thank you so much for those kind words I am delighted to be here I apologize for not being here last night right before I was invited I committed to M seeing a program with the mayor and you know you don't turn the mayor down not when you're the Dean of the public school public appropriations being what they are and and I've got to leave tonight because I live in washington DC mecca for the legal world and we are opening the african american history museum tomorrow i need to be there for every minute of that so I but I couldn't not come i came last year and this is just a fabulous gather and you are so delicious so i just wanted to get a chance to say hi so i want to tell you a little bit about my journey as a lawyer I was so happy to hear from you mr. McConnell because my daughter just finished in the five and a half year program and I believe she did major in partying and you give me hope you really do you really do my journey I was a psychology major so I'll bet there there's every different major in this room and that's as it should be you can go to law school having studied anything at all it's a very general degree I got a job after college in lorton prison which is the what nations capitals prison I was the 21 year old white girl in a prison that was 100% African American prisoners and I don't think I was very helpful as a psychologist I helped some guys get their poetry published and I was a listening year and I helped a lot of their families get get winter clothes and that kind of thing because when Dad goes to jail sometimes the families fall on hard times but I didn't think I was where I needed to be and I am I was offended by the waste of human beings locked up for something they did forever ago it just was a waste I hated it I hated it and I felt like I could be of more use helping people to stay out of jail and I went to law school with the express idea of becoming a defense attorney so my first year at Georgetown on my way home from contracts class I was pulled over for making an illegal right here in turn and the police officer Rihanna Wales check on me and I had 12 unpaid parking tickets and so he put me in a paddy wagon it took me to jail the second District Police Headquarters where I was strip-searched taken in a paddy wagon down of the Women's Detention Center and strip-searched again I got out my sister bailed me out in the middle of the night and a friend family friend called me and begged me to go to the ACLU because they were looking for plaintiffs to end the practice of strip searching for traffic tickets you know I kind of felt like a criminal I didn't pay my parking tickets it but but finally she browbeat me into going down and and I walked the ACLU not feeling like a criminal but feeling like a soldier in a clause because it's not right to strip-search people for parking tickets that's not the way the government should operate and that's why i love lawyers I love lawyers I was a plaintiff in a federal case that ended the practice of strip searching for traffic tickets when I was a first year law suit I didn't do too well in my moot court argument because I was having my deposition taken but that's okay I learned what I needed to learn so I got out I became a criminal defense lawyer and I did that for ten years I ran a criminal defense clinic and I was in court all day every day tearing it up with our law students that's right walked a lot of people out of jail so I did what I wanted to do and I loved it but I love what miss Turner said you know she's done a lot of things and it turns out a law degree prepares you to do a lot of things I didn't think I'd ever think do anything else I blinked and I became an administrator I became an academic dean what believe me I could have been voted least likely to be a Dean in my class at Georgetown but I thought I but I became a adida i became a clinic director and I in my career I've gotten to be the president of the American Civil Liberties Union you know what they do right they protect protect uh they keep you safe and free okay that yeah so Google see I you because when the police are doing things they're not supposed to be doing the ACLU takes those cases and nowadays we have citizens who take pictures on cameras and videos on cameras and so the ACLU and other great racial justice oriented organizations can win cases because we have proof it's no it's just that you know the cop's word against the individual we win more now it's a wonderful thing so I've gotten to do legislation I ran a legislation clinic for a few years Health and Safety criminal justice and an environmental justice legislation you know you get to change the law as a lawyer it's wonderful and I've gotten to have gotten to be deed up in Dean of an HBCU for 18 years and believe me I never thought any of that would happen for all the obvious reasons I just what can I tell you you know I like can't explain it I want to tell you I've had a television show for 15 years called sound advice and I interview legal services providers poverty lawyers people who like me are on this earth to try to end poverty and inequality and clients and judges you know there I have people on to help folks learn where do you go when you have this kind of problem when you know your grandmother's the victim of predatory lending where can you get some help for that a hoop can help you who's going to meet you at the courthouse when you're the victim of domestic violence so I've loved doing that too I've olive lawyers that I love being a lawyer because I've gotten to do so many important and interesting and engaging and and life-changing things just personally it's been a gift so I can't encourage you to join our merry band enough so let me tell you a little bit about you DC it's not the generic law school if you want to be a corporate lawyer you can do at UDC but if you want to be a social justice warrior come see me you know email me s Broderick at UDC edu easiest thing about my life s Broderick at you dced you if you come to DC come by come see me and and my very bit we have the most commitment to clinical legal education of any law school every student is required to do 14 credits seven hundred and forty hours representing the needs of low-income DC residents we are statutorily required to do that our statute reads recruited and roll students from racial ethnic and other backgrounds traditionally underrepresented at the bar how cool is at mission we're sixty-seven percent students of color our faculty is over half people of color primarily african-american but we've got some other stuff and an hour the other part of our mission is to represent the legal needs of low-income DC residents to the maximum extent feasible through the school's legal clinics so we have nine clinics you wanna you want to be a criminal defense lawyer we got you you want to represent kids with special education needs and those who've been abused and neglected we got you you want to do community development help tenants purchase and renovate their buildings we got you you want to help low-income tenants beat back illegal rent increases we got you we've got a government accountability clinic we represent whistleblowers you know what happens when you blow the whistle on fraud waste and mismanagement right you get fired you need a lawyer to help you get your job back right so we got you if you want to do that important work we have a low income taxpayer clinic you know there are the government has all kinds of options for low-income people earned income tax credit is a wonderful option then they give you 70 pages of regulations nobody can follow people fall afoul of those and then they get prosecuted and the government tries to get that money back and families hit the rocks we got you we just won this week a six thousand dollars on behalf of a low-income family it's brings tears to my eyes that life has changed you know they have a health crisis they can get through now it's a wonderful thing we also Forge the first MOU of any law school with Cuba University of Havana where Fidel Castro went I went down there the June before last and and we spent several days being briefed by those Dean's women Dean's I might add at the University of Havana and they also have a large tank in front of the law school which I actually some days think is a good idea and in last January we sent 16 students and three family members down to Cuba for service learning we do service learning every year at Spring Break and sometimes in the summer this year will be going down you know in our in our wisdom this country accepts finds folks who who flee Honduras and other Central American countries with their moms with their kids often times and then they get to this country and we lock them up under the current administration i'm not happy i'm happy with a lot about the current administration but not that and we've said we've sent students and faculty down and walked families out by changing the decision on credible threat we got those folks to so anyway I want you to google us and take a look if you want to be in the nation's capital if you know if you want to actually go to the Supreme Court and hear the same sex marriage as I was proud to do here that case and hear the Fisher case I was there for that and many my students too if you want to be in DC think about UDC be a smart legal consumer it's twelve thousand dollars a year for a DC resident and you can become a DC resident in a year and its twenty four thousand little under that if you're not a DC resident it's affordable if you want to be a social justice warrior you can't actually graduate with massive debt you know that doesn't work because you're not going to get rich so you've got to be smart about where you pick and think about going to law school so give it a look it's a great great place and DC is the center of the legal universe a twenty percent of our class last year got judicial clerkships that's an initiative we've started we're proud to know art burnett and other judges in all across bc and help our students get those gigs we've got great pathways that lead to great parts of this profession so thank you so much for having me and and I hope to hear from you and I wish you all the very best