From the Deans' Suite - 5/22/26 - "You are enough"

"Today’s event and alumni luncheon were awesome and inspiring. The strength, reach, and engagement of the CSU Law alumni network reinforced that CSU has built something incredibly special at the intersection of law, technology, cybersecurity, and public impact.
The energy of the community and the support I experienced from faculty, leadership, students, and graduates made CSU feel like home.”

This has been an inspiring week for CSU|LAW.

Working backwards, this morning we opened our email to find the wonderful message above from one of our admitted students who attended the CSU Law Alumni Association’s Annual Recognition Luncheon as part of our second admitted students day.

At the luncheon, she and several other admitted students experienced the event that best proves our claim to have the best alumni association anywhere. The sheer physical presence of nearly 800 alumni gathering to celebrate and support their law school was impressive on its own.

But they also heard moving tributes from family and friends about two titans in their fields, Jamie Lebovitz and Stephen Walters, who were recognized as Alumni of the Year, and from Jamie and Stephen themselves, who spoke with unmistakable gratitude about the role CSU|LAW played in their professional and personal lives. They also learned about the extraordinary work our Dean Wilson G. Stapleton Award winner, Professor Mark Sundahl, is doing with his students to shape the law of outer space.

Earlier that morning, those students heard from Cheryl King Benford, Avery Friedman, John Fitts, Brendan Kelley, Steve Percy, Alan Rom, and Allison Taller Reich, who stayed after our Spring Board of Visitors meeting to share their own impressive, generous, and often deeply moving stories.

Those stories clearly had an impact on our admitted students, convincing at least one of them to choose CSU|LAW as their Law School for Life.

Wednesday evening, we celebrated the life of a giant in our law school’s history: Dean Emeritus Steve Steinglass. Steve was a valued colleague, mentor, and friend to both of us and to countless others. We heard about Steve’s many accomplishments as a scholar and dean, but we heard even more about the way he loved his family, his friends, his students, and this institution. Retired Ohio Supreme Court Justice Maureen O’Connor, Senior U.S. District Court Judge Solomon Oliver, former OSBA President William Weisenberg, Steve’s former student and co-author Gino Scarselli, his brother Robert Steinglass, and his grandson Ben Hsu, all helped us remember not only what Steve built, but how fully he gave himself to the people around him.

Earlier in the week, we celebrated two of the most important milestones in any lawyer’s career. On Monday, our graduates who passed the February bar were sworn in as attorneys by the Ohio Supreme Court, officially joining this great profession. Once again, CSU|LAW had the highest percentage of bar passers recognized by the Court for pro bono service during law school.

Sunday was Commencement, where we celebrated the CSU|LAW Class of 2026. President Laura Bloomberg and CSU Board Chair Tim Cosgrove shared wise and generous advice with our graduates. Our student leaders, Valedictorian Gordon Meyer, SBA President Charles Volz, and Learn Law. Live Justice. award recipient Ivan Conard, inspired all of us as they shared their own CSU|LAW journeys.

And our commencement speaker, U.S. District Court Judge Benita Pearson, brought the week’s meaning into focus. Speaking as a proud graduate, a federal judge, and an heir to the generations of CSU|LAW graduates who came before her, Judge Pearson reminded our newest alumni that they now carry that same inheritance into the profession:

“Why am I here? I think I’m here today, graduates, to remind you that I, too, am just such an heir. Like you, I stand on the shoulders of every member of CSU Law who’s graduated before me and has taught me, whether intentionally or not. Just like me, you are enough.

You are skilled enough and committed enough. You have been given enough, or you’ve developed more than enough, to do what is necessary to serve and preserve the rule of law and to be the guardians of justice.”
 

This is the last message we'll send for a while now that we've reached the end of the academic year. We'll start back up as we get closer to the start of Fall semester. Have a wonderful summer!

Warmly,
Carolyn and Brian