News Releases

University of Maine School of Law Commencement

May 21, 2004

Maine District Court Judge Rick E. Lawrence will give the commencement address at the University of Maine School of Law Commencement being held 10 a.m., this Saturday, May 22, at Merrill Auditorium, Portland.

Lawrence received a bachelor's degree in political science from Yale University, and is a graduate of Harvard Law School. He has been a Maine District Court judge for the Androscoggin, Cumberland, Oxford and York County Courts since 2000.

There are 82 graduates receiving degrees this year, and 77 of them will be at the ceremony.

The L. Kinvin Wroth Distinguished Alumni Award will be presented to Paula Silsby ('76), who is the U.S. attorney for the District of Maine. Silsby, a native of Ellsworth whose great-grandfather, both grandfathers, and father all practiced law, was the commencement speaker for the School in 1996.

Each year, the graduates choose one of their own to be student commencement speaker. This year's speaker, Stephen Johnson, is a native of Wichita, Kansas, who holds both bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy. While enrolled in a Ph.D. program in philosophy at the University of Illinois, he worked as a clinical bioethicist at a 300-bed trauma and perinatal care center, and a 300-physician clinic. He has taught undergraduate courses in bioethics, philosophy, ethics, logic, literature, and philosophy of religion. Instead of completing his dissertation, he chose law school as a way to deepen his understanding of the intersection of law, medicine, and ethics. Johnson has accepted a position at the Augusta law firm of Kozak and Gayer.

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