each other our stories. … Some more important than others, but that collective narrative, told by various voices, is what makes up our familial experience here. … It is the sharing of these experiences that brings a family together, and that has brought us together here as the Class of 2009.”

Program

• Graduation Program

Speeches

• Dean Larry Kramer
• Professor Pamela S. Karlan
• Robert Gonzalez, Class of 2009 Co-President

Videos

• Dean Larry Kramer’s Charge to the Class
• Professor Pamela S. Karlan’s Keynote Address

Photos

• Graduation Slideshow

Press

• “Law School graduating class urged to stand up for what’s right”, Stanford Report, May 13, 2009