April 24, 2008

Which law school graduation speakers would you most like to hear?

Paul Caron has a big list. I won't say which ones seem most appallingly tedious — but you can do so in the commentsd. I'll be positive. Here are some that stand out to me:
American: Stephen Breyer (Justice, Supreme Court)
Catholic: Samuel Alito (Justice, Spreme Court)
Loyola-New Orleans: Scott Turow (legal novelist)
Northeastern: Stephen Breyer (Justice, Supreme Court )[He gets around!]
Northwestern: Jerry Springer (TV show host; former Mayor of Cincinnati)
Vanderbilt: Nicholas Zeppos (Chancellor, Vanderbilt)[I love Nick, but... come on!]
William & Mary: Sandra Day O'Connor (retired Justice, Supreme Court)
Yale: Kenji Yoshino (Professor, Yale)[Again... come on!]
First, Yale, Vanderbilt... no insiders! Disqualifed! Second, Supreme Court Justice? Show-offy catch, but not creative enough to impress me. That leaves 2 nominees for my little contest:
Scott Turow
Jerry Springer
Can I see them throw chairs at each other? No? Then, the answer is obvious: Jerry!

14 comments:

RKS said...

Calling Jerry Springer a former mayor of Cincinnati is true, but misleading, as Cincinnati's mayorship was rotated among members of the city council at the time (they have a strong city manager).

ricpic said...

If I had any humility I would be perfect.
--Ted Turner


Him I'd like to here, if only in anticipation of at least one depth bomb comment in the course of his speech.

vbspurs said...

Breyer is pulling double duty, Ann.

"Northeastern: Stephen Breyer (Justice, Supreme Court)"

He spoke at an UM Law lecture in 2006, and word was it he was a little boring (unlike CJ Roberts, who was phenomenal, I know I was there).

These are the names that popped out at me:

- Baltimore: Ted Turner (media mogul)

- Albany: Jeanine Pirro (TV legal analyst; former District Attorney, Westchester County, New York)

That's probably an one hour talk of two of the most annoying voices in the world...

Cheers,
Victoria

Trumpit said...

Zeppo or any of the Marx brothers would be a good speaker except for Harpo, the mute one. Unfortunately they've all pass away. :(

Let's work to bring back vaudeville. Do not attempt to impart wisdom to the graduates in a 30 minute speech. Better to make them laugh after 3 years of hard study.

Simon said...

One wonders if George Washington would be ashamed that the institution bearing his name chose Senator Inouye (D-HI). Really? Mr. e unus, plures?

Hey said...

The best speaker is whoever gives the shortest speech. They all look horrible.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

I saw Tom Selleck at Pepperdine. He was great.

Lindsay said...

My Harvard Law graduation speaker was Larry King. Lame!

rcocean said...

Most boring graduation speaker:

David Gergen.

theobromophile said...

My school, last year: John Grisham.

Left-leaning speech, which got to be very annoying, but it was still neat to have him there. Great pick, IMHO.

Tank said...

Chris Matthews spoke at Fordham when my daughter graduated there a couple of years ago. He was remarkably tedious, as was the entire SIX HOUR event.

Thank God it was a beautiful day.

MadisonMan said...

Rules for graduation speakers:

(1) Be brief. This is not your day.

(2) If you can't be brief, be absent.

former law student said...

I'd like to hear Sherman Alexie; I've read a lot of his stuff and I saw Smoke Signals. My alma mater has an accomplished alumna speaking this year.

Anonymous said...

The best graduation speech I've heard was given by Tom and Ray Magliozzi (Click and Clack of the Car Talk Show on PBS) at the June 1999 commencement at MIT.

Here's a link to the transcript.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/clickclackspeech.html