Commencement for the Class of 2009 will be held at the beautiful Bill Graham Civic Auditorium near UC Hastings Law.

Bill Graham Civic Auditorium
99 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA  94102

Commencement Speaker: Congresswoman Jackie Speier '76, U.S. House of Representatives, 12th District. A bio on Representative Speier can be found below. 

Commencement is a ticketed event.  You must have a ticket to attend.

Questions?
Contact the Office of Student Services
415.565.4773
studentservices@uchastings.edu

Students eligible to participate in the May 2009 Commencement Ceremony must monitor their UC Hastings email account. All commencement related information will be distributed via UC Hastings' email distribution list.

About Representative Jackie Speier '76

Representative Speier was sworn into Congress on April 10, 2008 to fill the unexpired term of the late Congressman Tom Lantos. She represents California’s 12th Congressional District, where she has lived her entire life.

As a UC Davis undergraduate, Jackie interned for Congressman Leo Ryan.  After graduation she continued to work for Representative Ryan where she developed the love for politics and law that brought her to Hastings.  After graduation she rejoined Congressman Ryan as his legal advisor.

Jackie’s personal story is inspirational and her legislative career truly impressive.

In 1978, Jackie Speier accompanied the congressman to Jonestown, Guyana to investigate claims that constituents were being held against their will at the People's Temple by Reverend Jim Jones. While Speier and Ryan escorted defecting cult members to their plane, they were ambushed by gunmen. Congressman Ryan and four others were killed, including an NBC reporter and cameraman and a photographer for the San Francisco Examiner. Jackie, then 28, was shot five times and left for dead for 22 hours, until help arrived.

After her recovery, Representative Speier served for eighteen years in the California State Assembly and Senate, during which wrote more than 300 bills that were signed into law by both Democratic and Republican Governors. Her four-year crusade to protect consumers' financial privacy from the invasive practices of banking and insurance companies led to passage of the landmark California Financial Privacy Act, which was hailed by Consumers Union as “The strongest financial privacy legislation in the nation.”

Upon her election to Congress, Jackie Speier was assigned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on two influential committees: The House Committee on Financial Services, chaired by Congressman Barney Frank and The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led by Representative Henry Waxman.

Jackie Speier is a dynamic speaker and she represents the many possibilities that await our graduates.  Although I wish you could be graduating during an economic boom, Jackie’s story illustrates that even times of great adversity can breed great success.