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Stetson Law hosts conference named for award-winning chief bankruptcy judge

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law hosts the 32nd Annual Alexander L. Paskay Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Practice Dec. 7-8 at the Sheraton Sand Key Resort, Clearwater, Fla.

The seminar, designed for experts in the field as well as general practitioners who handle bankruptcy issues, has attracted a national faculty, including top bankruptcy lawyers, judges and officials.

The conference is named for its chair, Alexander L. Paskay, chief bankruptcy judge emeritus of the Middle District of Florida and an adjunct professor of law at Stetson.

Judge Paskay has been presiding over cases since 1963, making him the longest sitting full-time bankruptcy judge in the nation with 44 years of continuous service to the federal judiciary.

He was honored for a career of lifetime achievement this year, receiving three highly prestigious awards in the month of October alone. On Oct. 11, he received the Lawrence P. King Award for Excellence in the Field of Bankruptcy. On Oct. 12, he received the Judge William L. Norton, Jr., Judicial Excellence Award. On Oct. 13, he was inducted into Stetson University College of Law’s Hall of Fame.

Paskay is also a prolific author who has most recently penned Creditors’ Rights, published by Vandeplas Publishing in August 2006.

To register for the Paskay Seminar on Bankruptcy Law and Practice, please call the Office of Conferences and Events at 813-228-0226, e-mail [email protected] or visit http://www.law.stetson.edu/conferences for more information.

Stetson Law Moot Court Team wins prestigious international human rights competition

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – A team of three Stetson Law students defeated teams from across the U.K., India, and the U.S. to win the International Criminal Court Moot Court Competition in White Plains, N.Y., on Oct. 28. Add to their victory —this is the first time that a Stetson team has entered the competition.

Students Stephanie Ciechanowski, Chris Winkelman and Ahmad Yakzan progressed to the final round in the competition and argued against teams from Louisiana State University and New York Law School for the victory. Winkelman was named Best Oralist, the highest individual award in a moot court competition. Stetson professor Ann Piccard coached the winning team.

“Our team’s performance at this competition places our moot court team among the best in the world’s key competitors in international human rights issues,” said professor Stephanie Vaughan, Stetson’s moot court advisor.

Each team wrote and submitted three written memorials and argued a case based on international criminal law before a simulated International Criminal Court.

Stetson’s moot court board members compete as teams in interscholastic moot court competitions that take place throughout the year and throughout the world.

Stetson invites prospective law students to attend Law School Information Day Nov. 17

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law invites prospective law students to its annual Law School Information Day from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 17 at 1401 61st St. S. in Gulfport.

The program features a simulated law class, faculty-led seminars, campus tours, and information about law school admissions and financial aid for law school. Prospective students can also learn more about Stetson’s part-time law programs, international study abroad programs its award-winning trial and moot court teams.

“Law Day is an opportunity for prospective law school students to get an overview of both law school and the Stetson experience,” said Laura Zuppo, director of admissions. “Prospective students can learn more about the legal field and law school. They can experience a mock first-year class, learn what it is like to be a law student, meet faculty members and take tours of campus with current students.”

Last year’s event drew more than 300 people from across the state and nation to Stetson’s Gulfport campus.

To learn more and to register for this free event, please visit Stetson online at http://justice.law.stetson.edu/admissions/lawschoolinformationday.asp.

The deadline to register has been extended to Nov. 15.

Stetson Law Moot Court Team takes home best brief in Chicago

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law’s Information, Technology, and Privacy Moot Court Team received an award for the Best Respondent Brief at the Twenty-Sixth Annual John Marshall Law School International Moot Court Competition in Information Technology and Privacy Law Oct. 18-20 in Chicago.

Team members Stacy Appleton, Adam Butkus and Nick Mutton wrote the best brief in the competition. Professor Darryl Wilson coached the winning team, which advanced to the semifinals in this international competition.

“The best brief award is one of the top three awards given in any moot court competition and is the highest award given to the team’s written work. We are thrilled,” said Professor Stephanie Vaughan, Stetson’s Moot Court Advisor.

Stetson’s Moot Court Board is composed of students who seek to improve both their writing and oral advocacy skills. Board members compete as teams in interscholastic moot court competitions that take place throughout the year and throughout the world.

Awards are given to the winning team, as well as to the team writing the best brief and the best advocate from the oral argument rounds.

Competitions cover a wide variety of legal fields including worker’s compensation, criminal procedure, international law, information technology, bankruptcy, environmental law, civil rights, labor law, copyright and unfair trade practices, tax, and constitutional law. In addition, there is a competition devoted to “hot topics” in criminal or civil law each semester.

Stetson Hispanic Bar Association honored for work with national mentoring program

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law’s Hispanic Bar Association was recently honored for its work with the Hispanic National Bar Association’s minority youth outreach and mentoring programs.

The HNBA received the American Bar Association’s 2007 Partnership Award for its National Mentoring Program and its Youth Convention Law Day Program on Aug. 10 at the joint annual meeting of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, National Association of Bar Executives and the National Conference of Bar Foundations in San Francisco, Calif.

Stetson’s HBA partners with the Tampa Bay Hispanic Bar Association, pairing law students with practicing attorney-mentors to encourage professional development. The Tampa Bay mentor program was launched in Tampa, Fla., this February.

“Stetson’s HBA is honored to be part of the HNBA’s mentoring program and will continue its efforts in uniting more law students with practitioners,” said Stetson HBA president Clara Rodriguez Rokusek. “Attorney-mentors have provided students with vital information regarding particular fields of law, career advancement and networking.”

The local mentor program is sponsored by national, state and local Hispanic bar associations, foundations and firms.

The Hispanic National Bar Association launched its national mentoring program in 2006. It has programs in Miami, New York, Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Area and Tampa. The HNBA mentorship program was created to fulfill the need for mentors from aspiring Hispanic students and new lawyers. The Hispanic National Bar Association represents the interests of 38,000 U.S. Hispanic lawyers, law school professors, law students and paralegals.

Stetson Law also was honored with the American Bar Association Law Student Division Award of Excellence Aug. 10 in San Francisco. Stetson student Chris Sprowls was elected to national office as division delegate for the American Bar Association House of Delegates, and recent Stetson graduate Brian Redar completed his term as student representative for the ABA Board of Governors.

Stetson Law receives ABA Law Student Division Award of Excellence

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law was awarded the American Bar Association Law Student Division Award of Excellence at a special ceremony Aug. 10 in San Francisco, Calif. Stetson has received the recognition twice in the past three years.

“Every student member on campus should feel responsible for helping bring this award home to Stetson again,” said Michael Farley, assistant dean of student life at Stetson.

A delegation of Stetson students, including Louis Brown, Michael Davis, Davina Eads, Annessa Kalloo, Allison Markee, Shanda Moyers, Chris Sprowls and Callie Weed, traveled to the annual meeting of the ABA Law Student Division to accept the award.

Farley credited Stetson student involvement with the ABA and Student Bar Association, along with the outstanding student leadership of ABA Representative Melody James and former president of the SBA, Tracey Sticco. Both James and Sticco are recent Stetson Law graduates.

Also at the meeting, Stetson student Chris Sprowls was elected to national office as division delegate for the American Bar Association House of Delegates, and recent Stetson graduate Brian Redar completed his term as student representative for the ABA Board of Governors.

Legal writing scholar joins Stetson Law in fall 2007

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Kirsten K. Davis joins Stetson University College of Law in August as an associate professor of law and director of its nationally recognized legal research and writing program.

Professor Davis taught for seven years in the legal research and writing program at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. During that time, Davis taught a variety of legal writing courses, including the first-year legal research and writing course, Advanced Legal Writing, Fundamentals of Legal Drafting and Scholarly Legal Writing. She was acting director of the program in 2004-2005.

Davis’ scholarship explores the connection between law and rhetoric; investigates ways to improve the practice and teaching of legal method, analysis, and writing; and examines the ways that legal language communicates about the relationship between work and family. Her work appears in scholarly journals as well as in magazines directed toward practicing members of the bar association. She also has presented her research interests at numerous conferences and seminars.

Davis grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in Southeastern Ohio. She received a law degree summa cum laude from The Michael E. Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University in 1995. She was a law clerk for the Honorable Frederick P. Stamp Jr., judge for the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in human communication at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University.

Stetson Law awards inaugural Edward D. Foreman Scholarship

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Sanford, Fla., resident Chantel Wonder can be classified as an academic overachiever. Still, she says it came as a surprise to learn that she had been selected to receive a full scholarship to Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla. Wonder is the inaugural recipient of the Edward D. Foreman Scholarship, the largest scholarship available to full-time students at Stetson Law. She begins classes this week. The scholarship funds tuition and fees, as well as the cost of books and bar preparation courses.

The new Stetson Law scholarship rewards outstanding academic merit and leadership. Wonder was on Stetson University’s Dean’s List and The National Dean’s List for all four years of her undergraduate career. A member of the National Scholars Honor Society and the Stetson University Honors Program, the philosophy major spent the fall of her junior year studying at the University of Oxford in England. She became a member of the Oxford Law Society and later did a summer internship in a law office.

Wonder, who has traveled extensively, aspires to a career in international diplomacy after completing her studies at Stetson Law. She hopes to return to Oxford to obtain a Master of Laws in human rights after finishing her law degree at Stetson Law in Gulfport.

“I know where my interest is —in human rights,” Wonder says with enthusiasm. She worked on a research project on nonviolent resistance to wars while scouting for a summer job before starting law school in August.

The Foreman scholarship was established by Bonnie Foreman in honor of her late husband, Edward D. Foreman, a criminal defense attorney known for his honesty, generosity and commitment to excellence. Foreman received his bachelor’s degree from Stetson University in DeLand in 1967 and his law degree from Stetson in Gulfport in 1971.

“It is Mrs. Foreman’s hope that the recipient of this scholarship will make it a personal priority to serve people in need and demonstrate the importance of ‘paying it forward’ during one’s lifetime,” said Karen Griffin, director of development at Stetson.

Stetson Law dean to lead American Red Cross Tampa Bay Chapter

Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7398

Gulfport, Fla. – The Tampa Bay Chapter of the American Red Cross elected Stetson University College of Law Vice President and Dean Darby Dickerson to serve as Chair of the Board of Directors effective as of July 1.

“The American Red Cross serves a vital function in the Tampa Bay community, and it is my honor to lead an organization that is such an invaluable community resource,” Dean Dickerson said. In her new role, Dickerson will guide the Tampa Bay Chapter’s volunteer board of directors, composed of civic-minded community and corporate leaders. Dickerson also serves on the board of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce. In 2005, she was named the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s Business Woman of the Year in the Nonprofit/Social Services category.

Dickerson also is a nationally recognized legal scholar. She is the author of ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional Citation System, and numerous articles on higher education law and policy, legal citation and litigation ethics.

Dickerson succeeds Stetson Law alumna Linda D. Hartley as Chair of the chapter.

The American Red Cross of Tampa Bay provides numerous, community services, including disaster relief and education, emergency services, HIV and AIDS education, hospital volunteer and youth programs.

The chapter serves in excess of 2.6 million residents in Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties, with locations in Brandon, Clearwater, Hudson, MacDill Air Force Base, St. Petersburg and Tampa.

Stetson graduate and minority role model clerks at International Criminal Court in The Hague

Contact Brandi Palmer
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law graduate and minority role model Emy Mondesir has been selected for a judicial clerkship at the International Criminal Court in The Hague this July.

Mondesir, who graduated in December 2006 from Stetson Law with a concentration in international law, will clerk this summer in what is arguably the legal capital of the world.

As a student, Mondesir received the Carlton Fields Diversity Fellowship and was a Student Bar Association class representative. While pursuing her law degree at Stetson, she studied at The Hague during Stetson’s Summer Institute in International and Comparative Law, which travels every year to Germany and the Netherlands.

“Stetson’s presence at The Hague through the summer abroad program has enhanced our profile as a leading American law school and has helped make the ICC familiar with Stetson University College of Law,” said professor Dorothea Beane, an international criminal law and human rights expert who founded Stetson’s summer abroad program in The Hague.

Home to more than 150 international legal organizations, including the International Criminal Court, International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Court of Justice, The Hague was founded in 1899 during the world’s first Peace Conference as the “international city of peace and justice” in the Netherlands.

The ICC, established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression, has the power to prosecute crimes committed on or after July 1, 2002, when the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court entered into force.

Stetson’s summer abroad programs for enrolled students include courses in Granada, Spain; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Freiburg, Germany and The Hague, Netherlands and Tianjin, China. Starting in the fall of 2007, Stetson will add semester and year-long foreign exchange programs in Spain and Mexico.

For more information about international law programs at Stetson, please contact the Office of Graduate and International Programs at [email protected] or visit Stetson on the web at http://www.law.stetson.edu/international.