The Tampa Bay Lightning’s executive director of community hockey development Jay Feaster spoke with Stetson Law students on Sept. 16. Feaster, who was general manager of the Lightning when they won the Stanley Cup, talked with Stetson Law students about team-building as a pillar of leadership.
Feaster has a law degree from Georgetown University. His presentation was part of the Leadership Certificate program at Stetson.
On Sept. 14, students in Professor Luz Nagle’s international law class had an opportunity to talk with U.S. Central Command international law attorney Robin L. Johnson.
Johnson’s lecture was followed by a Q&A with students about critical international law topics including Syria.
“It is important for our students to hear from such attorneys who have actually practiced in the areas in which we teach, especially with regard to international law, which can seem more abstract to the students than writing up commercial contacts, for instance,” said Professor Nagle.
Johnson retired from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps following 20 years of active duty service. During her tenure, she served with the Office of General Counsel in the Department of Defense, U.S. Special Operations Command, and in the headquarters of the Department of the Army Office of the Judge Advocate General. She also served on exchange with the British Army Department of Legal Services, and with the Multinational Force and Observers peacekeeping mission in the Sinai Peninsula. Johnson was the first female judge advocate to deploy in a combat operation, Operation JUST CAUSE in Panama in 1989.
Professor Nagle remarked on Johnson’s long, distinguished and fascinating career: “She was able to combine her desire to serve our country with her passion for international law,” said Professor Nagle. “She traveled the world working with U.S. and allied forces to accomplish military goals while adhering to international law frameworks in the context of peacekeeping; national, regional and international security; and preserving the rule of law.”
Just after dawn on the morning of Sept. 11, members of the Stetson University College of Law community planted 2,977 American flags on Stetson’s law campus in memory of each of the 9/11 victims.
The event was co-sponsored by the Stetson Democrats, Stetson Republicans, and Stetson Student Veterans organizations.
The director of Stetson’s Veteran’s Advocacy Clinic, Associate Professor Stacey-Rae Simcox, was part of the flag planting ceremony and said, “It is important for the Stetson community to come together to remember this day. Not only because 9/11 changed America and brought us together to help one another but also because many of our student veterans served in combat as a direct result of the events that day.”
After planting the flags, students, professors and administrators observed a moment of silence, reflecting on the events of that day 14 years ago.
On a Friday evening in August, the Stetson Law community gathered in the Dolly & Homer Hand Law Library to celebrate the legacy of Dean Emeritus and Distinguished University Professor Lizabeth A. Moody. On Aug. 28, Stetson Law dedicated the Dean Lizabeth A. Moody Seminar Room in the library that Moody helped build. The seminar room was frequently used by Dean Moody for her nonprofit corporations class at Stetson. Moody was one of the first to pioneer teaching law students in small seminar groups, a popular method used in law schools today.
“This dynamic legal educator, with her driving determination, made this very library possible,” said Dean and Professor of Law Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.
Seventeen years ago during her five-year tenure as dean at Stetson Law, Moody raised the money to build Stetson a beautiful new law library, on par with the quality of a legal education from Stetson. She ensured that the blueprint for Stetson’s new law library would include at least 20 private and group study rooms for students.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a personal friend of Moody, delivered the dedication address at Stetson Law’s library in 1998.
“I think our library is one of the five best law school libraries in the country,” Dean Moody remarked.
Moody, inducted into Stetson’s Hall of Fame in 2009, also helped create Stetson’s part-time law program and international programs.
In January of 2013, the National Jurist Magazine named Dean Moody one of the top 25 most influential people in legal education. The American Bar Association Women Trailblazers in the Law Project selected Moody in 2012 to be included among women who made history in the legal profession.
Before arriving at Stetson, Moody helped advance equality for women in the legal profession. Moody was one of only seven female graduates in her Yale Law class of 160 students. A partner in a prominent Cleveland law firm, Moody was the first female president of the Cleveland Bar Association and one of the first women to receive an AV rating by Martindale Hubbell. The city of Cleveland named the day of May 8, 1990, in honor of Lizabeth A. Moody.
She was dean of two law schools, teaching at several law schools across the country. Moody was also a leader in state, local and national bar associations who received honors including the Ohio State Bar Medal, Josephine Irwin Award, American Bar Association Glass Cutter Award and ABA Author’s Award.
As a member of the Cleveland State University faculty, Moody served as interim dean. As president and CEO of Law School Admissions Services, Moody founded the Access Loan Program.
Moody’s oral history of her extraordinary legal career is housed at the Library of Congress, the Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard University, and on the ABA website.
This summer, Stetson University College of Law added new program offerings, teaching the top-ranked Stetson method of advocacy to lawyers and law students in England and Ireland.
Stetson’s inaugural summer comparative trial advocacy program in Oxford, England, taught 40 students from eight law schools the Stetson theory of advocacy, from the fundamentals of rhetoric, psychology and storytelling through practice and application.
“The program in Oxford matches Stetson’s unparalleled advocacy program with the education capital of the world,” said JR Swanegan, director of graduate and international programs at Stetson.
“This program is an advocacy retreat in the heart of learning for Western civilization: Oxford, England,” said Professor Charles Rose, director of the Center for Excellence in Advocacy at Stetson.
Law students traveled to attend the two-week program at St. Hugh’s College in Oxford, England, from Puerto Rico, India, the U.S. and the U.K. Guest lecturers included attorneys and judges from England, Scotland and Ireland.
“The culmination of the course was a trial, with students trying an American case in an English courtroom,” said Professor Rose, who traveled to England to teach the program along with several guest instructors.
“The comparative trial advocacy course was not just about learning how to work as a professional and cohesive team, how to zealously advocate, or how to break down a case and stand in the well of a courtroom with confidence,” said second-year Stetson Law student Carolina Melinda Suazo. The Stetson Alternative Dispute Resolution Board and Trial Team member remarked that the program helped prepare her for advocacy board tryouts. “The course is about finding your voice and style as an advocate and as a medium for justice,” said Suazo.
“I believe that the Oxford program gave me an opportunity to see who I am as an advocate and future lawyer, and I absolutely believe that it was beneficial for my career goals,” said second-year student Alexis L. Petrosino, who attended Stetson’s summer Oxford program. “I would absolutely recommend this program, especially to students who are interested in litigation and advocacy.”
Next year’s comparative trial advocacy program is scheduled for July 31-August 13, 2016, in Oxford, England. Professor Rose offered a sneak peek at next year’s program, in which students will immerse themselves in a tour of London and then follow the footsteps of the infamous Jack the Ripper, discussing various scenarios pieced together from evidence. Professor Rose will join six guest instructors to teach the two-week program.
This summer, for the second year in a row, Stetson offered its popular advocacy skills course in Dublin, Ireland. Eighty-four students, including lawyers and law students, learned the Stetson method of advocacy in Ireland. The students attended plenary sessions and worked on their advocacy skills to present a case. Five professors taught the compressed continuing legal education program.
“We are looking at more opportunities to expand the program in Ireland and beyond,” said Professor Rose. “We are offering a CLE for U.S. attorneys in Cuba in April of 2016.”
This July, Stetson also offered a destination CLE in Ireland on Technology in Litigation in the Silicon Valley of Europe. The international CLE program was offered in Dublin, home to industry giants like Twitter, Google and Intel and an international hub for business, law and technology. Stetson partnered with the Law Society of Ireland to offer the two-and-a-half day, 14-credit CLE program.
“The program benefits any attorney interested in how technology is impacting their practice,” said Mercy Roberg, director of the Office of Professional Education at Stetson Law.
“Being a highly adaptable problem-solver is critical to any attorney,” said Swanegan. “Studying abroad also gives students an opportunity to build an international network and make friends and contacts in other countries.”
Stetson continues to offer a fall semester abroad program on international comparative law in London, England.
Stetson Law offers summer study abroad opportunities for students in England, the Netherlands, Spain and fall intercession and spring break programs in the Cayman Islands and Cuba. Stetson is also developing a study abroad program in Korea.
“What I really want to share with the students here today is that Florida is still a wild place, and we have a chance to keep it that way,” Carlton Ward Jr. told an audience gathered to hear him speak on Thursday afternoon on Stetson’s Gulfport campus.
Ward addressed students, faculty, staff and members of the community at Stetson Law’s first Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture of the fall semester.
Ward is an environmental photojournalist from Clearwater, Florida, who uses his photography to promote conservation of natural environments and cultural legacies.
Ward’s book, “Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition,” documents Ward’s 1,000-mile journey in 2012 from the Everglades National Park in Florida to the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia in 100 days. The journey continued in 2015 with a 70-day, 1,000-mile trek from the Everglades headwaters near Orlando to Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola, bringing new attention to a statewide vision to keep Florida wild.
Stetson’s biodiversity lecture series brings leading experts to campus to speak on a range of environmental topics. The lecture series is co-sponsored by Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy.
The next lecture in the biodiversity lecture series is scheduled for 12 p.m. on Sept. 29 in the Great Hall on the Gulfport campus with Mike Walker, a senior enforcement attorney at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters. The lecture is free and open to the public.
On March 15, more than a dozen students and two professors loaded onto an airplane in Tampa, Florida, for what was to become Stetson Law’s first study abroad program in Cuba. The trip was preceded by a course taught by Professor of Law Candace Zierdt that examined current perspectives on the Cuban Legal System and Society. Stetson’s class took place at perhaps no more pivotal time in Cuba’s history, as attitudes towards long-held sanctions began to relax. For the first time in decades, a field trip from the U.S. to Cuba had become a reality.
Professor Zierdt described how taking her class to Cuba became an incredibly moving and transformative experience, different for each of the students traveling with her on the trip.
“I don’t think you can do a class like this without understanding the culture,” said Professor Zierdt.
During a walking tour of Old Havana, Professor Zierdt described how many of the topics her students reviewed in class became real.
“All the things we saw there were things we had studied,” she said.
The class explored the roles of lawyers in Cuba, as well as the history of business, education, healthcare, human rights, even sports.
“Attorneys in Cuba in a socialist society see their role very differently than in the U.S.,” said Professor Zierdt. “They see themselves as representing the good of the country. Part of their role is to support socialist government while still trying to help their clients.”
Student Meagan Salisbury described how visiting Cuba differed from her expectations. “Culture isn’t black and white,” she said. A third-year student at Stetson focused on election law, Salisbury is a political consultant focused on human rights.
“I thought we would meet people less friendly towards Americans,” Salisbury said. “People were far less critical than I expected, and very excited about the chances of the blockade being lifted.”
In Cuba, Salisbury researched the prison system, a system which is free of violence and drugs according to a local law professor. Salisbury was skeptical. Having spent time everywhere from Kenya to Spain to Tanzania, Salisbury is a veteran world traveler who has met people all over the globe.
“Seeing how other people live gives you more of an open mind,” said Salisbury.
Part-time law student Roger Klaffka is a 25-year veteran of the Air Force who has traveled around the world. He saw visiting Cuba as an opportunity to travel to a historically inaccessible country.
“There was an undercurrent of excitement among people for things to change,” said Klaffka. “It was the best educational travel experience I had,” said Klaffka.
Student Tommy Mingledorff described visiting Cuba as following in his families’ footsteps.
“My parents visited on mission trips to Cuba,” Mingledorff explained. His grandmother won a beauty contest and traveled to Cuba as a young woman.
“Seeing people who don’t have the privileges we have: you can go to another country and meet someone who would trade anything to come to the U.S., even to be the poorest person in the U.S.,” said Mingledorff.
Historic connections between Florida and Cuba go back hundreds of years and Florida and Cuba are inextricably linked, Professor Zierdt explained.
“Opportunities for businesses and lawyers from Florida are phenomenal,” she said. “Cuba has just started to allow entrepreneurs to open their own businesses.”
A total of 20 Stetson Law students will be selected to participate in the next Spring Break study abroad program in Cuba. The class will be held in the spring semester once per week, culminating in the eight-day, seven-night trip to Havana, Cuba, from March 5-12, 2016. One additional class meeting will be held after returning from Cuba, and a reflection paper will be required to earn credit for this course.
“My students have said this was one of the biggest highlights of their educational career,” said Zierdt.
The upcoming Spring Break 2016 course will be taught on Stetson’s Gulfport campus by Professor of Law Kristen Adams. The application deadline is Oct. 15. Please see the program website for the online application.
Professor Darryl C. Wilson, the adviser for the Black Law Students Association at Stetson, hosted a weekend backyard barbeque on Sunday, Aug. 23, at his home to welcome new and returning BLSA students. The annual event, approaching its 15th year, punctuated the end of summer as the rigor of fall classes began for students at Stetson University College of Law.
The BLSA barbeque also featured a book bank of text book rentals and study guides for students as well as an opportunity for mentoring and exchanging stories and information.
The Stetson BLSA maintains a proud tradition of service and assistance that spans more than 20 years at Stetson University College of Law. Stetson’s BLSA is a student organization committed to supporting African-Americans and the broader community throughout law school and within the legal profession.
Editor’s Note: Group photo caption: (Front Row): Brynson Brown, Kou Sua, Ashleigh Brooks, Teiharhah Howell, Jazzmine Jenkins, Charis Campbell, Annette Collins. (Middle Row): Melissa Caines, Chantay Perry, Nathan Howell, Ja’keria McCowan, Cindy Innocent, Alexis Turner Garris, Justin Scott, Tamara Williams, Taofikat Ninalowo, Bridgette Lester, Professor Judith Scully, Diriki Geuka. (Back Row): Jounice Nealy-Brown, Lindsey Askew, Starcee Brown, Adriana Foreman, Chizom Okebugwu, Kishantavia Carson, Professor Dorthea Bean, Alexander Howell, Professor Darryl Wilson, Dara Wilson, Carmen Johnson.
Think back to your childhood, and your clearest memories of that time. Maybe you recall details of a family vacation, your best friend, a move that took you to a new city or a new school.
Perhaps what you recall most is a terrible tragedy that changed your life forever. Now imagine preserving that childhood memory on your smart phone.
An article co-authored by second-year Stetson Law student SeanCarlo Lopez argues that the legislature should provide an exception to the rule in cases of abuse in which the child victim’s only defense may be a recording. Lopez co-authored “McDade: A Search for Justice in the Face of the Inadmissibility of Secretly Taped Conversations” as an undergraduate student with University of Central Florida professor Carol Bast. The McDade case recently made headlines in May.
In 2011, a sixteen-year-old girl confronted her childhood abuser, the stepfather whom she said sexually assaulted her for six years. Her evidence against the man: a recording she made of her abuser. Her stepfather was sent away to prison for a double life sentence, but later granted a new trial because the evidence against him was deemed inadmissible by the Florida Supreme Court.
Chapter 934 of the Florida Statutes prohibits the recording and disclosure of a private conversation without two-party consent. The Florida Supreme Court overturned the trial court and ruled that the evidence should have been suppressed in line with the plain language of the statute. Richard McDade was acquitted on May 21 at the retrial.
Florida Governor Rick Scott signed a bill into effect in July allowing children to secretly tape their rapists.
“It is unfortunate that it took such a crime to carve the way for reform,” Lopez said. “It remains unconscionable to allow a child rapist to go free and clear when an actual account of his transgressions exists to prove his guilt.”
However, the evidence, collected before the governor signed the bill, was illegal. The woman’s childhood rapist remains free.
“While the future holds a glimmer of hope for the victims of child rape, the legal system has failed to provide the victim with any form of justice, and that is completely unacceptable,” said Lopez. “This should be a lesson for the legislature to construe complicated statutes such as Chapter 934 more broadly in order to allow the judicial system to administer actual justice.”
“Though the added exemption is a step forward, Florida’s laws are still deficient,” said Lopez “Florida is one of a handful of states that requires the two-party consent rule. Such a rule is archaic in today’s culture, an era of smart phone technology in which the average person has the capability to record the most intimate details of their life.”
“We should not leave such protections to chance or the interpretations of a few judges,” Lopez said, who recommends reform in line with the majority of the states. “The federal government has recognized that access to recording technology draws a very fine line between what should be deemed private and public. Applying the one-party consent rule to oral communications would be in line with the majority of the states and federal government.”
The article will be published in the Criminal Law Bulletin in the fall of 2016.
Students at Stetson University College of Law can spend either a semester or a full academic year in new foreign exchange programs with Dublin, Ireland, or Norwich, England.
Stetson students selected for the program may earn an LL.M. degree from the University College Dublin’s Sutherland School of Law or University of East Anglia Law School by successfully completing a year of academic work, including a thesis.
Students may choose to specialize their Dublin, Ireland LL.M. in one of five concentrations or their Norwich, England LL.M. in one of seven concentrations.
Students from the University College Dublin and University of East Anglia Law School may also elect to spend a semester or a full academic year at Stetson.
“If you are interested in developing lasting friendships and an international network that will benefit you throughout your legal career, then this program is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do just that,” said JR Swanegan, director of international programs at Stetson.
For more information, please contact Kristen Cohen in the International Programs Office at [email protected] or visit International Student Exchange and International Dual-Degree Programs.
Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida, has won a Videographer Award of Distinction in the educational institution category for its alumni feature series, “Do the Extraordinary: Stetson Law Women Trailblazers.”
Stetson Law Video Production Manager Stan Arthur and Manager of Media Relations Brandi Palmer interviewed recent female Law graduates who founded their own law firms in St. Petersburg, Florida, to produce the four-part feature series.
Stetson also won an Honorable Mention Videographer Award for the feature spotlighting a 2015 J.D./M.P.H. graduate: “P.J. Nowlan: Making Change Happen.”
Arthur is an award-winning filmmaker whose latest film, “At Risk,” premiered at the Skyway Film Festival in Bradenton in June.
Videographer recognizes outstanding achievement by talented individuals and companies in the video production field, and judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talent exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. About 14% of entries were Award of Distinction winners. Past winners have come from all 50 states and numerous countries. There were approximately 1,300 entries from throughout the U.S., Canada and several other countries in the 2015 competition.
Watch the alumni feature series on the Stetson Law YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/stetsonlaw.
In May, Stetson Law’s communications team was also honored with multiple Hermes Creative Awards for its video features spotlighting students and alumni. Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals who work on concept, writing and design using traditional materials and emerging technologies.
Editor’s Note: To view the 2015 winners, visit the Videographer Awards website at www.videoawards.com.
Third-year Stetson Law student Brandon Williams is spending his summer as an associate at a law firm in Madrid, Spain. The 26-year-old turned a Stetson study abroad experience into a springboard for a summer associate position at the Avego Abogados law firm in Spain.
While working in a different country can pose cultural and language barriers, Williams said that the law firm made him feel welcome. He described the connections he made while working in Madrid as the greatest reward of the experience.
“When I arrived, I was welcomed into the law firm as a long lost family member,” Williams said. “Everyone here was so helpful and generous and did everything to make sure my stay in Madrid was perfect.”
A J.D. student in Stetson’s international concentration program, Williams is helping to draft contracts, assist with litigations, and translate and brief corporate documents and field projects while working at the law firm in Madrid.
“Ultimately, with my degree, in the short-term, I want to either return to Avego next year or take a job at an international firm here in Madrid,” said Williams. “My long-term plan is to finish my career as in-house counsel or general counsel at a company or large corporation like HSN.”
Williams is a St. Petersburg native who also serves as a role model for youth in the area. Williams mentors middle and high school students about how to avoid the school-to-prison-pipeline. He also works with the Tampa Bay Academy of Hope, counseling youth on expungement of juvenile records. He is a member of the Street Law program at Stetson and is part of a team of Stetson students helping to build a piece of legislation to improve contemporary expunction laws that govern the expungement of juvenile records.
The Stetson Law student previously attended the University of Central Florida and the Center for Advanced Technologies at Lakewood High School in St. Petersburg.
Stetson Law offers study abroad opportunities for students in the Cayman Islands, Cuba, England, the Netherlands, and Spain.