Graduation season is here and, this year, Brooklyn Law School will hold its 114th Commencement Ceremony on May 28, 2015 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. The commencement speaker will be U.S. Senator Charles “Chuck” Schumer who will deliver the 2015 Commencement address. He will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree, the highest degree conferred by Brooklyn Law School and given to only one recipient each year. Born and raised in Brooklyn and a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Senator Schumer has represented New York in the Senate since 1998. He previously served as a Congressman between 1981 and 1998, and was a three-term member of the New York State Assembly for Brooklyn’s 45th district, serving between 1975 and 1980.
Commencement speakers at other area law schools this year are:
New York
- Albany Law School – Hon. Leslie Stein, Associate Judge of the New York Court of Appeals
- Buffalo Law School – Eric T. Schneiderman, New York Attorney General
- Cardozo School of Law — Hon. Denny Chin, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
- Columbia Law School — Charles Fried, Professor of Law at Harvard Law School
- Hofstra School of Law — Hon. Sallie Manzanet-Daniels, Associate Justice of the New York Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, First Judicial Department
- New York Law School — Cyrus R. Vance Jr., District Attorney of New York County and Joseph Plumeri, Vice Chairman of the First Data Board of Directors
- New York University School of Law — Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
- Pace University School of Law — U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
- St. John’s University School of Law — W. Mark Lanier, founder of the Lanier Law Firm
- Syracuse University College of Law — Mary Karr, Professor of Literature at Syracuse University
- Touro Law Center — Richard Parsons, former chairman of Time Warner and Citigroup
New Jersey
- Rutgers University School of Law at Newark — Hon. Barry T. Albin, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey
- Seton Hall Law School — Dean Patrick E. Hobbs, Seton Hall Law
Connecticut
- Quinnipiac University School of Law — Harold Koh, Professor of International Law at Yale Law School
- University of Connecticut School of Law — Tim Wu, Professor of Law at Columbia Law School
- Yale University Law School — Class Day speaker is Joseph R. Biden Jr., Vice President of the U.S.
