June 4, 2012
Declaring that compromise is vital to social harmony, longtime labor advocate Eugene D. Orza, Esq., ’73L addressed more than 300 new graduates of St. John’s School of Law on June 3 during Commencement Exercises on the Queens, NY, campus.
Some 3,500 family, friends, faculty, administrators, staff and alumni gathered for the exercises, held in Carnesecca Arena. The Law School awarded 269 J.D. degrees and 35 LL.M. degrees. Margaret V. Turano ’77L, Associate Academic Dean and Professor of Law, served as Director of Proceedings.
Michael A. Simons, Dean of the Law School, welcomed the students with “a teacher’s pride.” Dean Simons noted that he and the students took their three-year journey together: He embarked on his deanship just as the students began their legal studies. Recounting the classroom and co-curricular achievements of the Class of 2012, he highlighted the more than 1,000 hours they collectively volunteered to assist the community’s destitute, neglected and dispossessed through the Law School’s clinics and service initiatives ― activities embodying St. John’s Vincentian heritage and mission.
“You are ready to join the legal profession,” Dean Simons told the graduates, adding that their law degrees give them a tremendous opportunity to make a difference in and the power to change the world. He added that, as they embark upon their careers, they face many challenges.
“The most immediate challenge is beginning your career as the legal economy is still emerging from the Great Recession,” Dean Simons said. “But even as the recession eases, and it will, you will face other challenges. And I don’t just mean the challenges of finding a job, or winning a case or closing the deal. I mean those of doing the right thing, of using your power as a lawyer to do justice. If you meet that challenge, then you will have made for yourself not just a career, but a life of which you can be truly proud.”
Addressing the students, Orza, a former COO of the Major League Baseball Players Association who also served in senior positions on the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), said he was humbled to stand before them as they received their law degrees from a “truly great institution with a truly great faculty.” He said that no city on earth captures diversity better than New York City, and that students should not underestimate how much attending law school here will enhance their legal careers.
Rev. Donald J. Harrington, C.M., President of St. John’s University, presented Orza with the degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa. A self-proclaimed “Son of the South Bronx” whose mother never graduated from high school and whose grandmother could not read or write in English or her native Italian, Orza served as Articles Editor for the St. John’s Law Review. He sowed the seeds for his future career at the NLRB and the Players Association by helping to establish the Law School’s Labor Relations and Employment Law Society.
In 2003, St. John’s awarded Orza the Alumni Outstanding Achievement Medal. Last year, the Law School’s Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law Society presented him with the Joseph J. Beard Distinguished Alumni Award for outstanding achievement in the field.
Mary Vitale ’12L said she found his words inspiring. “I’m glad Mr. Orza offered us such practical advice,” she said. “That’s exactly what we need.” Reflecting on Orza’s remarks on diversity, she added: “I’m from New York City, and diversity is the main reason why I chose to come to St. John’s.”
After Orza’s remarks, Thomas J. Principe ’73L, President of the Alumni Association Board of Directors, welcomed the Class of 2012 to the Law School alumni family. Principe was a reservist in the United States Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Office for 33 years. Upon retiring, he earned the Army’s Legion of Merit and New York State’s Conspicuous Service Medal. He and the attendees applauded new graduates who served in the military.
Ravin J. Shah ’12L, a member of the Law School’s Armed Forces Society, expressed his gratitude to family and friends for making his path to and through law school possible. “St. John’s has opened doors and avenues in ways I didn’t think possible just three years ago,” he said. “I’m looking forward to the future with optimism.”
Dean Simons presented St. John’s outgoing Provost, Julia A. Upton, RSM, Ph.D., with the Law School Alumni Association’s St. Thomas More Award for Outstanding Moral Leadership. The award recognized her 12 years of “steady, skillful and supportive leadership that has enabled us to stay true to our mission.”
The 2012 Commencement Exercises were dedicated to the memory of Thomas F. Shea, Professor of Law, who passed away in March — 50 years after graduating from the Law School and 40 years after joining its faculty.