University of Richmond Awards J.D. Degrees to 152 Law Students
May 15, 2006
Attending the University of Richmond School of Law has “honed and refined your intellect and your character,” the Hon. Frederick G. Rockwell III told 152 graduates as they prepared to receive their juris doctor degrees today.
Rockwell, a 1979 graduate of the law school, is a judge of the 12th Judicial Circuit Court in Chesterfield, Va. and an adjunct faculty member of the school. He said he remembers the passion, zeal and enthusiasm of being a law student and promised the graduates that “it’s going to work out for you” as it has for countless other graduates of the school.
He said he expects the graduates to have an impact on their communities that will be “significant due in large measure to the three years you spent at this institution.”
Following Rockwell’s talk, Law School Dean Rodney A. Smolla presented him the school’s Distinguished Alumni Medal.
Dontaé Bugg of Newport News, Va., was the student speaker. He told his classmates that each one had someone at home who supported them through the rough periods. “Their level of excitement today is through the roof,” he said. He encouraged the graduates to be “mentors and role models” and to work hard on a daily basis to break down stereotypes.
Faculty speaker John G. Douglass told the graduates that, like the Wizard of Oz gave the gift of insight to Dorothy and her friends, “education is about finding and using what’s been in you all along.”
Also during the 2 p.m. ceremony, Kennon Poteat III of Danville, Va., received the Cudlipp Medal, given to the member of the class having the highest cumulative grade point average at the end of the second year, and the J. Westwood Smithers Medal for having the highest cumulative grade point average after three years.
Steven Buckingham of Gray, Tenn., received the Charles T. Norman Award given by the faculty to the best all-around graduating student. Kristi Cahoon of Scarborough, Maine, received special recognition for “extraordinary contributions” during her years at the law school.
The university will award 720 degrees at the main commencement Sunday in the Robins Center at 2 p.m.