The Class of 2008

This year’s proud graduates were hooded in the new Chaifetz Arena on Thursday, May 15. Hooding speaker Chief Justice Laura Denvir Stith gave the graduates their final law school lesson.

“This September, when you come to our Supreme Court building in Jefferson City to be sworn in as members of the Missouri bar, look at the inscription above the front door. It says: THE LAW: IT HAS HONORED US, MAY WE HONOR IT.
American statesman and abolitionist Daniel Webster offered that thought as a toast to the members of the Charleston, S.C., bar in 1847, and I think that every member of our profession should take it to heart.

Certainly, this is a high-sounding phrase, but what does it really mean, as a practical matter for new lawyers, to ‘honor the law’? If you were still law students, I might call on one of you to answer this question. But now that you are graduates, your days of being subject to the Socratic method are over. Instead of asking you all to answer this philosophical question, I’ll share with you my thoughts on how lawyers best bring honor to the law.

How do you honor the law? You can honor the people that you meet in your professional capacity by treating them all with civility, dignity and respect. You have the ability to impact the lives of many people throughout your career, and those impacts will be significant. It is when people meet you as a lawyer — be they prospective clients, opposing counsel, trial and appellate judges, or jurors – that they form their impressions of the law, and of lawyers. I hope and expect that you all will help create a legacy that restores and maintains the public’s trust in our profession.