Editor’s note: This is the address Dean Nick Allard delivered Aug. 8 at the convocation for Jacksonville University College of Law’s Class of 2028.
The fourth is with us, the great class of 2028. Today the good and plenty 70 formally begin preparing to be Jacksonville Jedi.
When thinking about the potential for law students to become champions of justice and the rule of law, what keeps rattling around my head are the lessons about moral intelligence and choices that American philosopher and literary giant Flannery O’Connor wrote about 70 years ago.
Like the confident dignity expressed by the shifty drifter in O’Connor’s complex short story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” - “There ain’t nothing broke,” that despite human flaws and foibles, good people can’t fix if only they try.
It is neither grandiose nor unrealistic to believe that our newest cohort of aspiring lawyers can, should, and need to choose to become legal Paladins. That is, they can epitomize 21st century versions of history’s elite warrior knights and films’ fictional Jedi who fought the good fights for those who could not do so themselves.
As the legendary Paladins and Star Wars heroes did, our graduates can crusade in the name of justice and order, while honoring our own honorable profession’s strict code of ethics and responsibility.
We promise you new law students this:
You will be equipped with the awareness, knowledge and skills to use for good purpose, the most powerful tool humans have ever invented to fix what is broken and solve problems — a legally trained mind.
Your mission possible, should you choose to accept it, is to do your part in ways large and small, epic and routine, to make our perpetually troubled imperfect world better.
You may know the story of the Rich Fool about a wealthy farmer who harvested a crop larger than all expectations. The farmer decided to build bigger barns to horde his abundant crops. He planned to “eat, drink and be merry” for a long time. But the Fool soon died without benefitting from his material riches.
The moral of both O’Connor’s work and the parable of the Rich Fool is that greed and accumulation of material wealth are not what matters in living a good worthwhile life. Happiness, satisfaction and redemption come from how well you live your life, especially in the service of others. As highway billboards caution: “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”
Today in our difficult times, learning about and using law can once again lift us from fear, mediocrity, forced conformity and help us overcome our shortcomings.
rOur contemporary concerns and alienation from each other are fueled by vulgar and vituperative social media, by the ugly disfunction and discord of politics at home and abroad, multiple threats to our health and safety, not to mention well-being of the planet we share.
Yet lawyers can offer solace, restore the art of association and connection with others, solve problems and help generate justifiable hope for a better world.
They can inspire, console, guide, defend and protect individual people, families, businesses, government, as well as public, private and public interest organizations.
Lawyers are equipped to build bridges between chasms of disagreement, promote economic growth and opportunity and to advocate vigorously, but respectfully and peacefully, for what is right. In addition to doing well themselves, they are expected to do good as well.
All law graduates can and should advance the public interest, whether they become judges, public officials, prosecutors, defense counsel, attorneys in large or small firms, solo practitioners, advocates for unpopular causes, drum majors for justice, successful corporate counsels as was Abraham Lincoln, for example, or become business executives, sports agents, or enter any of the myriad fields outside of the formal practice of law where legal education is advantageous — even God forbid — a law dean or law professor.
The conceit of every generation is that the world has never before seen such tortuous challenges. Even so, the first quarter of the 21st Century has been unpleasantly complicated, hardly a joy ride in a pink car through Barbieland.
Understandably, students are troubled and distracted by the seemingly hopelessness of the many upsetting issues of our times. They may feel like our world is falling apart as if there will be no tomorrow. They might think: “What’s the point?”
But remember, without downplaying the seriousness of contemporary problems, the world has always been full of troubles, and it always will be.
So, be mindful of the purpose and the opportunity you law students will have to use what you are learning to make a positive difference. Let that thought motivate and sustain you as you work hard during the long days and short three years ahead of you.
We neither expect nor want the next three years to be the best time of your lives. Those days await you further ahead.
Instead, I promise you that we will do our very best to make law school the most transformative time of your life. You will decide which path to take and how to best use the exquisite instrument of your legal education.
Make us as proud tomorrow and every tomorrow as we are today.