Top 125 Moments in Stetson Law History

Over the years, the Stetson Law community has had many has had many incredible milestones on campus and beyond. In honor of the College’s 125^th anniversary, here’s a look at some of the biggest moments in its history.

1. 1900. Stetson University College of Law is founded with Albert J. Farrah as its initial dean. It was one of very few schools to require students to enroll in “practice court.” To be admitted in the first year, students had to be at least 18 years old and have a high school diploma or equivalent. Annual tuition was $66.
2. 1900. Dr. Annie MacLean is the first female faculty member to teach at Stetson Law. She was an instructor in Constitutional Law.
3. 1901. A.G. Hamlin, Stetson University trustee from 1888 to 1908 and attorney for the Florida East Coast Railway, raises $500 to start a new law library.
4. 1902. Stetson Law graduates its first class of students.
5. 1906. Mary Stewart Howarth-Hewitt becomes the first female law student to attend Stetson. After graduating, she would become the first woman admitted to practice in Florida. She graduates in 1908.
6. 1913. Emmett Wilson (1904) is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
7. 1922. Stetson Law becomes three-year law school.
8. 1926. The College adopts a two-year undergrad requirement.
9. 1926. Hotel Rolyat, Stetson Law’s future home,  opens as an extravagant Spanish-themed hotel.
10. 1927. William Hull Ellis (1889) begins his first term as Chief Justice of the Floria Supreme Court.
11. 1930. Stetson Law gains American Bar Association approval.
12. 1931. Stetson Law joins the American Association of Law Schools.
13. 1932. Babe Ruth signs his 1932 contract with the Yankees at the Rolyat.
14. 1932. Florida Military Academy opens at the former Hotel Rolyat.
15. 1933. David Sholtz (1914) serves as 26th governor of Florida.
16. 1935. Students begin to elect their own officers, planting the seeds for the Student Bar Association.
17. 1937. Roy Harrison Chapman (1908) serves as a justice for the Floria Supreme Court until 1952.
18. 1937. Joe Hendricks ’34 is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
19. 1938. Students Ralph Odum and Thomas Cobb initiate Stetson’s first legal aid clinic.
20. 1938. Elwyn Thomas (1915) becomes a justice of the Florida Supreme Court until 1969.
21. 1942. Stetson Law closes until the end of World War II.
22. 1946. The College reopens with 83 students. Enrollment balloons to 315 in 1948 thanks to the G.I. Bill.
23. 1946. Miss Ray Jordan becomes the first law librarian.
24. 1947. Stetson Law moves to naval base at DeLand Airport.
25. 1948. Tolbert Frank Hobson (1924) serves as a justice on the Florida Supreme Court until 1962.
26. 1952. Edwin Harris Drew ’52 served on Florida Supreme Court until 1971, including as chief justice.
27. 1954. Stetson Law relocates to Gulfport, Florida, taking residence at the Rolyat Hotel.
28. 1954. Celebrated trial attorney and personal injury law pioneer Perry Nichols ’37 helps found the International Academy of Trial Lawyers, later becoming president of the organization in 1965.
29. 1955. Harold Sebring, who was a judge at the Nuremburg War Trials, resigns from the Florida Supreme Court to become the first dean of the Gulfport campus.
30. 1955. Dean Harold Sebring implements President J. Ollie Edmunds’vision and plan for the Gulfport law center to be modeled after the English Inns of Court.
31. 1955. A $250,000 pledge from Charles Dana enables the first law library to be built. It opens three years later.
32. 1956. Hollywood at Stetson Law! The movie The Strange One is filmed on campus.
33. 1957. At the recommendation of Stetson University Trustee Walter Mann, the College of Law Board of Overseers forms. Mann, for whom Mann Lounge is named, was its first president.
34. 1962. A $250,000 bequest from Sarah E. Armstrong helps the law library grow its collection.
35. 1963. At just 27, Bruce Jacob ’59 argues before the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case Gideon v. Wainwright. He would go on to champion pro bono service and become dean in 1981.
36. 1963. Stetson becomes the first law school in Florida to establish a clinical program.
37. 1964. State Attorney Dan Warren ’52 works with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to crack down on the KKK and fight for civil rights in St. Augustine.
38. 1966. Stetson replaces its LLB degree with a JD offering.
39. 1968. Two new buildings open on campus: the H. Jackson Crummer Classroom building and Eleanor Naylor Dana Administrative Hall.
40. 1969. Vassar Benjamin Carlton begins his term on the Florida Supreme Court, serving as Chief Justice in 1973.
41. 1970. Thomas (Tom) James ’69 becomes Raymond James CEO at 27 years old.
42. 1970. The College of Law receives another gift from the Dana Foundation to expand the law library and grow the collection.
43. 1971. Hal Dekle ’40 is elected to the Florida Supreme Court.
44. 1971. Dean Richard Dillon establishes the Stetson Intramural Law Review. Professor Elizabeth Leeman is the student publication’s first faculty advisor.
45. 1971. Students begin a campus newspaper called The Prelude, which was published through the late 1980s.
46. 1973. Thirteen years after the untimely death of his son Harvey Firestone III ’60, Harvey Firestone, Jr. helps fund the construction of recreation facilities including the pool, basketball courts, tennis courts, and a full gym.
47. 1974. Thomas Stringer becomes the first Black College of Law graduate.
48. 1974. Elizabeth Leeman becomes Stetson Law’s first female full-time professor.
49. 1975. Ruth Fleet Thurman ’63 becomes first female tenured professor.
50. 1976. The Harold L. Sebring Building opens.
51. 1977. Fred Karl ’49 is elected to the Florida Supreme Court.
52. 1978. The Intramural Review gains full law review status and has been published continuously thereafter as the Stetson Law Review.
53. 1979. The first Higher Education Law and Policy Conference takes place.
54. 1979. Dade County Circuit Court Judge Edward Cowart ’52 presides over the Ted Bundy trial.
55. 1979. James Cloudis Smith ’67 serves as the 32nd Florida attorney general. He also served as Secretary of State of Florida from 1987-1995 and from 2002-2003.
56. 1981. Double Hatter Jim Shore ’80 is the first Native American to graduate from the College of Law.
57. 1980. Beloved law librarian Sally Ginsberg Waters joins Stetson.
58. 1983. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens speaks at the Inns of Court Banquet.
59. 1983. The College of Law receives a rare book collection from Professor Alessandra Luini del Russo that had been in her family’s collection for over two centuries.
60. 1986. Jane Geddes ’06 wins the LPGA Women’s Open.
61. 1986. Joseph Reiter ’68 becomes president of the Florida Bar.
62. 1986. Upon becoming president of the Stetson Lawyers Alumni Association, Paul May leads an effort to revitalize the organization from a somewhat dormant group to the robust organization it is today.
63. 1989. Porkchop the Cat is photographed attending the 1989 graduation ceremony.
64. 1990. Professor Dorothea Beane becomes the first Black professor on faculty and goes on to become the first Black professor to earn tenure.
65. 1992. Stetson launches its groundbreaking legal pro bono service program for students and faculty.
66. 1992. Manuel Ramos is the first Hispanic professor hired by the College of Law.
67. 1992. Bernie McCabe ’72 is elected Pinellas-Pasco state attorney.
68. 1994. Stetson wins all five National Trial Advocacy competitions.
69. 1994. The Carey & Florida Courtroom is dedicated.
70. 1994. William Blews ’66 becomes president of the Florida Bar.
71. 1994. Lisbeth Moody becomes first female dean and first female vice president at the College of Law.
72. 1995. U.S. News ranks Stetson Law No. 1 in trial skills advocacy for the first time.
73. 1995. Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Elder Justice launches.
74. 1995. Stetson’s International Environmental Moot Court Competition takes place for the first time.
75. 1996. Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law & Policy forms.
76. 1996. Bob Dillinger ’76 is elected public defender for Florida’s Sixth Judicial Circuit, a role in which he would serve until 2020.
77. 1997. As leader of a legal “dream team” Michael Mayer ’65 plays a key role in a lawsuit against the tobacco industry that resulted in an $11 billion settlement to Florida taxpayers.
78. 1998. Stetson Law launches its LLM program in international law.
79. 1998. A new building housing the Law Library opens with a large celebration. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is the keynote speaker.
80. 1998. Professor Luz Nagle is the first Hispanic female to join the Stetson Law faculty. She would become the first Hispanic female to earn tenure in 2004.
81. 1998. The first study abroad program, a trip to Tallinn, Estonia, launches.
82. 2000. Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Advocacy forms.
83. 2002. The student center opens on campus.
84. 2002. The part-time JD program, now known as Flex JD, launches.
85. 2002. Richard E. Doran ’81 becomes the 34th attorney general of Florida.
86. 2004. Stetson’s Tampa Law Center opens in downtown Tampa.
87. 2004. The Wm. Reece Smith, Jr. Courtyard is dedicated.
88. 2004. Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law & Policy forms.
89. 2004. Stetson Law launches its Hall of Fame. Among the 17 initial honorees are former deans Lewis Tribble (1915), W. Gary Vause, and Judge Elizabeth Kovacevich (1961).
90. 2004. Rich McKay ’84 becomes president and general manager of the Atlanta Falcons.
91. 2004. Jerald Scott Paul is nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve as Principal Deputy Administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration at the U.S. Department of Energy.
92. 2005. William Eleazer Courtroom, the nation’s first elder-friendly practice courtroom, is dedicated.
93. 2005. Thanks to a $500,000 gift from the Joy McCann Foundation, the William Reece Smith, Jr. Distinguished Professorship launches. Named for celebrated professor and public interest law titan Wm. Reece Smith, Jr., the title was first bestowed on Professor Roberta Flowers.
94. 2005. Stetson Law wins Willem C. Vis international championship over 150 law schools from 47 countries.
95. 2005. The prestigious Edward D. Foreman Award is given to a student for the first time.
96. 2006. The Florin Roebig Courtroom is upgraded and rededicated.
97. 2006. Gus Bilirakis ’89 is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
98. 2007. The Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy opens.
99. 2007. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia speaks on campus.
100. 2008. Stetson Law hosts National Pretrial Competition, developed by then-Dean Darby Dickerson, for the first time.
101. 2010. The Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library is named in honor of the Hands’ philanthropic support of the library.
102. 2010. Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication forms.
103. 2010. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks on campus as a Distinguished Jurist in Residence.
104. 2011. Bob Gualtieri ’02 is appointed sheriff of Pinellas County and is elected to serve in the role in 2012 and reelected in 2016, 2020, and 2024.
105. 2012. Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz is named dean of the College of Law.
106. 2012. The Veterans Law Institute opens.
107. 2014. After serving in the Florida House of Representatives, Rick Kriseman ’87 is sworn in as mayor of St. Petersburg and serves in that role until 2022.
108. 2014. Double Hatter and past Board of Overseers Chair Gregory Coleman ’85 ’89 becomes president of the Florida Bar.
109. 2017. Fred Ridley ’77 is named chair of Augusta National Golf Club.
110. 2018. The Veterans Law Institute opens in new state-of-the-art Judge Raphael Steinhardt building.
111. 2018. James Byrne ’80 becomes United States Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs after serving as general counsel for the department.
112. 2019. Leading civil rights scholar Michele Alexandre is appointed dean of the College of Law; the first Black individual to assume the role.
113. 2020. The establishment of the Business Law Concentration creates an opportunity for students to sharpen their skills within corporate, tax, and other key areas of practice.
114. 2020. Chris Sprowls ’09 becomes Florida House Speaker.
115. 2020. With the world in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic, Law Professor Kirsten Davis leads the effort to expand the College’s virtual education capabilities, an undertaking that earned national recognition.
116. 2021. Stetson Dispute Resolution and Moot Court Boards win the second ABA Competitions Champion Award after earning the most points throughout the American Bar Association Law Student Division’s four competitions.
117. 2022. Stetson Law’s Dispute Resolution Board wins South Texas University’s Energy Law Negotiation Competition despite the college having no energy law concentration.
118. 2022. Kathleen Passidomo ’78 becomes Florida Senate President.
119. 2023. Stetson Law welcomes D. Benjamin Barros as dean.
120. 2023. Stetson Law’s former law library transforms into 16,000-square-foot Advocacy Institute, offering the most courtrooms of any law school in the country..
121. 2023. Thanks to a generous gift from influential 1967 alumnus Dick Jacobs and his wife, Joan, the Jacobs Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment launches under the leadership of Professor Jaclyn Lopez.
122. 2024. Ashley Moody ’10 is appointed to a U.S. Senate seat representing Florida after serving as Florida Attorney General from 2019-2025..
123. 2025. Pam Bondi ’90 is confirmed as Attorney General of the U.S. Bondi also served as Florida’s 37^th Florida Attorney General.
124. 2025. Under the leadership of President and General Manager Christina Unkel ’12, the Tampa Bay Sun becomes the first team to win the United Soccer League (USL) Women’s Super League championship.
125. 2025. Campus leadership adds generative artificial intelligence training to its 1L fall orientation programming.

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Post date: Aug. 1

Media contact: Kate Bradshaw
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