Following a time-honored tradition, New Jersey State Bar Association President Evelyn Padin welcomed hundreds of first-year law students to the profession last week at the Rutgers University and Seton Hall University law schools in Newark.

Padin is scheduled to welcome students at Rutgers Law in Camden on Monday.

She told the students they were beginning “the same journey that all lawyers make,” and that she fondly remembered the start of her law school education.

Padin reminded the first-year students that they have the support of the state bar association and the more than 18,000 lawyers, judges and other legal professionals who make up its membership.

“They know the pressures you will feel from your family and those close to you who provide support during your studies. They understand the pressure you will put on yourself to succeed and to meet financial burdens you assumed,” she said.

The NJSBA offers valuable resources to law students, including a program to connect them with mentors who can “provide valuable insight into how they successfully addressed the challenges you will face,” Padin said. The association also offers a job bank, and volunteer and networking opportunities.

The orientation ceremonies were also an opportunity to remind the future lawyers that a career in the law comes with significant responsibilities, including following a path to honesty, fairness, integrity, courage and independence at all times.

She concluded by administering an oath to the students, known as the Lawyer’s Pledge, which focuses on the ideals of the legal profession and was drafted by the New Jersey Commission on Professionalism in the Law.

The students swore to strive to “always work with care and with a whole heart and with good faith … and to be, at all times, even at personal sacrifice, a champion of fairness and due process for all.”