Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Associate Justice Sabrina McKenna received a LLM in Judicial Studies degree from Duke University School of Law’s Bolch Judicial Institute and was her class speaker at Duke Law’s convocation ceremony in Durham, North Carolina, on May 10, 2025.

“It is your responsibility to stand up for and protect the rule of law, which includes the independence of the judiciary,” McKenna said, while addressing graduates, families, and friends in Cameron Indoor Stadium on the Duke University campus.

“The rule of law is the foundational bedrock of democracy.  Without the rule of law, autocracy prevails. Lawyers, the future of democracy is in your hands. But with the engagement of your class – as well as many others – and with an independent judiciary, I am optimistic that democracy and the rule of law will endure,” she added.

The Duke Law convocation ceremony honored 334 students receiving various degrees: 226 JD degrees, 88 LLM degrees, and 20 LLM in Judicial Studies degrees.  

“It was a wonderful celebration, and we are grateful to Justice McKenna for offering such timely and inspiring remarks,” said Paul W. Grimm, Director of the Bolch Judicial Institute at Duke Law School.

“Justice McKenna provided a thoughtful reflection on her time in the Master of Judicial Studies program at Duke Law, highlighting the warm connections our judges create across courts, jurisdictions, and even countries,” Grimm added.

“Over the course of the last two years as a Duke Law student, it has been one of the greatest honors of my life to learn with — and from — judges who, as required by the rule of law, are competent, ethical, independent, accessible, and reflect the makeup of the communities they serve.  Thank you again to Duke Law and its Bolch Judicial Institute for providing my class as well as many other judges throughout the world with knowledge and tools to fortify accessible and impartial justice and to protect the rule of law,” McKenna said.

Duke Law’s LLM in Judicial Studies program is nationally and internationally recognized and accepts about twenty judges every other year.  McKenna’s class included justices and judges from Chile, South Korea, and various state supreme, appellate, and trial courts, as well as various federal courts.