Among first-time takers of the Florida bar exam in February, 93.9 percent of Stetson University College of Law graduates passed. Stetson Law placed second among Florida law schools on the exam, according to the Supreme Court of Florida’s recently released exam scores and statistics.
Only Florida State University had a higher first-time bar passage rate with a total of 96 percent of graduates passing the exam. Among the 819 first-time test takers, 80.2 percent of all candidates passed the exam.
The bar passage rate at Stetson has increased over the past decade. Stetson’s bar preparation program is staffed by a full-time professor and two staff members who provide individual and group counseling and help students build personalized study plans.
Stetson University College of Law is accepting nominations for its Hall of Fame, which recognizes individuals who have reached the pinnacle of their professions and have affected a profound, positive influence on the law school.
The annual event is held each October. The 2012 inductees were law professor Suzanne R. Armstrong, Denis M. deVlaming ’72, John A. Guyton Jr. ’59, former Stetson University College of Law Dean Thomas F. Lambert Jr., Mada Fraser McLendon ’32, and U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore ’77.
For biographies and videos about past winners, please see Stetson’s Hall of Fame website.
To submit a nomination, please use the Hall of Fame Nomination form 2013 (PDF) and send by April 26 to Patricia Toups in the College Relations Office at Stetson University College of Law, 1401 61st St. S., Gulfport, FL 33707. E-mails are also accepted at [email protected].
Homeland security expert and former Pentagon official Michael James Barton presented “@WhiteHouseDrone is Now Following You: A Constitutional Discussion on Modern Warfare” as this year’s Nichols Foundation Prominent Speaker Lecture on April 11 at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla.
Michael James Barton spoke at Stetson on April 11.
More than 100 members of the Stetson community attended Barton’s topical discussion.
Barton spoke about the use of drones in times of war and the policies surrounding their use.
“In wartime, we need to be focused on these policy arguments,” said Barton.
Barton is director of energy and natural resources at ARTIS Research, former deputy director of the Middle East Policy Office for the Secretary of Defense, and former member of the Homeland Security Council staff at the White House.
The Nichols Foundation Prominent Speakers Series was established at Stetson in 1995. The series’ namesake is Perry Nichols, among the nation’s most successful trial lawyers and past president of both the American Trial Lawyers Association and the International Trial Lawyers Association.
Florida’s first female attorney general, Pam Bondi, presented the commencement speech at Stetson University College of Law at 9 a.m. on Saturday, May 18. Commencement took place in the courtyard on Stetson’s Gulfport campus. See more of the commencement experience.
Pam Bondi, Florida’s first female attorney general, gave commencement address.
Bondi received her law degree from Stetson University in 1990 and a bachelor’s in criminal justice from the University of Florida in 1987. Watch the commencement video.
“As Florida’s first female attorney general, I’m here to tell you that you can do anything you want to do, and don’t let anyone stand in your way,” said Bondi.
A Tampa native and fourth generation Floridian, Bondi worked as a prosecutor in the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office for 18 years before being elected in November 2010 to serve as Florida’s 37th attorney general.
Bondi is a member of the State Board of Administration and the Florida Cabinet, is vice chair of the southern region of the National Association of Attorneys General, and serves on Florida’s Special Olympics board of directors. She was recognized by the Tampa Bay Review as a “Lawyer of Distinction” and received the “Women of Excellence in Government” award.
“You never know what’s around the corner,” Bondi told the graduates. “It’s only important that you take it.”
This year’s graduating class included:
Jamie Combee and Erik Johanson, both co-editors of Stetson’s new Journal of Advocacy and the Law and members of the Moot Court Board. Combee is also a member of Stetson’s Trial Team.
Caitlein Jammo, president of the American Constitution Society, editor-in-chief of the Journal of International Aging, Law & Policy, Stetson Law Review editor and Moot Court Board member.
Frank Leung, representative to the Florida Bar YLD–Law Student Division board of governors, deputy chief student ambassador, national law student liaison to the ABA Section of Real Property, Trust & Estate Law, editor of the Journal of International Aging Law & Policy, and Alternative Dispute Resolution board member.
Nicole Martingano, a member of Stetson’s Alternative Dispute Resolution board and future prosecutor who turned a near-fatal car accident into determination to help victims.
Erin Okuno, a Biodiversity Fellow, president of the Environmental Law Society, Stetson Law Review editor-in-chief, Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy editor, and member of Stetson’s Moot Court Board.
Stetson University College of Law students Paul Crochet, Meagan Foley and Alexander Zesch all received Honorable Mention Best Oral Advocate Awards at the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot in Vienna, Austria. The Stetson students were among a group of 40 advocates selected for the awards. More than 1800 students from 67 countries competed.
Stetson’s Vis team (L-R): Michael Rothfeldt, Paul Crochet, Meagan Foley, Alex Zesch and Lisa Tanaka.
Stetson’s team of Crochet, Foley, Michael Rothfeldt, Lisa Tanaka and Zesch competed against students from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Germany, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates and the United States during the five-day competition, March 23-28, in Vienna.
The Vis Moot was started by the United Nations Trade Commission 20 years ago as a global educational initiative in international commercial law and dispute resolution.
This year, 296 teams from around the world competed. Forty-nine of the teams competing this year in Vienna were from highly ranked U.S. law schools.
The Stetson team was one of only two U.S. law schools to advance to finish in the quarterfinals of the competition. City University of Hong Kong won first place overall.
Professors Joseph Morrissey and Interim Director for International Programs Stephanie Vaughan coached the Stetson students.
Stetson’s Center for Excellence in International Law is the nexus of international advocacy at Stetson, housing academic programs, the Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy and the Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy, hosting international advocacy competitions and offering study abroad opportunities around the world.
Stetson University College of Law third-year students Valeria Obi and Rebekah Tucci organized the inaugural Women of Achievement Gala to celebrate Women’s History Month in March. The Florida Association for Women Lawyers, National Organization for Women, American Bar Association, and the Young Lawyer’s Division of the Florida Bar hosted the gala at Stetson Law in Gulfport on March 14.
Women of Achievement honorees (L-R): Shivani Alamo, Gwynne Young, Cathy Stanton and Marcia Cohen.
The gala honored women in the Tampa Bay community doing outstanding work. Four women were honored for their dedication, persistence and passion in helping others. The honorees of the evening included Shivani Alamo, a second-year Stetson Law student who was honored for her dedication to community activism; Marcia Cohen, a 1984 Stetson Law graduate, attorney and advocate for gender equality; and Gwynne Young, president of the Florida Bar, who was honored for her leadership and the tremendous strides she has made for other women lawyers. The keynote speaker was Cathy Stanton, granddaughter of prominent women’s rights leader Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who helped women obtain the right to vote.
More than 80 people attended the event, including attorneys and judges from the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers, Pinellas Chapter of the National Organization for Women, St. Petersburg Bar Association and Hillsborough County Bar Association.
Obi and Tucci, the gala organizers, said that they are working to ensure that the gala becomes an annual event honoring inspiring women every year.
Obi is president of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers at Stetson and Tucci is president of the National Organization for Women at Stetson.
Pepperdine University School of Law won the 17th annual International Environmental Moot Court Competition on March 23 at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Fla.
Pepperdine University School of Law won the 17th annual International Environmental Moot Court Competition.
Pepperdine defeated the Law Society of Ireland, Dublin, in the final round for the international championship. China University of Political Science and Law received the best memorial award, and Pepperdine student Austin Ward was named best final-round oralist.
The team from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil, received the Spirit of Stetson Award, a peer-nominated honor that recognizes civility, justice and fair play.
Eighteen teams from around the world competed at Stetson this weekend after advancing from eight regional rounds across six continents. The teams presented arguments about a transboundary haze and species protection issue before a mock international court.
Nick Davidson, Deputy Secretary General of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, presented “Natural Solutions for our Water Security” on March 21 at Stetson Law in Gulfport. The Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, called the Ramsar Convention, is an intergovernmental treaty that provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
Nick Davidson spoke at Stetson on March 21.
“The amount of water we have on the planet is finite,” Davidson said. Davidson explained that we continue to destroy wetlands despite the fact that we depend on water for our life, livelihoods and sustainable businesses.
His lecture described how protecting wetlands and natural systems can provide solutions to threats to water security.
“There’s a need for a paradigm shift in thinking, in water governance, in decision-making,” Davidson said. “We’ve got to place water at the heart of a green economy. We’ve got to realize that wetlands are part of our water management infrastructure, not something competing with it.”
Davidson’s lecture was the last in the series this semester at Stetson. Stetson’s Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture Series brings leading experts to campus to speak on a range of environmental topics.
On March 19, the Innocence Initiative Reform and Education Division at Stetson hosted Derrick Williams, a man who was falsely convicted and sentenced to serve a life sentence in the state of Florida. He spent 18 years behind bars for crimes he did not commit.
Derrick Williams talked with Stetson Law students about being wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life behind bars.
Exonerated in 2011 with the help of the Innocence Project of Florida, Williams talked with Stetson Law students on Tuesday night about the importance of seeking justice. Williams explained that the Attorney General of Florida took an interest in his case.
Williams’ wrongful conviction in 1993 was the result of eyewitness misidentification and government misconduct. His talk was entitled, “A Tainted Lineup: The Exoneration Story of Derrick Williams.”
“Have you ever been accused of doing something, you know you didn’t do it, and you beg people to believe you, but they tell you, you did it?” Williams asked the law students gathered to listen to his talk.
His story stressed the importance of solid, ethical legal advocacy.
The Innocence Initiative at Stetson was co-founded in 2009 to coordinate efforts with the Innocence Project of Florida. The Innocence Initiative Reform and Education Division at Stetson advocates for reform and hosts educational programs for students, case workers, and the community on wrongful conviction issues. Judith Scully, the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Professor of Law, directs the Innocence Initiative at Stetson and co-directs Stetson’s new Social Justice Advocacy concentration program.
Stetson University College of Law students won the National Professional Responsibility Moot Court Competition on March 17 in Indianapolis, Ind. Stetson students also won all six of the possible awards, sweeping the competition.
Stetson Law teams shown here with the competition judges at the Indiana Supreme Court. Photo by Brooke Bowman. (See caption information below)
Two teams of Stetson students beat teams from around the country to compete against each other in the final round, presented at the Indiana Supreme Court. The Stetson team of Kevin Crews, Erin Okuno and Morgan Vasigh won the final round, competing against the Stetson team of Adriana Corso, Erin Dolan and Michelle Reilly.
Stetson students Corso, Dolan and Reilly won the Best Petitioner Brief Award. Crews, Okuno and Vasigh won the Best Respondent Brief Award. Okuno was also named Best Oralist in both the preliminary and final rounds.
This is the second year in a row in which a Stetson team has won top awards at this competition. Last year, the Stetson team won the Best Oralist Overall, the Best Respondent Brief, as well as the entire competition.
“At Stetson, we focus on preparing and developing the whole advocate, and our students were remarkably prepared, thanks to the assistance of numerous attorneys and alumni who came to judge the teams’ practices,” said Stetson’s moot court adviser and professor Brooke Bowman. “The judges recognized that the Stetson students were the best advocates—in writing and orally—at this competition. These judges also commented on the students’ impressive level of professionalism.”
Stetson professors Bowman and Roberta Flowers coached the Stetson teams.
(Front row, L-R): Stetson students Morgan Vasigh, Kevin Crews, Erin Okuno, Michelle Reilly, Adriana Corso and Erin Dolan. (Back row, L-R): Executive Director of the National Art Museum of Sport at Indiana University Elizabeth Varner, Indiana Supreme Court Justice Steven H. David, Presiding Judge of the Court of Appeals of Indiana Fourth District Patricia A. Riley, retired Indiana Supreme Court Justice Frank Sullivan Jr., Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law alumnus and public defender Sean Row.
Stetson University College of Law hosted its first Law and Rhetoric Colloquium on March 9-10 in Gulfport. Professor Kirsten Davis, Ph.D., the director of Legal Research and Writing at Stetson, spearheaded the colloquium, which included a dozen professors of law, communication arts, and the humanities.
Scholars gathered at Stetson for the first Law and Rhetoric Colloquium.
Davis said that the goal of the colloquium was to build a community of scholars on the topic.
The colloquium brought together professors from across disciplines to discuss the relationship between law and rhetoric and the value of introducing rhetoric into the legal writing curriculum.
“Rhetorical theory influences how you read and write and speak the law,” Davis said.
Davis explained that the goal of legal writing is to persuade, and understanding rhetoric can help lawyers become better readers and writers and ultimately more persuasive communicators.
“Lawyers need to be masters of language,” she said.
In addition to courses on legal research and writing, Davis teaches a seminar on legal discourse and rhetorical theory at Stetson.
She is the author of several law review articles on the subject. Her article, “Building Credibility in the Margins: An Ethos-Based Perspective on Commenting on Student Papers,” was published in the first volume of the Legal Writing Institute’s online monograph of “important articles” on student feedback.
She said that she hopes the colloquium will expand, start a listserv and begin a law and rhetoric blog.
Photo caption: Front Row, L to R: Kristen Tiscione, Professor of Legal Research and Writing, Georgetown University School of Law; Colin Starger, Assistant Professor of Law, University of Baltimore School of Law; Dr. J. Clarke Rountree, Chair and Professor of Communication Arts, University of Alabama, Huntsville; Dr. Jeff Todd, Assistant Professor of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law (Co-organizer); Dr. Jennifer Andrus, Assistant Professor, University of Utah, College of Humanities; Dr. Kirsten K. Davis, Professor of Law, Director of Legal Research and Writing, Stetson University College of Law (Co-organizer). Back Row, L to R: Dr. Katie Rose Guest Pryal, Clinical Assistant Professor of Law, University of North Carolina School of Law; Julie Oseid, Associate Professor of Law, University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis School of Law; Francis J. Mootz, Dean and Professor of Law, University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law; Nick Scuillo, Graduate Assistant, Georgia State University Department of Communication; Dr. Greg Pingree, Professor of Law, Florida Coastal School of Law; Jack Sammons, Professor of Law, Walter F. George School of Law, Mercer University.
The students will prepare and present an environmental case before a mock international court. The case concerns the burning of peatlands, which lead to species extinction and transboundary haze.
Teams of students participated in regional rounds in Africa, Australia, East Asia, India, Ireland, Latin America and North America for the chance to compete in the international finals at Stetson. The competition gives students around the world an opportunity to hone their skills as environmental advocates.
Live Webcast of IEMCC Final Round
A live webcast of the IEMCC Final Round will be streamed on Saturday, March 23, starting at approximately 2:00 p.m. EST.
