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This year I share something with all entering students. We are both joining the Hofstra Law School and starting new careers. You are about to enter law school for what I promise will be the most exciting learning experience of your life. And I am returning to Hofstra as Dean of the Law School for what I believe will be an exhilarating time for both the school and me.
When I completed the first year of law school, more years ago then I wish to admit to, I said that if anyone paid me a million dollar to relive the first year of law school I would decline. On the other hand, if anyone offered me a million dollars to sell the experience I would refuse the offer. Law school will challenge you and cause you to think and work harder than you ever have in the past. You will meet faculty who have national reputations as outstanding scholars and thinkers in their respective fields. They demand much of themselves and they will demand much of you. They live and breathe the law and bring great enthusiasm to their task of sharing their perspective with you in the classroom. The late Professor Grant Gilmore, one of the nation’s great scholars, once said that teaching was either “brainwashing or garbage can stuffing” and he would engage in neither enterprise. Gilmore was right. Teaching is sharing one’s thought processes with students. Each professor brings a different dimension to the classroom. You will be sharing thinking - become thinking partners with our highly accomplished faculty. I envy you.
As for myself, I hope to work with the entire Law School community to expand the faculty, and bring innovation to an already rich curriculum. One can be certain that the practice of law a decade from today will not be the same as it is today. The technological and information revolution atop of globalization assure that massive changes are in the making. However, the skills of critical analytical thinking that you will learn here at Hofstra over the next years will be as current decades hence as they are today. The world will always seek out those capable of clearheaded thinking.
So welcome to the profession of law. For centuries on end lawyers have shaped public policy and affected the lives of myriads of people. You are among those who will do so for the 21st century.
Aaron D. Twerski
Dean & Professor of Law |