The 2012 Sunflower Ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 19, 2012 at 3:30 p.m. at the Frank Erwin Jr. Special Events Center on the University of Texas at Austin campus. Degree candidates, their families, and friends are invited to celebrate the accomplishments of the graduating class of 2012. At 2:30 p.m., prior to the Sunflower Ceremony, all degree candidates are invited to gather in the Erwin Center’s Lone Star Room.
This year’s keynote address will be delivered by Joseph D. Jamail, ’53. Jamail is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, where he received his BA in 1950 and of the Law School, where he received his LLB in 1953. He is the founder and owner of the Jamail & Kolius law firm in Houston. He is the recipient of many honors and awards, including the Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith Jurisprudence Award, and the Distinguished Alumni Award of the Houston Texas-Exes Association. In 1996, he was awarded the University of Texas Distinguished Alumnus Award and received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Law School. In 1993, the “Joseph D. Jamail Center for Legal Research” was named in his honor at the Law School. In 1996, the new pavilion that adjoins historic Townes Hall with the John B. Connally Center for the Administration of Justice was also named in his honor.
Jamail is most known as the famed trial attorney who won the landmark verdict in the Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil, Co. case. He has been lead counsel in more than two hundred personal injury cases where recovery, either by verdict or settlement, was in excess of $1 million. Jamail is an active member of the Inner Circle of Advocates, American College of Trial Lawyers, International Academy of Trial Lawyers, American Board of Trial Advocates, and many other organizations.
For more information on the Sunflower Cerem0ny, including directions and parking, please log on to the Sunflower Ceremony page.