Excellence and Humanity: New Students Urged to Find Their Own Path and Embody Values of Legal Profession
The J.D. class of 2027 gathered for a convocation assembly on Aug. 20.
Gerken, who speaks to students about the values of the profession at the start of every year, acknowledged that preserving such a unique learning environment can be difficult. University campuses across the country are wrestling with tough conversations about their values in the face of deep-seated disagreement, she said.
But universities are one of the few places in the current political universe where people with widely different viewpoints are in daily conversation with each other, Gerken said. Essential to the life of a place like the Law School is to, “do the difficult work of being together in a way that allows everyone to reflect, to think hard, and to change their minds.”
“The bare minimum needed to preserve a learning environment like this is to ensure that every person must be able to speak and be heard no matter how wrong you might think they are,” she said. “I cannot emphasize how seriously we — and by we, I include every single member of our faculty — take this commitment.”
Gerken also told the students to commit to learning from one another and to push themselves to engage with all their peers, not just the ones with whom they agree.
“Learning from one another requires trust, mutual respect, and a deep-seated belief in one another’s decency,” she said. “Disagreement and engagement matter, but so does kindness, generosity, and a willingness to see the best in one another.”
Those values embody the best traditions of the School: excellence and humanity. They are also values, she said, that constitute the foundations of the legal profession.
“Lawyers must find truth through argument, fight tirelessly for what’s right, and offer empathy and humanity when the moment calls for it,” Gerken said. “You cannot be a lawyer unless you can understand — deep in your bones — what’s honorable in your opponent’s arguments and the weaknesses in your own.”
Gerken told the new cohort of students about how the commitment to the Law School’s learning environment extends to the alumni community, who she has been meeting across the country as part of the School’s bicentennial celebrations.
“Our secret sauce has always been our commitment to learn — not just from the materials in front of us, but from one another,” she said.
The 204 members of the J.D. class of 2027 arrive in New Haven from around the world and a wide variety of undergraduate institutions. Many hold advanced graduate degrees in subjects that range from neuroscience to the history of war. The class includes a NASA engineer, an attendee of Le Cordon Bleu, and an election analytics expert among a host of varied careers and experiences.
