‘Work to live rather than live to work’

After Kenneth Stalkfleet took the oath Thursday to become a licensed attorney, he did something every new lawyer wants to do.

He went to work.

The 26-year-old University of Chicago Law School graduate has, since his 2L year, worked at the Chicago Legal Clinic assisting pro se defendants at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.

Immediately after Stalkfleet took the oath at McCormick Place’s Arie Crown Theater, he began preparing for his workday.

It would be like any other, with one crucial exception.

“This is the first Thursday afternoon where I get to go, and I don’t have to say that I’m a 7/11 supervised by anyone,” Stalkfleet said.

“I just get to say my name, and that’s it.”

As of Thursday, 1,874 law school graduates are new Illinois attorneys.

In ceremonies in Carbondale, Chicago, Elgin, Moline and Springfield, the state’s newest batch of lawyers received tips from Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Rita B. Garman, Supreme Court Justices Anne M. Burke and Mary Jane Theis and others.

When the day ended, the total number of registered attorneys in the state was about 95,800.

The bulk of Illinois’ new attorneys — 1,489 — were sworn in during two ceremonies in Chicago. Burke addressed the crowd in the morning event.

“As lawyers, we have faced and are still facing an erosion in the reverence for justice — a loss of respect for those who practice the law,” Burke said. “Let us find a moral center, an ethical center for our conduct and our actions.”

To that end, Burke made four recommendations: accept pro bono cases, join bar associations, support charitable institutions and find a mentor.

“Doing this,” Burke said about the first three, “will accentuate your independence by stressing and steering your desire to seek more than wealth or ascension up the corporate ladder.”

As for finding a mentor, Burke cited the lawyer-to-lawyer mentoring program launched statewide in 2011 by the Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism.

“I urge you to visit the commission’s website to find out more details and contact information regarding these organizations,” Burke said.

Outside the Arie Crown Theater after the first ceremony, Northwestern University School of Law graduates Dennie Byam, 25, and Enia Gyan, 29, admired their certificates, which new lawyers received in manila envelopes after taking the oath.

“Everything I had to go through for this piece of paper,” Gyan said, looking at her license. “It’s unbelievable.”

Byam — who works for the Domestic Violence Legal Clinic as a Pritzker fellow — is studying for the bars in New York and New Jersey after this in case she wants to work closer to home.

Still she, like Gyan, was simply excited to be a lawyer.

“I’m happy that it’s official,” said a smiling Byam. “When some of the speakers were talking about law school and the whole process of getting here, and thinking about how long that took, it’s a great feeling.”

Brandon Barnett agreed. The 27-year-old from DePaul University College of Law is pursuing a career in criminal law. He does not yet have a job but is confident in the job market and enthusiastic about his prospects.

“The feeling of being in a courtroom is thrilling,” Barnett said. “It’s almost like playing a sport. When you’re a football player and you go out onto that football field and get an adrenaline rush — that’s me when I’m in the courtroom.”

About 200 miles southwest in Springfield — less than two blocks from where Abraham Lincoln once practiced — Garman presided over a ceremony that featured 60 new lawyers.

The second woman ever to serve as the top court’s chief, Garman called the Illinois lawyer tradition a long and honored one, noting both Lincoln and Myra Bradwell, the 19th century women’s rights activist who went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight the gender-based denial of her law license.

“Membership in this tradition is an honor and a responsibility,” Garman told the audience in an intimate theater at the Hoogland Center for the Arts.

Despite the weight of that responsibility, though, she told the new lawyers they shouldn’t succumb to the temptation to focus merely on their careers or disregard others from outside the profession. That goes especially for family and loved ones.

“Families and friendships should never be neglected,” Garman said. “Maybe there are some people whose work is so important that it justifies neglecting your family and friends. … But unless you are discovering a cure for cancer, achieving world peace or composing a timeless symphony, I can’t imagine what that work would be.”

Fourth District Appellate Justice James A. Knecht provided the keynote address.

His message: don’t get caught up in your own achievements.

“Now, by right, I am expected to place a wreath of laurels on each of you and to praise you for your hard work and tell you how wonderful you are. Praise your dedication, your intelligence and your character. Congratulate you again,” Knecht said.

“Not a chance,” he told them, eliciting laughter in the audience. “You’re going to have to find some nice person to tell you those things.”

His tone changed.

“If I praise you, you might make the mistake of thinking that this event is a destination, at which you have arrived. … It’s not an arrival and a destination. It’s the beginning of a journey.”

Knecht emphasized service to clients and service to society. He quoted John Adams, former Supreme Court justice Benjamin Cardozo and Cal Ripken Jr., the Hall of Fame shortstop who played for the Baltimore Orioles.

“In every speech or set of remarks I make, I always try to make some reference to baseball,” Knecht said.

“So I’m going to quote Cal Ripken — the iron man of baseball — who said, ‘I tried to love every minute I was on the field. I know that I am lucky because I love what I do.’ I hope you’re that lucky. I hope you love being a lawyer, but I also hope that you work to live rather than live to work.”

By providing service and following their passions, the new lawyers in Springfield already seem to be taking Knecht’s message to heart.

Kendra Hansel, a 25-year-old Sherman native and graduate of Southern Illinois University School of Law, began participating in a juvenile diversion program to keep kids out of trouble while she was still in high school herself.

“That brought me into the world of law and, in particular, into criminal law, and it just kind of sparked from there,” said Hansel, who works as a Sangamon County assistant state’s attorney.

Roderick Morrison, a 24-year-old from South Haven, Mich., and graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, said he’s wanted to be a lawyer since he was 5 years old.

“The reasons have changed every five years or so, but initially it was because I got to wear suits often,” Morrison said at a reception after the ceremony.

Morrison said he’s passionate about the legal issues in higher education — affirmative action and retention rates, to name a few — and wants to work in college administration.

Being a lawyer now, he said, gives him the opportunity to make “legitimate change in a lot of different situations, whether it be social justice issues or with clients individually.

“I recognized the impact that being a lawyer could have,” Morrison said. “And I’m excited to hold that position.”