Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to Deliver Commencement Address for Capital University Law School

May 12, 2008

Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner will deliver Capital University Law School’s 2008 Commencement address.

The Law School commencement and hooding ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 18, 2008, at 2 p.m. at the Ohio Theatre, located at 39 E. State St., in Downtown Columbus. Approximately 200 students will participate.

Brunner is a 1983 graduate of the Law School and the 2007 recipient of its Distinguished Alumnus of the Year Award. As Ohio’s first woman to serve as secretary of state, she brings a unique perspective and exceptional credentials to her role as Ohio’s top election official. Brunner’s prior service as legislative counsel for the Secretary of State’s Office, 13 years of election law private practice experience, years of service as a Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge, and past experience as a member of the Franklin County Board of Elections clearly demonstrate her ability to be an effective and fair secretary of state.

Brunner has pledged elections for Ohio that are free, fair, open and honest. She will ensure the accuracy and equal distribution of voting machines and enforce laws against voter intimidation and fraud. Brunner’s stated four goals for her first term of office are to restore trust to Ohio elections, ensure business filings that are quick, efficient and easy to retrieve, protect social security numbers from disclosure and create and maintain a life-quality index to better the lives of all Ohioans.

In 2008, Brunner was awarded the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, the nation's most prestigious honor for elected public servants. The award seeks to make Americans aware of the conscientious and courageous acts of their public servants, and to encourage elected officials to choose principles over partisanship – to do what is right, rather than what is expedient.

Located in Columbus, Ohio, Capital University Law School was founded in 1903 and offers three degree programs – Juris Doctor, LL.M. and a Master of Taxation. The Law School houses national centers and institutes, including The National Center for Adoption Law & Policy, the Tobacco Public Policy Center and the Center for Dispute Resolution. In addition to enrolling more than 700 law students, Capital University Law School also serves the legal profession and business professionals through certificate programs (mediation, dispute resolution, paralegal, legal nurse consultant and life-care planner) and a variety of scholarly symposia and conferences.