5/15/00

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno Speaks at Northwestern Law Graduation

U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno urged graduates to go beyond narrow specialties and help address the whole problem of crime and unequal treatment in this country during her speech at the Northwestern University School of Law graduation Sunday, May 14, in the jam-packed grand ballroom of the downtown Marriott.
She cited the Center on Wrongful Convictions, the Children and Family Justice Center and the Center for International Human Rights as "great efforts [the Law School] has undertaken." She also cited the goal of the Law School's strategic plan "to promote a faculty whose scholarship not only informs and challenges students, academia and the profession, but also contributes to resolving the leading issues of the day."
She also urged the University, the Law School and graduates to "take the lead...in looking beyond narrow specialties and the law; to look at the whole problem of crime and unequal treatment in this country; to teach us to work together between disciplines in a unified manner with academia, with other professions, with the people of this country; to address problems and to teach leaders to be managers and volunteers to serve communities.so that we look at the problem as a whole." She closed her remarks as follows: "Let us work together to listen to each other with a listening ear, to talk with respect, to understand and try to put ourselves in the shoes of others, and go forth to lead this land that we love, and to build stronger communities and to give the children that come today the opportunities for tomorrow. You are a wonderful group of lawyers. When people ask me about the legal profession, I have but only to look at the new lawyers that I have met in this year and feel very confident that the profession is in great and able hands. Go and have a good time with the law."
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