During the ceremony, Pace Law School will award 213 Juris Doctor degrees and 15 Master of Laws degrees to the graduating class. Pace University President Patricia O. Ewers, who will retire on June 30, will be awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. Hope Lynne Karp of Nanuet, N.Y., the class valedictorian and the recipient of this year’s Faculty Award, will address the assembly. The following awards also will be presented during the ceremony:

• The Dean’s Award: Anna Linda Marciano of Harrison, N.Y.
• The Dean’s Award: Karen Fassuliotis of Greenwich, Conn.
• The Adolf Homburger Humanitarian Award: Karen Fassuliotis of Greenwich, Conn.
• The Barbara Salken Outstanding Professor of the Year Award: Bennett L. Gershman
• The Outstanding Adjunct Professor of the Year Award: Louis Fasulo, ‘83

Seth Waxman was nominated by President Clinton on Sept. 19, 1997, and was confirmed by the United States Senate on Nov. 9, 1997. He received his commission and took the oath of office on Nov. 13, 1997.

Waxman, a native of Hartford, Conn., received his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude from Harvard College in 1973 and was a Rockefeller Fellow in Kenya during the following year. In 1977, Waxman received his law degree from Yale Law School, where he served as managing editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Following graduation, Waxman served as a law clerk to the late Gerhard A. Gesell, United States District Judge for the District of Columbia. Thereafter, he entered private practice with the firm of Miller, Cassidy, Larroca & Lewin, where he specialized in criminal, civil, and appellate litigation. Waxman has received substantial recognition for his pro bono work, including the American Bar Association’s Pro Bono Publico award and the Anti-Defamation League’s Benjamin J. Cardozo Certificate of Merit.

Waxman joined the Department of Justice in May 1994 and served in a number of positions, including Acting Solicitor General, Acting Deputy Attorney General, Principal Deputy Solicitor General, and Associate Deputy Attorney General.

Waxman has long been active in Bar, community, and school organizations. He is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professionalism, a current and past ex officio member of several committees of the Judicial Conference of the United States, an ex officio member of the American Law Institute, and a member of the Visiting Committee for Harvard College.

The major function of the Solicitor General’s Office is to supervise and conduct federal government litigation in the United States Supreme Court. Virtually all such litigation is channeled through the Office of the Solicitor General and is actively conducted by the Office. The United States is involved in about two-thirds of all the cases the U.S. Supreme Court decides on the merits each year.

The Solicitor General determines the cases in which Supreme Court review will be sought by the government and the positions the government will take before the Court. The Office’s staff attorneys participate in preparing the petitions, briefs, and other papers filed by the government in its Supreme Court litigation. Those cases not personally argued by the Solicitor General are assigned by him to other government attorneys.

The Office also reviews all cases decided against the government in the lower courts to determine whether they should be appealed and, if so, what position should be taken. The Solicitor General determines whether the government will participate as an amicus curiae or intervene in cases in any appellate court.

Mr. Waxman is married with three children and lives in the District of Columbia.