Contact: Darren
Johnson, Director of Communications
(631) 421-2244, ext. 383,
djohnson@tourolaw.edu
April 25, 2006
Nassau D.A. Kathleen Rice to Give Touro's Graduation Address
Alum Joins Over 200 Graduates at 24th Annual
Commencement
Huntington, N.Y. –
Nassau County District Attorney
Kathleen Rice will give the Commencement Address at Touro
College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s 24th Annual
Commencement at 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 28, at Avery Fisher Hall,
Lincoln Center, in New York City. Over 200 students are expected
to receive their juris doctor degrees in the ceremony.
Ms. Rice, who this past fall became the first woman elected
District Attorney in Long Island’s history, is a 1991 graduate
of Touro Law Center. In her address, she will share her path
from Touro Law student to a district attorney trailblazer.
A
Garden City native, Ms. Rice’s career has been spent fighting
for victims and victims’ families and advocating for a legal
system facing ever-changing challenges and opportunities.
“As a prosecutor, I was able to advocate for the most vulnerable
in our society,” Ms. Rice said during her swearing-in speech. It
was that spirit of fighting for justice that was instilled in
her during her years at Touro.
Growing up sharing a house with nine siblings, Ms. Rice said her
family life did not only teach her the art of politics, but also
the importance of education. “My parents’ strong belief in the
importance of education allowed me the opportunity to go to
college and law school,” she said. “It was there where I began to develop a passion for the legal system
for which I have so much respect. I was able to see, first-hand,
how the system could work and how the process affects the lives
of so many people living in this country.”
“We are very proud of Kathleen Rice’s accomplishments and are honored
to have her back with us as our Commencement Speaker,” said Touro
Law Center Dean Lawrence Raful. “She is a tremendous role model
for our graduates, showing them that they too can fight for
justice through a career in public service.”
Ms. Rice started prosecuting crime in 1992 while in the office
of the Brooklyn District Attorney. It was here Ms. Rice gained
valuable experiences prosecuting burglaries, robberies, sexual
assaults and murders. She was the first person in her class to
be promoted to the homicide bureau, where she prosecuted forty
murder cases. In one year alone, Ms. Rice prosecuted twenty-one
murder cases, thought to be a record in Brooklyn and in the
State of New York for the most murder cases tried in a single
year.
In 1999, Ms. Rice became an Assistant United States Attorney,
appointed by then-Attorney General Janet Reno to serve in the
Philadelphia office. In Philadelphia, Ms. Rice was able to
utilize one of the largest and most sophisticated United States
Attorney’s Offices in the country in her prosecution of white
collar crimes, corporate fraud, dead-beat parents and public
corruption, as well as federal drug and gun cases. In 2003, Ms.
Rice received the Director’s Award from then-Attorney General
John Ashcroft for Superior Performance as an Assistant United
States Attorney for the successful prosecution of corrupt City
of Philadelphia plumbing inspectors.
During the spring of 2005, Ms. Rice left the United States
Attorney’s office to return to Long Island and to give back to
the community that raised her and her nine siblings. In
November of that same year, Ms. Rice was victorious in her first
run for public office. Since the victory, she has been working
closely with other law enforcement agencies and with the many
communities of Nassau County as she addresses growing problems
like gang violence, public corruption, internet crime and
consumer fraud. Kathleen Rice is a graduate of Garden City High
School, Catholic University and Touro Law Center. She is a
resident of Locust Valley, New York.
Changes at
Touro Law Center
 Touro Law
Center is currently undertaking a bold strategic plan that
includes a cutting-edge new curriculum and a move to a new home
in Central Islip in fall 2006, adjacent to and working with
state and federal courts. The new campus will stress hands-on
legal education, expanding learning from the classroom and
textbooks into real courtrooms. The total cost of the project is
expected to be approximately $35 million. This modern,
180,000-square-foot law campus will be the first of its kind
anywhere and a national model. It will also be a cornerstone in
an effort to revitalize Central Islip.
Touro Law School, with a student body of over 750, welcomed
record-setting entering classes over the past two years.
Selectivity and test scores for the 26-year-old institution are
at all-time highs, surpassing national and regional trends for
law schools.
For more information about Touro’s full- and part-time academic
programs, call (631) 421-2244.
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