On May 15, WashU Law celebrated the Class of 2026, bringing together graduates, families, friends, faculty, and staff to honor the accomplishments of our students. The day was marked by reflection and celebration as the WashU Law community gathered to recognize the achievements of the graduating class.
Student speakers Kavita Oza and Alessia Dal Lago delivered thoughtful remarks about their experiences at WashU Law and expressing gratitude to the families, friends, classmates, and professors who supported them throughout their legal education.
The ceremony also paid tribute to this year’s faculty and staff award recipients, honoring their exceptional service and lasting contributions to WashU Law.
Congratulations to all honorees and graduates on a successful commencement!
Learn more about the honorees and speakers below.
Kavita Oza, JD Student Speaker
Kavita’s path to WashU Law has been shaped by both the arts and advocacy. After graduating from George Washington University in 2018, she moved to New York, where she earned a master’s degree in art business and worked in art advisory and the nonprofit arts public relations space. During her time at WashU Law, she discovered a passion for litigation and will return to New York after graduation to begin her legal career at a law firm.
Alessia Dal Lago, GIP Student Speaker
From Trento, Italy, to St. Louis, Alessia Dal Lago’s path to the WashU Law commencement stage is one marked by resilience, determination, and purpose. A third-year law student at the University of Trento, Alessia came to WashU Law to pursue her LL.M. with a focus on negotiation and corporate law. After the loss of her mother in 2022, Alessia committed herself to pursuing her American dream with renewed strength, carrying that motivation into every step of her journey. With a passion spanning both law and economics, she plans to return to Italy to complete a second law degree.
Danielle D’Onfro, Professor of the Year
Professor D’Onfro’s research uses private law theory, history, and economics to study real property, debt, and emerging assets. Her scholarship has appeared or is forthcoming in leading journals including the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Duke Law Journal, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and she is a two-time recipient of the David M. Becker Professor of the Year Award. Professor D’Onfro earned her B.A. magna cum laude from Columbia College and her J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School before clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and practicing at WilmerHale.
Richard Finneran, Adjunct Professor of the Year
Professor Finneran teaches constitutional law, criminal procedure, and appellate advocacy and serves as head coach of the National Moot Court Team, leading teams to 10 national championships and 15 regional championships in moot court competitions. He is a four-time recipient of the Student Bar Association’s Adjunct Professor of the Year Award and has coached students to more than 40 individual speaking awards in interscholastic competition. Professor Finneran is also a partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP and a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri who has received statewide recognition for his appellate advocacy and prosecutorial work.
Brian Tamanaha, Voice of the Faculty
Brian Z. Tamanaha is a leading jurisprudence and law and society scholar whose work includes ten books and more than seventy-five articles and book chapters, with publications translated into twelve languages. His book A Realistic Theory of Law received the 2019 IVR Book Prize for best legal philosophy book, and in 2013 he was voted the nation’s most influential legal educator in a National Jurist poll of law deans and professors. Before entering academia, Professor Tamanaha served in a variety of legal roles, including Assistant Federal Public Defender in Hawaii and Legal Counsel at the Micronesian Constitutional Convention, before earning his Doctorate of Juridical Science at Harvard Law School.
Sheldon Evans, Grand Marshal
Sheldon A. Evans researches criminal sentencing, punishment theory, immigration policies, and the ways political theory, technology, and racial identity shape criminal and immigration justice systems. His scholarship has appeared in leading journals including the Columbia Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, and California Law Review, and his article Punishment Externalities and the Prison Tax received the 2022 AALS Criminal Justice Section Junior Scholar Award. Professor Evans earned his B.A. cum laude from the University of Southern California and his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School before practicing at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and clerking on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Mahrya Fulfer Page, Staff Distinguished Award
