State Bar welcomes 115 new members; U.W. Law School class sworn in at Capitol

June 21, 2006 - On Monday, 115 U.W. Law School graduates were admitted to practice. The new lawyers were welcomed to the profession by the Wisconsin Supreme Court justices, U.W. Law School Dean Kenneth B. Davis, State Bar President D. Michael Guerin, and Wisconsin Board of Bar Examiners Director John E. Kosobucki.

Family welcomes third generation to the legal profession. From left: the Hon. Leah M. Lampone, former Milwaukee Circuit Court Judge, mother; Attorney James J. O'Donnell, grandfather; Attorney Kevin M. O'Donnell, father, and new Bar member, Attorney Daniel J. O'Donnell.

Following each swearing-in ceremony, Justice Louis B. Butler Jr. spoke to the new lawyers. "We have every reason to take great pride in our profession and have a most solemn obligation to all others who have gone before us to carry on our functions as lawyers and judges in a manner so as to pass on this heritage undiminished and untarnished. On the matter of professional pride and integrity, I suggest that these are the two hallmarks that distinguish the true lawyer. I have not known a really good lawyer who did not have a compelling sense of pride in his or her profession and that demanded an uncompromising sense of integrity.

"We must at all times educate ourselves and conduct ourselves in a manner so that we can continue to point to our chosen vocation as a profession worthy of distinctive recognition. Law is the intangible force that makes justice, freedom, and progress possible. It is the law that brings order into the affairs of people and enables all of us to lift our sights, to develop the arts, to pursue knowledge, to enjoy life among our fellow citizens. Law gives us the individual security that we can obtain in no other way. It is the cement that holds our free society together. Law is not the end in and of itself, it is a means to an end. Our legal system is simply an attempt to institutionalize our sense of justice and to free us from the terror of the unpredictability of arbitrary force.

"As attorney Edward Bennett Williams said, 'Constructing the peace is the most important test that confronts mankind in this era. It can only be built with law, for peace is the tranquility of order and without law there can be no order.' You will be asked to serve in many capacities outside of the law, and I encourage you to be of such service to your community.

"You now belong to a profession that is, in part, directed to the resolution of disputes. You will be dealing with people who are embroiled in conflict, whose attentions will be centered on that conflict. For many clients, the problem that compelled him or her to come to you will be a major concern. It will be a problem that has dominated thoughts and that has consumed energies. The people you serve will be dependant upon you to shape, direct, and resolve that conflict. Your responsibilities will extend far beyond the application of legal principles to that conflict, a skill you have spent the last three years developing. All who place their trust and their cause in your hands have a right to expect the best from you. You must guide your client with practical advice as well as legal theory to a reasonable resolution of the conflict. As Abraham Lincoln said, 'It is as a peacemaker that the lawyer has a superior opportunity to be a great man or woman.' At each step you will have to remember that the case is not yours, the case belongs to your client.

"There are many reasons why each of you has chosen to pursue a career in the legal profession. In preparing to speak to you today, I thought back over my own life and career, and I reflected back as to why I had chosen the law as a career. I think back to 1961 when I was eight years old, listening to a speech given by the newly elected president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, at his inauguration. I will never forget his call to service: 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' I knew then that I would have to do something with my life to give back to society. As I got older and had an opportunity to observe our society – at its best and at its worst – I came to believe more and more, that each person should have every opportunity that life presents to each of us.  I recall the excitement that I felt when I heard Dr. Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.