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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.

Stetson’s Tampa Law Center wins design award

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law and architectural firm FleischmanGarcia recently received an award of merit at the Hillsborough County City-County Planning Commission’s 23rd Annual Community Design Awards. The commission honored the design of Stetson’s Tampa Law Center in the Institutional, Public and Quasi-Public Projects category at the award ceremony at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino April 21.

In presenting the award, the Planning Commission stated that Stetson was leading the redevelopment of the north downtown Tampa area by “bringing energy and activity to a neighborhood working hard to regain its vitality.”

The commission wrote in materials accompanying the award that Stetson’s presence “is serving as the catalyst for significant real estate development in the area. The Mediterranean Revival structure has many beautiful features that are reminiscent of historically-significant Tampa architecture. The campus could well become a Tampa landmark.”

Associate Dean Jan Majewski accepted the award on behalf of Stetson. The glass and marble stylized trophy will be on display in the Trombley Conference Room at the Tampa Law Center.

Tammy Briant elected to head Stetson Law student government

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law student and Columbia Station, Ohio, native Tammy Briant was elected president of the College’s Calvin A. Kuenzel Student Bar Association, the governing body for all Stetson Law students.

Briant, currently finishing her second year at Stetson, will officially take the helm of the SBA on April 22.

As president, Briant will work with school administration, faculty and students to address concerns from all parties, help implement policies guiding Stetson student life, and plan developmental programs and events. She also will represent Stetson nationally with organizations such as the American Bar Association.

“I look forward to working to further Stetson students’ interests by working with school administration and national organizations,” Briant said. “Our goal is to enhance the Stetson experience and create an environment that encourages professional development for our students’ futures.”

Active in many campus organizations, Briant was Stetson SBA vice president during the current school year, and is a member of Stetson’s Leadership Development Committee, Hispanic Bar Association and Equal Justice Works. She also spends 120 hours of community service each semester as a Public Service Fellow.

Briant graduated from the University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla., with a bachelor’s in criminology and another in government and world affairs. She also minored in law and justice. Briant graduated from Columbia High School in 1999.

Two Stetson Law professors honored with endowed positions

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law recently appointed two professors to endowed faculty positions.

Professor Roberta Kemp Flowers is the first Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor, and Professor Peter Lake has been appointed the Charles A. Dana Chair.

The Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professorship was established to encourage new programs in the areas of professionalism and student mentoring. The Joy McCann Foundation donated $500,000 to Stetson to honor the work of Stetson Law Distinguished Professorial Lecturer and Florida legal legend Wm. Reece Smith Jr.

“Professor Flowers’ work with the advocacy teams and as director of Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Advocacy will enhance her ability to design and implement creative programs in the areas of professionalism and student mentoring,” said Dean Darby Dickerson.

Professor Lake will assume the Dana Chair following the retirement of Professor Brad Stone after 19 years of teaching at College of Law. Professor Lake is also co-director of Stetson’s Center for Excellence for Higher Education Law and Policy and an internationally recognized lecturer. “Professor Lake is an outstanding and inspiring teacher, gifted scholar and an established expert in torts, insurance law and higher education law and policy,” Dickerson said.

Named professorships and chairs are positions of prestige designed to recruit, retain and reward educators who have achieved prominence in their academic fields. Stetson University College of Law currently has six named faculty positions.

Stetson University College of Law ties as top American advocacy school Legal research and writing program ties as nation’s third-best

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law has once again tied as the best school in the nation for trial advocacy training in the 2006 graduate school rankings from U.S. News & World Report. The magazine also recognized Stetson’s legal research and writing program, which tied for third in the nation.

Since the magazine started ranking law schools in 1995, Stetson has consistently ranked at or near the top for advocacy training, placing first seven of those years. This was the first year the magazine ranked the research and writing programs.

“Stetson provides its students with an outstanding education and is particularly strong in the area of skills training. Our faculty work very hard to teach students the skills, such as advocacy and legal writing, they need to be successful attorneys. Our students also work very hard to master these skills. These rankings reflect the thousands of hours of effort our faculty and students devote to achieving true excellence,” said Dean Darby Dickerson, who served as legal writing director from 1996 through 2004.

Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Advocacy emphasizes the College of Law’s commitment to training in this specialty. “Stetson could not be more proud of this honor that recognizes its long-standing commitment to train law students to be exceptional lawyers. Stetson has pioneered successful advocacy training and intends to remain a leader in this area,” said Professor and Center Director Roberta Flowers.

Stetson’s trial teams have won many awards at competitions this school year, including the Frédéric Eisemann Award for winning a world championship at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition, March 18-24 in Vienna, Austria. Stetson University College of Law is Florida’s first law school. It has educated lawyers for more than a century, and offers full- and part-time programs leading to the J.D., J.D./M.B.A., and LL.M. degrees. Stetson is the headquarters for the National Conference of Law Reviews

Madison Mosley, Stetson Law library director, professor and community leader, dies

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law Director of the Law Library and Information Services and Associate Professor of Law Madison Mosley died Tuesday, March 29, 2005. He was 55.

“Dr. Mosley was an extraordinary individual. He was kind, intelligent, and very dedicated to Stetson and the library,” said Dean Darby Dickerson. “He was a talented and highly-trained library professional. His loss is a tremendous loss to the Stetson community. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.”

Dr. Mosley joined the Stetson staff in 1993 after earning his law degree from the College of Law. He served as reference librarian and associate director before being appointed library director in February 2001.

Dr. Mosley was an active member of the American Library Association and the ALA’s Black Caucus; American Association of Law Libraries and the AALL’s Southeastern Chapter; Florida Library Association; Association of College and Research Libraries; Florida Bar and National Bar Association. He was also an active member of the community, serving as a member of the Avon Park city council, the co-chair of St. Petersburg’s Citizens Review Committee for the Police Department and the parliamentarian of the city’s African-American Voter Education Committee.

In addition to his Stetson law degree, Dr. Mosley earned his bachelor’s degree in library science and English from Florida State University in 1971, his master’s degree in library science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1974, and his doctorate in library science from Florida State University in 1980.

There will be a public viewing Saturday from 1-3 p.m. at Steele’s Family Funeral Services, 207 Burns Lane S.E. in Winter Haven. The memorial service is scheduled for Monday, April 4, at 1 p.m., at Mount Calvary Baptist Church, 1012 E. Line St., Leesburg, Fla. In lieu of flowers, the Mosley family requests donations be sent to Stetson University College of Law, 1401 61st St. S., Gulfport, FL 33707, in honor of Dr. Mosley.

Two top forensic minds to team for free lecture at Stetson Law

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Renowned forensic expert Dr. Michael Baden will return to Stetson University College of Law with Dr. Peter Dean for a lecture at noon on April 4 in the Great Hall of Stetson’s Gulfport campus. The speech, “Forensic pathology on both sides of the pond,” is free and open to the public.

The presentation is part of the 2005 Law, Science and Technology Lecture Series from Stetson’s National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law.

“We are fortunate to have two such gifted forensic pathologists explaining the history of and latest developments in forensic pathology on both sides of the Atlantic.” said Professor Carol Henderson, Clearinghouse director.

Dr. Michael Baden
Dr. Michael Baden served as the chairman of the Forensic Pathology Panel of the U.S. Congress Select Committee on Assassinations, which investigated the deaths of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, Dr. Baden has been involved with many other high-profile cases including the death of John Belushi, the re-autopsy of Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers and the autopsies of the victims of TWA Flight 800.

Dr. Baden is widely published in national and international medical journals, the author of the book “Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers,” and has been the subject of nine HBO specials.

Dr. Peter Dean
Dr. Peter Dean serves as a coroner in Suffolk and Essex, England, and practices clinical forensic medicine in London. He has written numerous professional papers on forensic medicine and the book “Medico-Legal Essentials in Healthcare.”

He is regularly called as an expert witness on clinical forensic medicine, child abuse and adult sexual assault. He also advises forensic aspects of television drama series such as “Silent Witness” and “Waking the Dead” for the BBC. Dr. Dean has a particular interest in the historical development of forensic medicine, which will be part of this lecture.

Stetson University College of Law wins world championship

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

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law became the first American law school since 1996 to win the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition, held March 18-24 in Vienna, Austria. Teams from 150 law schools in 47 countries competed.

Stetson received the prestigious Frédéric Eisemann Award for winning. In its 12th year, the competition is the largest gathering of law schools in one place for such an event, as well as the largest involving private international law. The competition provides an opportunity for law students to present arguments on a hypothetical international business dispute to distinguished international arbitrators, scholars and jurists.

The championship team consisted of law students Katherine Hurst, Ryan Jones, Megan Schultz, Burks Smith and Tom Yaegers, with Kathryn Christian assisting on the memoranda. Professors Jack Graves and Stephanie Vaughan coached the team.

“The enormity of this accomplishment is difficult to put into words,” Graves said. “The best and the brightest in international commercial law and arbitration gather in Vienna for a competition celebrating 25 years of work by the United Nations in international trade law. The opportunity to see our students win it all in this prestigious event was simply incredible. I have never been more proud of a group of young men and women.”

Stetson defeated the University of Vienna in the final round. The team defeated Columbia University, the National University of Singapore, Queen’s University (Canada), and the University of Notre Dame (Australia) in earlier elimination rounds.

Professor Dr. Gabrielle Kaufmann-Kohler, president of the Swiss Arbitration Association, chaired the arbitration panel in the final round. In announcing Stetson as the winner of the final round, she analogized the award to an Olympic gold medal.

“This team worked together in perfect harmony,” said Vaughan, Stetson’s moot court adviser. “This group of special and unique students worked together as a cohesive unit for six months and traveled together for two weeks. Bringing home the world championship to the United States, and directly to Stetson, is indescribable. I have never been more excited for my students and Stetson.”

The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot highlights the importance of the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods (governing international sales of goods between businesses from member states) and the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. The goal of the moot is to foster the study of international commercial law and arbitration.

The moot also serves as an opportunity for many of the foremost authorities on international commercial law and arbitration to gather for the week to attend conferences and serve as arbitrators for the student arguments. Each year’s moot also highlights one of the many sets of institutional arbitration rules. This year, the hypothetical parties to the moot problem chose the Swiss Rules of International Arbitration.

The team received a generous contribution from the International Law Section of the Florida Bar to help cover the cost of its travel and participation in the moot.

Stetson Law inducts Judge Susan Schaeffer into Hall of Fame

Contact Aaron Reincheld
Communications Specialist
727-562-7381

Gulfport, Fla. – Stetson University College of Law recently inducted Judge Susan F. Schaeffer as the newest member of its Hall of Fame. Judge Schaeffer was inducted during a ceremony following her taking senior status after 22 years on the bench.

“With all of Stetson’s distinguished alumni, I feel especially honored to be chosen early in the process as one of Stetson’s elite,” said Judge Schaeffer.

Judge Schaeffer graduated at the top of her 1971 class at Stetson. During her judicial career, she left an indelible imprint on the justice system in Florida as both a jurist and advocate for the trial court system. As chair of the Trial Court Budget Commission, she helped establish equitable funding of trial courts throughout Florida.

Susan Schaeffer attended elementary school in Canton, Ohio, and moved to St. Petersburg in 1955 before entering the ninth grade at Northeast High School. While in high school, Judge Schaeffer was a first-class athlete at a time when women’s sports were not always a priority.

She earned an associate of arts degree in 1962 from St. Petersburg Junior College. She went on to Florida State University and earned a bachelor’s in accounting in 1964. A gifted student, music and theater helped balance her life. Later in life, as a judge, she found time to lend her talents outside the courtroom to community events and programs.

After graduating from Florida State, she worked as a field agent for the Internal Revenue Service for three years and then began law school at Stetson.

Over the years, Judge Schaeffer established a tradition of firsts.
First in her 1971 Stetson Law graduating class …one of only three female students

  • First female chief assistant public defender in Pinellas County
  • First female criminal defense attorney rated “A” by Martindale Hubbell
  • First judge to receive the St. Petersburg Bar Association’s Judicial Appreciation Award
  • First recipient of the William J. Castagna Award for Judicial Excellence
  • First female chief judge in the 6th Judicial Circuit
  • First chief judge in the 6th Judicial Circuit elected to three consecutive terms

Judge Schaeffer’s work with the Florida Advance Judicial College and the National Judges College achieved yet another first as she created the first widely used judge’s manual on the penalty phase of capital murder trials.

A high-resolution video on Judge Schaeffer’s impressive career is available at: http://gpiis03.law.stetson.edu/media/on-demand/schaeffer_01.asx.