Stetson University College of Law graduates are again ranked among the best lawyers in Florida by Florida Super Lawyers. Stetson law school ranks third in the state for the highest number of alumni on the 2016 Florida Super Lawyers list.
The 2016 Florida Super Lawyers list includes 321 Stetson Law graduates and the 2016 Florida Rising Stars list includes 206 Stetson Law graduates.
Stetson Law alumnus Christian D. Searcy is listed among the Top 10 2016 Florida Super Lawyers and Top 100 2016 Miami Super Lawyers. The Top 100 2016 Miami Super Lawyers list also includes Stetson Law graduate Shane J. Kelley.
Stetson Law graduates Emma Hemness, Cynthia A. Mikos, Caroline Black Sikorske, Cheryl L. Worman and Katherine Earle Yanes are listed among the Top 50 2016 Women Florida Super Lawyers.
The Top 50 2016 Tampa Bay Super Lawyers list includes Stetson graduates Amanda B. Buffinton, Mark A. Hanley, Mikos, Luis Prats and Sikorske.
The Top 100 2016 Florida Super Lawyers list includes Stetson Law graduates Jeptha F. Barbour, Stephen D. Busey, Mikos, Searcy, Sikorske and Troy K. Smith.
Super Lawyers magazine rates lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement through independent research, peer nominations and evaluations.
“I am not one of those who dreamed as a young adult of going to law school and seeking justice for all,” said Captain Tanya Mayes J.D. ’03. “I did not even enter law school until later in life.”
(L-R): (Ret.) Navy Captain Dwaine Alexander, 2015-16 committee member of the ABA standing (LAMP) committee; CPT Tanya R. Mayes; and COL Christopher Hedrick, 80th Training Command (TASS) Staff Judge Advocate. Photo by Ray Pacheco.
The mother and member of the Army Reserves received a LAMP Distinguished Service Award on June 10 for her work spearheading the establishment of a free legal clinic for wounded warriors and qualified veterans at the Hunter Holmes McGuire VA Medical Center.
Recipients of the LAMP awards are individuals and units who set the bar for military legal assistance by pushing themselves and their practices in extraordinary ways.
More than a decade ago, Captain Mayes was a Military Police Officer in the Army Reserves who planned to work in federal law enforcement. While working on her criminology degree at Florida State University, a couple of classes in legal writing piqued her interest. She took the Law School Admission Test at the prompting of then State Attorney Jim Appleman, scored well on the test, and applied and was accepted to Stetson law school. At the end of her first year of law school at Stetson, Mayes was deployed to Bosnia as an Army Reserve Military Police Officer. After a year away from law school, Mayes returned to finish her law degree at Stetson. She began practicing in the workers compensation field, later joining the JAG Corp in 2009.
“I have done many different things as a JAG attorney, but by far the most rewarding work I’ve done is with legal assistance at the VA,” said Mayes. Mayes, who is stationed in the Army Reserves in Virginia as a judge advocate, identified a complication in the provision of legal services at the local VA Center that was negatively impacting both active military members and qualifying veterans.
“Most VA hospitals receive their legal assistance support from active duty Legal Assistance Offices,” Captain Mayes explained. “Unfortunately, these offices are often far away and/or fully engaged on their installations. These challenges coupled with the fact many of the patients at the VA centers are not mobile can make the delivery of legal assistance services to our Wounded Warriors, retirees and veterans difficult.”
(L-R): CPT Tanya R. Mayes and (Ret.) Navy Captain Dwaine Alexander, 2015-16 committee member of the ABA standing (LAMP) committee. Photo by Ray Pacheco.
Facing this challenge head on, Mayes established a program to fill the gap and provide veterans at the Hunter Holmes McGuire Veterans Administration Medical Center in Richmond, Virginia, with legal services. The program uses the resources of the US Army Reserves Office of the Staff Judge Advocate at the 80th Training Command (TASS) and volunteer members of the Virginia Bar Association to meet veterans’ legal needs.
Asked why she sees the need to help wounded warriors and veterans, Mayes recalls an encounter with a badly injured young soldier, the same age as her own son, being treated at the McGuire VA Medical Center Polytrauma unit who was in need of legal assistance.
“On my last visit with this Army Scout, he stands with the aid of his father and salutes me,” Captain Mayes recalled. “I have never been so humbled in all of my life. If there has ever been a soldier that deserved a salute it was that wounded warrior and not me. This is only one of the many many soldiers and qualified veterans we have been able to assist at McGuire. ”
“From the young wounded warriors striving to return to service, to the WWII Veteran that still has his military photo above his nursing home bed, each and every one touches us in a different way and reminds all of us in the 80th Training Command SJA office just why we get up every morning and put this uniform on,” said Captain Mayes.
Stetson University College of Law community members gathered for a moment of reflection about the tragic shooting in Orlando on the Gulfport campus on Monday afternoon. The flag flies at half-staff on Stetson Law’s campus in honor of all affected by this national tragedy.
The flag flies at half-staff on the Stetson law school campus to honor those lost in the Orlando tragedy.
Counselor Sarah Siegrist with the Eckerd Counseling Center joined the gathering. Counselors are available to members of the Stetson Law community by calling 727-864-8248.
Students may also contact Tammy Briant in the Student Life Office at Stetson Law at [email protected] or at 727-562-7808.
Additional counseling resources are available at the Pinellas County Help Line by calling 2-1-1 or 727-210-4211 or at the Hillsborough County Crisis Hotline by calling 813-234-1234.
The City of Orlando has established a hotline number to call for anyone who believes that friends or family may have been injured in the shooting. The number to call is 407-246-4357.
Orlando Regional Medical Center has set up a meeting area for families who believe they have a loved one being treated at the hospital.
The GLBT Community Center of Central Florida has an active Crisis Hotline at 407-822-5036. They have also started a GoFundMe community fund for the victims of the tragedy at https://www.gofundme.com/29bubytq.
If you wish to donate blood to replenish resources used in response to the shooting in Orlando, visit Oneblood.org to find a place to donate blood near you and schedule an appointment anywhere in Florida.
“Our hearts and thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those that lost family members and friends in the tragedy in Orlando,” said Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.
“As we continue throughout LGBT Pride Month, Lambda Legal Society will not allow this act of terror and hate to disrupt our lives,” said Stetson Law’s Lambda student president Francisco Lopez. “We will show our strength by continuing to stand against discrimination and hate, holding the memories of all those we have lost in our hearts, as we celebrate Pride Month.”
Stetson Law’s Lambda Legal Society plans to participate in the LGBT Pride Night at Tropicana Field on Friday and at the St. Petersburg Pride Parade in two weeks.
“When crisis or tragedy occurs, that is the time when a community works together and shares together because that is who we are and that is what we believe. We share sadness but also should not permit senseless violence to define us. We hold hope for a better future because we have the ability to influence the future. For today, however, it is a time for all of us to stand together,” said Dean Pietruszkiewicz.
For information about events and resources on Stetson’s DeLand campus, please visit www.stetson.edu.
The College of Law will open today (Tuesday, June 7) at noon. Scheduled classes and activities beginning at noon or later will proceed as scheduled. The Library will also open at noon. For those students participating in external clinics or externships, please consult with your supervisor and Professor Batt for additional guidance.
In the event that weather conditions create individual difficulties for students, please work with your professor and Dean Rozelle. In the event that the weather conditions create individual difficulties for employees, please work with your supervisor and our Office of Human Resources.
Stetson University College of Law is offering a continuing legal education program, Legal Writing Academy, on Aug. 19 from 8:15 a.m.-3:45 p.m. at the Tampa Law Center, 1700 N. Tampa St.
Stetson professor Catherine Cameron taught at the Legal Writing Academy in 2015.
The program for legal practitioners is designed to improve legal writing skills and produce more persuasive legal writers.
Nationally recognized faculty members from Stetson’s Institute for the Advancement of Legal Communication will offer sessions on:
• Winning on the Facts: Applying Effective Storytelling Techniques
• Advancements in Written Persuasion: What You Might Not Know
• Editing Techniques for Maximum Persuasive Impact
• Breakout Groups on Storytelling
The Legal Writing Academy includes breakfast, lunch, interactive instruction, and small group breakout sessions.
An application for 5.0 CLE credits will be submitted to The Florida Bar.
For questions regarding the Legal Writing Academy, contact Stetson’s Office of Professional Education at [email protected].
Stetson University College of Law presented Joshua Karton, who specializes in teaching how to apply the communication skills of theatre, film and television to the art of trial advocacy, with this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching Advocacy on May 24 on the Gulfport campus. The award recognizes people who have fundamentally changed the way in which the world approaches the teaching of advocacy. Karton pioneered teaching the communication arts to lawyers.
(L-R): Joshua Karton with Professor of Excellence in Trial Advocacy Charles Rose during the Educating Advocates: Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference.(L-R): Professor Liz Lippy, retired Justice David A. Erickson the recipient of last year’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching in Advocacy, and Professor Charles Rose.
American University Washington College of Law Professor Elizabeth L. Lippy received Stetson’s Edward D. Ohlbaum Award, which honors an individual whose life and practice display sterling character and unquestioned integrity, coupled with ongoing dedication to the highest standards of the legal profession and the rule of law.
Both awards were presented in conjunction with Stetson’s Educating Advocates Teaching Advocacy Skills Conference on May 23-26.
The annual Educating Advocates conference invites professors, lawyers and legal practitioners from across the country to spend two and one-half intensive days learning the Stetson method of advocacy, developing their teaching skills, and networking with renowned advocacy instructors.
Stetson University College of Law is offering a webinar for higher education professionals on balancing Title IX compliance with academic freedom on June 13 from 2-3 p.m. Webinar attendees will take away practical tips to create a safe and enriching learning environment through Title IX compliance and response systems while protecting and promoting academic freedom.
Professor Peter Lake frequently presents on higher education law and policy issues.
Stetson’s Charles A. Dana Chair and Director of the Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law & Policy Peter F. Lake will present on topics including:
evaluating Title IX policies and procedures with respect to First Amendment requirements;
making specific improvements on instructional design and delivery;
understanding the interrelation of OCR’s Title IX Guidance with the 2003 guidance on hate speech;
effective training initiatives for Title IX investigators and others on “hostile environment”;
and improving communication with faculty about new and emerging Title IX mandates.
Professor Lake is an internationally-recognized expert on higher education law and policy and the co-author of The Rights and Responsibilities of the Modern University: The Rise of the Facilitator University.
Stetson University College of Law has been awarded a grant by the Sea Turtle Grants Program to offer a special course on Sea Turtle Law and Policy this summer on its Gulfport, Florida, campus for law students and graduate students who are pursuing degrees in marine science, environmental science, or environmental policy.
The special course will educate law and other graduate students about threats to sea turtles and the local, state, national, and international legal and policy framework to protect them. A guided visit to Fort De Soto Park will be part of the course.
Scholarships funded by the Sea Turtle Grants Program are available to cover the cost of the course for five law students and five environmental graduate students.
Learn more about registering for the course and applying for scholarships by visiting the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy’s website: https://www.stetson.edu/law/biodiversity/.
The scholarships are funded by the grant awarded from the Sea Turtle Grants Program. The Sea Turtle Grants Program is funded from proceeds from the sale of the Florida Sea Turtle License Plate. Learn more at www.helpingseaturtles.org.
Starting in the fall, high-performing Eckerd College students, including students and graduates of Eckerd’s Program for Experienced Learners, can earn direct admission to Stetson law school.
Eckerd College’s Fox Quad.
The partnership with Stetson University will also offer $15,000 or more in scholarship opportunities to accepted Eckerd College students based on qualifications and credentials.
Through the new program, eligible Eckerd College students who have completed coursework requirements for their bachelor’s degrees and have competitive grades and scores on the Law School Admissions Test may apply and be accepted to law school at Stetson University in their senior year.
Stetson Law school’s Crummer Courtyard.
“This new direct admission agreement between Stetson University’s College of Law and Eckerd will offer wonderful opportunities for Eckerd College graduates. We look forward to a growing and flourishing relationship with Stetson Law,” said Suzan Harrison, Eckerd College’s Dean of Faculty and Vice President for Academic Affairs.
“This new partnership makes it possible for Eckerd College students who are passionate about advocacy to seamlessly transition into law school,” said Dean and Professor of Law Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.
“Student advocates can make a natural transition from Eckerd to Stetson law school,” said Dean Pietruszkiewicz. “Eckerd’s academic strengths in the natural sciences dovetail into Stetson’s international leadership in environmental law.”
A private, coeducational college of liberal arts and sciences related by covenant to the Presbyterian Church (USA), Eckerd College has a diverse student body with 1,800 students from 48 states and 40 countries and is one of only 40 schools listed in Loren Pope’s Colleges That Change Lives. In 2003, Eckerd became one of the youngest colleges to receive a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
Stetson law school is ranked No. 1 in Trial Advocacy and No. 3 in Legal Writing in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Stetson offers certificates of concentration for J.D. students in the areas of advocacy, elder law, environmental law, international law and social justice advocacy.
Have you ever been inside a crime laboratory? You now have the opportunity, thanks to a partnership between Stetson University College of Law’s National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law and the Law Enforcement Innovation Center at the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Public Service.
“Crime Lab Essentials,” the second free webinar in the Capital Litigation Initiative: Crime Scene to Courtroom Forensics Training series funded by the US Department of Justice, will take you inside the state-of-the-art Metro Nashville Police Department Crime Laboratory.
The webinar developed for prosecutors and defense attorneys working on capital cases will be available from 12- 2 p.m. on Wednesday, May 25.
The “Crime Lab Essentials” webinar features a tour of the crime lab conducted by forensic scientists that covers five forensic disciplines: latent prints, firearms, forensic biology (DNA), drug identification and toxicology. After describing a mock crime, forensic scientists from the crime laboratory will demonstrate a behind-the-scenes, step-by-step look at laboratory analysis and report writing.
Webinar panelists include Director of Stetson’s National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law, Professor Carol Henderson; Director of the Metro Nashville Police Department Crime Laboratory Ann Talbot; and attorney Christine Funk.
The “Crime Lab Essentials” webinar training will also discuss quality assurance, laboratory errors, chain of custody and evidence security.
The webinar is part of an eight-part series that educates lawyers about using forensic science in death penalty cases, from evaluating the crime scene to defending or prosecuting death penalty cases in court.
Attendees who complete the series will be eligible for free CLE credits.
For more information, contact Stetson’s Office of Professional Education at 727-562-7898 or email [email protected].
The International Jurist magazine article, “The Best LL.M. programs,” by Sherry Karabin, lists Stetson’s LL.M. program among the top nine law school programs in the country for career opportunities. The article focused on international students coming to the U.S. for an LL.M. degree.
Last year’s LL.M. in International Law graduates gather with international programs staff for a photo during commencement in May.
Stetson University’s law school in Gulfport, Florida, is also listed among the best places for foreign attorneys from South America, offering a location with fellow students and a large community from the region.
JR Swanegan, Stetson’s director of international programs, described career development seminars and workshops that focus on networking and interviewing skills, and a career development team on the law school campus that helps students with “honing their resumes and cover letters in ways that attract international and U.S. employers.”
Stetson law school ranks No. 20 among the nation’s most diverse law schools, according to the spring 2016 issue of preLaw.
(L-R): Stetson law school students Evan Dix and May Valedictorian Darnesha Carter practice for a moot court competition.
The article, “The most diverse law schools,” by Rebecca Larsen, examines the definition of diversity and what makes a diverse law school. A study referenced in the article by Texas A&M University School of Law’s director of program development Jack Manhire lists Stetson among the top 20 law schools by the country’s diversity. Manhire looked at how well student bodies represent the target population of law school applicants, using data from the American Bar Association and U.S. Census Bureau for his study.
Stetson law is home to diverse student organizations, interscholastic activities and competitions. Among the 2015 entering J.D. class at Stetson are 27.7 percent minority and 54.6 percent female students. Students range in age from 20-57 and represent 25 states and 83 colleges and universities. More than half of all new J.D. students in the class receive scholarships.
