An Evening Honouring Peter Rohrbach

On the evening of October 21st, Thurgood Marshall Academy was packed with visitors. People came from near and far to honor the memory of Peter Rohrbach, a partner at Hogan Lovells LLP and a huge supporter of our Law Day program. Last fall, Mr. Rohrbach passed away. With the support of his family, the Law Day program has expanded to include six lessons and is partnered with two additional firms.

As our visitors arrived, they were greeted by TMA students. Students were also stationed in a variety of classrooms. They explained to visitors the different educational and extra-curricular opportunities available at TMA. Senior Mignon Hemsley displayed her art work to guests and engaged them in a conversation about the visual arts program at TMA. A number of students represented the green club including newly elected club president Keith Jenkins. In Ms. Yaun’s Spanish classroom, students showed off their videos about illegal immigration. Lastly, in Ms. Scogin’s English classroom, the classroom that will be named in honor of Mr. Rohrbach, sophomore Kijon James told guests about the World Literature course. He highlighted his own experience reading ‘The Kite Runner’.

After visitors toured the classrooms, everyone moved down to the cafeteria. Our students opened the event with music, playing instruments and singing beautifully. Amidst the speeches, two of our very own students spoke; Christopher Ridout and MarKysha Dickens discussed their own law day experiences. MarKysha spoke to her personal experience with Mr. Rohrbach and remember his words of wisdom. In her speech she said, “I learned from his words; I put my best foot forward, knowing that 10 times out of 10, applying to better educate myself is better than not applying at all”.


The evening was a great success and Mr. Rohrbach’s legacy will definitely continue to live on, in the halls of TMA. We were so proud of our students for their essential contributions in making this event as meaningful as it was.