Future Wisconsin lawyers wait to be called into the Supreme Court for the swearing-in ceremony.

New lawyers celebrate at reception following admission to the bar.

Brittan Cannon signs the Supreme Court roll. Every attorney admitted to the State Bar since the state was a territory has signed the roll.

New lawyer (third from left) with her family.

New lawyer before roster of all new admittees.

Visit the State Bar’s Facebook page for more admissions photos.

June 4, 2014 – More than 110 U.W. Law School graduates were admitted to the profession yesterday. The lawyers were welcomed to the profession by Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley S. Abrahamson and justices Ann Walsh Bradley, N. Patrick Crooks, David T. Prosser, Patience D. Roggensack, Annette Kingsland Ziegler, and Michael J. Gableman; U.W. Law School Dean Margaret Raymond, State Bar President Patrick J. Fiedler; and Board of Bar Examiners Director Jacquelynn B. Rothstein.

Following the swearing-in ceremonies, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley addressed the new lawyers – challenging them to let the power of integrity be their rule.

Bradley invoked the words of Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Edward Ryan. Ryan, then a prominent lawyer, addressed new lawyers in June 1873, 140 years ago.

According to Justice Bradley, among those listening to Ryan’s remarks was Robert “Fighting Bob” La Follette, congressman, governor, senator, and presidential candidate. La Follette referred to Ryan’s commencement speech in memoirs written years later. He noted that speech was one of his greatest, and many speculated it is one of the reasons he was appointed to the Wisconsin Supreme Court a year later.

Ryan said, “I salute you members of our ancient and honorable body. I welcome you to no tranquil life, no cultured ease. I welcome you to a calling of incessant labor, high duty, and grave responsibility. If our profession be as I believe, the most honorable, it is also the most arduous of all secular professions.”

He continued, the bench necessarily depends upon the bar. A good bar is an essential of a good court. The strength of a lawyer is through thorough knowledge of legal truth and thorough devotion to legal writing. The power of integrity is the rule

Referencing a time when he appeared before the Wisconsin Supreme Court in days of terror during the Civil War, Ryan summed up “no country is free where the bar is not stronger than the army.”

Bradley drew a parallel between Ryan’s comments to a book written by her brother-in-law James Bradley about the courageous men who raised the flag in Iwo Jima in WWII. He believes that many countries have brave freedom fighters, but without judicial independence and integrity they will have no continuing freedoms. An independent judiciary is as much responsible for American freedoms as the bravery of our military.

“The backbone of our country’s success as a nation lies in the rule of law,” she said. “From the beginning of our nation, the law has been the great arbiter for us.  It has been the principle means by which we have been able to knit one nation out of a people whose dominant characteristic has always been great diversity. We are the melting pot, but the rule of law has been for us a means of defining, preserving, and forming a united America. Unlike other countries, America has no unifying ethnicity. We have no unifying religion. What unites us is the law embodied principally in our constitution.”

Bradley, noted former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter echoed these sentiments as well. Speaking of the divisiveness of our country he commented on the importance of the rule of law and of our constitution as a unifying force. He said, “The American Constitution is not simply a structure, though it is that. It is not just a bill of rights, but is a value system. The one common value system we can claim as a nation is the Constitution. That common value system is the counterforce to the divisive forces at work now in our country. It is only in the acceptance of that common value system that there is something to hold us together.”

In closing, Bradley said, “May each of you admittees strive to achieve the character described by Chief Justice Ryan,” Justice Bradley said. “May the power of integrity be your rule. May your strength as a lawyer lie in thorough knowledge of legal truth and thorough devotion to legal writing. Remember that the bench necessarily depends on the bar, and that a good bar is essential to a good court. And, finally, remember that the backbone of this country’ success lies in adherence to the rule of law.”

The State Bar welcomes the following attorneys:

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