More than 500 alumni, friends, faculty members and students returned to Boalt Hall on Saturday, September 30, to catch up with classmates and celebrate law school connections at the All-Alumni Reunion. Graduates from as far back as the Class of 1939 were on hand for a full day of activities that featured provocative and timely panel discussions and a “crossfire” question and answer session with Dean Christopher Edley.
Reunion festivities got underway Friday evening, September 29, when Dean Edley and his wife, Maria Echaveste ’80, hosted a Dean’s Society Reception honoring donors who have supported the law school with gifts of $10,000 or more.
Saturday’s program featured panel presentations led by Boalt alumni and professors on such frontline issues as the legal and business demands imposed by globalization, legislative responses to climate change, legal concerns facing the wine industry, privacy issues raised by heightened national security and Internet commerce, the challenges of estate planning in the 21st century, and an appraisal of the U.S. Supreme Court’s first term under Chief Justice John Roberts by legal and political scholars as well as reporters who cover the high court. Hear the audiotaped panel discussions.
In addition to tours of the law school and a private screening of Soul of Justice, the award-winning documentary about federal judge Thelton Henderson ’62, a highlight of the morning was an energetic “crossfire” interview with Dean Edley conducted by Daniel Furniss ’76, Deborah Ludewig ’91 and Scott Potter ’91. Members of the audience joined in the question and answer session, in which the dean talked about connecting with alumni—especially those who have chosen professions outside the law—and elevating Boalt in the legal and business communities. The dean also addressed the important issue of diversity, noting that “students of color have full equity in terms of leadership at Boalt” and pointing to Boalt’s loan repayment program as the most generous program of its kind in the country.
“We must not change our public mission. We must not change whom we educate,” Edley told alumni.
View Crossfire with Dean Edley.
The reunion continued into the evening with a cocktail reception in the refurbished Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Main Reading Room of the law library and candle-lit dinners for classes held throughout Boalt Hall. Music and dancing followed in the Darling Courtyard.
Classes celebrating a reunion year in 2006 have launched class campaigns to raise funds for Boalt.