Thank you, Dean Berg. 

Thank you, distinguished members of the stage party, faculty, staff, parents, friends, families and — most importantly — the graduating students of UC Davis School of Law.

Congratulations on reaching this moment!

I am honored to join you, your friends, and your families as you celebrate this remarkable milestone. For many of you, I know this is an achievement you’ve dreamed about since childhood. 

For your families, this must be a moment of incredible pride — not just for what you have accomplished, but for what they know you are about to do.

When you leave this stage today, you’ll be leaving the classrooms at King Hall where you tested ideas, the coffee shops where you pored over case law late into the night, and the internships where you honed your skills.

You will leave prepared to zealously defend the clients you serve and empowered to ensure that the law not only protects justice but becomes more just.

You will leave ready for a world that needs your skills, passion, and sense of justice.

There’s no question: we need you now more than ever.

Achieving justice demands that we invest our time, leverage our energy, and strengthen our faith in our ability to achieve it.

You know that the road to justice isn’t always straight. And it certainly isn’t always fast.

I am reminded of the story of a woman who finally had her criminal record expunged in 2021, when she was 82 years old. Labelled a juvenile delinquent, she was charged with disturbing the peace, assaulting a police officer, and breaking the law against segregation in Montgomery, Alabama.

Her crime? She paid her fare and sat in the front of a city bus. When the driver tried to force her to move, she refused.

Asked about that moment years later, she said, — quote — “it felt as though Harriet Tubman's hands were pushing me down on one shoulder and Sojourner Truth's hands were pushing me down on the other.”

That courageous girl was 15-year-old Claudette Colvin, who refused to give up her seat nine months before Rosa Parks sparked a movement that cracked the foundations of segregation.

Colvin, whose family stared down threats from the Ku Klux Klan, never became the face of the Civil Rights Movement. Attorneys at the NAACP determined that her age and background would undermine their case in the court of public opinion.

But she was one of four plaintiffs in Browder v. Gayle, which reached all the way to the Supreme Court. The court decided — one year and nine months after Colvin refused to give up her seat — that Montgomery’s segregated buses broke the law.

I grew up admiring heroes like her, Rosa Parks, and Dr. King. My mom was one of the first students to integrate the University of Missouri, and she never let my sister or me forget that no one had the right to tell us we didn’t belong.

When I experienced the sting of discrimination as a child in elementary school and even as an undergraduate in Georgia, my mom was there. She reminded me that the struggle only makes us stronger.

When asked why she refused to move, Claudette Colvin said — quote — “I was tired of hoping for justice. When the moment came, I was ready.”

And you are ready. 

You have served those in need with your work at the Immigration Law Clinic, defended the Constitution at the Civil Rights Clinic, empowered local community members at the Small Farmer Clinic, and more.

You trained in Moot Court and the King Hall Negotiations team. 

And you studied with a faculty that knows the law must serve every community, that it must be a tool for serving those in need, and that it must give voice to those too often unheard.

Claudette Colvin and the heroes of the Civil Rights Movement achieved so much, but the fight for justice must continue. 

The path you have chosen will not always be easy. There will be days when you will lose a case, when justice seems out of reach, when even the application of the law itself feels unjust.

But you will endure. You will continue to step forward.

As I look out on this exceptional class of students — who embody the power of diverse backgrounds and ways of thinking to achieve incredible results — I have no doubt….

You are ready.

I know you will take the training you learned here at UC Davis School of Law and be champions for a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.

Just like Claudette Colvin moved us closer to justice with one simple act, the 2025 graduates of UC Davis School of Law will continue the fight for justice in their communities, the nation, and the world — one act of courage at a time.

You are ready.

Congratulations to the remarkable Class of 2025!