UF Law eNews - April 2011

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[UF LAW eNews - a publication of the Levin College of Law @ the University of Florida]

[Fredric G. Levin College of Law]

ANNOUNCEMENTS

UF Law invites you to attend:

May 9: 12th Annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas
May 13: Commencement Ceremony
June 23: Florida Bar Annual Convention in Kissimmee (details below)

To learn more, please check our events page for descriptions, speakers, locations, and times.

Join us for a reception at the Florida Bar Annual Convention on June 23

Join Dean Robert Jerry and UF Law alumni for our reception at the Florida Bar Annual Convention on Thursday, June 23, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Gaylord Palms Resort and Convention Center, Sun Ballroom C, in Kissimmee, Fla. To RSVP, visit our website and register now. For sponsorship opportunities, please email Kathy Hendrixson or call her at 352-273-0642. Thank you to our current sponsors: Law firms — Akerman Senterfitt, Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault, Pillans & Coxe, P.A. and Dean Mead; Individuals — Joseph Mellichamp, Oscar A. Sanchez and Larry and Cathy Sellers. Thank you to our Longevity Sponsors (those who have committed to a three-year sponsorship pledge). Individuals — Joseph P. Milton, Jesse W. Rigby, and Marc A. Wites.

Earn 1.5 hours of CLE with complimentary webinar: 'Getting the Best Result for Your Client' tomorrow

Earn 1.5 hours of CLE by The Florida Bar, including 0.5 hours in ethics, as the Upchurch Watson White & Max Mediation Group and the University of Florida Levin College of Law Institute for Dispute Resolution host another collaborative webinar tomorrow from 10-11:15 a.m. Sandra Upchurch, mediation counsel with the group, will discuss advocacy in the mediation context. She will cover pre-mediation and post-mediation issues and offer insight into common ethical dilemmas. Monitor these collaborative webinar offerings at both www.uww-adr.com and http://www.law.ufl.edu/idr/index.shtml to stay tuned to future alternative dispute resolution webinar topics that are current and relevant for today's litigators. Reserve your webinar seat now.

Become our Facebook fan and follow us on Twitter

Do you want to stay tuned to UF Law's latest news and events? Make sure to "like" us on our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. We will keep you updated with law school/alumni activities, campus progress and other exciting news such as UF Law students' successful local, national and international competitions and fun facts about our diverse student body. Log on today!

Got Gator law in the family?

We want to know about your family's heritage at UF Law. If you have photos and a story about more than one generation who attended UF Law, we will post them on our website. The page will appear along with a story in the upcoming issue of UF LAW magazine that features one member from each class at UF Law and multiple generations of their family who attended the law school. We will post up to two photos and 300 words for each family. Send your story and photos to UF LAW editor Richard Goldstein, Goldstein@law.ufl.edu, or Attn: Law in the Family; Communications Office; P.O. Box 117633; Holland Hall, Room 287; Gainesville, FL 32611.

Get featured in FlaLaw Online

Have an interesting legal career path? Did your J.D. lead you to a profession other than law? We want to know your stories for alumni profiles to feature weekly in FlaLaw Online in the fall. If you have a story or would like to nominate yourself or someone else, please contact UF Law eNews and FlaLaw Online Editor Whitney Smith, smithw@law.ufl.edu or call 352-273-0652. Submissions will also be considered for the fall issue of UF LAW magazine.

UF LAW HIGHLIGHTS

UF Law rises in U.S. News environmental, tax and dispute resolution specialty rankings

U.S. News & World Report has released its annual rankings of the nation's graduate schools. The 2012 rankings place the University of Florida Levin College of Law in a tie for 24th among public law schools and 47th overall. The UF Law Graduate Tax Program continues to rank first among publics and was second overall this year. Its Environmental Law Program rose to sixth among publics and 13th overall. The law school's growing strength in the area of dispute resolution was recognized with a specialty area ranking of seventh among publics and 19th overall. UF Law continues to be rated highly in terms of reputation — tying at 17th among publics and 38th overall in peer assessment, and 17th among publics and 39th overall in lawyer/judge assessment.
READ MORE»

UF Law graduates perform well on spring Florida Bar Exam and MPRE

The Florida Supreme Court has released the results of the February 2011 Florida Bar Examination, which consists of the General Bar Examination (Part A and Part B) and Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE). The University of Florida Levin College of Law had the highest passage rate on the General Bar Exam and the second-highest on the MPRE. But this is not a reason to brag, according to UF Law Dean Robert Jerry. "I'm pleased that our graduates performed well, of course. But I'm always surprised how results on the spring exams are sometimes described since so few graduates take the February/March tests compared to the summer exams. Any mathematician knows the law of small numbers makes these results highly unreliable as a basis for comparing schools," said Jerry.
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3L awarded best advocate at ABA national moot court competition; team finishes in top 16

The American Bar Association says UF Law student Wilbert Vancol (3L) is the best advocate at the nation's top moot court competition. Vancol won the National Best Advocate Award at the ABA National Moot Court Competition in Chicago on April 8. It is the highest award given to an individual in the competition and goes to the competitor who demonstrates the strongest advocacy skills. Vancol's award is like winning the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA men's basketball tournament, said UF Law Professor Henry T. Wihnyk, the Florida Moot Court Team faculty advisor. That's because he was going up against the best students on the nation's best moot court teams. "I am proud of and impressed by Wilbert's achievement. The ABA National Appellate Advocacy Competition is the premier moot court event of the year. Law schools from every region of the United States participate each year," Wihnyk said.
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UF ICAM team places in top 7 percent at international competition in Vienna

Members of the University of Florida Levin College of Law International Commercial Arbitration Moot (ICAM) team competed in the Willem Vis international competition earlier this month in Vienna, and landed among the top 7 percent of competitors. The team — consisting of Julianne Parker, Christa Diaz, Donna Marie Hayle, Caitlin Mitchell, Kimmy Stewart and Jennifer Thomas – competed for UF among 255 teams from all over the world. According to Professor George Dawson, faculty advisor with Professor Jeffrey Harrison, the team not only "made the cut" of the final 64, but won its first competition in the finals against Loyola-Chicago. "To give that some perspective, Boalt (University of California at Berkeley Law School), (University of) Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and Yale did not make the cut, and I believe Harvard lost in the first round of the finals," Dawson said.
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Grads inducted into Heritage of Leadership Society, faculty and alumni meet at inaugural LCA retreat

It was a night for remembering two men who helped make modern Florida. D. Burke Kibler III (JD 49) and Warren M. Cason (JD 50) were inducted posthumously into the Heritage of Leadership Society during a ceremony April 8 at the Levin College of Law and sponsored by Florida-based Holland & Knight. "There is no place that I'd rather be today than here, honoring two of the best lawyers to come out of the University of Florida and certainly the best lawyers to come out of Holland & Knight, " Martha Barnett (JD 73), told a crowd of more than 160 in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom.
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Renowned scholar discusses Wall Street Reform Act at 30th Dunwody Lecture

A handful of judges, alumni of the Florida Law Review, law school professors and students filled the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom at the University of Florida Levin College of Law to hear one of the nation's preeminent Law and Economics scholars give a lively and entertaining lecture on the Wall Street Reform Act. Renowned scholar Richard A. Epstein, the inaugural Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Law at New York University Law School, spoke to more than 100 guests March 25 at the 30th Annual Florida Law Review Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law. Epstein, prior to joining the faculty at NYU, was the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago. Epstein has also served as the Peter and Kirstin Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution since 2000.
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Wolf family hosts Harvard professor for property law lecture

Harvard Law Professor Joseph Singer, a nationally recognized expert in property law, discussed what William the Conqueror, the subprime crisis and the Tea Party have in common before a packed audience April 5 in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center. The fourth annual Wolf Family Lecture titled, "Property Law as the Infrastructure of Democracy," explored how American property law has served as the foundation for democracy in the United States. Singer pointed out one bright side of the subprime crisis: that it would never again be difficult to explain to students why you cannot package certain kinds of property rights.
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FTC commissioner discusses global competition at Heath lecture

Federal Trade Commission Commissioner William E. Kovacic discussed global competition policy standards at this spring's Bayard Wickliffe Heath Memorial Lecture. The March 14 lecture titled "From Dominance to Oligopoly: The United States and the Future Development of Global Competition Policy Standards" was the second in the Heath lecture series. As a law student at Columbia University in the 1970s, Kovacic decided to pursue a career in international competition law after he was advised to "never go into a field that would have no practical significance." How times have changed, Kovacic said. The period of the U.S. monopoly of the laws ended in the late 1980s with the European merger creation. Now, he reports that 120 countries have competition laws.
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PIEC draws national experts, focuses on 'green' energy

The University of Florida Levin College of Law hosted the 17th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference Feb. 24-26. This year's conference was themed "It's Not Easy Being Green: Our Energy Future." The conference focused on renewable and non-renewable sources of energy, how that energy is distributed, and its relationship to economic development, environmental protection and social justice. Although energy affects everyone's daily activities, from driving a car to turning on lights, "we often don't consider the broader consequences of our daily activities," Conference Co-Chair Carli Koshal said.
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Harvard's Ogletree welcomed for CSRRR spring lecture, discusses today's racial issues

People don't normally expect to be arrested on their front porch on suspicion of burglarizing their own home. But that is precisely what happened to a prominent African-American Harvard law professor in 2009. Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested for disorderly conduct on the porch of his Cambridge, Mass., home after a confrontation with a white police officer. The police officer had responded to a dispatch call made after a woman observed two men attempting to force a door open. The two men were Gates and his driver, and they were struggling to open the door because of a faulty lock.
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UF Law's Music Law Conference explores changing universe of music industry

Over the past decade, the music industry has transformed significantly due to a number of advances in digital technology, as well as changes in policy, law and attitudes within the industry. On March 26, the University of Florida Levin College of Law Music Law Society addressed these issues at the Ninth Annual Music Law Conference. The conference, entitled "DON'T PANIC: Navigating the Changing Universe of the Music Industry," focused on the marked shift in the fundamental tenets of the music industry. The conference brought musicians, lawyers, students, academics, policy makers and entertainment professionals together for a conversation on how to handle these shifting dynamics.
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Nearly 30 students participate in mediation training held by Conflict Resolution Initiative

Trustworthiness. Honesty. Persuasiveness. Compassion. Objectivity. These are qualities of a good mediator identified by the 27 Levin College of Law students who took part in the first Mediation Training Program held March 18-21 at UF Law. The training was hosted by the Conflict Resolution Initiative (CRI), a newly founded group sponsored by the Institute for Dispute Resolution (IDR), under direction of Legal Skills Professor Robin Davis, and Gators for Alternative Dispute Resolution (GADR). The training was conducted by Elinor Robin, Ph.D., a practicing mediator and certified primary trainer with the Dispute Resolution Center for the Florida Supreme Court.
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Law student shimmies into record books with eight years dancing at UF Dance Marathon

Bailey Hebrank doesn't remember meeting Matt Michel — she remembers him dancing. "His heart is so big," Hebrank, University of Florida Dance Marathon's external communications chair, said. "He just won't stop dancing." During the weekend of April 2, Michel (2L) shimmied and swayed into the record books, cementing his legendary status among diehard dancers as he tacked on an eighth year of dancing at UF's annual Dance Marathon. More than 800 students stay awake and on their feet for 26.2 consecutive hours during a spring weekend every year to raise money and awareness for Children's Miracle Network, according Dance Marathon's website (www.floridadm.org). The event benefits the patients of Shands Children's Hospital at UF.
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Law student pursuing master's in business administration started company at 18

Michael Hacker had to cut an interview short. The Securities and Exchange Commission was calling – about a job. "He called for an (externship) interview on the spot, and I couldn't really say 'No,'" Hacker said. "I felt really bad." Such modesty might be expected of an ordinary person with ordinary ambitions, but Hacker (1L) is far from ordinary. Hacker is one of only a handful of law students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law also pursuing his master's degree in business administration. But Hacker doesn't stop there. Extraordinary requires much more. Aside from simultaneously pursuing two professional degrees, Hacker is also a company cofounder and the president of a separate company he started in 2006 when he was 18.
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Check out the UF Florida Tomorrow capital campaign, view the UF Law campaign video,
and learn how you can help.

April 2011
VOLUME XI, ISSUE 4

Contact Us

UF Law eNews is produced by the Levin College of Law Communications Office.

Send submissions and/or suggestions to eNews editor Whitney Smith at smithw@law.ufl.edu or
352-273-0652.

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Debra Amirin

Associate Director, UF LAW Magazine Editor:
Richard Goldstein

Communications Coordinator, FlaLaw Online Editor, UF Law eNews Editor:
Whitney Smith

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Michael Davis

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