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The Florida Bar honors Stetson Law with two professionalism awards

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – The Florida Bar honored Stetson University College of Law with two professionalism awards at its annual meeting June 23 in Orlando.

“The Bar’s professionalism awards honor a higher level of conduct that the college is proud to represent,” said Dean Darby Dickerson. The Supreme Court Commission on Professionalism and the Florida Bar’s Standing Committee on Professionalism selected the award recipients.

Stetson Law’s Centers for Excellence in Advocacy and Elder Law received the 2005 Professionalism Award for their Elder Law Ethics Video Project. Professor Roberta Flowers, director of the advocacy center, received this year’s Faculty Award for Professionalism.

“Stetson prides itself on training ethical and professional attorneys, and I feel very lucky to be part of a faculty committed to training students to become both effective lawyers and professional advocates,” Flowers said.

Flowers was recently named Stetson’s first William Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, a position designed to foster professionalism among students. Under Flowers’ direction, Stetson’s advocacy program tied for first in the nation in the 2006 graduate school rankings from U.S. News & World Report.

The series of 15 educational videos produced by the advocacy and elder law centers encourage professionalism by illustrating how elder law students, attorneys and judges can deal successfully with ethical issues in the real world.

“We are honored to receive this award,” said Professor Rebecca Morgan, who directs the elder law center. “Real-world vignettes and an audience response system engage the audience in a discussion of ethical and professional behavior while illustrating the most professional approach to day-to-day ethical problems faced by elder law attorneys.”

Morgan also received the Faculty Award for Professionalism in 2003.

Stetson Law presents awards to alumni and friends

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law recently honored the commitment and dedication of several alumni and friends at its annual Stetson Lawyers Association Alumni Reception.

Dannel G. DeBerg ’82 received the Ben C. Willard Award for her distinguished humanitarian achievements that have benefited Florida citizens and people throughout the world. DeBerg works as a part of New Frontiers Health Force, a non-denominational missionary group that travels and provides aid to areas hit by natural disasters. She practices in the areas of medical malpractice and personal injury law.

Alexander M. Clem ’90 and Judge James D. Whittemore ’77 received Distinguished Alumnus Awards. Clem practices in the areas of nursing home negligence, personal injury and wrongful death, and he has been involved with legislative and tort reform issues. He is also the immediate past president of the Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. Judge Whittemore, a member of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida since 2000, has presided over several important cases, including portions of the Terri Schiavo case.

John W. Staunton ’97 received the Paul M. May Meritorious Service Award for his continued support of the College of Law. Staunton is an active member of the state and national associations of elder law attorneys, and he has worked to support Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Elder Law.

Robert Biasotti ’96 and Robert “Robin” Doyle ’75 each received Outstanding Alumni Representative Awards. Biasotti is a shareholder in the St. Petersburg office of Carlton Fields P.A., and he recently worked with the firm to create a Diversity Fellowship Program for Stetson students. Doyle is a partner with the law firm of Quarles and Brady LLP. He recently completed a two-year term on the Stetson Lawyers Advisory Council and in the fall will join the College’s Board of Overseers.

Paul A. Turk Jr. ’79 was recognized with the President’s Award for his year-long service as president of the Stetson Lawyers Association. Turk was elected to the College of Law’s Board of Overseers.

John Dubrule, Judge Alexander L. Paskay and Professor Michael I. Swygert received Distinguished Service Awards for significant, meritorious and continuing contributions that have benefited Stetson Law. Dubrule is director of litigation at Gulfcoast Legal Services. Judge Paskay, chief bankruptcy judge emeritus for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court Middle District of Florida, has worked with Stetson students and served as chair of many Stetson seminars and symposia since 1974. Professor Swygert retired from Stetson in May after 25 years of service and is writing the official history of the College of Law.

The awards were presented June 23 at the 2005 annual meeting of The Florida Bar.

Stetson Law moot court team wins top brief award at Florida Bar competition

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – A Stetson University College of Law moot court team won the Best Brief Award, the top award for a written submission, at the Florida Bar’s Robert Orseck Moot Court Competition last week in Orlando at the Bar’s annual conference.

Also, for five consecutive years, a Stetson team has advanced to the finals in the competition. Students Royce Bluitt and Reneka Redmond argued before Florida Supreme Court justices and district court judges in the finals. For the third straight year, Stetson’s team placed second. Team member Alyson George wrote the award-winning brief.

“I am very proud that we won the Best Brief award, one of the top three awards in any competition,” said Stetson Law Professor Stephanie Vaughan, who advises the moot court board. “The competition was very exciting, and we had a great group of people, including Dean Darby Dickerson, cheering us in the finals.”

Eighteen teams from nine Florida law schools competed in the tournament. A team from Florida Coastal School of Law defeated the Stetson team in the finals.

Stetson Law honors work of professors and administrators

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law recently honored the contributions of administrators and professors.

Professor Dorothea Beane received the 2005 Excellence in Teaching Award. The university-level Excellence in Teaching Award is the highest teaching honor awarded to Stetson faculty. Beane, Stetson’s first black full professor, teaches civil procedure, federal pretrial practice and international human rights at Stetson. She also will serve as director of Stetson Law’s Summer Abroad Program at The Hague, Netherlands, beginning next month.

Professors Michael Allen and James Fox received 2005 Homer and Dolly Hand Awards. The university-level Homer and Dolly Hand Awards recognize excellence in faculty scholarship. Allen teaches constitutional law, civil procedure and federal courts. He is active in a variety of research areas, including federal versus state government authority, the right to die and personal jurisdiction. With Stetson Professor Michael Finch, Allen is co-author of An Illustrated Guide to Civil Procedure, to be published next year.

Fox teaches contracts, poverty and public benefits law, and American legal history. He has done extensive research on the 14th Amendment, currently focusing on the experience of Jim Crow by southern blacks and whites. He also has written about democratic citizenship, poverty and contract theory.

Vice Dean and Professor Royal C. Gardner and Associate Vice President of College Relations Dotti Bressi received Dean’s Awards. Bressi spearheaded the Cornerstone Campaign, a fundraising effort that generated more than $12 million in donations to the College over the last few years. The money has been used for campus improvements, faculty and staff development, and student scholarships.

Gardner was honored for his administrative contributions to Stetson as director of graduate and international programs, co-director of Stetson’s International Environmental Moot Court Competition, associate dean, and vice dean. Gardner is stepping down as vice dean to return to teaching and serve as director of Stetson’s new Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy.

Stetson Law bestows highest teaching honor on Dorothea Beane

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law Professor Dorothea Beane has received the 2005 Excellence in Teaching Award, the highest teaching honor the University bestows on faculty.

Beane, Stetson’s first black full professor, teaches civil procedure, federal pretrial practice and international human rights at Stetson. She also will serve as director of Stetson Law’s Summer Abroad Program at The Hague, Netherlands, beginning next month.

“Professor Beane is an extraordinary teacher, and she gives much of her time outside of the classroom mentoring and counseling our students,” said Stetson Law Dean Darby Dickerson. “For 15 years, Professor Beane has demonstrated her teaching excellence inside and outside the classroom.”

Before joining Stetson, Professor Beane served as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and an Assistant U.S. Attorney, including five years as the Senior Civil Litigating Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, Jacksonville and Ocala Divisions. She received the U.S. Attorney General’s Special Achievement Award for Sustained Superior Performance of Duty in 1986.

Professor Beane is an active member of the legal and Tampa Bay communities. She is a member of many organizations, including the executive committee of the International Human Rights Law Section of the Association of American Law Schools. Additionally, she has served as a non-governmental observer for the National Bar Association’s establishment of the international criminal court since 1998.

Beane is a graduate of Westfield Senior High School in Westfield, N.J. She earned a bachelor’s in history from Drew University in Madison, N.J., and her law degree from Rutgers School of Law-Newark.

Free Stetson Law program to help people understand end-of-life decisions

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law will present a free workshop on living wills and other advance directives Wednesday, June 8, from 12-3 p.m. in the Great Hall of its Gulfport campus, 1401 61st St. S.

The program will show what steps are available to ensure a person’s wishes are followed, such as living wills and other advance directives. Several area elder law attorneys will address four topics: the different types of advance directives, the different ways to make an advance directive, how to talk to family members about wishes, and how to honor a directive.

“This workshop will help people understand the issues surrounding decision-making at the end of life,” said Professor Rebecca Morgan, director of Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Elder Law. “It’s very important for everyone to think about their wishes regarding end of life care, and we hope to guide people on what they need to consider.”

For more information, contact Darlene Krizen in the Center for Excellence in Elder Law at (727) 562-7393.

Stetson Law Vice Dean selected to head two biodiversity groups Stetson announces creation of Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law Vice Dean Royal C. Gardner will lead two environmental organizations as chair of the U.S. National Ramsar Committee and director of Stetson’s new Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy.

“I am excited about the creation of the Stetson University Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, which will serve as an interdisciplinary focal point for education, research and service activities related to global, regional and local biodiversity issues,” said Gardner, who also received the Dean’s Award at Stetson Law’s recent Honors and Awards Ceremony.

Gardner was elected chair of the U.S. National Ramsar Committee during the organization’s annual meeting last month in Charlotte, N.C. The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.

Gardner is stepping down as vice dean to return to teaching and to increase Stetson’s work in environmental law through the new Institute, which just launched a new Web site at www.law.stetson.edu/international/biodiversity.

Before coming to Stetson, Gardner served in the Army General Counsel’s office as the Army’s principal wetland attorney. He also worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, working on international agreements with Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus to facilitate the dismantlement of the former Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons.

Gardner is an active scholar in the areas of environmental and international law. He has served in a number of organizations, including as Vice Chair of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Water Quality and Wetlands and as a member of the National Research Council’s Committee on Mitigating Wetland Losses. Gardner created the International Environmental Moot Court competition with Dean Darby Dickerson, now in its 10th year.

Stetson Law presents two Tampa attorneys with 2005 Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Public Service Award

Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7889

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law announces the winners of the 2005 William Reece Smith Jr. Public Service Award: Tampa criminal defense attorney Rochelle Reback and Carlton Fields attorney Sylvia Walbolt. The awards were presented at the law school’s spring graduation Honors and Awards ceremony May 13.

Reback leads the law firm of Rochelle A. Reback Attorney and Associates at Law in Tampa, which specializes in criminal law; she is a founding member of Tampa Safe and Free, an organization devoted to educating the community about the USA Patriot Act and its impact on civil liberties. In 2004, Reback received a Human Rights Award from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Human Rights Council. She is an active member of many organizations such as the Practitioner’s Advisory Committee to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Sylvia Walbolt is a shareholder in the Tampa office of Carlton Fields and serves as chair of the firm’s Board of Directors and its Appellate Practice Group. Walbolt is board certified in appellate law, and she has significant experience with state and federal appeals of torts, employment discrimination and product liability cases among other areas of the law.

Walbolt has a distinguished record of professional activity, including serving as past president of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, former chair of the Florida Bar Antitrust Committee, former vice chair of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association, and former chair of the Florida Supreme Court Committee on Standard Jury Instructions in Civil Cases. She also directed the firm’s significant pro bono program for many years.

Stetson established the William Reece Smith Jr. Award in 1990 to recognize and honor individuals who have demonstrated exemplary achievements in public service. William Reece Smith Jr., the award’s namesake and its first recipient, is the past president of the American, International and Florida bar associations.

Stetson to present a variety of summer youth programs at Tampa Law Center

Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7889

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University will offer several fun educational summer programs for High Achieving Talented Students in grades four through nine at the Tampa Law Center starting June 20. The deadline for registration is June 1.

The programs will cover many subjects, including Rock ‘N’ Roller Coasters (physics), Legos and Hardhats (math and architecture), On the Air (broadcasting) and Legal Eagles (law). The classes will run from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. June 20-24. Registration information is available online at www.stetson.edu/hats or by calling (386) 822-7091.

This is the second year summer programs will be offered at the Tampa Law Center, 1700 N. Tampa St., in Tampa. Stetson University has offered summer learning programs for gifted students around its main campus in DeLand since 1996 under the direction of HATS founder Cindy Lovell Oliver, Ph.D.

HATS Tampa Programs

HATS I (Grades 4-6)
Rock ‘N’ Roller Coasters, TAM-101
This course will connect Isaac Newton with theme parks. Students will learn acceleration and velocity to gain knowledge and build and test their own roller coasters.

Legos and Hardhats, TAM-102
Students will explore mathematics from concrete to abstract and work in teams to design and construct an entire city of buildings from Legos. Using math concepts such as scale, proportion and ratio, students will convert their Lego buildings to scale drawings. The buildings will have to conform to a budget, incorporating sales tax and discounts.

HATS II (Grades 6-9)
On the Air, TAM-201
This course will cover the inner workings of radio and television broadcasting. Students will write, direct, record and broadcast a radio show at the local Radio Disney station, WWMI 1380 AM.

Is There a Doctor in the House? TAM-202
Students will spend a week learning from specialists from different areas of the medical field. They will learn CPR and take a private tour of Tampa General Hospital.

Comparative Anatomy, TAM-203
For one week, students will become investigative scientists, exploring the Kingdom Animalia. They will discuss, dissect, draw and compare the various parts of snakes, starfish and mice.

Legal Eagles, TAM-204
Students will learn from a Stetson Law professor and former state prosecutor about how to make their case as they learn the law and how to argue it. They will learn the law in a week filled with evidence, depositions and case law, culminating with a mock trial.

The cost is $250 per student per one-week class, which includes class materials and a T-shirt.

Stetson honors late Ybor City restaurateur Cesar Gonzmart Successful businessman was knighted by the King of Spain

Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7889

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University will honor late Ybor City leader Dr. Cesar Gonzmart with a 2005 Distinguished Alumni Award during Stetson’s Trustee Dinner Thursday, May 19, at the historic Columbia Restaurant, owned and operated by Gonzmart’s children and grandchildren. The original Columbia is located at 2117 East 7th Avenue in Tampa.

Gonzmart, who died in 1992, married into the Columbia’s founding family and began guiding the restaurant in the 1950s. The distinguished Hispanic businessman was knighted by the King of Spain in 1971 as a Knight of Sant’Yago, the patron saint of Spain. He was named Outstanding Restaurateur by Holiday magazine, and the Columbia was a 12-time winner of Florida Trend magazine’s Golden Spoon Award. In 1993, Gonzmart was inducted posthumously into the Tampa Bay Business Hall of Fame and in 1995 was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Florida Restaurant Association.

Under his leadership, the Columbia expanded to six Florida locations, including Sarasota and St. Augustine. In 2005, the restaurant celebrates its 100th anniversary with the opening of its seventh restaurant in West Palm Beach.

Gonzmart retained an artistic flair with his business, moving about the restaurant in a tuxedo, charming the patrons and often playing the violin. Born Cesar Gonzalez-Martinez in West Tampa, he began violin lessons at age 6. By his early 20s he was traveling the world as a concert violinist. He changed his name to Gonzmart, using the first part of his parents’ surnames, and formed the performing group Cesar Gonzmart and his Continental Orchestra, which played major hotels across the country. He studied violin at Stetson on a scholarship for several years beginning in 1937, and went on to earn a doctorate in music from the University of Havana, Cuba.

He married concert pianist Adela Hernandez in 1946, and they performed together through the early 1950s. She was the only child of Carmen and Casimiro Hernandez Jr., and the granddaughter of Casimiro Hernandez Sr., who founded the Columbia Restaurant in 1905. In 1953, when her father’s health was failing, the Gonzmarts returned to Tampa with their sons, Casey and Richard, and settled down to run the restaurant.

Stetson Law Dean and recent alumna receive national legal writing awards

Contact Frank Klim
Executive Director of Communications
727-562-7889

Gulfport, Fla. – The Burton Foundation, in association with the Law Library of Congress, has selected Stetson University College of Law Dean Darby Dickerson and recent Stetson alumna Carrie Ann Wozniak for national recognition for excellence in legal writing. Dickerson will receive the 2005 Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education, and Wozniak will be one of 15 students honored nationally with a 2005 Burton Award for Legal Achievement.

The awards will be presented at a ceremony June 6 at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The program moderator is Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

The Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education is given annually to an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to the education of new lawyers in the field of legal analysis, research and writing, through teaching, program design, program support, innovative thinking or writing. Dean Dickerson is an active scholar and author on the topic, creating the ALWD Citation Manual, which has been adopted by professors at approximately 100 law schools. In addition to her work with Stetson students, Dean Dickerson is a frequent participant in national conference presentations, panel discussions, and continuing legal education programs on legal writing. For nine years, she served as the Director of Stetson’s legal writing program, which recently was ranked third in the country by U.S. News & World Report.

“I am honored to receive the Burton Award, which is one of the most prestigious awards in the legal writing field. Legal writing is a skill that all attorneys must master to be successful. I applaud William Burton and his foundation for recognizing this essential area of practice, teaching and scholarship,” Dean Dickerson said.

Dean Dickerson’s nomination highlighted her work with the Legal Writing Institute’s panel on dealing with troubled and violent students. She also led the creation of the Professor Thomas F. Blackwell Collection on the Prevention of Campus Violence. The collection honors the memory of Professor Thomas F. Blackwell, legal writing director at Appalachian Law School, who was killed by a student in 2002. This collection of articles, books, CLE materials and online resources about campus violence prevention is the first of its kind.

Stetson alumna Carrie Ann Wozniak will be honored for her Stetson Law Review article, “Difficult Problems Call For New Solutions: Are Guardians Proper For Viable Fetuses of Mentally Incompetent Mothers In State Custody?”

“I’m honored to represent Stetson in receiving this award,” Wozniak said. “It’s really an honor, and I sincerely appreciate that someone like Dean Dickerson believed in me enough to nominate me for this award. I thank the Stetson faculty, especially the Law Review advisers for their support and help in this achievement.”

Wozniak graduated from Stetson in December and is currently a staff attorney for Florida Supreme Court Justice Harry Lee Anstead.

The Burton Foundation began conferring awards for legal writing achievement to law firms, schools and students in 2000. William C. Burton, the foundation’s founder and chairman, is a member of the New York Bar and The Florida Bar.

Distinguished U.S. Circuit Judge to speak at Stetson Law graduation

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Judge Gerald Bard Tjoflat of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will speak at Stetson University College of Law’s spring commencement, May 14 at 9 a.m., in the outdoor courtyard of the College’s Gulfport campus.

Judge Tjoflat sits on the bench of the 11th Circuit, and formerly served as the chief judge of the circuit. He has served as a member and leader of groups addressing national and international judicial issues, such as the U.S. delegations to the Sixth and Seventh United Nations Congresses for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders, the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on the Administration of the Probation System, and the Advisory Corrections Council of the United States.

“I am thrilled that Judge Tjoflat will be speaking to our graduates in May” said Dean Darby Dickerson. “He is an outstanding jurist and role model for young attorneys.”

During the ceremony, 160 students in Stetson’s May and July graduating classes are expected to walk, including nine who will receive the Master of Laws degree in International Law and Business. Twenty students also will have earned both the juris doctor and master of business administration degrees from Stetson University’s College of Law and School of Business Administration.

At Stetson’s spring honors and awards ceremony, Friday, May 13 at 4:30 p.m., the College of Law will celebrate the accomplishments of high-achieving graduating students.

There are many graduating students with noteworthy stories. Here are just a few:

Cary Cash is a cancer survivor and received the American Cancer Society’s Life Inspiration Award in 1999. Cash was diagnosed with stage-four Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1998, which has been in remission for six years. Cash served as president of the Stetson Health Care Law Association, and he plans to apply his experience as a patient to his legal career.

Noah Rashkind will graduate with his Stetson law degree and immediately continue astrophysics doctoral studies at the Bryant Space Science Center at the University of Florida as an Alumni Graduate Fellow, the university’s top fellowship for doctoral students. Rashkind has an undergraduate degree in astrophysics from Florida, and he has continued doing astrophysical research for the university throughout his time at Stetson. He eventually plans to combine his scientific and legal degrees to play a role in science and technology policy.

Nicole Villareal is the first female graduate of The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, to attend law school. She was one of the first 26 women to graduate from the military institution. She is commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps.’ Judge Advocate General program and become the first female Citadel graduate to serve the United States in that position.