UCLA School of Law celebrates the Class of 2026 in a graduation ceremony on May 15, 2026 in Pauley Pavilion.

Justice Goodwin Liu, a preeminent legal scholar and public servant who sits on the Supreme Court of California, will deliver the keynote address to the Class of 2026 at Commencement.

For more than two decades, Justice Liu has been one of the most respected and renowned leaders in the law, both in California and nationwide. I am so grateful that he has agreed to share his perspective, time, and experience with us. The son of immigrants from Taiwan, he attended public schools in Sacramento from a young age. He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from Stanford, a master’s degree from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a law degree from Yale. As a law clerk, he worked for Judge David Tatel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. He spent parts of his early career in the litigation practice of O’Melveny & Myers and in public service, in the U.S. Department of Education and the Corporation for National Service, where he helped launch AmeriCorps. Thereafter, he moved into academia, serving on the faculty of UC Berkeley School of Law, where he gained renown for his scholarship on constitutional law, education law and policy, and diversity in the legal profession. Governor Jerry Brown nominated him to the state’s high court in 2011, and he has served with distinction ever since, having been retained by the electorate in 2014 and again in 2022.

Date, Time & Location

Commencement will be held at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion on Friday, May 15, 2026. The ceremony will start at 10:30 a.m. sharp, which means graduates and guests will need to be at the venue by 9 a.m. The program lasts about 2.5 hours.

Guest Tickets

This will be a ticketed event. Graduates will not need tickets, but all guests will need tickets. Guest tickets will be assigned to graduates in Spring 2026, and graduates will be responsible for sharing them with their guests. Tickets are digital.

Livestream

Commencement will be livestreamed on UCLA Law’s YouTube channel (and linked from the Commencement webpage). The recording will also be posted online after.

View the 2025 commencement ceremony and other past commencements.

ADA Seating

All ticketed guests will be accommodated and there is no need to reserve guest/ADA seating.

Parking & Hotel Accommodations

Event parking will be set up and available for purchase in advance of Commencement, and we will send those updates (and post them on the Commencement webpage) in Spring 2026. Information on hotels that are on or near the UCLA campus can be found here.