The May 11 ceremony honoring the Class of 2026 provided a unique twist: The alumna who addressed the graduates was the person who admitted each JD candidate and oversaw the office admitting the LLM candidates.
Senior Assistant Dean Sarah C. Zearfoss, ’92, who has led the Office of Admissions since 2001, stressed the importance of crafting a class based on more than metrics. “I will end my career without anyone ever complimenting me on an LSAT score—but I have heard endless praise of the humanity of the people who join us here.”
Zearfoss told the graduates that the human qualities that made them click as a class will help them navigate professional practice. She cited her mother’s advice about getting along with others: “There is no such thing as a useless friend or a harmless enemy.”
Zearfoss said the words go beyond the notion of civility and challenge us to consider the cost of alienating people. “Try to make as many friends as you can, but don’t let your healthy reluctance to make enemies be the excuse for not doing what you know to be right.”
Ruben Mendoza Piñuelas, a JD candidate, spoke about being the victim of those who chose not to do the right thing. He was wrongfully convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, and he successfully argued his own appeal. “The worst injustice is not as rare as we’d like to believe,” he said, pausing to recognize a group of exonerees who attended the ceremony. Among them was George Calicut, whom Piñuelas helped exonerate in March as a student-attorney in the Michigan Innocence Clinic.
“We are living proof that the law can harm or help,” Piñuelas said. “I share my story [so you can] reimagine the possibilities, reimagine what the legal system teaches us justice should look like, and reimagine your roles within that system.”
