Athens, Ga. – Sally Quillian Yates, U.S. deputy attorney general, will deliver the keynote address at the University of Georgia School of Law’s Commencement to be held May 21 at 10 a.m. on the North Campus quadrangle in front of the law school.
Yates, a 1986 magna cum laude graduate of Georgia Law, was confirmed as deputy attorney general in May 2015, after being nominated by President Barack Obama.
Previously, she served as the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia from 2010 to 2015. As the chief federal law enforcement official for the district, she oversaw the prosecution of all federal crimes and the litigation of civil matters in which the government has an interest for a district with more than 6 million residents. While in this post, Yates was appointed by Attorney General Eric Holder to serve as vice chair of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee, which represents U.S. attorneys nationwide and provides advice and counsel to the attorney general on policy, management and operational issues impacting the Department of Justice. Notably, she was the first woman to serve as a U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia.
Yates has spent most of her professional career in public service and has 25 years of prosecutorial experience in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. She served as the first assistant U.S. attorney for approximately seven years and, from 1994 to 2002, was the chief of the Fraud and Public Corruption Section of the office where she supervised the prosecution of all of the office’s white collar cases. Yates has prosecuted a wide variety of complex matters, and she was the lead attorney in the Atlanta prosecution of Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph.
Approximately 195 students will receive their Juris Doctor and two students will receive their Master in the Study of Law at this year’s ceremony. Additionally, approximately 15 Master of Laws candidates, who have completed one year of graduate legal study, will be recognized. In the event of rain, graduation will be moved to the Ramsey Center Volleyball Arena.
UGA School of Law
Consistently regarded as one of the nation’s top public law schools, Georgia Law was established in 1859. Its accomplished faculty includes authors of some of the country’s leading legal scholarship. The school offers three degrees-the Juris Doctor, the Master of Laws and the Master in the Study of Law-and is home to the Dean Rusk International Law Center. Georgia Law is proud of its long tradition of providing first-rate legal training for future leaders who will serve state and nation in both the public and private sectors. For more information, see www.law.uga.edu.