“The message is to persevere,” King told the crowd. “Every successful person I’ve ever witnessed, no matter what their walk of life...[was] driven.”

He continued, “I never met someone who made it who didn’t want to make it. If you want to be lawyers, you must really love it.”

A class marshal presented King with a plastic shark—traditionally given to graduates along with their diplomas—as well as an HLS tie, after telling the story of her unsuccessful combing of Cambridge in search of HLS suspenders.

“I will wear this tie with pride tonight,” King said.

The response of the crowd to King’s speech was enthusiastic.

“You might say he didn’t have a theme,” said graduating HLS student Tad Z. Polley, “but it was good pure entertainment value. He’s really down to earth and really funny.”

—Staff writer Laura L. Krug can be reached at krug@fas.harvard.edu.