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Cheryl Mills, senior vice president for corporate policy and public programming at Oxygen Media and former deputy counsel to President Bill Clinton, delivered the main address at the Northwestern University School of Law graduation convocation Sunday, May 6, in the Navy Pier Grand Ballroom.

The class of 2001 included 215 candidates for juris doctor degrees; 56 candidates for masters of law degrees; 18 candidates for master of law and certificates in management from Kellogg;

56 candidates for master of laws;12 candidates for joint juris doctor and master of business administration from the Law School and Kellogg Graduate School of Management;and 1 candidate for a doctor of juridical science. Although most of this year's JD/MBA candidates took four years to graduate, Northwestern recently became the only law school to offer a three-year JD/MBA with Kellogg, as part of the largest and best integrated law and business programs in the country.

In her speech, Ms. Mills shared with the class of 2001 her observations about the challenges facing effective leadership in this country.

"We are, as a country, in need of great leadership," she said. "Lawyers play and important role in the creation and maintenance of a civil society - and as you leave here today, you become part of the covenant to maintain it through justice, and fairness, and civility."

Ms. Mills asked the graduates to value humility, invest in the community, embrace diversity, and forgive political enemies.

She also challenged the future advocates and leaders in the graduating class to create civil leadership by bringing "civility back to the discourse of change in our communities," and to create moments for change with "creative tension."

"In moments of tension, we can change or remain the same," she said. "We can adapt now, or endure the hardships that delay inevitably brings. But we can never decide which way to go at the crossroads if our advocates and leaders do not urge us there - if they lack the courage to create such moments."

As deputy counsel at the White House, Ms. Mills gained national prominence for her defense of President Clinton during the January 1999 Senate impeachment trial. In September 1999, after declining an offer from President Clinton to replace F.C. Ruff as counsel, Ms. Mills accepted a position with Oxygen Media, a new cable television and on-line company. As senior vice president for corporate policy and public programming, she oversees Oxygen's philanthropic activities, grassroots initiatives and the Oxygen/Markle Pulse.

Also attending the ceremony were, pictured above from left, Edmund Wilson, Dean of Students at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management; Rita Aliese Fry '79, Cook County Public Defender, speaking on behalf of the alumni; Henry S. Bienen, president of Northwestern University;and to the right of Ms. Mills, David E. Van Zandt, dean of the Law School.

Dean Van Zandt introduced Isaac Robinson '01, president of the SBA, who presented faculty members with the student-voted awards for teaching excellence. Assistant Professor James B. Speta received the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence. Other award recipients included Professor Leonard S. Rubinowitz (outstanding professor of a small class); Assistant Professor Robert H. Sitkoff(outstanding first-year course professor); and Richard I. Levin, partner, Pekin & Levin & Associates (outstanding adjunct professor).

Professor Speta (right) presented Robinson (left) with the Wigmore Key, which each year is presented to the student "who has done the most to help preserve the traditions of the Law School."

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