Class of 2026
Pre-gRADUATION rECEPTION
Friday, May 15, 2026, at 6 PM
UGA Tate Student Center, Grand Hall
45 Baxter Street, Athens, Georgia
Business/Business Cocktail Attire
The deadline to register is Monday, May 4, 2026.
The School of Law will host a reception honoring the Class of 2026 on Friday evening. The reception will include a set food station of heavy hors d'oeuvres and a staffed bar offering beer, wine, and non-alcoholic drinks. Complimentary, non-transferable admission is provided for each graduate. Additional admissions may be purchased for $10 each. Ticket sales are non-refundable. Please register for the Pre-Graduation Reception here.
Name tags will serve as admission tickets and may be picked up at the registration table located at the reception entrance. All nametags will be held in a packet under the graduate's name.
Parking in the Tate Student Center parking deck is complimentary for all guests attending the reception.
Class of 2026 cOMMENCEMENT
Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 10 AM
The Classic Center Grand Hall
300 N. Thomas Street, Athens, Georgia
Doors open at 9 AM // Ceremony will begin promptly at 10 AM
Students should arrive at the Classic Center at 8:30 AM on the first floor and report to the check-in tables in Grand Hall 2.
Tickets are not required for the ceremony, and there is no limit to the number of guests. Guests may sit in any open seats in the Classic Center Grand Halls 7 or 8. Please note: guest seating is first come, first serve.
If you or your guests need wheelchair seating accommodations, contact Catherine Popkin at charra@uga.edu. Wheelchair seating is limited. Please note: The Classic Center does not provide wheelchairs on-site.
livestream
Check back later for more information about the Commencement livestream.
Commencement parking
Graduates and guests may park in either the Classic Center Parking Deck (for a fee) located at 300 N. Thomas Street or the North Campus Parking Deck (free) located at 231 S. Jackson Street. Please allow ample time for parking. Local high schools will be hosting their own graduations at the same time in Akins Ford Arena, which shares the same parking deck as the Classic Center. A very high volume of vehicles will be accessing this deck. We strongly advise parking in the North Campus Deck and walking approximately 10 minutes (0.3 miles) to the Classic Center, carpooling, and/or using rideshare options. Disability parking is available in all parking decks and lots surrounding the Classic Center for those with ADA parking permits.
lEAVING THE CEREMONY
After the ceremony, graduates will recess out of the Grand Hall through the first floor doors. We encourage guests and graduates to predetermine a meeting location and take advantage of photo opportunities outside the Classic Center. There will be no re-entry once a graduate or guest has exited the Classic Center.
REGALIA
Thanks to generous donations from alumni, the School of Law will pay for the cost of your graduation regalia this year. We are working with the UGA Bookstore to facilitate regalia ordering and pickup.
To order your rental regalia, simply complete THIS FORM. Instructions for sizing are on the form. Note: this form is only for those wishing to rent regalia, which will need to be returned to the UGA Bookstore after graduation.
If you wish to purchase regalia, do NOT complete the form linked above. Instead, please contact Madison Beasley (m.beasley@follett.com) at the UGA Bookstore to place your order and for any other questions you may have about purchasing regalia.
DEADLINE TO ORDER RENTAL REGALIA IS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH. The bookstore cannot guarantee timely delivery of regalia ordered after this date.
We anticipate regalia being available in the Career Development Office by the end of April. Please do not plan to take pictures using your regalia earlier than April 29th.
NAME FORMATTING
To ensure that your name is printed correctly in the program and is called correctly during the ceremony, please provide the information requested here. Please complete this form by Friday, April 24, 2026.
Commencement speaker
Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson was appointed to the Georgia Supreme Court in 2016 and was elected to full six-year terms in 2018 and 2024. He previously served in a variety of other role in Georgia state government, including as a judge on the Georgia Court of Appeals, general counsel for the University System of Georgia, Georgia's first solicitor general in the Attorney General's Office, and executive counsel to the Governor.
Before entering the state government, Nels practiced at King & Spalding, LLP in Atlanta and clerked for Chief Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a graduate of Kennesaw State University and Harvard Law School.
Nels has served on numerous government and non-profit boards and committees, has received a variety of honors and awards, lives with his wife, Jennifer, and two children in Cobb County, and is an active member of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church.
graduate slideshow
As part of our celebration, the School of Law will organize a slideshow of images from your class. Share your favorite law school memories by emailing photos for possible inclusion to lawcomm@uga.edu with "Grad Photos" as the subject. Given recent changes to FERPA and NIL guidelines, if you submit a photo of someone other than yourself for inclusion in the slideshow, you are certifying that you have been granted permission for sharing from the relevant individual (or individuals) for inclusion in the slideshow, which will be played during the pre-graduation reception and at Commencement.
The deadline to submit photos is Monday, April 27, 2026. Images for the graduation slideshow should be in jpg format. If you do not receive acknowledgment of your photo(s), you should resend.
Note: Each year we receive so many great photos that the law school would like to have permission to potentially use them in other projects, including but not limited to social media posts, admissions/promotional materials, and website imagery. By submitting your photos, you agree that they may be used outside of the slideshow.
hotels
The School of Law has a small block of hotel rooms for Commencement weekend at the Courtyard by Marriott Athens Downtown located just across the street from the Classic Center and the Holiday Inn Express, an approximate 10-minute walk from the Classic Center. Rooms are available for reservation on a first come, first serve basis.
Courtyard by Marriott booking link
Holiday Inn Express booking link
welcome to uga law alumni!
Upon graduating, you automatically be come a member of the School of Law's graduate network, which is over 11,000 Law Dawgs strong! You will also receive information at the end of the semester regarding registration for the Law School Mentorship Program. We hope you will consider signing up to be a professional mentor to a future law student.
You should receive an email from EITS notifying you that your MyID and UGAMail accounts will be disabled after your graduation. Be sure to stay connected to the law school by visiting our alumni website at www.law.uga.edu/alumni and sending an updated (non-UGA) email address to lawalum@uga.edu.
If you have any questions on how to stay engaged and/or financially support the law school, contact Catherine Popkin, Assistant Director of Alumni Relations and Annual Giving at charra@uga.edu or (762) 315-8237.