Alumni sworn in to state and federal bars
By Maria Iacobo
Photos by Mikel Healey
Recent USC Gould graduates took their final step toward entering the legal profession when they were sworn into the state and federal bars at a ceremony in Town and Gown last week. Several hundred family members, former professors and friends were on hand to celebrate with 106 of the newest members of the California Bar.
USC Gould had an 88 percent California bar passage rate; the overall California bar examination pass rate for first-time takers from ABA-accredited schools was 77 percent.
“We are so thrilled for you,” Dean Robert K. Rasmussen told the graduates in attendance. “This is my favorite event at the law school because not only do we celebrate your joining the legal profession, but you are sworn in by fellow alumni.”
In his remarks to the audience, Orange County Superior Court Judge Richard Lee ’97 confessed a few bits of trivia that added up to a genuine piece of advice. Shortly after he graduated, Lee was listening to a superior court judge when his mind began to wander and he daydreamed that he would be appointed to the superior court. He fantasized standing up before a group of lawyers and law students and thanking the governor for appointing him.
“I have an enormous fondness for over-the-top popcorn action flicks,” Lee said. “In the mid to late 1990s one such film that I enjoyed was ‘Demolition Man.’ In that movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger became the president of the United States due to an amendment in the Constitution.”
So Lee fantasized that it was Schwarzenegger who would administer the oath of office to him. Fast-forward 13 years, in 2010, “my legal career came full circle as Governor Schwarzenegger appointed me to serve as a judge on the Orange County Superior Court. I share this story with you because I remember sitting where you are, listening to judges making their remarks….I hope it inspires each and every one of our soon-to-be-admitted bar members that just because the chapter on your law school is closing, another one is opening and there’s so much hope and promise yet to be written.
“As members of the bar I challenge you to make a positive difference in your community. I challenge you to be an inspiration to others and to make outstanding contributions to the legal profession,” Lee said. “I am so looking forward to having many of you appear in my court or before my colleagues.”
Jean Rosenbluth ’93, United States Magistrate Judge for the Central District of California, delivered the oath for the federal court. Prior to her appointment to the bench in the fall of 2011, Rosenbluth served as the director of the Legal Writing and Advocacy program at USC Gould and as a clinical professor of law. She noted that the Class of 2012 is the last group of students she instructed and that it was a wonderful opportunity to usher them into the legal world.
“From this point forward, it’s no longer about you and what you’ve accomplished, it’s about your client,” Rosenbluth said. “Everything is about serving your client. You have to recede into the background.”
Rasmussen told the graduates to stay in touch with their law school and with each other.
“You will get a lot out of your careers in a very deep and meaningful way if you remember that you are friends and colleagues,” Rasmussen said. “The relationships that you built here really will last a lifetime.”
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| Judge Rosenbluth '93, Dean Rasmussen, Judge Lee '9 |
Asking the graduates to “come back often,” Rasmussen told them that they are “Trojans for life.”
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