Stetson University College of Law is presenting its Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy to Judge David C. Mason during the Educating Advocates Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference on the Gulfport, Florida, campus in May.
Judge Mason is an honorary member of the Order of the Coif and the American Board of Trial Advocates who has served for 29 years as an adjunct professor of law at Washington University teaching trial practice and serving as head coach of the Washington University School of Law Trial Team. He has also lectured on evidence, trial practice and judicial reform at several law schools, bar associations and civic groups across the country and around the world. During the past 24 years, Judge Mason has become a nationally respected teacher of trial advocacy, helping his Washington Law Trial Team win more than 24 regional and national trial championships or finalist titles. Judge Mason has served as a trainer for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, Lead Trial Advocacy Trainer for the Land of Lincoln Legal Services Foundation in East St. Louis for 10 years, and as a member of the faculty of the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law Intensive Trial Advocacy Program in New York City. Judge Mason was elected in 1996 to the American Law Institute. He was a 1983 champion of the American College of Trial Lawyers National Trial Competition and was awarded the ACTL Lewis F. Powell Medal for Advocacy.
Judge Mason was appointed a circuit judge in 1991 and presides over major civil and criminal trials. Prior to being appointed to the bench, Judge Mason was an assistant attorney general in Missouri, general counsel to the Missouri Department of Corrections, and a trial lawyer with two major St. Louis law firms.
Stetson presents the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy to recognize people who have fundamentally changed the way the world approaches the teaching of advocacy.
The Educating Advocates Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference invites professors, lawyers and legal practitioners from across the country to spend two-and-one-half intensive days learning the Stetson method of advocacy, developing their teaching skills, and networking with renowned advocacy instructors. Stetson recently ranked no. 1 in Trial Advocacy by U.S. News & World Report for the 20th time in 24 years.
“Never once did I think coming to Stetson Law would allow me to bottle-feed rhino calves in a remote jungle in India,” said second-year law student Kate Welch, who spent her summer working with the Wildlife Trust of India in Delhi, India.
Welch met Vivek Menon, executive director and CEO of the Wildlife Trust of India, when he was on the Gulfport campus giving a Foreman Biodiversity Lecture at Stetson. The meeting opened the door to a summer job for Welch in India.
“When Mr. Menon invited me to apply for a job there this summer, I knew it would be a unique experience in the field of international conservation law that I could not get working at a law firm in Florida,” said Welch.
Stetson’s new Dick and Joan Jacobs’ Environmental Externship Fund helped fund the trip to work in India.
“Without the support of Stetson staff, faculty, alumni and the Dick and Joan Jacobs’ Environmental Externship Fund, I would never have been able to experience the wonders of India and gain the insight I have into international environmental law and conservation policy that I hope to use in my career in a similar field,” said Welch.
Kate Welch had an opportunity to feed a baby rhino in India.
Welch reflected on her impressions of life in India. “It is a tough place for the 1.32 billion Indian people to make a living, let alone the precious wildlife,” said Welch, who added that despite the poverty and pollution, the people of India are resilient.
“I have heard many stories of starving wild elephants ransacking forest villages and killing people, only for their family members to quickly forgive the beasts and better educate themselves on how to build their community in a way to better avoid future human-elephant conflict,” said Welch.
For a week in July, Welch was able to take a trip to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation in the northeast Indian state of Assam. The ultimate goal of the Centre is to rehabilitate animals that have been orphaned or injured in Assam and return them to the wild. Welch said that the lawyers at WTI have helped to raise public awareness about important wildlife conservation issues in India.
“That in turn motivates donors to contribute funds to the work done in the field and encourages the public to lobby policymakers for a change,” said Welch.
This summer, Welch completed legal research pertaining to different issues park rangers are having in parks across the country and what implications the federal laws have on them. She also worked WTI’s booth at the United Nation’s World Environment Day. Welch has spent a majority of her time helping to organize an event called Gaj Majotsav.
“Thousands of people will be coming to the WTI event,” said Welch. “The top ministers of two Indian ministries will be there, Bollywood celebrities, top policymakers, film makers, conservationists, and hundreds of schoolchildren and others will be coming together to learn more about the importance of protecting the Asian elephant in India and preserving its ecosystem for the future.”
Welch had the opportunity to travel with Dr. Panjit and another WTI veterinarian into Kaziranga National Park to treat a badly injured elephant.
“The injured elephant was attacked by a wild bull elephant,” Welch explained. “The injuries were horrific but the veterinarians had been going to see and treat him every day for the first month and every other day after.”
Kate Welch worked up close with rhinos in India.
Welch was able to help dress the wounds on the tail.
She explained that the job invigorated her to return to Stetson and throw herself wholeheartedly into supporting the causes that are important to her.
“This means not just working hard in the classroom but volunteering my time and energy to make a difference off campus as well,” said Welch. “This experience has taught me that no matter how hard things get or how dim the future looks for environmental activism in the United States, the work we do as lawyers matters and it is important to keep on fighting the good fight, because every little bit matters.”
Andrew Appleby joined Stetson University College of Law as an assistant professor of law, teaching federal income tax courses beginning this fall.
Professor Appleby practiced tax law at leading firms for nearly a decade. Most recently, he was special counsel in the tax group at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP’s New York office. Professor Appleby was a partner in the tax group at Eversheds Sutherland (US) LLP’s New York office, and an associate in the corporate group at Alston & Bird LLP’s Atlanta office. Prior to his legal career, he was an information technology and business consultant.
Professor Appleby has published in many leading journals and law reviews, focusing primarily on state tax and sports tax issues. He has been featured in the New York Times and Bloomberg TV’s “InBusiness with Margaret Brennan.” He also taught advanced legal methods as a member of the New York Law School adjunct faculty.
Professor Appleby earned an LL.M. in Taxation from Georgetown University Law Center, where he participated in the Graduate Tax Scholar fellowship program. He earned a J.D. from Wake Forest University School of Law, an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, and a B.S. from Florida State University.
Anne E. Mullins has joined the Stetson University College of Law faculty beginning in the fall semester as an associate professor teaching research and writing.
Professor Mullins previously taught at the University of North Dakota School of Law and the University of Oregon School of Law. She received the University of North Dakota Foundation Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Graduate or Professional Teaching in 2017, the University of North Dakota School of Law Teacher of the Year Award in 2016 and 2017, the Webb Faculty Achievement Award in 2016, the Robert Johnson Research Fellowship in 2017, and the University of North Dakota Summer Instructional Development Professorship in 2014.
She writes and presents nationally on persuasion in judicial writing. Her published articles in this area include “Jedi or Judge: How Cognitive Psychology Redefines Judicial Opinions” in the Wyoming Law Review and “Subtly Selling the System: Where Psychological Influence Tactics Lurk in the Judicial System” in the University of Richmond Law Review. She also writes and presents nationally in the areas of innovative pedagogy and legal research instruction and is the co-author of the book North Dakota Legal Research.
Professor Mullins is president-elect and a member of the board of directors of the Association of Legal Writing Directors and conference chair of the association’s 2019 Biennial Conference. She serves the Legal Writing Institute as a member of the Discipline-Building Working Group, the Scholarships Grants Committee, and the Administrative Options Committee. She recently finished her term on the Executive Committee of the AALS Legal Writing Section, and she will serve on the organization’s Nominations Committee in the upcoming year.
Professor Mullins received her J.D., with honors, from the University of Chicago Law School.
Stetson Law alumnus Senior Judge Raphael Steinhardt J.D. ’63, a 2013 Stetson Law Hall of Fame inductee and namesake of the Judge Raphael Steinhardt Building that houses the Veterans Law Institute at Stetson, has recently made a donation to restore five large historic oil paintings on Stetson’s Gulfport campus. The campus was previously the home of the Florida Military Academy and was built originally as the Rolyat Hotel in the 1920s.
Judge Raphael Steinhardt with the original painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Photo courtesy Judge Steinhardt. Artist Joel Burki is restoring a copy of the painting at Stetson called “Gypsy girl.”Artist Joel Burki is restoring five historic paintings on the Gulfport campus.
The paintings include figurative works depicting scenes from beaches to bull fights and include “Gypsy girl,” “Interior figural scene,” and “La serenata,” by Victor Robbian and “After the bath” and “The bull fight” by F. Gonzalez Gamarra. Conservator Joel M. Burki is restoring the paintings and the more than 90-year-old wooden frames.
Judge Steinhardt also donated funds to run the Veterans Law Institute and to complete the Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library at Stetson. He previously served more than 25 years on Stetson Law’s Board of Overseers. He has endowed several scholarships and awards at Stetson Law including the Judge Raphael Steinhardt Public Interest Scholarship, the Judge Raphael Steinhardt Public Interest Wage & Salary Supplement Scholarship, and the Judge Raphael Steinhardt Veterans Scholarship. He is the recipient of Stetson’s Ben C. Willard Alumnus of the Year Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit received the Cornerstone Award, recognizing exceptional members of the advocacy community who work tirelessly to create learning opportunities across the profession.
Spencer Pahlke received the Edward D. Ohlbaum Professionalism Award, honoring an individual whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law.
Mark Caldwell, curriculum project manager for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy, for his work which fundamentally changed the way in which the world approaches the teaching of advocacy, during the conference.
The theme of this year’s conference was “Advocacy: Fulfilling the Promise of Experiential Learning.”
Nataly Azcurra, a rising 3L at Stetson Law, was recently selected for a prestigious 10-week fellowship from the Peggy Browning Fund. She was one of 400 applicants for the grant.
Nataly Azcurra.
Azcurra’s passion for immigration law was sparked at a young age when Azcurra and her family moved from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to South Florida.
Before coming to Stetson Law, she graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and a minor in Latin American studies. At UCF, she worked with the Americans for Immigrant Justice and her interest in the field grew exponentially.
“I got to see how immigration attorneys go about their days and work for their clients firsthand,” Azcurra said.
At Stetson, she continued to explore her enthusiasm for the law in other specialties. After her 1L year, Azcurra interned with the Florida International University College of Medicine Civil Justice Partnership doing Social Security Disability work under Natalie Castellanos, supervising attorney and assistant professor at the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine at FIU.
“Working at FIU was an incredible experience because even though it wasn’t directly related to my interest area, it dealt with an area of the law that I previously had zero clue about and still focused really heavily on social justice,” Azcurra said.
As a student at Stetson, Azcurra is involved on campus as the Hispanic Bar Association’s public relations chairwoman and a member of the Labor and Employment Law Association. She credits LELA’s email updates from faculty advisor, Professor Jason Bent, with notifying her about the fellowship application.
During the fellowship, she will be spending her summer working in immigration law and helping provide employment services with Friends of Farmworkers, Inc. in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
“I wanted to work with Friends of Farmworkers, because they do direct services with people,” Azcurra said. “I want to see how an actual lawyer can help farm workers in these communities.”
Some students use their summers to lie on the beach and work on their tans, but at Stetson Law, students explore their passions during those intermittent months and relish in the opportunity to give back to their communities. This summer, four outstanding Stetson students will be participating in the Legal Aid Summer Fellowship Program sponsored by the Florida Bar Foundation: Hanna Elmasry, Mavic Francisco, Kelly Hawk and Amika Jeffries. All four students will begin their 11-week fellowships in May and continue to work in communities across Florida throughout the summer.
Hanna Elmasry.
Hanna Elmasry was selected to work with the Legal Aid Society of the Orange County Bar Association in Orlando, Florida, where she will be working with local attorneys on domestic violence, landlord/tenant and immigration law issues. She graduated from Florida State University with bachelor’s degrees in public relations and political science; and she completed her 1L year at Stetson in May of this year.
Elmasry credits her unique background with seeing life from many different angles and inspiring her to help lower-income families. Her mother grew up in rural Tennessee and her father moved to the U.S. from the Gaza Strip, Palestine.
“In America, where we are such an empowered country, it can be easy to neglect the power of telling someone that they can do more,” said Elmasry. “A lot of low-income children are never told that and even a little bit of support can change everything.”
Mavic Francisco. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
Mavic Francisco will be exploring her passion for health care and disability law with the Legal Aid of Manasota, a medical and legal partnership with Sarasota Memorial Hospital. At the fellowship, she will split her time between discussing health care issues at the hospital and working with staff attorneys in the Legal Aid field offices.
“Social needs are just as important as medical needs,” Francisco said. “One medical condition can be devastating to a family; it can change a family’s whole financial condition if a loved one is sick and having public benefits is important to keep that family afloat.”
Francisco has just completed her 2L year at Stetson, where she is treasurer of the Health Care Law Society and she works as a research assistant under Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox. After graduation, she hopes to continue working in the health and disability law fields and help enact change toward health equity for people from all walks of life.
Kelly Hawk, a rising 3L at Stetson, will be at Disability Independence Group, Inc., in Miami, Florida, working on the Juvenile Justice Collaborative, a coordinated community response to protect and advance the rights of at-risk students and those with disabilities by preventing school disciplinary policies from forcing children out of the classroom. Hawk will also be working on the Enable Project to promote access for individuals with disabilities to civic engagement, developing training to ensure that the voices of individuals with disabilities are heard and effectively represented in the policy-making decisions which impact their lives.
Kelly Hawk. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
Prior to coming to law school, Hawk received a master’s degree in Professional School Counseling from Carson-Newman University in Tennessee. Hawk originally wanted to specialize in special education law, but she says Stetson opened her eyes and helped her fall in love with higher education law and law as a whole.
“Everybody cares about kids,” Hawk said. “But sometimes there is a misunderstanding between what the school provides and what the child needs.”
After graduation, Hawk hopes to help bridge that disconnect through pro-bono work with families of exceptional student education (ESE) children.
Amika Jeffries was chosen to work with Florida Legal Services in Newberry, Florida, which provides legal aid to low-income families in the community. Jeffries will be learning about various kinds of law as the program often tackles economic, social justice, and discrimination cases. Jeffries just completed her 2L year at Stetson, where she advocates for social justice by working pro-bono with legal aid clinics and community events and serving on the executive board of the national reproductive justice organization If/When/How.
Amika Jeffries. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
She was initially attracted to Florida Legal Services because of the Florida Institutional Legal Services program, which provides civil legal aid to those in Florida state prisons, county jails and mental health facilities.
Jeffries graduated from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with a bachelor’s in health science – pre physical therapy and a minor in psychology, with the intention of becoming a doctor in physical therapy, but her passions for social activism and advocacy led her to law school.
“I wanted my last summer to be used not only getting experience, but also fulfilling my purpose as a human being to serve others,” Jeffries said. “This fellowship allows me to do both.”
Alumni Joann Grages Burnett, Beth Casey and Korey Henson in the Office of Career and Professional Development have recently distinguished themselves with national and regional appointments.
Joann Grages Burnett.
Joann Grages Burnett J.D. ’08, associate director of the Office of Career and Professional Development, has been appointed the member resources coordinator for the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division. She was also appointed the YLD co-chair of the Tampa Bay chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She co-authored the article, “Reverse Mentorship Is the Key to Success for Millennials and Their Law Firms” for the ABA Young Lawyers Division.
Beth Casey.
Beth Casey J.D. ’09, the assistant director of the Office of Career and Professional Development, is being installed as the vice president of the St. Petersburg Bar Foundation Board of Trustees on May 30. She has served on the board for six years.
Korey Henson.
Korey Henson J.D. ’09, the associate director of the Office of Career and Professional Development, has been appointed to two positions with the National Association of Law Placement: co-chair of the CSO Employer Outreach working group of the JD Advisors Section and vice-chair of the “Ask an Expert Webinars” working group of the Newer Professionals Section. He also wrote an article for the March 2018 NALP Bulletin, “Counseling the ‘Trailing Partner’ Law Student.” He was selected to co-present in the spring at the 2018 NALP Annual Education Conference on “Closing the Loop: Creating and Maximizing PD Partnerships.”
Third-year Stetson Law student John Pilz is serious about change.
“True change occurs when we utilize every experience as an opportunity to move forward,” said Pilz.
He won an award from the City, County and Local Government Law Section of the Florida Bar on May 11 for his work on local issues. Pilz was honored as the Outstanding Local Government Law School Student by the Florida Bar.
Pilz came to Stetson through the accelerated program with the University of South Florida Honors College. He proposed novel projects as project leader to the Student Green Energy Fund at USF in Tampa, resulting in approximately $3 million in Green Energy Projects, including installation of the largest rooftop solar panel project on campus. He also petitioned student government for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations, LED lights for parking garages, and trees to be installed at different locations across USF’s campus.
“The most rewarding project I took part in was in getting funding for the planting of trees at USF Tampa,” said Pilz. “Of all the things I could contribute, trees will last the longest.”
At Stetson Law, Pilz is an officer of the Real Property, Probate and Trust Law Society and has been active in participating with several green projects for the local community. He was instrumental in promoting the idea of an EV charging station on Stetson’s Gulfport campus to Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.
After law school, Pilz plans to work for Sepideh Eskandari.
“Attorney Eskandari is a very accomplished immigration attorney, my aunt, and the first person to graduate from Stetson Law from my entire family,” said Pilz.
“Besides immigration, I’m also passionate about property law, estate planning and environmental law,” said Pilz. “I love environmental advocacy, and the professors at Stetson really helped my passion grow. Professor Boudreaux is one professor who has made a lasting impact on me, since my first real property law class, and I am very lucky to say I took all the classes I knew he was teaching.”
Pilz is working on a paper for Professor Boudreaux’s class that creates a blueprint for expanding solar installation and EV charging, through bailments and public-private partnerships respectively .
“I can only hope to make a positive difference in the future,” said Pilz, who joins Stetson’s commencement exercises on May 19 in Gulfport.
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Bruce Jacob retires in May after 13 years as dean, from 1981-1994, and 20 years as a faculty member at Stetson University College of Law.
He graduated in 1959 with his law degree from Stetson, and went on to become assistant attorney general of Florida and argue his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court, the historic Gideon v. Wainwright, at age 27. Hundreds of law students at Stetson have learned about the pivotal Gideon case in Jacob’s class. The Court’s landmark decision in the 1963 case opened the door to public defender offices across the country.
“We’re incredibly proud that Bruce Jacob has dedicated so much of his professional life to Stetson, first as a student, and later as a dean and professor, a mentor and friend to so many,” said Stetson Law Dean and Professor of Law Christopher M. Pietruszkiewicz.
Shortly after the ruling in Gideon, Jacob signed up to become a public defender in Florida’s 10th Judicial Circuit. For more than 50 years, Jacob has represented hundreds of defendants in pro bono criminal cases. As a member of the faculty at Emory University, Jacob started a legal assistance program for inmates in Atlanta in 1965, and he launched a legal assistance program for inmates in Massachusetts while working on his S.J.D. at Harvard.
At Ohio State University, Jacob served as law professor and director of clinical education, then as dean of the law school at Mercer University, and became dean of Stetson University College of Law in 1981. He supported Stetson’s participation in moot court competitions. He has taught more than 20 different law school courses, including constitutional law, administrative law, criminal law and criminal procedure at Stetson University.
“He is so focused on helping students learn and he genuinely cares about his students,” said Erin Okuno J.D. ’13, a fellow in Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy and former member of Stetson’s internationally recognized Moot Court Board. “He wants them to learn and succeed.”
“The ability to help others is one thing that makes law the greatest profession,” said Jacob.
Jacob has been featured in media outlets including the Washington Post, Esquire, the Atlantic, CBS News, NBC News, the National Law Journal and the ABA Journal. Read more about his contributions to Stetson in the latest issue of the Stetson Lawyer.
(L-R): Outgoing SBA president Dale Tan hands off the gavel to incoming SBA president Cymoril White. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
By E. Alan Brock
Outgoing Student Bar Association president Dale Tan presented Professor Erika McArdle with the inaugural Stetson Student Bar Association Educator of the Year Award on Monday night, April 23, during the SBA End of the Year Banquet on the Gulfport campus.
Student Cymoril White was sworn in as the 2018-2019 SBA president.
Erika McArdle.(L-R): Dale Tan, Matthew Ceriale, Aman Dhaliwal, and Cymoril White. Photo by Merve Ozcan.
“For years, my professors and coaches allowed me to stand on their shoulders and be successful,” said Professor McArdle, a 2012 graduate of Stetson Law. “Now, my shoulders are going to be the ones for my students to stand on to be successful. There is no greater privilege I could have than that.” McArdle is the associate director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy, where she teaches trial advocacy, coaches the national Trial Team, manages the LL.M. in Advocacy and J.D./LL.M. in Advocacy, and consults and trains the Dispute Resolution Board.
“Our goals for next year are to Refocus, Revamp, and Revitalize,” said White. “We are going to refocus SBA to the needs and wants of the student body and the student organizations; revamp processes and new initiatives to make sure the students are informed and their voices are being heard throughout the year; and revitalize what SBA means and stands for on Stetson’s campus.”
The banquet celebrated the contributions and achievements of Stetson Law students throughout the school year. Tan presented two students, Aman Dhaliwal and Matthew Ceriale, with SBA President’s awards for exemplary work for the student body.
