The concept of “law” can conjure the image of an officer in a blue suit or a judge in a black robe.
But Megan Carpenter, the dean of the University of New Hampshire’s School of Law, speaking to the roughly 90 graduate students gathered under a tent at White Park on a rainy Saturday afternoon asked them to think about the law in a more brick-and-mortar kind of way.
“Law is the infrastructure of the civil society,” she said. “It paves the roads that allow the wheels to work.”
Though the sentiment came at the tail end of the School of Law’s 2018 commencement, it was a prominent theme throughout the day, as speakers – ranging from retired state Supreme Court justices to members of Congress – reminded graduates that the work they do could shape the country for years to come.
But in order to become the societal engineers of tomorrow, Congressman Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, said graduates will first have to rise above the economic, environmental and cultural challenges facing the country today.
“We live in a paralyzed and polarized world,” he said. “… If we don’t work together, this great democracy is going to continue to unravel.”
Ryan, who is running for his eighth term as the representative of Ohio’s 13th district, likened today’s society as a “dark age,” with people struggling to move forward and find common ground with each other. To get out of it, graduates would have to be courageous and rise above the “noise” that distracts people from the world around them.
“You must have the strength to take us out of the dark ages. No matter the challenges, you must answer the call,” he said.
Graduates won’t be up against just societal problems; they’ll also have to combat the negative perceptions associated with their field, said student speaker Vijaya Natarajan.
“I learned in India that when you say you are a lawyer, you will get glaring looks,” she said. “People don’t take (the profession) easily. I thought that was only in India, but it’s here, too. We’re considered to be a different flock.”
To be successful, UNH Law professor Buzz Scherr told graduates they would need to listen well, speak confidently, and show – not tell – people their skills.
“You may think you’re the smartest person in the room,” he said. “If that’s true, then you don’t need to tell people; it will show in the way you carry yourself.”
And if graduates were triumphant, their actions would strengthen society’s infrastructure, said student speaker Richard Steele.
“We have to make the truth matter,” he said. “If we don’t, your precise words won’t matter, the law won’t matter.”
(Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)