Not even an indoor graduation could dampen the enthusiasm of the 1119 Law Center graduates - 456 LL.M.s, 661 J.D.s and 2 Doctor of Juridical Science recipients - recognized at Commencement 2010. Plenty of proud parents, grandparents, siblings, spouses and children watched as the Law Center's 138th graduating class filed into McDonough Gymnasium on Sunday afternoon to enjoy the moment they had worked so hard for.

"This is a great day, isn't it? Everybody in this room deserves congratulations," said Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond and a justice on the United Kingdom's Supreme Court. "The new graduates, of course; their families and friends - without [whom] you would not be here - and even the faculty behind me, without whom you would also not be here."

Hale, who received an honorary degree along with Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, delivered the commencement address to those she called "her fellow graduates." She recalled how, as a young woman in 1960, her highest ambition was to become an attorney in Richmond, the town in England where she grew up. The first full-time woman judge, she noted, was not appointed in the U.K. until 1962.

Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit receives an honorary degree from Interim Dean Judith Areen and Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia.

And Hale described how, later in her career, she was told to choose between academia and the practice of law. She chose academic life, though it was her accomplishments there that led to her being appointed as a judge. In 2004, she became the first woman to serve as a "Lord of Appeal in Ordinary," - the equivalent of a Supreme Court justice. Last year, Hale and the other "Law Lords" officially became the "justices" of the new U.K. Supreme Court.

"In a rapidly changing world, you must expect the unexpected," Hale said, adding that the graduates now have the tools to do exactly that. "Anything may happen, so you must be ready to grasp the opportunities which come your way."

Why be lawyers in the first place? Hale asked the crowd. Not to be popular; the general public and politicians, she noted humorously, do not like lawyers. And as a judge, she's had to uphold the rights of some unpopular people - particularly those believed to be dangerous.

"We in the courts can't do our job of doing right to all manner of people without the lawyers who bring these cases to court," she said. "We need dedicated lawyers, who can recognize an injustice when they see one, and make the arguments which enable us to recognize it too ... we need the lawyers, and even more do their clients need them."

A Webcast is available here.

A Gallery of photos from the ceremony is available here.