Brooklyn Law School held its 113th Commencement Ceremony on May 28, 2014 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. The featured student speakers were Class of 2014 Valedictorian John David Moore and Class of 2014 Student Graduation Speaker Sabrina Margaret Bierer. Brooklyn-born and raised Barry Salzberg, Class of 1977, delivered the 2014 Commencement address and received an honorary doctor of laws degree. Salzburg, Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (DTTL), the largest professional services organization in the world, is an outstanding BLS alumnus, philanthropist, and highly respected business leader. All three speakers stressed that law students and lawyers do not work in isolation but are most effective when working together.
The Class of 2014 totaled approximately 400 students awarded either LL.M. of J.D. degrees. The Class of 2014 had 97 students graduating with honors: five Summa Cum Laude awards to Rebecca Jane Gannon, Douglas R. Keeton, John David Moore, John H. Runne, and Stephen A. Savoca; there were 36 students graduating Magna Cum Laude and 56 students graduating Cum Laude. For the complete list of students graduating with honors, see this link.
In his Remarks to the Graduating Class, Dean Nicholas Allard noted that this year marked a return of the BLS Commencement Ceremony to Brooklyn after 50 years saying that the last time Brooklyn Law School had its Commencement in Brooklyn was in 1964 when Judge Henry J. Friendly of the Second Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals spoke at the exercises held at the Hotel St. George in Brooklyn. Dean Allard also spoke of famous people who appeared at the Brooklyn Academy of Music including Mary Todd Lincoln who attended an opera in 1863, Mark Twain who gave a reading in 1884, Booker T. Washington delivering a speech in 1891 calling for full emancipation, a 1940 appearance by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 1962 debut of Rudolf Nureyev, and this year’s appearance by Justice Antonin Scalia. A timeline of appearances by notable persons at the Brooklyn Academy of Music is available here.
