2011 Chancellors (back row, left to right) Catherine Ella Wagner, Andrea Leigh Fair, Grayson Elizabeth McDaniel, Jonah Davis Jackson, Isaac Edward Griesbaum, Zachary Taylor Padgett, Christine Marie Tamer, Kathryn Elise Semmler, Jeffrey Michael White, and Micah Rutland Kegley (front row, left to right) Jack Thomas Williams III, Christopher G. Hornig, Laura Anne Cathelyn, Kris Yue Teng, W. Lawson Konvalinka, Jonathan Louis Chaltain, and Christopher G. Granaghan.
On Wednesday, January 26, 2011, seventeen students were inducted into Chancellors, the University of Texas School of Law’s most prestigious honor society. Professor David Anderson, ’72, academic advisor to the Chancellors for more than a quarter century, presided at the ceremony.
Dean Larry Sager welcomed and congratulated the Chancellors, and thanked their families. “This is a wonderful distinction, one that carries the special patina of a long and storied history,” Sager said. “Being a Chancellor is a badge of honor.”
Gregg Costa, ’99, addressed this year’s Chancellors.
Former Chancellor Gregg Costa, ’99, was this year’s guest speaker. Following his graduation from the Law School, Costa served as a law clerk to the Honorable A. Raymond Randolph of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court. He served as a Bristow Fellow at the Office of the Solicitor General, Department of Justice, and as an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges. He now practices in the United States Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Texas, in Houston, as an assistant United States attorney.
Before Costa came to law school, he taught fourth grade in Sunflower County, Mississippi, through Teach for America. His work there inspired him to cofound, with a Teach for America colleague, the Sunflower County Freedom Project in 1998. The program provides challenging, achievement-oriented academic enrichment programs to young people in Sunflower County and helps them prepare for college.
Costa shared some wisdom from one of his favorite professors—then professor, now University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers—who counseled him never to forget his reasons for coming to law school in the first place. “What you’ve earned,” Costa said, “is the freedom to pursue a legal career that is going to excite and challenge you. I knew before I went to Law School that I wanted to prosecute white-collar crime, and being a chancellor gave me the opportunity achieve that goal. By remembering the inspiration that led me to law school in the first place, I ended up with the perfect practice for me. Following your own inspiration will keep your practice meaningful as the years unfold.”
Chancellors was organized in 1912. Each year the sixteen law students with the highest grade point averages at the end of their first two years of study are inducted into the honor society. In the case of a tie in grade-point average, as happened this year, more than sixteen students can become Chancellors, and more than one student can hold an officer’s title.
The Chancellors with the four highest grade point averages are officers of the society for their year: Grand Chancellor, Vice Chancellor, Clerk, and Keeper of the Peregrinus. The rest are Chancellors-at-Large.
This year’s inductees are:
Grand Chancellor: Kris Yue Teng
Vice Chancellor: Christopher G. Granaghan
Clerk: Jack Thomas Williams III
Keeper of the Peregrinus: Catherine Ella Wagner
Chancellors-at-Large:
Laura Anne Cathelyn
Jonathan Louis Chaltain
Andrea Leigh Fair
Isaac Edward Griesbaum
Christopher G. Hornig
Jonah Davis Jackson
Micah Rutland Kegley
W. Lawson Konvalinka
Grayson Elizabeth McDaniel
Zachary Taylor Padgett
Kathryn Elise Semmler
Christine Marie Tamer
Jeffrey Michael White
Related links:
Chancellors
https://law.utexas.edu/juris-doctor/chancellors/
2009 Chancellors
https://law.utexas.edu/news/2009/022309_2009_chancellors.html
Contact: Kirston Fortune, UT Law Communications, 512-471-7330, or kfortune@law.utexas.edu