Andrew ‘Ross’ D’Entremont receives Lardy Award for 2021-22 academic year
Kind. Generous. Faithful. Positive. Friendly. Compassionate. Humble.
These are the words used repeatedly to describe Andrew “Ross” D’Entremont, a rising third-year student at Notre Dame Law School who has been selected to receive the Peter A.R. Lardy Scholarship Award for the 2021-22 academic year.
The Lardy Award was established by the Notre Dame Law Class of 1975 to honor their beloved classmate Peter A.R. Lardy, who died of cancer during his third year of law school. The award includes substantial tuition assistance for the recipient’s third year of law school and is dedicated “to those who exemplify his courage, love, and understanding toward his fellow man.” The winner is selected from nominations from the Law School community and has been awarded each year since 1976.
Before coming to Notre Dame, D’Entremont earned a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees from the University of Alabama. He is pursuing dual J.D./MBA degrees and is a Dean’s Circle Fellow, a distinction given to the top 10% of the class. However, while D'Entremont is accomplished academically, it is his values of compassion and empathy that exemplify the spirit of the Lardy award.
“Ross D’Entremont represents everything that we mean when we say ‘a different kind of lawyer,’” said G. Marcus Cole, the Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law at Notre Dame Law School. “He is as caring and kind as he is smart and engaging. He has been identified by his classmates and faculty as an exemplary representative of Notre Dame Law School and our shared values. I am proud that Ross will receive the Lardy Scholarship Award, and will join the long list of lawyers who will make the world a better place.”
D’Entremont said, “Mr. Lardy’s class loved him for his humor, compassion, and grace. For my peers and professors to see these values in me is a humbling experience, and one that I will cherish forever. I cannot express my gratitude for the Class of 1975, Our Lady’s University, and our law school family.”
D’Entremont finds his purpose in spending time with others. He immerses himself into every community he is part of, and Notre Dame is no exception. Every Sunday he eats breakfast at the Original Pancake House in South Bend with different students so he can meet new people. In addition, he has had several research pieces published, and says he is grateful for those collaborative opportunities, and for the assistance from faculty, students, and practitioners on those projects.
D’Entremont does not like to talk about himself, but his professors and classmates share stories that reveal his uncommon and grace-filled character. One classmate noted, “Ross’s greatest asset is the joy and humor with which he conducts himself. He knows people by name and he somehow comes to know about people’s lives. Ross genuinely cares about others, their success, and their experience at the Law School. He does everything with the love that is representative of Peter A.R. Lardy.”
His professors noted his kindness and service as well.
John P. Murphy Foundation Professor of Law Nicole Stelle Garnett said, “I can think of no more deserving recipient than Ross, who exemplifies Peter Lardy’s ‘courage, love and understanding toward his fellow man.’ Ross makes the Law School a better place through his generosity, spirit of service, and kindness toward all.”
Professor Julian Velasco added, “Ross is definitely deserving of the Lardy Scholarship. He is serious about his studies, committed to the practice of law, active in the community, generous to his colleagues, and sincere in his faith.”
It is family, especially his grandparents, who D’Entremont says inspires him, and provided him with a foundation and an enduring set of values.
“My grandfather instilled in me a love for Notre Dame and my grandmother taught me to recognize the humanity in others. To receive a fellowship from the University that my grandfather loved because of the values my grandmother preached, cements their legacy, honors Mr. Lardy’s, and humbles me,” he said.
He has a passion for education reform, saying, “I hope to play a role in making quality education more accessible for all children. Notre Dame teaches us to live as ‘a different kind of lawyer’ and I hope to fulfill that mission.”
D’Entremont is executive editor for the Notre Dame Journal of Legislation, a symposium editor for the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and involved in the Notre Dame Education Law Forum. He is the incoming Student Bar Association treasurer, will serve as an assistant rector in an undergraduate residence hall, and will be a teaching assistant in the Mendoza College of Business and at the Law School.
This summer D’Entremont is working for Jones Day in Houston. Following graduation, he will clerk for Notre Dame Law alumnus Chief Judge Thomas Schroeder ’84 J.D. of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina.
A list of past Lardy Award recipients is here.