Risa Goluboff ‘00
Dean of UVA Law
The new school year always brings energy and excitement to the Law School. That is particularly true this year, when, for the first time in eighteen months, we are able to gather in groups of any size without social distancing. It has been a joy to see you getting to know each other, and I look forward to welcoming our returning students next week. There is so much discovery and growth ahead of you—ahead of all of us—this year.
Law school is a transformative experience, and—with orientation, your first assignments, and meeting section mates and professors behind you—you are already on your way. In the months and years ahead, we will teach you the fundamentals of how to think (and write and speak) with the analytical reasoning and precision of a lawyer. We will offer you opportunities to work with real clients on real cases so that you can acquire the integrity, judgment, and perspective that you learn most effectively through experience. And we will expose you to the broad sweep of interdisciplinary perspectives—economics, jurisprudence, history, psychology, and more—that will enable you to see the big picture wherever your career takes you. You will leave here able not only to deploy the law as it is but also to envision what the law can and should be in the future.
Pictured: Dean Risa Goluboff. Photo Courtesy of virginia.edu.
For many of you, law school will be the capstone of your educational career. Make the most of your time here, all the while knowing that we will offer you more opportunities than you can possibly take. That is the beauty of a law school that boasts students who are the best and the brightest in the nation, world-class faculty engaged in groundbreaking and interdisciplinary research, and experiential learning that will let you put your classroom knowledge to work. Join a journal, take a clinic, do moot court, engage with the Charlottesville community, take on leadership roles in student organizations. As you do so, you will encounter some of the many career paths available to you, from trial lawyer to corporate executive, cause crusader to policy wonk to dealmaker. Imagine what these paths might look like for you. Try several on for size.
Just as important as what you will do at UVA Law are the people with whom you will do it. The relationships you build during your time here—with your classmates, faculty, and staff—will enrich your days at the Law School and will sustain you personally and professionally in the years to come. The vitality of our diverse community permeates all we do here. We come from different races, religions, nationalities, ethnicities, and cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds. We have had different life experiences and live different identities. We hold different beliefs, attitudes, and interests, and subscribe to a wide range of political views.
We bridge these differences with a shared commitment to this community, a shared aspiration that our differences serve as a source of humility and strength, empathy and intellectual stimulation. It is not always easy to speak so that others can listen or listen even when the message is hard to hear, but our community of trust and belonging makes that possible. Doing so is necessary to analyzing and solving problems, considering every argument, exploring every idea, arguing for your side, and collaborating with the other. It is essential to becoming the exceptional lawyers you are here to become—UVA lawyers.
Our robust community is also what has sustained us the past eighteen months as we have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. We have learned both that we cannot anticipate every obstacle that might come our way, and that we rise to them because we do so together. As we return to a fully in-person law school experience this semester—armed with our high vaccination rates and temporary mask mandate—we remain vigilant about keeping our friends, families, colleagues, and neighbors healthy. I ask you to be mindful that we each have different health risks and risk tolerances and to approach those differences with humanity, compassion, and patience. And I ask you to help us continue to nurture and enhance our community so that every member shares in the sense of belonging that makes UVA Law so special.
I look forward to seeing how each of you makes this place your place, and to the paths you will forge during your time here. This moment in our national and global history calls out for exceptional lawyers to lead our government, our institutions, our businesses, and our communities in ways that comport with the core values of our Constitution and our profession. You are on your way to becoming those lawyers. Welcome, and enjoy!
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risa.goluboff@law.virginia.edu