J. Phil Gilbert, a senior judge with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, will deliver the keynote address at the Southern Illinois University Simmons Law School commencement ceremony scheduled for May 8, according to a May 4 announcement.
The event will honor 87 graduates in the Class of 2026 and mark the law school’s 50th anniversary since its first graduating class in 1976. The ceremony is set for Shryock Auditorium at 1 p.m., with Chancellor Austin A. Lane conferring degrees and SIU System President Daniel Mahony attending.
Dean Hannah Brenner Johnson said, “Watching this class move through Simmons Law School during my first year as dean has deepened my own sense of the importance of legal education. Their preparation has been serious and sustained across coursework, clinics, competitions, and community engagement. The legal profession asks a great deal of those who enter it, and I have no doubt this class is ready to meet that demand. I look forward to all they accomplish as attorneys.” She added: “Judge Gilbert’s connection to SIU Simmons Law School runs deep, and his address to our graduating class reflects the strength of that bond. He has devoted more than five decades to the law and to this community, and we are proud to have him speak to our graduates who we hope will carry that same tradition of service wherever their careers take them.”
Edward Mussey was selected by his peers as class speaker; he plans a career in criminal defense after working in a public defender’s office while studying at SIU Simmons Law School. Sheila Simon—associate professor at the law school and former lieutenant governor of Illinois—will be faculty speaker before her planned retirement at semester’s end. Simon helped establish the school’s domestic violence clinic; recently, a fund was created in her honor supporting education related to domestic violence.
Gilbert brings over fifty years’ experience as an attorney and judge; he also chairs SIU’s Board of Trustees after appointments by two governors since 2015. He will receive an honorary Doctor of Law degree during another university-wide ceremony on May 9.
The commencement will also recognize Ruth Eleonora López Alfaro—a Salvadoran human rights lawyer currently detained—for her work promoting democracy and exposing corruption through Cristosal organization activities such as lawsuits against government ministries and actions before international bodies.
