Published: May 11, 2015

Welcome. My name is Phil Weiser and I am the Dean of the University of Colorado Law School. It is my great privilege and pleasure to welcome you to the commencement ceremony honoring the Class of 2015. Every single member of the class has worked hard to get to this day. Congratulations to you all.

We have many special guests here today, including our Governor, who is our graduation speaker. I apologize that I cannot acknowledge each of you, but I would like to thank three members of our Board of Regents for joining us--Regent Glenn Gallegos, Regent Linda Shoemaker, and Regent John Carson. Thank you all for your support of the University of Colorado and for your leadership.

Many of you here today have supported the Class of 2015 along the way. It is important to recognize that you, too, have made sacrifices during the past three years. Not only did you watch a loved one grapple with the stresses and demands of law school, but you also had to put up with the transformation of their minds, where phrases like “it could be argued that” or “res ipsa loquitur” slipped into their vocabulary. To acknowledge those who have supported the Class of 2015, can I ask all friends and family members of the Class of 2015 to please stand. Let’s give you all a round of applause.

The Class of 2015 is joining a diverse, inclusive, and supportive Colorado Law alumni community. Today, I will talk about the nature of the community you are entering and a trademark of Colorado Law and Colorado more generally: a commitment to collaboration and supporting one another.

Some people—and particularly some lawyers—view others’ successes with envy. That type of “zero sum” thinking is not welcome here, where we strive to cheer and pull for one another. At some schools, students apparently find key pages of reference books torn out so that others cannot complete assignments. At Colorado Law, by contrast, students readily share their notes with classmates who miss a lecture. To quote Abbey Wallach, “the students here are so unbelievably kind and helpful to each other. My friends at other law schools cannot believe it when I say that notes show in up my email inbox after I miss a class without me even asking anyone for them. Even more impressively, people share information before interviews when they are going for the same job!” There are countless examples of how many times this year students and recent graduates helped each other find employment and navigate professional situations. In particular, many times, students find themselves in situations where they can help steer positions toward other Colorado Law students (as Cayla Crisp and Amy Ellis did this year for classmates of theirs).

For those of you staying in Colorado, you have the blessing of entering a culture with a unique credo among legal communities. As Colorado Law adjunct professor Brad Feld has put it, people in Colorado embrace a philosophy to “give before you get,” or, more simply, “give first.” This cultural norm means that Coloradans generally and genuinely focus on “how can I help you?” For those of you leaving Colorado, you will have the opportunity to take this approach with you, eschewing a “what’s in it for me?” attitude that others may encourage you to take.

Whether in Colorado or elsewhere, living your life with a “give first” mindset is a powerful way to make an impact and live a more meaningful life. To provide a concrete example of this mindset, consider how Nick Clabbers, Jess Hunter, and Katie Petersen and others worked to create the Orientation Leadership Program, which provides all incoming students with student advisors who help ease the transition to law school. In so doing, your class made sure that the classes behind yours would have more guidance and support from fellow students than you had. Consider also, for example, how your class officers worked tirelessly to build community and fundraise for your class gifts, which include the Law School’s first foozball table.

At Colorado Law, we work hard to model a “give first” mindset and underscore the benefits of this approach. In her consumer empowerment course, for example, Professor Amy Schmitz demonstrates the power of the law and lawyers to make a real difference for consumers. Professor Ann England stepped away from her clinic this spring to take over the admissions office during Dean Kris Jackson’s maternity leave, thereby supporting a colleague and giving herself a new challenge at the same time. I know that these examples are not lost on our students. Impressively, yours is a class committed to serving your community—with a new tradition of a spring break public service trip started by Will Kidney and a very impressive public service pledge effort, with the most hours of service by Katie Petersen.

In whatever situation you find yourself, you will face opportunities to play the short game and ask “why should I do this?”—that is, “what's in it for me right now?” If you focus only on the short-term payoff, you are going to make short-sighted decisions and miss what it means to be in a service profession. The long-term perspective realizes that “give before you get” does not mean you won’t receive value, it just means that it might take time before you get the benefit of extending a helping hand.  The investment made by doing work for free for a client not in a position to pay, helping a member of your team without being asked, or taking time to mentor a new arrival to your department can come back several-fold as people grow to view you as a trusted colleague who truly cares about them.

The value to each of you in adopting a “give first” mindset includes helping you build a reputation as a true leader in a profession committed to serving others. This reputation, and the trust and successes that come from collaboration, will come back to help you in all sorts of ways. To steal a story from our Governor and graduation speaker, he relates how, when he started the Wynkoop Brewery, he would advertise in his restaurant the menus for the other downtown Denver restaurants. In so doing, he was a leader in an overall movement to promote downtown Denver, even though it could be asked, “why are you promoting your competitors?” Over time, of course, his vision of a revitalized downtown took root, helping all establishments there (including the Wynkoop, which became a big success) and making the case for John Hickenlooper as a leader, setting up his campaigns for Mayor and then Governor.

At critical moments, core values and true identities reveal themselves. In the fall of 2013, when the floods caused so many people to suffer significant losses, we had a unique opportunity to see the extraordinary character of our community members. That experience will forever remain a proud moment in the Colorado Law tradition of collaborating with and supporting one another.

The MVP of that effort, your own Jonathan Jourdane, embodies the depth of character I am talking about. While displaced due to flood damage in his own home, Jonathan coordinated student volunteer work in the harder-hit community of Lyons. Jonathan’s character follows the inspired example of his father, Maurice Jourdane, who is an inspiring lawyer and leader in his own right, having worked with, among others, Professor Rick Collins at California Rural Legal Assistance to advocate for farm workers and support Cesar Chavez. In a fitting circle, Maurice followed the motto of Chavez, “Si se puede,” which means “Yes, it can be done” and is the name of the program that many members of the Class of 2015 (including Jonathan and led by Class President Jon Milgrom) have volunteered for as mentors for college students who are considering a career in the law and come from populations traditionally under-represented in Colorado’s legal community. You will hear more about the Class of 2015’s gift from Treasurer Aditi (uh-dee-tee) Kulkarni (cull-car-nee).

The spirit of giving and leadership of the Jourdane family is also evident in our faculty and staff. During the floods, a great number of them made sacrifices and came together to support one another. To mention just two such cases, Professor Fred Bloom and Dean Whiting Leary were tireless in their commitment to support our community, representing the very best of Colorado Law.

As you think about the person you want to be, I would encourage you to hold fast to the Colorado way of collaboration and mutual support. More than what you accomplish, what type of person you are is what’s really going to matter in the long run. For the legal profession, this is our existential challenge—can we remain a profession truly grounded in service and helping others, or will we be seduced by the temptation of first asking “What’s in it for us?” Lawyer jokes, and cynicism about lawyers, are often grounded in one-dimensional caricatures of lawyers as pit bulls or as risk-averse nay-sayers, rather than in their more frequent and appropriate roles as partners, collaborators, and problem-solvers.

David Brooks, the New York Times columnist, recently wrote about the distinction between what you accomplish by adding to your resume versus what you accomplish by fulfilling “a moral bucket list.” For Brooks, the moral bucket list includes inner character traits—rather than external accomplishments—that are important and challenging to develop. He reports that a focus on external metrics (like making money) leads people to “live with an unconscious boredom, separated from the deepest meaning of life and the highest moral joys.” By contrast, true meaning and joy come from making yourself and the world around you a better place.

Your law school years are the start of a new chapter in a lifelong journey. In my role as Dean, I have had the privilege of getting to know many Colorado Law alums, at every stage of their journeys. When I meet our alums, I am always interested to learn how they arrived at their current positions. In almost every case, there is the story of a true mentor. Consider the case of the recently departed Brooke Wunnicke, from the Class of 1949, who made an extraordinary impact by being there for young lawyers in the Denver District Attorney’s office.  As a result, a generation of lawyers looked to her for guidance, coaching, and support; she always provided it, without expecting any immediate return.

John Schultz, class of 1953 and here with us today, also appreciated that true mentoring underlies Colorado’s spirit of giving individuals an opportunity and supporting them as they grow professionally. In bringing Lance Astrella to his law firm when Lance was an untested and newly-minted lawyer, John did just that. And now Lance, a Colorado Law adopted alum, has hired two of our recent grads. In the case of hiring Lance, John Schultz gave before he got; he gave the gift of a key opportunity up front, but over the long term, he gained from taking a chance on Lance and investing in a young lawyer who became a great partner of his. As for paying it forward, which involves giving without any expectation that it will ever benefit you directly, John is doing that, too, matching your very successful campaign to support the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (commonly known as LRAP), which provides financial support to help graduates who work in qualifying public service positions as they repay their student loans. Thank you, John Schultz, Jon Milgrom, the President of the Class of 2015, and the entire Class of 2015 for your generosity and leadership.

As we welcome you into the world of Colorado Law alums, I have a final message for you: we’ll be with you all the way. When we say “give first” at Colorado Law, we mean it. So please be in touch, ask us for help when you need it, and tell us about your successes so we can learn from them and share them with others who are sure to follow in your stead.

In closing, best of luck to each of you and please take this opportunity to congratulate one another on a terrific accomplishment!