Rev. Brooks Harrington Addresses Class of 2010 - Texas Wesleyan ...

LAW SCHOOL NEWS
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Amy Batheja
December 13, 2010 Communications Specialist
PH: 817-212-4061
Rev. Brooks Harrington Addresses Class of 2010
FORT WORTH, Texas – Rev. Brooks Harrington, legal director of Methodist Justice Ministry and associate
pastor at First United Methodist Church, was the keynote speaker during the December commencement
ceremony for Texas Wesleyan School of Law, held at 2 p.m. Friday, Dec. 10, at First United Methodist Church
in downtown Fort Worth.
After an invocation by Dr. Robert Kenji Flowers, chaplain of Texas Wesleyan University, Dean Frederic White
offered opening remarks and presented two student awards.
The Equal Justice Award is given each semester to the graduating student who contributes the greatest number
of pro bono legal services. This year’s awardee, Brant Webb, completed more than 400 hours of pro bono
research and writing services for the 8 th Court of Appeals in El Paso. Webb has been offered a full-time
position as a briefing attorney with the court upon graduation.
Michael Huebner received the MacLean & Boulware Endowed Scholarship, an award given to a graduate
selected by the faculty who demonstrated high moral character during his or her law school career, and exhibits
the potential and desire to become a successful, ethically conscious attorney.
Each commencement, the graduating student body elects one of their own to give a speech. This semester’s
honoree, Peter Nguyen, expressed gratitude to the faculty and staff of Texas Wesleyan, as well as to the family
and friends of all of the graduates.
“Among us today are parents who have watched us transform from simply being argumentative to being
licensed, professional arguers,” he said.
Nguyen listed the top seven things he and his classmates will take away from law school, which ranged from
inside jokes from particular classes and professors to the number one lesson: a juris doctor degree.
White introduced Harrington, who spoke about how the graduates must begin to reconcile being a good
person with being a good lawyer. Harrington enumerated the many different types of good lawyers, including
“the one who knows best the law, the one who knows best the judge….”

But, he continued, “maybe you have the ability to be any kind of lawyer you want to be, but I’m telling you,
you do not have the ability to be every kind of lawyer you want to be. You have to start choosing, soon.”
He noted that often, in law and in life, being a good person is not encouraged or rewarded.
“This disconnect between being a good person and being a good lawyer is the source of much of the deep
dissatisfaction that lawyers do often feel about our profession. If you let yourself be shoved too far into this
disconnect … you will often experience this deep dissatisfaction as well.
“If I am bumming you out on your graduation day, I apologize.”
Harrington ended on a heartfelt, positive and encouraging note.
“I am 62 years old. I have been a Marine infantry officer, a member of a law school faculty, a federal criminal
prosecutor, an associate and partner in private law firms, a civil litigator, and an ordained minister. I’ve been a
breadwinner and a breadeater. I’m a son, a husband, a father and a citizen. I have played, I have been, all these
roles.
“But most of all, I am a child of God, a moral being, and so are you. That is not a role that you and I can slide
in and out of. That is who we are.”
After the keynote speech, White and Interim President Dr. Lamar E. Smith presented and conferred 57 juris
doctor degrees. Aric Short, associate dean for academic affairs, presented each graduate with a purple academic
hood, the color of which represents a discipline in law.
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