UVA Law Graduation Speaker Dasha Smith ’98 Says It’s ‘Game Day’

It’s game day, grads. Time to ball out.

That was the message delivered by Dasha Smith ’98, the commencement speaker at the University of Virginia School of Law on Sunday, who has been executive vice president and chief administrative officer for the NFL since 2019.

“In many ways, starting a new job is like game day,” Smith said to the crowd of graduates, family and friends. “Your preparation is done — you have the knowledge, the valuable credentials and the UVA degree in hand. But once that job starts — or the whistle blows — the focus is on the here and now.”

Smith said she wanted to impart three lessons to the new graduates; lessons that helped her take the risk of leaving a high-ranking position at Sony Music to join the NFL — a job she had not sought nor imagined.

First, “Although we as lawyers are trained to be risk-averse, sometimes you have to leave where you feel comfortable to go where you feel called.”

Second, someone else may see abilities in you that you didn’t know you had, sending you in a direction you didn’t plan to take.

Finally, be grateful for the influence of the people in your life who believe in you and bet on you — and be willing to pay forward their efforts.

"Where you will take [your career] will always be yours to decide as you make your way and follow your own North Star," Smith said. “And I am predicting that wherever members of this class go, you will make an impact and you will be a force for good.”

In her role at the NFL, Smith is a member of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s executive operating committee and manages all NFL administration, including people operations and strategy; diversity, equity and inclusion; technology, data and analytics; strategy and business intelligence; and social responsibility and philanthropy.

Before joining the NFL in 2019, she was executive vice president and global chief people officer for Sony Music Entertainment, where she oversaw global human resources across more than 60 countries. Smith was previously managing director at global alternative investment firm GCM Grosvenor, and she worked as Time Inc.’s global head of employee relations, and chief labor and employment counsel.

She went to law school, she said, because her parents said she was an argumentative child — a fact she “disputes” — and they told her that “as long as you’re going to be this way, you might as well get paid for it.”

So she left her Denver home after high school and headed east to Georgetown University, where she earned a bachelor’s in finance.

Despite that background, she said she initially felt like an unsophisticated outsider at one of America’s oldest law schools — and worried she may be the only Denver Broncos fan on Grounds. Before long, professors, staff and students made her feel welcome and helped her thrive, she said. And she found her fellow Broncos fans.

Smith, who previously addressed the incoming Class of 2019 and urged them to spend time cultivating their law school relationships, has remained highly involved with the Law School, serving as a co-chair of the school’s Honor the Future capital campaign and on the Law School Foundation’s Board of Trustees.

Student Bar Association President Tommy Cerja IV ’24 introduced Smith and announced the class gift. Outgoing UVA Law Dean Risa Goluboff provided welcoming remarks and announced awards, which were followed by the hooding ceremony and ceremonial scroll presentation. In total, 294 J.D. candidates, 32 LL.M. candidates and one S.J.D. candidate will receive degrees in the Class of 2024.

Goluboff also served as the commencement speaker for undergraduate ceremonies on the Lawn, held earlier in the day.  She told the graduates she had drafted three different versions of the speech but decided to give all three. “I’m a both/and person, so I decided to give them all” she joked, adding, “Maybe I should say ‘both/and/and person.’”

She reflected on the global challenges — including COVID-19 — and historic political moments that have come and gone during her eight-year tenure as dean of the Law School. She noted that she keeps in her office a few photos from a May 1970 Vietnam protest on UVA’s Main Grounds, including one of protestors’ feet.

Just their feet.

But it is their feet — some bare and some in dress shoes — “walking side by side in human connection despite seeming to exist on opposite sides of the cultural and sartorial and generational chasm that was the 1960s. Those tumultuous times of global and national conflict in their sepia tones, they felt far away when I hung those photos of a distant era of history.”

She noted how prescient the photos turned out to be.

“We have had conflict before. We have lived in momentous political times. And we have come through the other side,” she said. “The photos on my wall, then, are a testament to the endless process of change and generational contestation — because UVA is a perpetual breathing, living, squirming, human, joyous, talking and arguing institution.” 

Awards Presented at Graduation

Margaret G. Hyde Award

To the graduate whose scholarship, character, personality, activities in the affairs of the school, and promise of efficiency have warranted special recognition.

Elizabeth Putfark

James C. Slaughter Honor Award

To an outstanding member of the graduating class.

Julia Jean Citron

Thomas Marshall Miller Prize

To an outstanding and deserving member or members of the graduating class.

James Robert Hornsby

Z Society Shannon Award

To the graduate with the highest academic record after five semesters.

Haley Sydney Gorman

Robert E. Goldsten Award for Distinction in the Classroom

To the graduate who has contributed the most to classroom education by his or her outstanding recitation and discussion.

Dany Berbari

LL.M. Graduation Award

To an outstanding member or members of the graduating LL.M. class.

Maria Agostina Giaroli Nogueira

Roger and Madeleine Traynor Prize

To the graduate or graduates who have produced outstanding written work.

Sebastian T. F. van Bastelaer
Casey Peter Schmidt

Herbert Kramer/Herbert Bangel Community Service Award

To the graduate who has contributed the most to the community.

Ellen May Florek

Pro Bono Award

To the graduate who contributed the most to the Law School’s Pro Bono Program.

Evan Michael Carcerano

Mortimer Caplin Public Service Award

To a graduate entering a career in the public service sector who demonstrates the qualities of leadership, integrity and service to others.

Austin Mueller

Edwin S. Cohen Tax Prize

To a graduate who has demonstrated superior scholarship in the tax area.

John Patrick McCrystal

Earle K. Shawe Labor Relations Award

To the graduate who shows the greatest promise in the field of labor relations.

Molly Elizabeth Keck

John M. Olin Prize in Law and Economics

To a graduate or graduates who have produced outstanding written work in the field of law and economics.

Sadie Goering

Eppa Hunton IV Memorial Book Award

To a graduate who demonstrates unusual aptitude in courses in the field of litigation, and who shows a keen awareness and understanding of the lawyer’s ethical and professional responsibility.

Robert Benjamin Buell

Virginia Trial Lawyers Trial Advocacy Award

To a graduate who shows particular promise in the field of trial advocacy.

Malcolm Law

Virginia State Bar Family Law Book Award

To the graduate who has demonstrated the most promise and potential for the practice of family law.

Elizabeth Erickson Narain