The Commons Commons
L–R: 2019 JD class speaker Bryant Wright, LLM class speaker Ross Hollingworth, and Judge Allyson K. Duncan ’75
Convocation 2019
Duncan ’75 tells grads to value serendipity, seize opportunities that come their way
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udge Allyson K. Duncan ’75 of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit advised Duke Law’s 2019 graduates to keep themselves open to “inspiring challenges and discoveries” in the course of their careers when she spoke at their convocation ceremony on May 11. “I want to implore you to never underestimate the value of serendipity, and the fulfillment that awaits along the road less traveled,” said Duncan. The convocation ceremony in Cameron Indoor Stadium honored 218 JD graduates, 16 of whom also earned an LLM in international and comparative law, and six who also received an LLM in law and entrepreneurship. Two graduates earned the Law School’s LLM in law and entrepreneurship for graduate attorneys. Nineteen JD graduates received the Public Interest and Public Service Law certificate. And nine earned graduate degrees from other departments and schools at Duke University in addition to their JDs. Of the 88 internationally trained lawyers from 35 nations honored at convocation who received the LLM degree, 19 received the Law School’s certificate in business law and three received the certificate in intellectual property law. Two graduates had already received the SJD, the highest degree in law.
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Duke Law Magazine • Fall 2019
An idiosyncratic, yet fulfilling, career path
Duncan told the graduates she “literally grew up” in Durham’s historically black North Carolina Central University (NCCU) Law School, where her mother taught for more than 20 years. It was a time “when those students would not have been welcome here,” she said, referring to Duke Law where, years later, she felt both welcomed and nurtured. Still, as one of the first five African American women to graduate from Duke Law, “the traditional law firm route” was not a realistic path for her, Duncan said. She ticked off her varied professional positions: editor at a legal publishing company, appellate law clerk, federal appellate attorney and then legal counsel for the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, law professor at NCCU, state appeals court judge, and commissioner on the North Carolina Utilities Commission — both unexpected appointments by the state governor — partner in a large law firm, and federal appellate judge. In fact, Duncan was the first African American woman to serve as a justice on the N.C. Court of Appeals and on the Fourth Circuit. There was no “discernible game plan” dictating her career moves, she said. “Rather, I took advantage of these opportunities for no
