Law School Holds 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony
The Law School held its 28th Annual Diploma and Hooding Ceremony at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel on Saturday, June 6, welcoming 283 graduates to the ranks of its alumni. A total of 204 JD students, 75 LLM students, 3 MLS students, and 1 JSD student were awarded degrees, at the event, which followed the University of Chicago Convocation.
Dean Adam Chilton, the Howard G. Krane Professor of Law, delivered the ceremony’s introductory remarks, his first as dean. The other speakers were David S. Tatel, ’66, a retired judge of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, and Lior Strahilevitz, the Sidley Austin Professor of Law.
“For three years, you have lived in an environment where people care deeply about ideas. Where assumptions are challenged. Where claims are tested. Where difficult questions are welcomed rather than avoided,” Chilton told the graduates. “I hope you will not view that as merely a three-year detour on your way to a career. I hope you will continue to read broadly, learn constantly, and remain open to the possibility that there are still things left to discover.”
The Law School honored Tatel with its 2026 Distinguished Alumnus Award, recognizing his exceptional 30-year judicial career, his dedication to civil rights, and his advocacy for access and inclusion for people with disabilities. In his recent memoir, Vision, the retired judge wrote candidly about his blindness, judging, family, the discipline of listening, and about his guide dog, Vixen, who accompanied him for the day’s festivities.
In his remarks, Tatel reflected fondly on his time at the Law School and the “superb education” he received—to which he said he attributed much of his professional success and satisfaction. He mentioned some of “the very best teachers” he had the opportunity to learn from, including legendary professors Walter Blum and Harry Kalven, whose portraits hang in the Law School’s classroom corridor today.
“Your gifted and devoted professors taught you the same core skills and ideals that mine did,” said Tatel. “Thanks to them, and of course to your own hard work, you now have the tools to become superb lawyers. … The challenge you now face, just as I did way back then, is how to have not just a successful career, but a meaningful one as well.”
Tatel spoke about finding his cause in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, inspired by the lawyers who brought the civil rights struggles “from the streets to the courts,” and by the judges who courageously upheld their oath to enforce the Constitution’s guarantee of equality under the law.
“Two powerful statutes, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965—both enacted while I was studying here at Chicago—have shaped and lent meaning to my entire career,” he recalled.
Tatel also shared examples of Law School alumni who “turned traditional paths in the law into deeply consequential ones.”
He spoke about Alexander Polikoff, ’53, a securities lawyer who launched the famous Gautreaux litigation, a case that shattered Chicago’s long-standing practice of concentrating nearly all public housing in Black neighborhoods.
He spoke about Michael McConnell, ’79, now a law professor at Stanford, who gave up a lifetime appointment as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (a role he held from 2003 to 2009) to pursue his passion for legal scholarship, which has made a real-world impact on modern understandings of the First Amendment.
Lastly, he spoke about Kelsi Brown Corkran, ’05, one of his former law clerks. Corkran, Tatel said, was devoted to defending the Constitution and the rule of law and argued several US Supreme Court cases that tackled deeply doctrinal issues.
Tatel concluded with the following words of advice to the graduates: “As you begin your lives in the law, pay attention to the world around you. Never lose sight of the many challenges our nation still faces. Embrace the defects in our less-than-perfect union as opportunities to make our world a better place. Attach yourselves to institutions whose missions you care about. And find mentors and role models like Alex Polikoff, Michael McConnell, and Kelsi Corkran. They will inspire you and help you in ways you can’t possibly anticipate.”
Strahilevitz, an accomplished scholar of property and land use, privacy, intellectual property, technology, and contracts, delivered the faculty address.
In his remarks, Strahilevitz shared the stories of former students he greatly admired. “I promise we didn’t coordinate thematically in advance,” he quipped, in reference to Judge Tatel’s similarly structured address.
Strahilevitz told graduates about a student who—upon learning that the very first Black federal district court judge in the United States, the late Judge James Parsons, was a graduate of the Law School—led a team of Black Law Student Association classmates to launch the Law School’s now ongoing tradition of the Parson’s Legacy Dinner.
“It’s hard to get anyone excited about a February event in Chicago, but during the Parsons Legacy Dinner, Hyde Park might just be the warmest spot on earth,” he said.
Strahilevitz next reflected on a student, Jay, whose tragic terminal cancer diagnosis did not stop him from continuing his legal studies—for the simple reason that he enjoyed learning the law and adored being with his law school friends… until the very end.
“I’ve always been profoundly moved by the choices that Jay made,” shared Strahilevtiz. “Jay taught us that the learning you’ve done, the work you’ve put in, isn’t just a means to an end. There is an intrinsic value to it, and special meaning in doing that hard thinking alongside the people sitting near you, who so recently were strangers and have quickly become your close friends.”
Finally, Strahilevitz spoke about a student who came to the Law School as a “passionate defender of voting rights.” Her career took her on a winding path that went from government to the private sector, then to government again—where she ultimately served in vital roles that helped shape policy that affects millions of people’s lives.
“While being true to herself, she managed the kind of career pivot so many of you will have to make when circumstances outside your control upend your meticulous planning,” said Strahilevitz, adding that the example of this student demonstrates that public service is not a "now or never" proposition.
Four members of the faculty hooded the graduates: Douglas Baird, the Harry A. Bigelow Distinguished Service Professor of Law; Genevieve Lakier, Professor of Law and the Herbert and Marjorie Fried Teaching Scholar; Alison LaCroix, the Robert Newton Reid Professor of Law, who delivered the University of Chicago’s Class of 2026 Faculty Convocation address; and Tom Ginsburg, the Leo Spitz Distinguished Service Professor of International Law and Ludwig and Hilde Wolf Research Scholar.
Read the Speeches From the 2026 Ceremony
David Tatel, ’66: “Pay Attention to the World Around You”
See More Photos From the 2026 Ceremony and Festivities
Adam Chilton
Dean, Howard G. Krane Professor of Law