Duke Law Graduation 2017 | Loretta Lynch
Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch advised the members of the Duke Law Class of 2017 to use a simple question as a guiding principle in their legal careers: “What is my responsibility to those who I may never know?”
Addressing the graduates at their hooding ceremony May 13 in Cameron Indoor Stadium, Lynch said that filtering their work through that prism will clarify “the many ways the law is ripe for growth and change, and the many ways you can be that change.”
Lynch, who was sworn in as the nation’s 83rd attorney general on April 27, 2015, and served until January, spoke to graduating students of a number of Duke Law degree programs. These included 222 JD graduates, 12 of whom also received a master of laws — LLM — in international and comparative law, two who also earned the LLM in law and entrepreneurship, and 13 who also received a graduate degree from another school at Duke University. In addition, 92 internationally trained lawyers received an LLM in American law, and eight LLM graduates completed Duke Law’s one-year degree in law and entrepreneurship. Two graduates received the SJD, the highest degree in law.