Arkansas State Rep. Carol Dalby will be the featured commencement speaker when the U of A School of Law celebrates its graduates at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, May 10, inside Barnhill Arena. The ceremony will be livestreamed on the U of A YouTube channel for those unable to attend in person.

"We are honored that our alumna, Representative Dalby, will be our commencement speaker," said Dean Cynthia Nance. "Her dedication to public service is exemplary, and I have no doubt she will inspire our graduates."

Dalby, of Texarkana, began serving in the Arkansas House of Representatives in 2017, representing District 100 (Miller County). She made history in Arkansas as the first woman to be appointed chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Dalby also serves on the House Insurance and Commerce Committee and the Legislative Joint Auditing Committee.

A long-standing and active member of the Arkansas Bar Association, Dalby will assume the role of president-elect in June. She currently serves on the Arkansas Bar Association's Board of Trustees and the Law School Committee. Previously, she served on the Board of Governors and has contributed to several pivotal committees, including Professional Ethics, Governance, Jurisprudence and Law Reform, Judicial Nominations, Juvenile Justice, Lawyers for Literacy, the Legal Related Education Super Committee and the Committee for a Modern Judiciary.

Dalby has served as president of the Texarkana School Board, district judge for Miller County and as a special justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court. She has also held leadership roles in various community organizations, including Opportunities Inc., the Junior League of Texarkana, the Texarkana Regional Arts Council/Women for the Arts, the Library Commission and the Red Cross. For her dedication to volunteerism, she received the Junior League's Outstanding Sustainer Award.

Dalby graduated from Ouachita Baptist University and later earned her master's from East Texas State University (now Texas A&M). She earned her Juris Doctor from the U of A School of Law in 1986. She and her husband, John Dalby, have two grown children. Her son, Robert Dalby, is a 2019 U of A School of Law graduate.

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About the University of Arkansas School of Law: The law school offers a competitive J.D. and is home to the nation's first LL.M. program in agriculture and food law. Led by nationally recognized faculty, the school offers students exceptional opportunities in pro bono work, live-client clinics, public service fellowships, competitions and much more It also has a rich history and tradition of leadership—from admitting the Six Pioneers, the first African American students to attend a Southern law school without a court order, to graduating governors, judges, prosecutors and faculty members who have gone on to serve as President of the United States and Secretary of State. Follow us at @uarklaw.