The keynote speaker, a treat for all those attending, was given by New York Court of Appeals Chief Judge Judith Kaye.

For the new admittees (yours truly included), Judge Kaye's speech about her long, gratifying and overwhelmingly successful legal career instilled in us both an eagerness to begin our new careers as well as, perhaps, the smallest bit of panic. Judge Kaye recounted her years in law school and how her good fortune in being a particularly unsuccessful journalist had so opportunely led her to begin a legal career. Judge Kaye is an excellent speaker and she is a very good storyteller. I doubt that I was alone, though, in wondering if I would ever find myself speaking to a group of journalists about a particularly unsuccessful legal career.

The list of notable lawyers from the area who spoke during the afternoon's program was inspiring but humbling for all of us, who likely wondered how we would ever get from where we sat to where they stood. The advice they offered was refreshingly useful, though, and most, if not all, of us, left with the confidence that we could avoid becoming journalism students.

When, at the end of the session, all 76 of us raised our right hands and completed the final, really final , step in becoming attorneys, there were a few hugs and many, many sighs of relief. After the anticlimax of graduating law school three days into bar review classes and of passing the bar exam three months before being admitted, it was more rewarding than I might have expected to walk away, finally, with my three extra letters: ESQ.

If you were among the new admittees and have not yet joined GRAWA, go to the website link JOIN GRAWA and complete the application form. You may gain some valuable connections in the next few months that will make all the difference as you begin your career.

JoAnn Wahl officiates as 76 new admittees are sworn in on Feb. 24, 2005.