Contact: Darren
Johnson, Director of Communications
(631) 421-2244, ext. 383,
djohnson@tourolaw.edu
May 28, 2006
Nassau D.A. Kathleen Rice Keynotes Commencement
Alum Tells 233 Graduates to Keep Their Moral Compass
New York, N.Y. –
Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice told graduates to
keep their moral compass and advocate for society’s underdogs in
her keynote address at Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law
Center’s 24th Annual Commencement on Sunday, May 28,
at Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, in New York City. Two
hundred thirty three students received their law degrees in the
ceremony.
“I graduated from Touro Law School in 1992 knowing one thing: I
had a law degree. I knew I had a tool in my hands that was
powerful, that people respected, and that I respected," she
said. “While I knew the value of a law degree, and the hard work
and sacrifices I made during my three years at Touro, I had yet
to realize that for some who go to law school, maybe for the
wrong reason or for someone else's reason, this degree would be
a tool used not in the defense of rights or decency, but instead
toward divisiveness and greed.
“When I walked out of those doors you see behind you today, a
mere 14 years ago, I had a law degree which provided an infinite
opportunity to do good, and an equal amount of skill to do
nothing. I had no idea that my moral compass was still
unchallenged and that my debt to society was still unpaid.
“... [A law degree] does not provide a roadmap to righteousness
or a guide to moral accomplishment. That is up to you. You must
take your tools, proud of your accomplishments, hungry to do
good, and draw your own map to being a worthy graduate of a law
school.
 “You
must take what you've done and represent the rights, the claims,
and the positions of those with less fortune and less skill at
advocating for their cause.”
(The full speech can be found here:
Kathleen Rice's Speech (PDF).)
Four local residents received top honors: Debra Kruper of
Franklin Square is Full-Time Valedictorian; Michael Murphy of
Coram is Part-Time Valedictorian; Maureen Fitzgerald of
Huntington is Full-Time Salutatorian, and Lois Sicignano Rowman
of Stony Brook is Part-Time Salutatorian.
Kruper touched on a similar theme as Rice: “As lawyers, we have
a responsibility to zealously represent our clients. And at the
same time, we also have ethical responsibilities as members of
the bar. As we work each day to advance in the legal profession,
we must never forget that we must live with every
decision we make. And the one thing that will follow us
throughout our entire career is the reputation we establish for
ourselves as we begin our legal career.
“Along with the privilege of being a lawyer comes the
responsibility of helping those who are not able to represent,
or speak for, themselves.”
Murphy told his fellow classmates about the value of finding
role models as they begin their legal careers: “I can tell you
that my role model was my father, who was a Special Agent with
the FBI in Birmingham, Alabama, in the early 1960s. He would
tell me the stories of investigating the Ku Klux Klan’s
activities, including the 1963 Sixteenth Street Church Bombing
in which four African-American girls were killed. My father
would relay the sense of hopelessness felt by a class of people
in the city of Birmingham who could not receive full protection
of the laws. In 2002, my father testified in the trial of Bobby
Frank Cherry, who was subsequently convicted and sentenced to
life in prison for his role in the Sixteenth Street Church
Bombing. With pride, my father said that although justice was
delayed, it was not denied. Once again, he had reminded me of
the power
of the law over the lives of people.”
Murphy’s father passed away during December final exams. “I know
my father’s memory will be a daily reminder of that power.”
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.
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 40
murder cases. In one year alone, Ms. Rice prosecuted 21 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, N.Y.
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 Center, 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.
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Photos By Kathy Stanley |
