RISA GOLUBOFF: The
first order of business for me is to introduce
you to Natalie Blazer. I don't think she actually
needs an introduction to you, the assistant Dean
of admissions. She is the one person I
feel certain you all know, but I'll give her a little
formal introduction anyway. Dean Blazer is a magna cum
laude and Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Boston College
and a 2008 graduate of this law school. During law school, she was the
editor for the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law. She was a peer
advisor, and she was co-chair of the conference on
public service and the law. After law school, she
clerked for a judge on the UN International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia and served as a
senior litigation associate at Weil
Gotshal and Manges before entering
higher education. Natalie served in
leadership roles in admissions offices at
Georgetown and Columbia Law schools before we lured her
back here a year and a half ago. This is where she should be. We are thrilled to have
her back here at UVA Law and delighted to
hear from her now. NATALIE BLAZER:
Welcome, Class of 2025, to UVA Law and your
first week of law school. It's hard to put into words
how rewarding it is to see you all here today in these seats. It was a long cycle. One of the benefits of
being rather short-staffed, as Dean Goluboff said. I feel like I got to know
each and every one of you, and that's special. So I was thinking
about what I wanted to say to you all this morning. I could tell you you're the
most academically accomplished, the most impressive work
backgrounds, the most interesting life experiences. I could tell you all those
things because they're true. But our amazing
communications team is writing that
article as we speak, so I don't want to
scoop their story. You can read it on the website
in the next couple of days. So, instead, I just wanted
to tell you a story. You're going to have a
lot of heavy things coming at you today. I wanted to tell you a
fun story, sort of fun, from my first week
of law school. I hope it will get you excited
for what you have ahead of you. So almost two decades ago, I was
sitting in this exact same room on orientation. Right after welcome
remarks, our peer advisors took us into a classroom
just like they're going to do with you
in a couple of hours. I think we had a perfunctory
icebreaker or two, and then, it was
down to business. They taught us how
to outline a case, and what to do when
we got cold-called. This was my biggest fear
going into law school, frankly, getting called on in
front of a big group of people. So I started taking
notes feverishly. I look around. Everyone else is taking
notes feverishly, and you could feel
the energy shift. The realization was dawning
on us that it was on. In two days, we were
going to be in class, and there was no going back. So I think the PAs could
sense this anxiousness and tension in the room. And at the end, they
said, very cheerfully, and by the way, the first
person in this section to get cold-called, we have a
long-standing tradition here at UVA Law. Everyone else in the section
gives that person $1. This really meant nothing to us. We were just so
high-strung, and we wanted to get home and do
the reading, which we did. So fast forward. It's Wednesday morning,
the first day of class. Our first class of law school
was 9:00 AM criminal law. It was taught by Professor
John Jeffries, who some of you will be lucky enough to have. He also, at the
time, happened to be the Dean of the law school. You can imagine
how intimidating it would be to have the Dean
teach your first year class, your very first morning class. And by UVA Law standards,
this class was enormous. I fact checked this with
our registrar last week. In Fall of 2005, there
was one first year class that had four sections
combined into one. So 120 people in
9:00 AM criminal law with Dean Jeffries. So we're all there. We're nervous. Dean Jeffries enters the room. He walks down the aisle,
and everybody is silent. He gets down to the podium,
shuffles up some papers, looks up. Does anyone want to
guess what the first two words uttered in law
school were in Fall 2005? Miss Blazer. No good morning. No welcome to UVA Law. No this is criminal law. Nothing. It was, Miss Blazer
followed by please state the facts of the case XYZ. Well, of course, I had
prepared like a maniac, so I answered his questions. For those of you
harboring the same fantasy I did that I would
answer, and the Professor would stop and say,
never in my 30 years have I heard such a
brilliant analysis of-- if it were ever to
happen to anyone, it would be you all because you
are the most impressive class. It did not happen to me
that day, but that was fine. It just happened,
and it was over. So I take a deep breath, and
I get a tap on the shoulder. I look down and down
the row, very discreetly underneath the desk, are dollar
bills floating towards me one after the other. And I'm like, oh
yeah, the dollar-- I had totally forgotten. And each dollar bill was
accompanied by little thumbs up, and silent
claps, and smiles. Even people in the room that
I had never seen before, the three other sections,
they were giving me looks of encouragement. Probably also relief that
it hadn't happened to them. So the day goes on. I study in the
library, and I decide I'm going to take those 29
crumpled-up dollar bills and walk down to Harris
Teeter, which is still there. I bought a case of refreshments
and brought them back up to my apartment in Ivy Gardens,
and I fired off an email to my section. I said, thank you
all for your support. I would like to spend your
hard-earned money on you. So please come over
tomorrow night for some refreshments, and
we'll celebrate getting through the
first week of class. Well, my roommate
said, are you crazy? You met these
people two days ago. They are strangers. You just invited 30 people to
our tiny Ivy Gardens apartment. I said, listen. I felt bad taking their money. No one's going to come. It's the first week of class. People are so stressed out. Maybe three or four,
probably nobody. Don't worry. The following evening, every
single person in my section showed up. For those of you who
live in Ivy Gardens, no, there is not room for 30
people in those apartments. They were out on the balcony. They were spilling
down the stairwell, out into the parking lot,
but they were all there. The most terrifying moment,
the most daunting thing, the thing I'd
feared the most had resulted in, honestly, the
best memory from my three years here. So I tell you this
story for three reasons. First, what I just said. The fear, the difficulty,
the challenges? Don't shy away
from those moments. Some of them, you will
have no control over, like when you get cold-called. You have to just
get through that, but there will be other
opportunities to take a risk, or to take a more challenging
course, or join moot court. Those moments are
going to result in the most growth
and the most learning, and, I think, also, the best
memories of your time here. Second, the traditions. This dollar cold-call tradition
is not even the best one. It's one of many,
many, many traditions that you will find here. I also realize it's 2022. I know none of you have
dollar bills in your pocket. And by the way, $1
in 2005 is actually-- I looked this up. --$1.52 now with inflation. And I know none of
you have nickels, and dimes, and pennies,
much less dollar bills. So I urge you to honor the
traditions if in spirit only. Maybe you have to Venmo
your crypto, Dogecoin, whatever you're going to do. But it's the spirit. It's really the spirit
of the traditions. That's what's going to tie
you to all the classes that came before you, and all the
classes that come after you. Last but not least,
this story, I hope, you realize is about people. The people of UVA Law, the
community that you have joined. Every person showed up that
night, and you know why? You have time. You have time to be
there for one another even in these
challenging moments. You are going to be stressed
out in here sometimes. You are going to
disagree with one another about real issues, issues that
might feel core to who you are. But don't abandon your
humanity and your decency in those stressful
moments of disagreement. The people here, I
think, are a big part of why you chose
to come to UVA Law. There's that law
school trope that I hate from about 50 years ago. The professor, on the
first day of class, says, look to your left. Look to your right. One of those people isn't
going to be here next year. I hate this saying. I'm going to give
you a new one today. I want you to look to your left. Look to your right. One of those people
is going to bring you notes when you're
too sick to go to class. One of those people is going
to stay up until 2:00 AM with you mastering the
exceptions to the hearsay rule even though they
already know it cold. Now look behind you. Look in front of
you, if you can. You are going to console
one of those people when their contracts
exam doesn't go so well. You are going to cheer
for one of those people on the softball field,
even if you yourself never pick up a bat or a glove. But you're going to be
there for one another. You for them. They for you. This community and
these people are one of the many, many
reasons I believe that you chose to come
to UVA Law instead of all those other fancy
schools I know you got into. Remember, you all told me
back in February, March all the places you got into. I know, and I'm very impressed. And I'm very proud
that you chose to join us here at UVA Law. And I'm really,
really excited for you all, and I hope you'll take
advantage of your three years here.
