--- title: Sally Yates: Read Her Speech to the Graduates of Harvard Law description: Sally Yates gave the commencement speech at Harvard Law, where she discussed the travel ban and her career as a lawyer canonical: https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-25T14:37:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T05:07:12.604Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Read Sally Yates Speech to the Graduates of Harvard Law og:description: "The safest course is not always the best course" og:url: https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Read Sally Yates Speech to the Graduates of Harvard Law twitter:description: "The safest course is not always the best course" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sally Yates to Harvard Law School Graduates: 'Be Bold. Take a Risk' by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 25, 2017 2:37 PM UTC  Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 8, 2017 in Washington, DC. Former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill May 8, 2017 in Washington, DC.Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff May 25, 2017 2:37 PM UTC _Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates delivered remarks Wednesday on the occasion of Class Day at Harvard Law School._ --- > “” --- --- > “” --- --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/"},"headline":"Sally Yates to Harvard Law School Graduates: 'Be Bold. Take a Risk'","datePublished":"2017-05-25T14:37:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T05:07:12.604Z","description":"\"The safest course is not always the best course\"","url":"https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/","keywords":["Education","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte13f2d3470a1594b/6988cd6d0b72e325996edcc1/sally-yates2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election","caption":"Senate Holds Hearing On Russian Interference In U.S. Election","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/education/","name":"Education"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4793996/sally-yates-harvard-law-school-2017-graduation-speech/","name":"Sally Yates to Harvard Law School Graduates: 'Be Bold. Take a Risk'"}}]}] ```