TAMPA, Fla. – Cooley Law School’s spring commencement ceremony on April 21 not only honored the 22 graduates who earned their juris doctor degree, but also celebrated 50 years since the law school’s first class earned their degrees.
The ceremony, held at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center in Tampa, featured remarks from Cooley graduates who celebrated their achievements 50 years apart. Chosen by his peers, 2026 graduate Dylan Sanchez gave the class farewell remarks, while Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeff Swartz, a former Miami-Dade County judge who graduated in 1976, delivered the keynote speech.
“As future attorneys, we are stepping into roles where people will come to us during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” Sanchez told his fellow graduates. “Moments where they feel uncertain, overwhelmed, or unheard. And in those moments, we are called to serve.
“Service in this profession is not always easy,” he added. “It requires patience, humility, and sometimes sacrifice. But it is also what gives this work its meaning. If we measure success only by titles, salaries, or victories, we will have missed the point entirely. But if we measure it by the lives we impact, the people we stand up for it, and the integrity we carry into every room, then we will truly understand what it means to be great in this profession.”
After receiving a commemorative medallion as a member of the first graduating class, Swartz spoke about Cooley’s impact on his extensive and successful career in law, while connecting his experience back to this year’s graduating class and modern legal integrity.
“To be a lawyer right now is to constantly ask yourself, how do I make sure I’m doing the right thing? Sometimes you ask yourself, am I standing on the right side of history? There’s a simple answer: The wrong side of history will always tell you to be afraid. The right side of history will always expect you to be brave,” said Swartz. “Say what you mean and mean what you say. If you lack integrity, honesty, and candor, your future will be fraught with fear and trepidation. I implore you to be brave – as lawyers and as defenders of the truth.”
Since opening its doors in 1972 under the leadership of then Michigan Supreme Court Justice Thomas J. Brennan, Cooley Law School has remained committed to providing a rigorous and hands-on legal education that is inclusive and collaborative, preparing students who are confident and future-ready for a career in law.
During the ceremony, Cooley Law School President and Dean James McGrath thanked staff and students, as well as those who supported them throughout the school year. He noted that April 21 was also World Creativity and Innovation Day, which was established by the United Nations to recognize that human progress requires knowledge and imagination. In his remarks, McGrath explained how this connection relates to law students and the legal profession.
“Some people might think that creativity has no place in a lawyer’s work. But I believe the opposite is true,” said McGrath. “I believe that lawyers who forget it are the ones who stop being useful in creating positive changes in the law. The law is a living system, every landmark decision you all studied began with a lawyer who looked at the existing framework and asked, ‘does this actually serve justice?’ Every statute you parsed was once a draft that someone had the imagination to write. And every deal that didn’t collapse into litigation was shaped by a lawyer creative enough to find language that both sides of the deal could live with.
“You have the knowledge, you’ve earned it,” he added. “But I want you to hold onto something that your training may have tried to squeeze out of you. It’s that willingness to ask ‘why,’ to imagine ‘what if?’ and to believe that the law in the right hands can be an instrument of genuine human creativity; not just constraint, but construction.”
Additionally, Cooley Professor Florise Neville-Ewell was presented with the Stanley E. Beattie Award for excellence in teaching. She was chosen by members of the graduating class for the honor.
Watch the full Cooley Law School Tampa Bay campus graduation here.
Cooley Law School graduate Dylan Sanchez delivers farewell remarks during the law school’s Tampa campus spring graduation at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on April 21.
Cooley Law School Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeff Swartz delivers the keynote address during the law school’s Tampa campus spring graduation at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on April 21.
Pictured from left to right: Cooley Law School President and Dean James McGrath, Professor Florise Neville-Ewell, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeff Swartz at the law school’s Tampa campus spring graduation at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on April 21.
Pictured from left to right: Cooley Law School President and Dean James McGrath, graduate Dylan Sanchez, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus Jeff Swartz at the law school’s Tampa campus spring graduation at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center on April 21.