Chief judge encourages grads to write their own story
Chief Judge Stan Baker speaks to graduates at the 2025 commencement ceremony. Photo by Dennis McDaniel.
Speaking to the newly minted Class of 2025, Chief Judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia R. Stanley “Stan” Baker (J.D.’04) said that it was time for the graduates to create their own story and to keep working on that story every day.
“Don’t mistake that diploma you received today as a license to end your education. Remain a student until you take your last breath,” Baker advised.
During his remarks, Baker also made special note of several key individuals who have helped write the story of the School of Law.
Baker centered much of his discussion on advice he heard from University Professor, Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor & Caldwell Chair in Constitutional Law Dan T. Coenen, who retired during the academic year along with Carter Chair in Tort and Insurance Law Michael L. Wells. After Baker delivered what he believed to be an exemplary answer to a cold call in Coenen’s contracts class during his first year of law school, he heard the professor say, “Now argue against yourself.”
Regarding this response, Baker noted, “What I’ve come to grasp in the decades since, that I failed to realize that day, is that hidden in those four words were innumerable values.”
Chief among those values might be that the student’s opinions, no matter how brilliantly conceived, could be wrong. “Have the courage of your convictions, but with the humility to admit your own fallibility,” Baker said.
In addition to retiring academics Coenen and Wells, Baker took time to highlight the change in leadership brought about by former Dean Peter B. “Bo” Rutledge’s resignation, which led to Dean Usha R. Rodrigues’ ascension in January.
“Now in Athens, better never rests,” Baker stated, borrowing a quote from UGA Head Football Coach Kirby Smart. “So where one legend exits stage right, another legend in the making enters stage left. Dean Rodrigues, we are so honored that someone so talented, so dedicated, so beloved will lead our law school during our next chapter.”
Baker completed his remarks by telling the graduates to create a story about which they can be proud. “Write a story where you have passion for the law, but the law is not your passion.”
