Stetson University College of Law is offering the webinar, “End of the Academic Year Title IX Update: Planning Now for Next Year’s Compliance Requirements,” for higher education professionals, attorneys and Title IX investigators from 1:30-2:30 p.m. on May 8.
Stetson Law Professor Peter Lake will present the one-hour webinar on proposed Title IX regulations, how college and university campuses should prepare, and how to plan for training, staffing, policy initiatives and continuing education in the coming budget year.
Lake is a nationally known expert in Title IX, higher education law and policy who holds the Charles A. Dana Chair and directs the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law & Policyat Stetson University.
Kate Welch spent Spring Break in India. Photo courtesy Kate Welch.
By Taylor Allyn
Over spring break, Kate Welch and seven other students in Professor Royal Gardner’s Topics in Biodiversity class, Jaclyn M. Clark, Jessica L. Dewolf, Amika M. Jeffries, David A. Weiger, Maria C. White, Jennifer N. Winn and Hannah M. Yoder, traveled to Pune, India, to present at the Wildlife Law and Enforcement Conference hosted by the Wildlife Trust of India. The conference was created as a memorial for the man who established the Wildlife Trust and created modern wildlife crime enforcement in India, Ashok Kumar.
Welch is no stranger to India, having spent the summer after her first year working with the same trust focusing on elephant protection and habitat restoration. The non-profit organization is working to establish and secure 101 elephant corridors that protect elephants by ensuring safe passage between conservation areas. Rapid urbanization in India has interfered with elephant migrant routes, prompting unique solutions to human-elephant conflicts, said Welch.
“Sometimes [a solution] is elevating a highway so that animals can pass underneath it. Sometimes it’s building a land bridge over the highway so other animals can go that way. Sometimes it’s making sure that speed limits are really low at night so that people can see when animals are crossing,” said Welch.
Welch presented at the Wildlife Law and Enforcement Conference. Photo courtesy Kate Welch.
At the conference, Welch presented on the fates of endangered animals after they are intercepted by authorities and taken from wildlife traffickers. Most of these animals end up in zoos, aquariums, or conservation missions, but many are so sick or injured that they die before they can be rehabilitated. Surprisingly, the most heavily trafficked endangered species is corals, making up 40 percent of all seizures by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
One of the goals of the Wildlife Trust is to raise money for wildlife enforcement in India. According to Welch, there are strong protections in place for animals but little funding to enforce those protections. The organization raises money to train rangers how to track and intercept wildlife traffickers and to gather evidence for prosecution. Consequently, animal protection and habitat conservation often overlap with other environmental issues related to land, air, and water.
“If you can make sure [animals] have a pristine habitat, then a lot of other things are going to be affected like less deforestation and cleaner rivers,” said Welch.
After the conference, Welch and the group traveled to Kanha National Park in search of tigers, sloth bears, and swamp deer. The weather was not conducive to tiger viewing but they had the chance to see the latter two species which are unique and native to India. When the national park was first established, several villages and native tribes had to be relocated to maintain a suitable habitat for protected animals. However, it can be difficult to reconcile the needs of native people with the needs of endangered animals.
“You have to strike a balance because you want people to have this connection with nature that they’ve always had but you also want to give animals their space,” said Welch.
In the future, Welch said that she would like to work abroad or with an international organization.
“I want to encourage other people to take up opportunities, especially your first summer,” said Welch. “Do something that you find interesting. Find something new.”
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Emeritus Bruce Jacob.
After graduating from Stetson University College of Law in 1959, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law Emeritus Bruce Jacob made history with the 1963 landmark Supreme Court decision, Gideon v. Wainwright, the impetus for the idea of public defenders. Jacob presents the commencement address to 255 J.D. candidates at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 18, in the Plaza Mayor Courtyard at Stetson Law, 1401 61st St. S. in Gulfport.
After the Gideon decision, Jacob became one of the first volunteer public defenders in the state of Florida, dedicating more than five decades of his professional life to serving indigent clients and representing hundreds of defendants pro bono. He served as dean of Stetson University College of Law for 13 years and as a member of the faculty for more than two decades, before retiring last year.
A total of 255 J.D., 31 LL.M., 12 J.D./M.B.A., two J.D./LL.M. and one J.D./MIEBL candidates, and Stetson Law’s first M.J. candidate, will walk at commencement.
Outstanding members of the graduating class include:
Kathryn Bonti, a member of the Moot Court Board, Stetson Trial Team, Stetson Student Ambassador, Academic Success Fellow and 13th Judicial Circuit Guardian Ad Litem;
Matthew Ceriale, a member of the Dispute Resolution Board and Willem C. Vis team, Stetson Law Review, and recipient of the first Shumaker Diversity Scholarship from the Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick LLP law firm; and
Madeline Pendley, a member of the Trial Team and Stetson Law Review and Stetson Student Ambassador.
UCLA School of Law scholar Devon Carbado presented the Distinguished Nichols Lecture at noon on April 15 in the Great Hall at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport on “Thinking Big and Small About Racial Justice.”
Carbado is the Associate Vice Chancellor of BruinX for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the Honorable Harry Pregerson Professor of Law at UCLA.
In 2005, Professor Carbado was named an inaugural recipient of the Fletcher Foundation Fellowship, awarded to scholars whose work furthers the goals of Brown v. Board of Education. The author of Acting White? Rethinking Race in “Post-Racial” Americawith Mitu Gulati and the editor of several volumes, including Race Law Storieswith Rachel Moran, The Long Walk to Freedom: Runaway Slave Narratives with Donald Weise, and Time on Two Crosses: The Collective Writings of Bayard Rustin with Donald Weise.
Professor Carbado writes in the areas of employment discrimination, criminal procedure, constitutional law, and identity and is currently working on a series of articles on race, law, and police violence. He is a board member of the African American Policy Forum, and served as the Shikes Fellow in Civil Liberties and visiting professor of law at Harvard Law School in 2012.
He teaches constitutional criminal procedure, constitutional law, critical race theory, and criminal adjudicationand has won numerous teaching awards, including the Rutter Award for Excellence in Teaching and the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award: the Eby Award for the Art of Teaching. Carbado was also elected Professor of the Year by the UCLA School of Law classes of 2000 and 2006.
Professor Carbado graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994. He joined the UCLA School of Law faculty in 1997, served as Vice Dean for Faculty and Research at the School of Law from 2006-2007, and again from 2009-2010.
Stetson’s Nichols Foundation Prominent Speakers Series was established in 1995 to honor the series’ namesake Perry Nichols, among the nation’s most successful trial lawyers and past president of both the American Trial Lawyers Association and the International Trial Lawyers Association.
Stetson hosted the second annual sign language interpreting and mock trial experience in Gulfport. Photo courtesy Professor Jason Palmer.
By Taylor Allyn
The Stetson Law Center for Excellence in Elder Law, Absolute Quality Interpreting, and Hallenross and Associates, LLC, along with Professor Jason Palmer and Professor Julia Metts, hosted their second annual sign language interpreting “live mock trial experience” on Stetson’s Gulfport campus in March. The two-day workshop is unlike any other in the country as it provides specialized hands-on sign language interpreter training in a live mock trial courtroom setting. The workshop tackles some of the challenges unique to courtroom sign language interpreting, like navigating the courtroom environment and conveying abstract concepts and technical legal terms.
The first day of the workshop provided lectures and training on standard practices for courtroom interpreting. On the second day, all 60 attendees got the chance to test out their skills in a courtroom environment with the help of Stetson Law’s trial team. Interpreters worked through every step of a trial, including interpreting open and closing statements, direct and cross-examinations, interpreting for a witness who is deaf, and interpreting jury deliberation which involved a juror who is deaf.
“We are the only place that is providing training for sign language interpreters using trials with real lawyers and law students,” Professor Palmer said. “This is a unique opportunity for our students to get that experience before they go out and practice, [and] for sign language interpreters to have a real courtroom experience . . . [instead of] training in a meeting room or a convention center.”
Although the program does not offer continuing legal education (CLE) credits yet, Professor Palmer is optimistic for the future. Next year, he hopes to expand the workshop by another section or even another day to add more specialized training for judges and lawyers on how to engage with deaf community members and sign language interpreters in a courtroom setting.
Stetson Law student Maria C. White, fourth from the right, traveled to Washington, D.C., for the Food Law Student Leadership Summit.
Stetson Law student Maria C. White traveled to Washington, D.C., on April 6-7, to attend the Food Law Student Leadership Summit co-hosted by Harvard Law School and Georgetown Law. She was the only Stetson Law student selected from across the U.S. to attend the summit.
Students toured the USDA, FDA, DC Community Kitchen, and East Capitol Urban Farm. Throughout the weekend, students participated in small group panel discussions on topics including food safety, food labeling and packaging, food waste, agricultural law and the 2018 Farm Bill, and nutrition.
White also took part in a simulation where small groups of students collaborated to create policy suggestions.
Government and private sector attorneys shared their experiences with the students and discussed how to build a career in food law.
“It was a wonderful weekend full of new connections and I learned so much,” said White. “I feel excited to continue pursuing a career that I am deeply passionate about. My interests lie at the intersection of sustainability, nutrition, and policy, and attending this conference truly inspired me.”
At Stetson, White is the student outreach coordinator for the Hispanic Bar Association, events co-chair for the Environmental Law Society, a member of the Phi Delta Phi Legal Honor Society and a Stetson Ambassador.
On April 6, Stetson’s National Organization of Women, If/When/How, and the Student Wellness society hosted a Women’s Empowerment Panel with Merve Ozcan LL.M. ’18, Jahanna Azarian J.D. ’18, and Brittany Maxey-Fisher J.D. ’07.
The diverse panelists shared insight on their individual journeys as women in the law. They were asked about issues they have faced while in the legal profession, as well as advice they could give to the next generation of female legal professionals.
Both Azarian, a fellow and graduate assistant with Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy, and Maxey-Fisher, a patent attorney who owns her own law firm, spoke on challenges they face as women in the law who are seen as either too “soft” or too aggressive and how to find a happy medium. Ozcan, a trial court law clerk, spoke on issues she has faced as a Turkish immigrant in the legal profession. Students also shared their personal experiences, seeking advice from the panelists regarding how they should have responded to their specific situations.
The panelists also shared advice regarding job searching and bar preparation.
To conclude the event, Azarian, Maxey-Fisher, and Ozcan left the students with three takeaway thoughts: be resilient, speak-up, and network.
Dr. Richard Caddell presented on new ways to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on April 11 in Gulfport.
Dr. Richard Caddell of the School of Law and Politics at Cardiff University presented the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture on April 11 on “Fish and Foul Play: Emerging Approaches to Combatting Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.”
“We do have a lot of out-of-the-box possibilities,” said Caddell.
Caddell is an expert in the law of the sea and international environmental law, with a particular emphasis on fisheries governance, marine mammal protection and biodiversity conservation, marine environmental regulation and Polar law, as well as the exercise of free speech and protest rights.
The Foreman Biodiversity Lecture was presented in conjunction with the Stetson International Environmental Moot Court Competition, now in its 23rd year, April 11-13 in Gulfport, Florida.
Stetson Law hosted an information session on March 26 discussing the unique applications of a J.D. degree in higher education.
“While I always thought that I wanted to be a trial attorney, I found that being a professor at Stetson Law is a perfect mixture of both scholarly and interdisciplinary work,” said Professor Anne Mullins, who recently joined Stetson Law as a legal writing professor.
“Working in the field of professional education is a great way to combine professionalism with a law degree,” said Mercy Roberg, the director of the Office of Professional Education at Stetson Law.
Stetson Law librarian Kristen Moore said that managing student workers and conducting research is both fun and exciting.
Students should reach out to professors early regarding internship and fellowship opportunities in higher education.
Benndrick Watson J.D. ’15 kicked off Get Inspired! with yoga in the Banyan Courtyard on March 28.
By Daniela E. Gomez
On March 28, Stetson’s Wellness Working Group kickstarted Get Inspired!, two days of self-care and professional development, with a session of yoga.
Benndrick Watson J.D. ’15 led the session. Watson started doing yoga while he was at Stetson, and has continued doing so ever since.
“Yoga came into play for me right before the bar exam. It helped give me a way to relieve stress and anxiety throughout the process,” said Watson. Watson also said that Stetson’s yoga program helped him meet some really good friends and acquaintances. Watson described yoga as “a fun and untraditional way to keep connected to people while going through the rigors and pains of legal education.”
In addition to being a yoga instructor, Watson is a litigation and entertainment law attorney and a rapper. He has his own record label and entertainment law firm.
The Get Inspired! series, which included presentations on health cooking, finances, life balance and powerful affirmations, is meant to encourage students, faculty, and staff to lead a better and healthier life.
Stetson University College of Law is hosting its annual Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference May 20-22 on the Gulfport campus. This year’s conference theme is “Advocacy: Teaching Through the Twin Lenses of Diversity and Inclusiveness.”
The annual conference teaches law professors, lawyers and legal practitioners the “Stetson Method” of teaching trial advocacy, with nationally renowned instructors providing three days of intensive training.
Stetson will also recognize this year’s recipients of the Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy, the Edward D. Ohlbaum Professionalism Award, and the Cornerstone Award at the conference.
Sessions at this year’s conference include:
Teaching How to Write and Argue Evidentiary Motions: Methodologies, Opportunities and Potential Challenges
Deconstructing Competitions: What Works, What Doesn’t, and How Might We Improve?
New Takes on an Old Skill: Reimagining Direct
Scoring Competitions, Reimagining ballots in the 21st Century: Preferred Modalities
Stetson University College of Law is hosting a Law Review Symposium on April 5 on the Gulfport campus on the topic of “Conversations on the Warren Court’s Impact on Criminal Justice—After 50 Years.”
Supreme Court opinions from this era produced a revolution in criminal law and criminal procedure doctrines, and provoked far-reaching reforms in the enforcement of civil rights.
The symposium includes panel presentations by distinguished faculty from around the country on:
Improving Due Process for Racial Minorities and Juveniles?
Expanding Harmless Error and Supervisory Authority While Limiting What is a Crime?
The Warren Court and Criminal Justice: Some Lasting Legacies and Unfinished Business
Limiting Police Power While Increasing Defendants’ Power?
For more information about the Law Review Symposium, email [email protected].
