New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi to address 2018 Chicago-Kent graduates

The Honorable Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi ’92 of the New Hampshire Supreme Court will deliver the keynote address at Chicago-Kent College of Law's 2018 Commencement on Sunday, May 13. The ceremony will begin at 2:30 p.m. at the UIC Forum, 725 W. Roosevelt Rd., in Chicago.

Justice Hantz Marconi will be joined by two student speakers. Valedictorian Alison Heydorn will deliver the J.D. Commencement address, and Betsy Carolina Acosta, a candidate for an LL.M. in U.S., International & Transnational Law, will deliver the graduate address.  This year, 232 J.D. students and 84 LL.M. students are eligible to graduate. 

Graduates, their guests and members of the law school community are encouraged to share well wishes and photos on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #ckgrad.

Justice Hantz Marconi was sworn in as the 108th Associate Justice on the New Hampshire Supreme Court by Governor Christopher Sununu in August 2017, becoming the third woman to sit on the state’s highest court. She joined the court from the Manchester law firm of Sheehan, Phinney, Bass & Green. Justice Hantz Marconi is a past board member of New Hampshire Legal Assistance and the Governor’s Judicial Selection Commission. She graduated with honors from the University of New Hampshire with a B.A. in political science and was a member of the Order of the Coif at Chicago-Kent. 

Alison Heydorn, the Class of 2018 valedictorian, will deliver the J.D. address. She completed her undergraduate degree in genetics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. While at Chicago-Kent, she won several CALI Awards for earning the highest grade in her class, served as an executive articles editor for the Chicago-Kent Law Review, and was the vice-president of the Intellectual Property Law Society. She was awarded the Chicago-Kent Certificate of Service for her volunteer work. Heydorn completed an externship with Illinois Appellate Court Judge Bertina Lampkin through Chicago-Kent’s Judicial Externship Program. In fall 2018, Heydorn will join the patent litigation group at Winston & Strawn LLP. 

Betsy Carolina Acosta, a candidate for an LL.M. in U.S., Transnational and International Law, will deliver the graduate address. Born in Colombia, she studied law at the University of Ibagué. After earning her law degree, she worked as an associate lawyer for Giraldo and Lopez Quintero Abogados & Asociados. She came to Chicago in 2015 and worked as a paralegal for the Consumer Law Group. The desire to learn more about the U.S. legal system and international law led her to enroll in Chicago-Kent. After graduating from the LL.M. program, she plans to enroll in the J.D. program at Chicago-Kent.

Founded in 1888, Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology, also known as Illinois Tech, a private, technology-focused, research university offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, science, architecture, business, design, human sciences, applied technology, and law.

Editors: Please note Chicago-Kent's 2018 Commencement is being held at the UIC Forum, not the UIC Pavilion.