MSG - Law School Convocation - May 12, 2006

Friday 12 May was the Law School Convocation. The ceremony was held at Madison Square Garden and involved the "hooding ceremony" of all graduates of all degrees - JSD (PhD equivalent), LLM and JD (LLB equivalent). If you think Australian graduations are bad ... this involved over 900 students and went for around 4 hours. As a graduate, I really enjoyed it ... I did feel very sorry for the guests.

There was of course a procession involving bagpipes and banners.

As I graduated with the LLM (Corporations Law) I was the fifth person to be "hooded". Sanjay had to wait sometime before he was hooded and then we all had to wait for the 400 or so JD's to be hooded.

The process of hooding involves a faculty member or alumni taking the academic hood and placing it over the academic garment. I guess this is in replacement of what they do in Australia - i.e. actually hand you the certificate. Given that the ceremony occurs so soon after exams finish (48 hours) it is not possible for us to receive the certificates (because we don't actually know if we passed!).

Here are some photos of the procession and ceremony:

Fellow Corporations LLM students - Mariana (Brazil) and Alejandra (Chile).

Roman (my Venture Capital study buddy) and I ... Roman is heading back to Weil Gotshal & Manges in Prague.

The parade, waiting to file into the auditorium.

Images from MSG.

Sanjay leaving the stage just after he had been "hooded".

And images below, which remind us that this all occured in New York:

Above - in front of MSG. Sanj on the corner of 7th Ave and 33rd St with the Empire State Building in the background.

Below - waiting at Penn Station (34th St) subway station for the train back to the law school.

And then the crowd arrived back at the law school for the reception. Below - Rita and I in front of the law school. Behind us, the hungry, parched crowd bolting inside for the spread of cheese, fruit, breads, wine and drinks to the sounds of a live village jazz band.