The 2012 U.S. News & World Report has again ranked Stetson University College of Law the top law school in the nation for trial advocacy and number three for legal writing.
Since the U.S. News rankings began in 1995, Stetson Law has ranked first in advocacy 14 times. Stetson has also consistently ranked among the top programs in the nation for legal writing.
“To represent clients effectively, attorneys need to communicate well both orally and in writing,” said law dean Darby Dickerson. “For this reason, I’m proud that Stetson has again been recognized as a leader in these two critical areas.”
“Stetson creates lawyers with superior advocacy skills grounded in a deep understanding of the law,” said Charles H. Rose III, Professor of Excellence in Trial Advocacy at Stetson Law. “This commitment to advocacy excellence is seen in all of our graduates. They are competent, compassionate, and professional members of the bar.” Rose directs Stetson’s Center for Excellence in Advocacy.
“Our legal writing faculty has dedicated itself to developing the legal writing discipline and teaching our students to be excellent legal communicators,” said Professor Kirsten Davis, Director of Legal Research and Writing at Stetson. “I’m thrilled that Stetson’s commitment to legal writing, teaching and scholarship has earned this recognition.”
Stetson requires first-year students to complete seven credits of legal research and writing coursework in the first year. Ten tenured and tenure-track faculty members teach legal research and writing.
Seniors are vulnerable to bankruptcy, and a recent Stetson University College of Law study finds more senior bankruptcies are caused by everyday financial decisions, not a single event.
“While prior studies of the general bankruptcy population have found that bankruptcies are often caused by one significant or traumatic financial event in the debtor’s life, the elderly seem to be living in a more fragile economic state every day,” said Radwan, an expert in bankruptcy law.
At a time when legislators are debating the issues of healthcare, credit card debt and unemployment, the new study by professors Radwan and Morgan examines the reasons why people fall into debt or choose the “last resort” of bankruptcy.
The study identified the following financial threats to the nation’s elderly among those surveyed:
General credit card debt used to pay for basic necessities far outweighed medical debt.
Bankruptcies were caused by a combination of low income and the high expenses of everyday living rather than by a single financially catastrophic event.
Social Security and Medicare failed to prevent the financial downfall of debtors.
The people surveyed for the Stetson study filed for bankruptcy between 2006-2008, with 102 Florida debtors responding. Of those who returned surveys, 96.9% were elderly or nearly elderly at the time. Sixteen attorneys representing debtors also returned surveys about bankruptcy among the elderly.
“As other studies have suggested for the elderly in general, Social Security and Medicare have critical roles in the financial life of the elderly,” Radwan said. “Almost every debtor in our study had both and, while many also had other sources of income and medical insurance, these other sources were insignificant and could not prevent the financial downfall of the debtors.”
Stetson University College of Law is home to the nation’s first elder-friendly courtroom, spearheaded to be a model for accessibility. Stetson’s Elder Consumer Protection Program provides information to seniors about how to better protect themselves from becoming the victims of financial scams, through public workshops and materials.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Stetson University College of Law and Continuing Education Inc. are co-sponsoring a “Law School for Physicians” at the Tampa Law Center, 1700 N. Tampa St., on March 22.
The four-hour continuing education course in criminal law, “Law School for Physicians: What to Do When the DEA Comes Knocking: Prescribing Pain Medicines Without Fear of Prosecution,” is designed to introduce physicians and healthcare practitioners to a legal issue that has a direct impact on the practice of medicine. The program is supported by an educational grant from ELab Solutions.
The faculty includes:
Brian Albritton, former U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Florida and partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP;
Joseph Bodiford, former assistant state attorney and partner at Bodiford Law PA;
Cynthia A. Mikos, Board Certified Health Law attorney at Allen Dell PA.
Course attendees will learn how to identify and implement legal strategies to promote excellence in patient care. Registration begins at 4 p.m. and closing remarks are at 9 p.m.
To register online, visit Conferences and Events at Stetson Law. For more information, please call Robin Hoyle, Executive Director of the Tampa Law Center, at 813-228-6625 x 7306.
CLE and CME credits are available. For questions about CLE credits, please contact Irena Milasinovic in the Conferences and Events Office at Stetson at 727-562-7312 or [email protected].
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Team (L-R): Chris Hamilton, Erika Wilson, Brooke Geiger and Julian Catala. Click for high-resolution image.
The team of Julian Catala, Brooke Geiger, Erika Wilson and Chris Hamilton will advance to the national finals on March 31 in Las Vegas, Nev.
“Stetson has a long history of winning mock trial competitions. We are pleased to be a part of continuing that rich tradition,” said Professor Lee Coppock, who coached the winning team.
Sixteen squads of students from 10 law schools competed at the regionals for a chance to compete in the national mock trial competition, which helps law students to develop and apply their trial advocacy skills before distinguished members of the bar and bench.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Women around the world suffer from chronic poverty, illiteracy, political discrimination, religious oppression, gender violence, human trafficking, and they continue to be among the most marginalized members in societies. They are also among some of the most celebrated members of society: from award-winning scientists to distinguished jurists, academics, filmmakers and mothers.
International Women's Day panelists talk at Stetson Law on March 7. Click for high-resolution image.
On March 7, Stetson Law students attended a special program marking the 100-year anniversary of International Women’s Day. The International Law Society sponsored the program. Second-year law student Silvia Manzanero, president of Stetson’s International Law Society, convened a panel of highly accomplished women from diverse professional backgrounds. Professor Luz Nagle, an international human rights advocate, moderated the panel discussion about how women can make a difference in the United States and around the world.
“It is important to celebrate the strength, courage, and determination of many women who through great effort have bettered the world,” Nagle said. Professor Nagle, a former judge who fled her home in Colombia in the 1980s to escape death threats from the drug cartel, talked about the importance of men and women working together as mentors. “We need education,” Nagle told the audience. “Education is empowerment.”
Students gather in the Great Hall March 7 to hear inspiring stories about the struggle against oppression. Click for high-resolution image.
The distinguished panel of speakers included journalist and documentary filmmaker Chelo Alvarez-Stehle joining the program via Skype; University of South Florida professor Meena Chary; USF Dean of International Affairs Maria Crummet; retired U.S. Army JAG attorney Robin Johnson; and Tampa Bay immigration/international law attorney Neelofer Syed.
Syed described representing women in Pakistan who had been abused, beaten and disfigured by their husbands or boyfriends. She talked about winning a case to help women in Pakistan get married without parental permission. She described how girls schools today are being bombed in Pakistan, threatening their lives and robbing them of their rights to an education.
“My actual involvement in women’s issues began after graduation from law school,” said Syed, who began practicing law in Pakistan before coming to the U.S. in 2001. “I wanted to pick a profession where I can fight,” said Syed, who went back to law school in the United States and graduated with her LL.M. in international law from Stetson in 2005.
Crummet urged the audience not to characterize women as victims, or to view the plight of oppression as simply a women’s issue. To do so, she said, would marginalize the reality of oppression as a broader social human rights issue impacting people all over the world.
International Women’s Day has been celebrated on March 8 since the early 1900s, when women campaigned against discrimination for the right to work, vote, be trained and hold public office.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Stetson University College of Law’s Jessup Moot Court team won the First Place Memorial Award at regionals of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition Feb. 24-27.
(L-R): Stetson's Jessup team Andrew Celauro, Amelia Hummel, Scott Stevenson and Caitlin Parry. Click for high-resolution image.
The student team of Andrew Celauro, Amelia Hummel, Caitlin Parry and Scott Stevenson wrote two award-winning memorials at the U.S. Pacific Super Regional in Portland, Ore. The Jessup, now in its 52nd year, is the largest moot court competition in the world, with participants from over 500 law schools competing in the regional rounds.
“We are extremely proud of our students’ skills as the top legal writers in this competition,” said Moot Court Advisor Professor Brooke Bowman. “The students wrote not one, but two winning memorials in this prestigious competition.”
Professor Jason Palmer and attorney Logan Murphy coached the team.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Approximately 80 students heard firsthand about making civil rights history from Freedom Riders David and Winonah Myers as part of a noontime lecture sponsored by the Black Law Students Association at Stetson on Friday, Feb. 25, in Gulfport.
Freedom Riders David and Winonah Myers talk with Stetson Law Professor Robert Bickel and students in the Great Hall. Click for high-resolution image.
Among the law students was an 11-year-old named Alex who interviewed the Myers for a school essay that received national accolades. The Myers live in Tampa Bay and are the subject of a 2006 feature article by St. Petersburg Times writer Jeff Klinkenberg. According to the newspaper article, Winonah served the longest jail sentence of any Freedom Rider arrested for taking a stand against segregation.
After being arrested for participating in the Freedom Rides, Winonah refused to bail out of jail. She said, “It occurred to me that if this were to mean anything, then there should have been a little footnote in history that said that this is what we did to them for sitting next to us on the bus.”
(L-R): Professor Robert Bickel, Freedom Riders Winonah and David Myers. Click for high-resolution image.
The Supreme Court called for an end to segregation in interstate travel, making legal history when Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy used the ruling to end Jim Crow travel. Winonah said people sitting next to people with different colored skin were burned and killed while riding buses in the turbulent 1960s.
Decades before the era of texting and Facebook and other social media, Winonah Myers said that the word went out among young people across the nation, creating a network of protest against civil rights abuses. She described being a teenager and telling her mother she wanted to risk her life to join the Freedom Rides in the 1960s.
“If we’re not gatekeepers of the law, it operates the wrong way,” moderator Professor Robert Bickel told the students gathered to hear the Myers talk.
Bickel co-teaches a summer travel course on constitutional law and civil rights with USF history professor Ray Arsenault that includes guest lectures by original Freedom Riders. Students in the course travel to Nashville, Memphis, Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, visiting with the original Freedom Riders who made civil rights history.
David Myers described his experiences as a young college student in the 1960s in Ohio, discovering that he could go to restaurants any time and any place he wanted because of the color of his skin, but that other people, including university presidents, could not. When the Freedom Rides began in 1961, David said that he felt compelled to join them. David joined the Freedom Rides in Montgomery, where he met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was arrested when the bus he was riding reached Jackson, and he, Winonah and other Freedom Riders attempted to desegregate an interstate bus terminal under the authority of the Supreme Court’s decision in Boynton v. Virginia.
“Don’t leave your heart behind,” David urged the young law students attending the talk. “Let your heart be your guide in what is right and what is wrong.”
Professor Bickel urged the students in attendance to make a difference through civil responsibility and social justice. He reminded them that 500 young Freedom Riders changed the world.
On June 3, Bickel will take a new group of students enrolled in his course on a ride through civil right history, traveling in part by bus. They will have an opportunity to gain a better understanding of the relevance of legal history and to learn firsthand about how people can have a profound impact on upholding the law.
“Storytelling by the original movement veterans, who are there with us, lifts history off pages and makes it personal for students,” said Bickel.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Video interview with Professor Jules Coleman. (2min:13sec)
On Feb. 24, Professor Jules Coleman from Yale Law School presented Stetson University College of Law’s Culverhouse Chair Lecture and spoke to students about perceptions in understanding the law. Coleman said that he tried to illuminate the perspectives of examining law. He also told students that as lawyers they have great responsibilities because they will be members of one of the most powerful institutions in the world.
Professor Coleman is the Culverhouse Chair, a visiting faculty member at Stetson Law and the Wesley Newcomb Hohfeld Professor of Jurisprudence and Professor of Philosophy at Yale Law School.
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist will be a Distinguished Professorial Lecturer at Stetson University College of Law, starting this semester.
Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist. Click image for high-resolution version.
“It’s always exciting and stimulating to have the opportunity to interact with young people in our state, particularly the caliber of students at Stetson University College of Law,” Crist said. “It’s an honor and a privilege to be invited to do so and I’m very humbled by the invitation.”
Crist will serve as a guest lecturer in various classes, interact with students, and deliver presentations on the Stetson Law campus and at law school events. Crist plans to present Stetson Law’s Nichols Foundation Prominent Speakers Lecture Series in the spring. Established in 1995, the Nichols Series enriches academic life at Stetson by presenting prominent speakers from business, government and the law.
“Stetson University believes in public service and practical learning, and we are thrilled that Governor Crist will be sharing his unique insights into Florida law and policy with our students,” said President Wendy Libby. Crist, who recently joined the Morgan & Morgan law firm, said he is motivated to share his experiences in public service and what it means to serve the people of Florida to try to make their lives better. He said he plans to focus his teaching at Stetson on government and the law.
“It’s all about giving back and trying to help others and improving your community,” Crist said. “Graduates go on and do great work, pro bono and otherwise, throughout the state of Florida and the country from Stetson, the oldest law school in the state.”
“As former governor, attorney general, education commissioner and state senator, Charlie Crist has a wealth of personal knowledge to share with our students,” said Vice President and Dean Darby Dickerson. “Our students will have an extraordinary opportunity to learn about the inner workings of government and the law from a tenured public servant.”
The governor of Florida from January 2007 to January 2011, Crist’s tenure in public service includes serving as Florida State Senator, Education Commissioner and Attorney General. Crist moved to St. Petersburg, Fla., with his family as a child and attended the local school system through high school. He received his undergraduate degree from Florida State University and his law degree from the Cumberland School of Law.
His father, St. Petersburg-based physician Dr. Charles J. Crist, served on the College of Law Board of Overseers from 1979 through 1997.
Stetson University College of Law is accepting nominations for its prestigious 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.
New members are inducted into Stetson Law’s Hall of Fame each year in the fall. The 2010 inductees were Kay Eddy, the Firestone Family, philanthropists Edward and Bonnie Foreman, Professor Ruthann Robson ’79, Seminole Tribe of Florida general counsel Jim Shore BA ’76 and JD ’80, top-ranked Tampa attorney Gary Trombley ’73, and Judge Dan Warren ’52.
For biographies and videos about past winners, please see the Hall of Fame website.
To submit a nomination, please use the 2011 Hall of Fame Nomination Form (PDF) and send by April 29 to Leslie Weaver 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]. See Nominations for more information.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
Stetson University College of Law has named Ellen S. Podgor the inaugural Gary R. Trombley Family White-Collar Crime Research Professor.
Professor Ellen S. Podgor. Click for high-resolution image.
A former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney, Professor Podgor has written more than 50 articles and co-authored many books, including White Collar Crime in a Nutshell, Understanding International Criminal Law andMastering Criminal Law. She is also editor of the White Collar Crime Prof Blog, which boasts a readership of two million and counting.
Podgor is a member of the American Law Institute and serves on the board of directors of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law. She also serves on the board of trustees of the Southeastern Association of Law Schools. Podgor is a former member of the board of directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and past chair of the Criminal Justice Section of the Association of American Law Schools. She is an honorary member of the American Board of Criminal Lawyers.
Podgor has served as Stetson’s Culverhouse Chair, LeRoy Highbaugh Sr. Research Chair, and inaugural Associate Dean of Faculty Development and Electronic Education. Before joining Stetson’s faculty in 2005, she was a tenured professor at Georgia State.
In September 2010, Podgor testified before Congress on the issue of overcriminalization. Also in 2010, Podgor received the Robert C. Heeney Award, the highest honor given by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.
Stetson Law alumnus Gary R. Trombley ’73, who established the professorship, is an award-winning white-collar defense and criminal defense attorney at Trombley & Hanes P.A. in Tampa, a member of the College of Law’s Board of Overseers, and inductee in Stetson Law’s Hall of Fame. Trombley received the Attorney General’s “Outstanding Performance in Trial Practice Award” while serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Middle District of Florida. He has served as a member The Florida Bar’s Board of Governors.
Contact Brandi Palmer
Manager of Media Relations
727-562-7381 [email protected]
