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30th Annual School of Law Dinner 

Pepperdine University School of Law invited its alumni, faculty, students, staff, and members of the law community to join them at the 30th Annual School of Law Dinner on Feb. 3, at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, California. 

Highlights from the evening's program include the announcement of the Vincent S. Dalsimer moot court winners and a report of recent School of Law activities, accomplishments, and future goals by Dean Starr. In addition, the keynote speech was given by the United States Solicitor General, Paul D. Clement.

Paul D. Clement

To become the 43rd Solicitor General of the United States, Paul D. Clement, was nominated by President George W. Bush, confirmed by the United States Senate, and took the oath of office on June 13, 2005.

A native of Cedarburg, Wisconsin, Clement graduated from Cedarburg public schools and received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. He gained a master's degree in economics from Cambridge University before graduating magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, where he was the Supreme Court editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Following graduation, Clement clerked for Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the U.S. Supreme Court. After his clerkships, he worked as an associate in the Washington, D.C., office of Kirkland & Ellis. He went on to serve as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Federalism and Property Rights, before becoming partner in the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding, where he headed the firm's appellate practice. Clement also served from 1998 to 2004 as an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught a seminar on the separation of powers.

In February of 2001, Clement joined the Department of Justice. Before his confirmation as Solicitor General, he served as Acting Solicitor General for nearly a year and as Principal Deputy Solicitor General.

He has argued over thirty-five cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, Rumsfeld v. Padilla, United States v. Booker and Gonzales v. Raich. He also argued many of the key cases in the lower courts involving challenges to the President's conduct of the war on terrorism.

Clement biography courtesy of the United States Department of Justice.