47 graduates will receive Juris Doctor degrees, and two graduates will receive Master of Laws degrees, at Mitchell Hamline’s Winter 2016 commencement, 2 pm Sunday Jan. 17 in the Mitchell Hamline Auditorium.
The new graduates join the ranks of more than 19,000 alumni.
It will be the first graduation ceremony at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, which was formed in December by the combination of William Mitchell College of Law and Hamline University School of Law.
It’s also the last commencement for the two schools, which have helped shape legal education and legal practice in Minnesota for more than a combined 155 years.
The legacies and traditions of Mitchell Hamline’s predecessor schools will be honored at Sunday’s ceremony.
Graduates will receive their degree from the institution where they completed their studies. They’ll also wear gowns and hoods that are distinctive to their legacy schools.
Sunday’s commencement ceremony will feature:
- Mark Gordon, the first president and dean of Mitchell Hamline School of Law.
- 2016 class Honors Speaker Katherine Boyle ‘16. Boyle received the Burton Award for Excellence in Legal Writing, made the Dean’s List in five semesters, and earned the CALI Excellence for the Future Award.
- Charge to the Class speaker Professor Colette Routel. Co-director of Mitchell Hamline’s Indian Law Program, Routell is a nationally recognized practitioner in federal Indian law, and serves as an appellate judge for the White Earth Nation Court of Appeals
- Commencement speaker Hon. Wilhelmina Wright. Justice Wright was appointed as an associate justice on the Minnesota Supreme Court in 2012, becoming the first African-American woman to serve on the state’s highest court. Wright has been nominated by President Barack Obama to serve on the U.S. District Court for Minnesota, a nomination is pending before the full U.S. Senate. Wright served for nine years as a trustee on the William Mitchell College of Law, now Mitchell Hamline School of Law.