New course trains students to handle legal issues resulting from disasters
Stetson Law now offers a new course and corresponding externship experience designed to train students in an increasingly essential area of advocacy: disaster law.
The Disaster Law Primer is a one credit course offered over two weekends that provides a basic overview of disaster law including FEMA benefits, highlights systemic legal issues in a post-disaster world, and prepares students to complete and file a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) appeal.
With hurricanes and rising sea levels, not to mention other less predictable disasters such as oil spills, it behooves young lawyers – and their communities – to build the knowledge and skills needed to navigate FEMA benefits. Even for those who have studied the law, the government agency’s processes are not always intuitive. Much of the United States is vulnerable to some type of disaster, whether it is a tornado, wildfire, hurricane or winter storm – Stetson students who plan to work elsewhere in the country after graduation are able to utilize the skills to help clients trying to rebuild their lives.
After disasters, the burden often falls heavily on legal aid offices and pro bono attorneys to help victims with legal issues. And despite the seemingly increasing occurrence of disasters, it is an area of law suffering from a dearth of experience and no standardized strategic approach, said Anthony Palermo, the ABA YLD District Representative who presented as part of the course. It is an important long-term problem that calls for a solution, and practical training courses such as the Disaster Law Primer could be the key.
The program was two years in the making, said Christine Cerniglia, associate professor and director of Clinical and Experiential Education. And in just two weekends, all 12 of the participants in the inaugural course reported they felt confident they could effectively tackle a FEMA appeal.
“We just created change agents,” said Cerniglia, who co-teaches the course with Linda Anderson Stanley. Linda is the ABA Director of Disaster Legal Services and also the Senior Manager for Disaster Programming at Equal Justice Works. “We are lucky to have the expertise of Linda in the classroom who works on many systemic issues on a national level. The students are lucky to learn from her.”
Students study the role of agencies, legal aid offices, volunteer efforts, and government at both the state and federal level in a post-disaster context, particularly FEMA’s National Response Framework and the new standards for benefits under its Individual and Households Program. They focus, too, on the launch of Disaster Recovery Centers (DRC’s), legal issues relevant to Legal Aid offices, pro bono attorneys, and the responsibility of the American Bar Association and the State Bar to coordinate a response. Over the two-week period, students researched a specific disaster to understand how each scenario presents a different response and how all disasters impact the most vulnerable in our society. For the final assignment, students had to draft a FEMA appeal based on a fact pattern similar to what they would find after a disaster.
Michelle Walker, a part-time student in her third year, said the material was unlike anything she had been exposed to so far in law school and that it was a great, practical, hands-on opportunity. It helped put a personal, human face on the application of administrative law, which she found very helpful.
Walker was selected as the first Disaster Law Extern. The Primer course is a prerequisite for the Disaster Law Externship where students have a chance to put their newfound skills to use and work on actual FEMA appeals under the supervision of Equal Justice Works disaster fellows. Students who have successfully completed the primer may apply for the 1 credit externship at any point in their law school career.
Post date: Feb. 1, 2020
Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
[email protected] | 727-430-1580