At UCLA School of Law’s annual convocation ceremony on Aug. 22, the year kicked off with a warm welcome for incoming students, who gathered under breezy tents that shaded them from the intense heat of the late-summer sun. Dean Michael Waterstone, faculty members, and alumni dignitaries greeted the new class members, who enter with remarkable resumes and a collective passion to create impact and sustain justice.

The incoming students include 330 who are pursuing a juris doctor degree (J.D.) as members of the Class of 2028, 255 who are working toward a master of laws degree (LL.M.), and 117 who are earning a master of legal studies degree (M.L.S.).

Dean Waterstone welcomed the J.D. and LL.M. students on UCLA’s Dickson Court, and he acted as the event’s emcee. He reminded them to dive into their studies with characteristic drive and determination, but to engage in the kind of thoughtful listening and respect that typifies members of a vibrant community of lawyers and lawyers-to-be.

“I love being a lawyer, and I love being a lawyer in this city. People often make fun of lawyers, but I encourage you to be proud. And make no mistake: The world needs you more perhaps now than ever. We hardly have to read the headlines to know this is true on so many fronts,” Waterstone said. “Law is central to all of [our] challenges, but it is also the lever for opportunity and change. … You’ve got a lot of work to do. It won’t be easy, but it will be rewarding.”

Student Bar Association president Destinee Dickson ’26 offered a welcome on behalf of the law school’s student body, delivering early words of mentorship and encouragement to the nervous crowd of people who were on the cusp of starting their legal studies.

“Sometimes the scariest moment isn’t when you’re failing, it’s when you realize you might actually have to succeed,” she said. “The hardest part isn’t getting here, it’s believing you deserve to stay, and having the capabilities to do so. … We [at UCLA Law] lead with intelligence and ethics, but we also bring a different energy and positivity. We move with compassion and a sense of realism about what it takes to become a great attorney and scholar in the field. We have built our own golden standard for excellence by supporting each other.”

Judge Marisa Hernández-Stern ’10 of the Los Angeles County Superior Court spoke for UCLA Law’s robust alumni community and administered the Oath of Professionalism.

She talked to the entering class members about “ethics, empathy, and other values that have driven me through my career as an attorney and now as a judge.” These included the importance of mentorship, through which she learned “that through the law, we can develop a more just and compassionate society that promotes all persons and interests,” the value of putting people first, and “to zealously advocate for our clients, but never at the expense of our duty to be fair and ethical. … Being consistent, fair, and reasonable goes a long way.”

“I urge each of you to cultivate and embody a culture of treating all with whom you interact with respect and kindness,” she said. “Be magnanimous with your patience, your kindness, your understanding. … It is true: It costs nothing to be kind, and this kindness and respect, I assure you, will make you a very good and very effective attorney. At its core, civility is about basic decency and respect. So strive to practice in such a manner that you’re honoring yourself, your client, the court – that you’re elevating the dignity of this very noble profession.”

The credentials of the incoming students are impressive.

The incoming J.D. students boast stellar slates of accomplishments, and they come to UCLA Law with an abiding commitment to service, at the local, state, and national levels, in the United States and around the world. New students also include veterans of the U.S. Army, a White House news correspondent, an MLB draft pick for the San Francisco Giants, a late-night television comedy writer, a pediatric neurosurgeon, and a 13-year veteran reporter for the Los Angeles Times. There is a presidential appointee to the U.S. Department of the Interior, the CIO of a publicly traded cryptocurrency company, a Jeopardy! national college champion, a Bergdorf Goodman catalog model, a principal for the U.S.-Japan tour of A Chorus Line, a nationally ranked award-winning equestrian, and the president and CEO of the Black Opera Alliance.

Leadership is a defining trait of the class, which includes three Fulbright scholars, four Eagle Scouts, five high school valedictorians, and two people who graduated from UCLA Law’s Law Fellows Program. Among the class are 10 student senators, 13 representatives from student governing bodies, and seven fraternity or sorority presidents. The class features 11 mock trial team captains or presidents, 12 pre-law society presidents, 8 student ambassadors, and 11 editors-in-chief of student publications. In addition, more 20% of the class either founded or served as president of a student organization.

Class members have spent countless hours working and volunteering for organizations like Alliance for Children’s Rights, the American Red Cross, Bet Tzedek Legal Services, Earth Law Center, Food Empowerment Project, the Global Center on Human Trafficking, Habitat for Humanity, the NAACP, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Planned Parenthood of Pennsylvania.

The overall cohort of current J.D. students also now includes 36 transfer students who have joined as members of the Class of 2027, which is starting its second year, and three visiting students who will wrap up their legal education at UCLA Law.

The new LL.M. students come from 47 countries, and they are already lawyers in various areas of practice and work.

They hold law degrees from the Sorbonne, the University of Tokyo, McGill University, the University of Sydney, Seoul National University, Humboldt University of Berlin, University College Dublin, and Renmin University, as well as UCLA, Columbia University, Cornell University, and many other leading foreign and domestic schools.

Their experience spans the spectrum of top international law firms, national governments, and business fields. Six are Fulbright scholars, which is the largest cohort of Fulbright scholars in any UCLA academic department on campus this year. There are prosecutors from Brazil, Chile, and Korea, and judges from Japan and Korea. Two students are Health and Human Rights Fellows (from India and Kenya) and two are Critical Race Studies Fellows (from Australia and India).

In addition, 10 foreign exchange students join the law school community from partner schools in Austria, China, France, Germany, Israel, and Spain.

Members of the incoming M.L.S. class are accomplished professionals who are attending UCLA Law to earn a degree that allows them to master legal principles and advance their careers but does not qualify them to practice law. During the second year of the program’s online or hybrid model of education, 59 incoming students are pursuing their degrees online, and 58 chose the hybrid option, with 68% of all new students residing outside of the Los Angeles area.

New M.L.S. students include many accomplished executives and professionals: 32% hold advanced degrees, nearly 1 in 5 are chief executives or vice presidents, and about one third are directors or managers. They include multiple professors, a bilingual national correspondent for CNN, an education reporter at The Desert Sun, a vice president at Paramount, a principal civil engineer for the city of West Hollywood, a senior analytical linguist at Google, a research associate at Cedars-Sinai Human Microbiome Research Institute, a brand strategy execution consultant for EA Sports, two students who are pursuing the joint M.D./M.L.S., and eight UCLA student-athletes.