Jo Ann Palchak received the J. Ben Watkins Award at the Stetson Law Review Banquet.
Jo Ann Palchak J.D. ’05 was honored with the J. Ben Watkins Award for excellence in the legal profession at the Stetson Law Review banquet on Nov. 19 in Gulfport. The J. Ben Watkins Award honors individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership and accomplishment in the legal community.
Palchak is a criminal defense attorney in Tampa who specializes in representing individuals and companies in criminal investigations and prosecutions, as well as in complex civil litigation. She represents clients in misdemeanor and felony proceedings in state and federal court and counsels clients seeking appellate or post-conviction relief. Palchak’s defense of juveniles encompasses matters on and off school campuses.
She is a life member and board member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers who has been selected as a Leader in the Law by the Florida Association for Women Lawyers, recipient of the Outstanding Pro Bono Service Award and Pro Bono Service Award from the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, and the Marcelino “Bubba” Huerta III Award from the Hillsborough County Bar Association.
The award is presented in honor of the late J. Ben Watkins LL.B. ’49, who helped found the Stetson Law Review and was a member of the Stetson Law Board of Overseers. Previous recipients of this prestigious award include outstanding members of the judiciary and bar leadership.
Stetson’s Lambda Legal Society hosted a discussion and candlelight vigil on Monday evening, Nov. 21, on Stetson’s Gulfport campus to discuss the challenges faced by the transgender community and to honor the lives of transgender people who have been violently killed.
A candlelight vigil on Stetson’s Gulfport campus honored Transgender Day of Remembrance. Photo by Alan Brock.
Nathan Bruemmer, president of Lambda, and student Alaina Wilson presented to students, staff and faculty before leading a candlelight gathering in the Plaza Mayor Courtyard on campus to observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance.
Students, staff and faculty gathered Monday night in the Plaza Mayor in Gulfport. Photo by Alan Brock.
Conflicting federal and state laws and polices leave transgender people without legal protections and vulnerable to discrimination.
Stetson’s Gulfport campus commemorated Transgender Day of Remembrance on Nov. 21. Photo by Alan Brock.
Communities around the world come together in November on a day of remembrance to honor those killed due to anti-transgender violence and hatred.
A panel of international law experts discussed the global refugee crisis and human trafficking with a delegation of international journalists Monday morning in the Mann Lounge at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport on Nov. 14.
(L-R): Standing: Professor Luz Nagle, Seated: Ahmad Yakzan, Franziska Kues and Gregory W. Kehoe.
The delegation of approximately 50 international journalists from the Middle East visited Stetson for the special presentation as part of the Edward R. Murrow Program for Journalists, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.
Presenters included attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, Stetson graduate and attorney Ahmad Yakzan, student Franziska Kues, and law professor Luz Nagle. Associate Dean Darryl C. Wilson introduced the panel.
Panel moderator and professor Luz Nagle introduced the plight of the refugee who survives conflict and war.
“They escape bullets and missiles but become victims of human trafficking,” Professor Nagle said.
Kehoe is a trial attorney who worked for the U.S. Department of Justice as a prosecutor of high profile cases involving financial institutions, corporate fraud allegations, and racketeering charges for more than 20 years. He led the team of lawyers and investigators which advised the Iraqi Special Tribunal, an ad hoc court formed to prosecute Saddam Hussein.
Yakzan is a native of Beirut, Lebanon, who represents clients before the Department of Homeland Security in immigration cases and the Department of Justice in removal proceedings. He has represented several individuals in high-profile asylum cases.
Kues attended law school in Germany and is a student in Stetson’s LL.M. program in international law. She is also a scholar of the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, which awards scholarships to students and graduates of exceptional academic achievement and outstanding political or social commitment. During her studies in Germany, Kues worked as a freelance journalist in online and print media.
Professor Nagle specializes in international law, transborder criminal law, human trafficking, and national security law. Her career prior to teaching includes serving as a judge in Medellín, Colombia. She has presented to visitors from more than 90 countries with the State Department’s distinguished foreign visitors program. Nagle also serves as vice-chair of the International Bar Association President’s Special Task Force on Human Trafficking.
The delegation was hosted by World Partnerships, Inc. the official Tampa Bay regional IVLP partner of the U.S. Department of State since 2000. World Partnerships is a private, not-for-profit organization with a worldwide mission for educational, cultural, commercial and professional exchange with global leaders headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Watch this video to learn more about Stetson Law advocates addressing human trafficking.
Stetson University College of Law unveiled a display of photographs honoring veterans in the Stetson family in the Mann Lounge during a Veterans Day lunch celebrated on Nov. 10 in Gulfport.
Displays in the Mann Lounge move to the Great Hall foyer after Nov. 10 for one week. Photo by Laura Cheek.
Stetson law school honored veterans in the community with a special display on Nov. 10. Photo by Laura Cheek.
The Student Veterans Organization and Stetson Chapter of the American Bar Association-Law Student Division co-sponsored the event, which included a talk and Q&A with Retired Colonel DJ Reyes about the Hillsborough County Veteran Treatment Court.
Stetson law school’s student affairs office helped coordinate the display on campus, designed with help from the human resources office.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno spoke at the Ninth International Wildlife Law Conference at Stetson law school in 2007.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno visited Stetson law school students in 2007.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, who died Nov. 7, 2016, made a memorable visit to the Stetson University College of Law campus in 2007.
Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno toured Stetson’s state-of-the-art, elder-friendly Eleazer Courtroom with Professor Roberta Flowers.
She served as the William Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Lecturer at Stetson’s Annual Inns of Court Banquet on Jan. 25, 2007, where invited dignitaries, federal, circuit and county judges, area attorneys, Inn members and Stetson students had a rare opportunity to hear her speak. She also made a special presentation at the Ninth International Wildlife Law Conference and addressed a Stetson student leadership luncheon.
Reno met with Stetson Law students Tracey Sticco and Melody James during a student leadership luncheon.
Reno was the 78th attorney general of the United States and the first woman to hold the post. She was the first woman appointed to be a state attorney for Florida. Reno helped win congressional approval of the 1994 crime bill, the biggest crime legislation in U.S. history.
Jeanne Christie, executive director of the Association of State Wetland Managers, presented Are We There Yet? Trends in Protecting Wetlands and Biodiversity – A State-side View as part of Stetson University College of Law’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series on the Gulfport campus.
“The U.S. is the most ecologically diverse country in the world,” said Christie. “We have more kinds of forests, and deserts and wetlands that any place else. So while the federal government can pass laws and do a good job at the national level, it really takes states and local governments working together because things are so different from one part of the country to the other.”
Stetson’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series is coordinated through the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, which is the recipient of the 2016 Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy. All lectures in the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series are complimentary and open to the public.
Jeanne Christie delivered the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture at Stetson. Photo by Alan Brock.
Doug Lashley delivered the keynote at the wetlands workshop later in the day.
Christie’s lecture was held in conjunction with the Fourth Annual Environmental Law Institute-Stetson Wetlands Workshop. The workshop featured a field trip to a mitigation site, a keynote by Doug Lashley of GreenVest, LLC on “Brownfields as Potential Wetland Mitigation Sites,” as well as panel discussions and breakout sessions.
“It’s extremely important for people to pay attention to wetlands and other parts of the natural environment, for state and local government to be fully engaged in protecting resources, and for people locally to be interested in finding out how to do that,” said Christie.
Stetson University College of Law invites future law students to visit its Gulfport campus, take a simulated class, meet with faculty and students, and learn more about the admissions and financial aid application process during its Law School Information Day from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. on Nov. 12.
Stetson law school’s Gulfport campus.
Future law students may attend workshops and information sessions hosted by professors and admissions staff, tour the Gulfport campus and learn more about areas of specialty including advocacy, environmental law, elder law and study abroad programs.
Stetson’s Innocence Initiative hosted journalist Keith Long presenting on the role of juries in the digital and televised trial era. Long, who wrote What if the Casey Anthony jury hadn’t been sequestered?, discussed the O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony jury acquittals.
Keith Long spoke at Stetson on Nov. 3. Photo by Alan Brock.
He described how his interest in the Casey Anthony case began when he watched coverage of the trial, focused heavily on Anthony’s character.
(L-R): Charles Brady, Innocence Initiative treasurer; Christie Fekany, Innocence Initiative president; Keith Long, guest speaker; and Chelsea Leyden, Innocence Initiative vice president. Photo by Alan Brock.
“From a writer’s standpoint, I like to find the hidden story,” said Long, who said he began writing on the economy and culture.
“My interest in the untold story led me into law,” said Long.
Long’s program, which analyzes evidence, the role of the jury and presumption of innocence in high-profile cases, is offered as a continuing legal education program.
Alan Gura addressed a crowd at Stetson. Photo by Alan Brock.
Alan Gura, lead plaintiff’s counsel in the landmark 2008 Supreme Court decision District of Columbia v. Heller, spoke on Oct. 27 at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport.
Gura spoke about how subsequent case law has evolved from the Heller decision, in which the Court examined the meaning of the Second Amendment. In Heller, the Supreme Court heard Second Amendment challenges to Washington, D.C.’s longstanding ban on handgun possession and requirement that firearms in the home be stored unloaded and disassembled or bound by a locking device. Gura also speculated on the impact of the election cycle on the Second Amendment.
The Federalist Society and Second Amendment Society co-sponsored the event “Alan Gura: The Second Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms.” Approximately 60 students and faculty members attended the lecture.
Students and faculty gathered to hear Alan Gura discuss the landmark 2008 Heller case.
The Stetson Chapter of the Young Lawyers Division Law Student Division and Florida Association of Women Lawyers at Stetson co-sponsored a networking event on Oct. 27 at the Boca Bay Grille in downtown Gulfport.
Lauren Baio (3L), Zabbdy Caleb Lopez (2L), Chantay Perry (3L), Natalie Yello (3L), Associate Dean Stephanie Vaughan, Ali Preston (2L), Alicia Winterkorn (1L) and Dominic Scavo (1L).
More than 25 attorneys and 40 students attended “The Winning Edge Professionalism Panel & Networking Event.” The event featured a panel moderated by Associate Dean Stephanie Vaughan that included Judge Claudia R. Isom with the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit; Michele Leo Hintson, partner at Shumaker, Loop, Kendrick, LLP; Adam Nate, assistant federal public defender for the Middle District of Florida; and Nick Zorn, Allstate Insurance staff counsel.
The panelists talked with Stetson law students about how to develop professionalism and how to avoid common pitfalls in developing a professional identity.
Following the panel discussion, attendees networked with panelists and attorneys.
“The Winning Edge” was developed by the Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism and the Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on Professionalism.
(L-R): Professor Joseph Morrissey, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, Professor Albert Alschuler, Darden Rice, and Scott Greytak. Photo by Alan Brock.
(L-R): Student Nathan Bruemmer (at podium), Professor Joseph Morrissey, Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, Professor Albert Alschuler, Darden Rice, and Scott Greytak. Photo by Alan Brock.
Stetson University College of Law’s Gulfport campus hosted a public noontime program on Oct. 27 about a first-of-its-kind ordinance to abolish superPACs and limit foreign corporate money in St. Petersburg, Florida, elections.
The one-hour program, “Taking on Citizens United: Short-and-Long-Term Strategies to Restore our Democracy,” featured a panel of national campaign finance reformers and city officials including Federal Election Commissioner Ellen Weintraub, St. Petersburg City Council Vice Chair Darden Rice, Free Speech for People counsel Scott Greytak, and University of Chicago Law School professor Albert Alschuler.
“Six years after Citizens United, we have done no substantive rule making about Citizens United and what it has created,” said FEC Commissioner Ellen Weintraub.
Stetson law professor Joseph Morrissey moderated the panel discussion, co-sponsored by the American Constitution Society, American Promise Tampa Bay, Free Speech for People, the League of Women Voters of the St. Petersburg area, and the Leif Nissen Foundation for a Better World.
Organizers Julie Kessel of the League of Women Voters, Rae Claire Johnson of American Promise Tampa Bay, Karen Lieberman of the Leif Nissen Foundation, and Stetson Law student chapter president Nathan Bruemmer of the American Constitution Society will be in attendance.
(L-R): Jason Strong and Professor Judith Scully, director of the Innocence Initiative at Stetson, spoke to Stetson Law students.
Jason Strong spoke about being wrongly accused and exonerated of killing a woman.
The Innocence Initiative at Stetson brought guest speaker Jason Strong to campus Wednesday night, Oct. 12, to talk with law students about his 15-year struggle to prove his innocence in a crime he did not commit.
Strong was the victim of false confessions and improper forensic science and convicted of killing a developmentally disabled woman, a crime he did not commit.
Fifteen years after being convicted, Strong was exonerated when the State Attorney’s Office re-investigated his case and proved his innocence.
Strong described his experiences with the legal system, how his innocence was ultimately proven, and his life after being exonerated of the crime he did not commit.
