Stetson University’s annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education celebrates 38 years in February, with leading higher education scholars, thinkers and practitioners in the U.S. discussing the challenges and opportunities facing higher education in an era of legal, social and political change.
This year’s conference, themed on “Accountability and Regulation of American Colleges and Universities in Times of Legal, Social and Political Upheaval,” takes place Feb. 9-13, 2017, at the Hilton in Orlando, Florida.
“Stetson’s annual National Conference on Law and Higher Education is consistently recognized for providing educators with the latest tools required to navigate today’s educational climate,” said Stetson Law Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.
“With a new president in 2017 comes a changing law and policy climate, including the potential for changes in enforcement philosophy, leadership, and direction for the Departments of Education and Justice,” said Professor of Law Peter F. Lake, director of Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy and conference chair.
Conference presentations include:
Fundamentals of Title IX;
Disability Law Workshop;
Impact of Title IX on Greek Life and Religious Colleges;
Constitutional Law and Higher Education Workshop;
The Branding of the American Mind;
The New Administration and the Higher Education Act;
Stetson University College of Law competed with 15 other top advocacy teams from around the U.S. to win the National Civil Trial Competition in Los Angeles, California, on Nov. 20.
Stetson’s Trial Team won the National Civil Trial Competition. (L-R): coaches Patrick McArdle, Erika McArdle, student Kaitlyn Dugas, Professor Charles Rose, students Anna Pardun, Joseph Sise and Colby Connell.
The Stetson student trial team of Colby Connell, Kaitlyn Dugas, Anna Pardun and Joseph Sise was undefeated in every round of competition. Connell also won the Best Advocate Award for the first three preliminary rounds.
Assistant Director for the Center for Excellence in Advocacy Erika McArdle J.D. ’12 coached the team along with Patrick McArdle J.D. ’12.
“By winning NCTC this year, Stetson has now won one of the premier national trial advocacy competitions in each of the last three years. These victories validate the Stetson approach to teaching simulated experiential learning, and reflect the immense value of the Stetson advocacy experience for future Stetson lawyers,” said Professor of Trial Advocacy and Director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy Charles Rose.
Stetson also won the National Civil Trial Competition in 2009.
Stetson’s advocacy teams have won five world championships, 68 national championships, 75 regional championships, 43 state championships, 54 brief awards, 140 best oralist/best advocate awards, and five professionalism awards.
Stetson University College of Law has joined a consortium of veterans clinics at law schools across the country working together to improve legal representation for military veterans.
Stetson’s Veterans Law Institute and Veterans Advocacy Clinic was dedicated in 2012.
The National Law School Veterans Clinic Consortium formed two years ago as an informal resource for the country’s law school veterans programs. Last month, the resource with approximately 30 law school members transitioned into an official nonprofit organization.
Stetson joins the College of William and Mary School of Law and the John Marshall Law School in spearheading the effort to grow the new consortium, which helps law schools launch new clinics by offering guidance and technical assistance.
The number of veterans clinics at law schools has increased from seven in 2008 to more than 50 today, with more on the way.
Some clinics assist veterans in obtaining VA benefits, while others offer civil legal aid to veterans or represent them in veterans treatment courts.
Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox, who directs the Veterans Advocacy Clinic at Stetson University, is a consortium board member.
“The consortium is a hub of knowledge where clinics can learn from each other what works best in helping veterans navigating a difficult claims process,” said Professor Simcox. “The consortium also helps law clinics work together to train future lawyers who may either practice in veterans advocacy or volunteer pro bono time to the effort.”
The consortium also acts as a national referral network to help law schools assist veterans outside their geographic areas or with legal issues outside their scope.
Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox meets with students working with the Veterans Advocacy Clinic at Stetson.
Two years ago, Stetson law school and the University of South Florida joined forces to help Florida veterans negotiate an often complex system so that they may secure disability benefits to which they are entitled.
This partnership is believed to be the first of its kind pairing students and faculty from a law school and an academic health center to help serve veterans.
To learn more about the Veterans Advocacy Clinic and Veterans Law Institute at Stetson University, visit www.stetson.edu/law/veterans.
Stetson University College of Law has again been named a Military Friendly® School by Victory Media, a designation awarded a small percentage of colleges, universities and trade schools in the country that are doing the most to help military students to succeed in the classroom and after graduation.
Effective 2016-2017, Stetson will award all eligible veterans a Yellow Ribbon scholarship to help offset the cost of attending law school.
Stetson’s Veterans Law Institute, dedicated in 2012, helps to increase legal services to military members, veterans and their families through its Veterans Advocacy Clinic and pro bono service initiatives.
Stetson is located near MacDill Air Force Base, the headquarters of U.S. Central Command and one of the U.S. Coast Guard’s largest command stations, and the Tampa Bay region of Florida has one of the largest concentrations of veterans in the U.S.
Military Times named Stetson’s School of Business Administration among the “Best for Vets: Business Schools” in 2014.
Stetson University College of Law advocacy teams representing the Dispute Resolution, Moot Court and Trial Team won several competitions over the Nov. 5-6 weekend across the east coast of the U.S.
Stetson’s Dispute Resolution team at the William & Mary Law School Negotiation Tournament (L-R): Professor James Sheehan, students Christina Huckfeldt, Kira Ramirez, Mary Wold, Brigette Perl, Allison Belanger, Samantha Grizzle, and coach Bill Greiner.
The Stetson Dispute Resolution team of Allison Belanger and Christina Huckfeldt won the William & Mary Law School Negotiation Tournament in Virginia on Nov. 5-6. Stetson student Mary Wold won the Best Advocate Award. Two other Stetson teams also competed, placing fourth and sixth in the competition. The teams were coached by Stetson Law alumnus Bill Greiner J.D. ’07 and professor James Sheehan J.D. ’77.
Stetson’s team at the ABA Law Student Division Arbitration Regional Competition (L-R): students Ivan Lys-Dobradin, Caroline Garrity, Felicia Kitzmiller, Anne Boyle, Julia Boivin, Brien Squires, Martin Musichi and Julius Matusewicz.
The Stetson Moot Court team of Brittnie Burns, Marissa Cioffi and Adriana Foreman won the regional round of the 67th Annual National Moot Court Competition, Region V, hosted by the University of Georgia, and will advance to the national rounds of the competition in New York City in early February. The team also won the Best Brief Award. A second team of Stetson students Anna Kirkpatrick, Ali Preston and Natalie Yello was named quarterfinalist and wrote the Third Best Brief. The teams were coached by Stetson professors Michael Allen and Louis Virelli.
The Stetson Moot Court team of Hoyt Prindle and Taylor Ryan won the Best Respondent’s Award at the National Veterans Law Moot Court Competition, in Washington, D.C., and was named semifinalist. The team was coached by Allen and Jason Stearns J.D. ’08.
Stetson students Julia Boivin, Anne Boyle, Julius Matusewicz and Brien Squires were named finalists in the regional rounds of the ABA Law Student Division Arbitration Regional Competition hosted by Liberty University School of Law in Virginia, and head to the national competition in Chicago in January. Matusewicz is a member of the Trial Team, Boyle is a member of the Moot Court, and Boivin and Squires are members of the Dispute Resolution board at Stetson. Professor Kristen Adams, St. Petersburg College Dean of Public Policy and Legal Studies Susan Demers and professor Roberta Flowers coached the team. Assistant Director for the Center for Excellence in Advocacy Erika McArdle J.D. ’12 also advised the students.
(L-R): Front row: students Anna Kirkpatrick and Marissa Cioffi; back row: students Brittnie Burns, Adriana Foreman, and Natalie Yello competed at the regionals of the Annual National Moot Court Competition.(L-R): students Taylor Ryan and Hoyt Prindl competed at the National Veterans Law Moot Court Competition.
“Stetson University College of Law understands the importance of teaching excellence in advocacy from the moment the client walks into the door until the final appellate argument is made,” said Professor of Trial Advocacy and Director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy Charles Rose. “Our teams work together across disciplines to create synergies in the conference room, the courtroom, and beyond. Our students this last weekend embody the complete Stetson advocate, and we celebrate their accomplishments even as we prepare for the next case.”
Stetson Law student Pamela Cordova received this year’s Cruz-Garcia Law Student Scholarship at the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association’s 10th Annual Scholarship Gala Dinner at the Palma Ceia Golf and Country Club on Nov. 3.
(L-R): Oscar Sugrañes, Linett San Juan, Beatriz Sanchez, Natalia Reyna-Forero, Yarelis Llerena, Dean Christopher Pietruskiewicz, Kathryn Lopez, Pamela Cordova and David Barrera.
The gala, this year themed Celebrando Nuestro Pasado, Presente, y Futuro, helps the Tampa Hispanic Bar Association raise funds for membership programming including community outreach programs and scholarships for college students.
Professor Louis Virelli, topic: the Supreme Court after the Election
Louis Virelli.
Virelli gives interviews on the impact of a Supreme Court vacancy, shake ups in the Court impacting decision making post-election 2016 and wrote Disqualifying the High Court.
Stetson University College of Law inducted three new members of its prestigious Hall of Fame at a special evening event on Oct. 22.
(L-R): Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz, Professor Robert Bickel, President Wendy Libby.
Professor of Law Robert D. Bickel, Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy A. Quince, and Matt Towery J.D. ’87 are the newest members of the Stetson University College of Law Hall of Fame.
Professor of Law Robert D. Bickel has taught at Stetson for 38 years. His national awards include the American Bar Association’s Harrison Tweed Award for Continuing Legal Education and the Florida Bar’s Faculty Professionalism Award. In 1994, he was elected to the American Law Institute and he is a fellow of the National Association of College and University Attorneys.
Joining Stetson’s faculty in 1978, Professor Bickel served as assistant dean and created the law school’s first federal civil procedure course. Professor Bickel created and launched the National Conference on Law and Higher Education. Now in its 37th year, this is the longest running national conference of its kind.
In 2004, Professor Bickel approached his colleagues to create a Constitutional Law and the Civil Rights Movement course. He envisioned a travelling classroom, where students meet civil rights icons where they made history. Professor Bickel has also invited numerous Civil Rights Movement veterans to campus. He and video production manager Stan Arthur filmed interviews with a special group of Civil Rights Movement veterans as part of a digital classroom project for the Newseum Institute in Washington, D.C. In 2012, Professor Judith Scully and Professor Bickel created a concentration program in social justice advocacy, which graduated its first full class in 2014.
(L-R): Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz, Justice Peggy Quince, President Wendy Libby.
Justice Peggy A. Quince is the first African-American woman to lead a branch of government in Florida, serving as chief justice of Florida’s judicial branch, and the first to be appointed to both the Florida Supreme Court and Florida District Courts of Appeal.
Honored with dozens of awards, Justice Quince is a Lifetime Achievement Award and Margaret Brent Women Lawyers Achievement Award recipient, and a member of the Florida Women’s Hall of Fame which includes luminaries Marjorie Stoneman Douglass, Zora Neale Hurston, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Justice Quince received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Stetson University, where she has participated in a number of programs and served on the Board of Overseers at the law school for many years.
Matt Towery J.D. ’87, a longtime member of the Stetson College of Law Board of Overseers, was nominated in 2007 by the family of the late Martin Luther King Jr. and Ambassador Andrew Young for the John F. Kennedy “Profiles in Courage Award” for his efforts and amicus brief filed to free a young African-American, Genarlowe Wilson, imprisoned under an incorrect interpretation of a law Towery authored years earlier. Georgia’s Supreme Court, including Stetson alumna Justice Carol Hunstein, agreed with Towery and freed the young man.
(L-R): Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz, Matt Towery, President Wendy Libby.
At the age of 30, Towery was the Republican Party’s nominee for lieutenant governor of Georgia. Two years later, he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives, becoming the first Republican since Reconstruction to preside over the state House chamber. Towery also served as the political chairman for U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He was also CEO of his family company Color Graphics, which was at the time of sale the largest sheet-fed printing company in the Southeast. Towery also founded InsiderAdvantage, a national internet news, polling and publishing company. He has enjoyed an 18-year career in network and affiliate television and this election year he serves as the political analyst for major national Fox affiliates.
In the fall of 2015, Towery’s latest book Newsvesting soared to the top of Amazon.com’s hottest new releases. He currently splits his time between running his family-owned investment company, finishing his TV obligations, and serving as chairman of governmental affairs at a major Southeastern law firm, Hall Booth Smith, which has a growing Florida presence.
Stetson University College of Law alumni were recently selected for the Tampa Business Journal’s “40 Under 40” list and for inclusion in the Business Observer’s “40 Under 40”and the National Trial Lawyers Association Top 40 Under 40 Lawyer list.
Tammy Briant.
Tammy Briant J.D. ’06 was selected for the annual “40 Under 40” issue of the Business Observer that highlights the brightest young stars of the business community on the Gulf Coast. Briant is the director for student affairs and deputy Title IX coordinator at Stetson University College of Law, overseeing 45 student organizations, campus counseling and student leadership development. She also serves as an adjunct professor at Stetson Law and the University of South Florida.
The Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2016 list of “Up & Comers” is composed of five Stetson Law alumni: David Brickhouse J.D. ’11, Allison Ellison J.D. ’05, Phillip Harris J.D. ’07, Amanda Singleton J.D. ’05, and Jason Stearns J.D. ’08.
The National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida, was recently awarded an additional grant from the Department of Justice to produce educational in-person trainings and webinars.
Professor of Law Carol Henderson spoke in New Zealand.
The two-year $400,000 grant was awarded to Stetson’s Clearinghouse by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Office of Justice Programs at the Department of Justice to support the Capital Case Litigation Initiative.
Stetson will use the grant to produce four national in-person trainings on topics relating to “Crime Scene to Courtroom Forensics” and eight webinars on emerging topics related to capital case litigation and forensics. The sessions are designed to educate death penalty litigators, from both the prosecution and defense, in forensic science.
A year ago, a $400,000 grant was also awarded to the Clearinghouse to develop a forensic evidence training program for lawyers who work on death penalty cases.
In September, Clearinghouse director and Professor of Law Carol Henderson was honored for the Best Oral Presentation in Education and Training at the Australia New Zealand Forensic Science Society’s International Symposium on the Forensic Sciences in Auckland, New Zealand.
Stetson’s National Clearinghouse was developed to foster communication between the scientific, technological and legal communities, providing comprehensive scientific, technological and legal information to promote justice based on sound science and technology. The Clearinghouse has trained more than 14,000 legal and scientific professionals since its inception.
For more information about the National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law at Stetson visit http://www.ncstl.org/.
Dr. Naomi A. Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C., delivered the Foreman Biodiversity Lecture at Stetson’s Gulfport campus on Sept. 29.
Dr. Naomi Rose spoke at Stetson’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture.
Dr. Rose spoke on the plight of “Captive Marine Mammals: Beneath the Surface” and described how the natural history and biology of marine mammals make them uniquely unsuited to a life in captivity.
“It’s a pretty simple equation: large animals in small enclosures,” said Dr. Rose, who illustrated the impacts of captivity on marine mammals.
She described how limited space and social environment, poor water quality and behavioral restrictions all impact marine mammals in captivity. She also examined how captive marine mammals develop behavior problems that can result in injuries and even death to their handlers.
“I hope that as empathetic human beings that you can see that there’s a problem here,” Dr. Rose told the audience of law students and community members gathered to hear her talk.
Her presentation also addressed recent regulatory and legislative developments related to the public display of whales and dolphins.
Dr. Rose works on several campaigns and coalitions addressing problems associated with cetacean live capture, trade and captivity, both in the U.S. and abroad. She has been a member of the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee since 2000 and has worked in the marine mammal advocacy field for more than 20 years.
(L-R): Professor Lance Long, Dr. Naomi Rose and Professor Royal Gardner.
Upcoming lectures in this series on Stetson’s Gulfport campus include:
Nov. 2, 12 p.m., Great Hall, Robert Williams J.D. ’95, chief deputy counsel of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, presenting Working for the Government – One Lawyer’s Perspective on the Florida Environment and the Challenges Associated with Representing a State Agency;
Nov. 3, 12 p.m., Great Hall, Jeanne Christie, executive director of the Association of State Wetland Managers, presenting Are We There Yet? Trends in Protecting Wetlands and Biodiversity – A State-side View.
Stetson’s Foreman Biodiversity Lecture series is coordinated through the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy, which is the recipient of the 2016 ABA Distinguished Achievement Award in Environmental Law and Policy.
Stetson University College of Law alumnus Gary R. Trombley J.D. ’73 of Trombley & Hanes, P.A. in Tampa, has been elected to the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and was recently honored with the Goldburg-Cacciatore Inn of Court Award.
Gary Trombley J.D. ’73.
The International Academy of Trial Lawyers seeks out, identifies, acknowledges and honors those who have achieved a career of excellence through demonstrated skill and ability in jury trials, trials before the court and appellate practice. The Academy invites only lawyers who have attained the highest level of advocacy.
Trombley was inducted into Stetson Law’s Hall of Fame in 2010 and is a past-president of the Stetson Lawyers Association, member of the Stetson Board of Overseers, and recipient of Stetson’s Paul M. May Meritorious Award.
He is a member of the Florida Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and a past-president of the Herbert G. Goldburg Criminal Law American Inn of Court Middle District of Florida. Trombley has served on numerous federal, state and local bar association committees, as president of the Trial Lawyers Section of the Hillsborough County Bar Association, chairman of the Thirteenth Circuit Judicial Nominating Committee and Criminal Law Committee. He was a member of the Florida Bar Board of Governors for four years and served on the board’s legislative committee.
Trombley has been named among the Best Lawyers of America 1987-2017, in Chambers USA, Florida Trend’s Legal Elite, and in the Florida Super Lawyers. A Florida native, Trombley began his legal career as an assistant U.S. attorney where he received the Attorney General’s “Outstanding Performance in Trial Practice Award.” He then entered private practice and participated as defense counsel in criminal cases including “The Bank of Credit and Commerce” case, one of the largest criminal cases included among historical exhibits of major cases in the Tampa federal courthouse.
“Gary Trombley is a terrific lawyer, person, and someone who has done an incredible amount for Stetson University College of Law,” said Professor of Law Ellen Podgor, the Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Research Professor at Stetson.
