The John Marshall Law School in Chicago held its 207th Commencement on May 19 at the UIC Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum. At this year’s spring commencement, the law school conferred 205 degrees, including 185 JDs, 19 LLMs, and 1 MJ.
Kwame Raoul, Attorney General of Illinois, delivered the commencement address. Raoul has served as a prosecutor in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office, as a Senior Staff Attorney for the City Colleges of Chicago, as a state senator for 14 years and as a partner at two national law firms. He holds a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University and a law degree from Chicago-Kent College of Law. Raoul was born in Chicago to Haitian immigrants and brings a lifetime of legal and policy experience, advocacy and public service to the Office of the Attorney General.
Professor Mary Nagel received the Spring 2019 Lex Ancilla Justitiae Award. The award, which translates to “law is the servant of justice,” is given to the faculty member who the graduating class believes best embodies this guiding principle of education at John Marshall. Graduating student and Student Bar Association President Hannah Johnson presented the award to Nagel.
The valedictory address was given by Alyssa Janicki. While at John Marshall, Janicki served as the Presiding Barrister of the law school’s Trial Advocacy & Dispute Resolution Honors Board and Council and has clerked for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office since 2017 in the Felony Trial Division. She also received the John N. Jewett Scholarship and the Arba N. Waterman Scholarship.
At this semester’s commencement, as is a tradition at John Marshall, more than a dozen students received their diplomas from family members who also graduated from the law school and will carry on the John Marshall legacy.
Graduating students Sandi Tanoue and Charles Murphy received this year’s Lucy Sprague Public Service Awards. The Lucy Sprague Public Service Award, named in memory of Lucy Sprague who attended John Marshall in 1995–1996, honors a John Marshall student who makes a significant commitment to public service. Made possible by a generous gift from the Sprague family, the first Lucy Sprague Service Award was bestowed on a John Marshall student in 1998.
This commencement was a historical moment for John Marshall, which is expected to join the University of Illinois at Chicago later this summer as the UIC John Marshall Law School. That transition will make the May 2019 graduates the last from John Marshall as an independent law school.
