GW Law was honored to host Nina Totenberg at the 157th Commencement of the George Washington University Law School. Before delivering her keynote speech, Totenberg sat down with Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew for three questions. Watch below.
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Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
It is my honor to be here with you too.Nina Totenberg:
Thank you for taking the time to talk to the students who are ecstatic to hear your words.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Well, let's hope they still feel that way after the speech.Nina Totenberg:
First, what drew you to your career as a legal correspondent?Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Well, I wanted to be a reporter. I knew that early on. I wanted to be like Nancy Drew, and she was a sleuth after all.Nina Totenberg:
Yes.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
And then when I was about 16, I read The Making of the President 1960. And I thought, "That sounds like so much fun and I don't have to take a position on anything. I can be a witness to this." And I knew then that I wanted to do that. It was kind of a crazy idea because newspapers, which were then sort of king, did not hire women.Nina Totenberg:
Really?Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Yeah. And this is very hard for young people to understand today, but people would literally say to me, "I'm sorry, we don't hire women." Or, "We don't hire women for the night shift and that's what's open." And my first job was working on the women's page, not... Incidentally.Nina Totenberg:
Not news.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
And there was no... And it was not like the style section is today, which is pretty interesting, right? It was really boring.Nina Totenberg:
But you did it.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
I did it, and I would go out at night with the photographer for the late great Record American, or as it was known in Boston at the time, the Record.Nina Totenberg:
The Record.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
The Record. And I would go out with him and careen around following murders, fires, anything like that. I would just go.Nina Totenberg:
That's kind of exciting though.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
It was fun. It was fun for a short time.Nina Totenberg:
I think it's fascinating that you knew you wanted to do something that you didn't have to take a position on, but you could witness what was happening.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Yeah.Nina Totenberg:
So that actually leads to my next question. We think of Lady Justice as blind. What would you say to a class graduating this year if they too want to believe that justice is blind?Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Well, whoever loses in a case thinks justice isn't blind. So the thing that I would say is that a good lawyer tries to figure out a way that he or she can persuade a court. And I guess I would say to the class, no matter what you end up doing, even if it's not... Even if it's mergers and acquisitions, right? So you deserve to spend some time with Lady Justice. There are things you can do to help her out.Nina Totenberg:
It's an enriching thing to be able to use your career to do good.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Yes.Nina Totenberg:
To do justice. That's what I hear you saying.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Yes. And it is an enriching thing, but it doesn't mean you have to do it full-time. Plenty of people do it part-time.Nina Totenberg:
That leads me to my third question. And I'd like to know, when you are not working, what do you do that brings you joy?Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
Well, I swim in the summer anyway, and I used to play tennis. We'll find out whether, after my back surgery this year, I can ever play again. And the thing that we do all the time, we spend a lot of time together, my husband and I. I'm a believer in marriage, it's a great institution. But we take enormous advantage of the Kennedy Center. We go to the symphony...Nina Totenberg:
One of the reasons to live here.Dean Dayna Bowen Matthew:
... we go to the opera, we go to the ballet, we go to anything that looks interesting. We try to go to as many of those things as possible.