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Dale Bumpers (right), who was governor of Arkansas for four years before serving as a U.S. senator for 24 years, delivered the main address at the Law School graduation.

Remarks at the ceremony also were delivered by Henry S. Bienen, president of Northwestern University; David E. Van Zandt, dean of the School of Law; William J. Kunkle Jr., (class of 1969)(pictured below), speaking on behalf of the alumni; and Terry M. Thomas (class of 2002), speaking for the graduating class.

Faculty members received student-voted awards for excellence, presented by Rishi Nangia, president, Student Bar Association (class of 2002). They include Professor Robert P. Burns (the Robert Childres Memorial Award for Teaching Excellence); Professor Leonard S. Rubinowitz (outstanding professor of a small class); Professor Tracey E. George and Marcus Cole, a visiting associate professor from Stanford University (outstanding first-year course professor); and Richard I. Levin, partner, Pekin & Levin & Associates (outstanding adjunct professor). The Wigmore key was presented to Roxanne Torabian-Bashardoust, the student "who has done the most to help preserve the traditions of the School of Law."

The class of 2002 includes 208 candidates for juris doctor degrees and 17 candidates for joint juris doctor and MBA degrees from the School of Law and the J.L. Kellogg School of Management. (Northwestern is the only law school that offers a three-year JD/MBA in one of the largest and best integrated law and business programs in the country.) There also are 60 candidates for master of laws degrees and 29 candidates for master of laws and certificate in business administration from Kellogg.

First elected in 1974, Bumpers (class of 1951) has served four terms as a Democratic senator from Arkansas. He served as ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, where he was chairman and ranking member on the Agriculture, Rural Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee, and chairman and ranking member of the Senate Small Business Committee.

Before joining the Senate, Bumpers served two terms as governor of Arkansas, where he reorganized state government and trimmed state agencies from 69 to 13; doubled the number of state parks; started the State Kindergarten Program; and launched an initiative that doubled the number of doctors trained at Arkansas' only medical school.

After his retirement from the Senate, Bumpers served as director of the Center for Defense Information. He is now in private practice in the Washington D.C. firm Arent Fox. His legal and public policy practice includes providing strategic counsel and advice to corporate, trade association, non-profit and organizational clients on a broad range of international and government relations issues.

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