Alumni Weekend was once again a smashing success. Over the weekend of October 21 to 24, more than 1,000 Stanford Law School alumni, family, and friends came to campus to renew old friendships, engage in stimulating discussions, and have some plain old fun. And no one who was there will soon forget the Stanford men’s swim team who interrupted a Friday afternoon panel on outsourcing by jogging through Kresge Auditorium wearing nothing but Speedos, yelling “Stanford swimming!”

Those attending this year’s festivities were also treated to the Stanford Law School Decanal Installation Celebration, at which Larry D. Kramer was formally instated as the law school’s 12th dean. Tents were set up on Stanford’s Main Quadrangle, a spectacular location for an evening of cocktails and dinner. Stanford President John L. Hennessy and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer (BA ’59) were among those welcoming Kramer to the university. 

Befitting the Stanford setting, several engaging and timely panel discussions were held before enthusiastic crowds. The most memorable was the Saturday morning panel on judicial independence, featuring three seated alumni judges from the nation’s highest courts and moderated by Kramer. [See article on p. 15.] There was an overflow crowd as well for the Friday morning panel on U.S. foreign policy and presidential politics held at Memorial Auditorium. Coming just weeks before the presidential election, the discussion was at times spirited, with former U.S. secretary of defense William J. Perry (BS ’49, MS ’50) expressing his support for Senator John Kerry, and former U.S. secretary of state George P. Shultz defending President George Bush’s foreign policy.

And it wouldn’t have been Alumni Weekend without plenty of time for socializing. The festivities opened Thursday evening with the traditional Dean’s Circle dinner. The weekend closed with what for many is one of the highlights of the affair—the reunion dinners—a chance for alumni to get together with members of their class to reminisce and enjoy the evening.