Stetson University College of Law professor, graduates, have been appointed to lead efforts to protect wetlands in Florida and around the world.
Professor Royal Gardner and recent graduate Marcela Bonells have recently been appointed to leadership positions on the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel (STRP).
Stetson professor Royal Gardner (second row, fourth from the left) and recent graduate Marcela Bonells (second row, fifth from the left) are both working with the Ramsar Convention’s STRP, shown here meeting with the STRP group in Switzerland.
Bonells, a May 2012 Stetson Law graduate, started work this month for the Ramsar Secretariat in Switzerland as the STRP Technical Officer. A former Biodiversity Fellow at Stetson, she completed an externship at the Ramsar Secretariat in Switzerland in summer 2011 and presented a paper at a Ramsar Pan-American Meeting in Jamaica in December 2011.
Alumna Anna Holt Upton was appointed to serve as outside general counsel for the Everglades Foundation, which is dedicated to protecting and restoring America’s Everglades, in 2011. She is a 2006 graduate of Stetson Law. Upton also represents the Florida Audubon Society in water quality litigation throughout the state.
Stetson University College of Law, home to the top-ranked advocacy program in the country, will launch the online Stetson Journal of Advocacy and the Law in May. This is believed to be the first law review designed to be read entirely online.
Students Jamie Combee and Erik Johanson are the founding editors of the journal, which will include a range of articles related to trial work and practical advocacy skills. Both students are members of Stetson’s award-winning Moot Court Board.
The students explained that the journal will have shorter format articles than can be easily viewed on mobile devices. Members of the judiciary, legal practitioners, as well as academics and law students, are invited to submit short articles on the subject of practicing advocacy.
“Articles do not need to conform to one topic or case,” Combee said.
Fellow student Johanson said, “Articles can focus on any practice area that involves advocating for clients.”
Professors Kate Bohl and Timothy Kaye are the journal’s faculty advisers. Bohl said she hopes the journal will appeal to a broad audience.
Professor Kaye personally designed the journal’s website to meet the increasing needs of burgeoning mobile technology. Last year, Kaye and six of his students authored a critically acclaimed book on jurisprudence.
Seven Stetson Law students in Professor Carol Henderson’s Scientific Evidence Workshop had an opportunity to learn firsthand what it’s like to work a crime scene investigation on Feb. 12.
Students in Professor Henderson’s Scientific Evidence Workshop conducted their own investigation of a mock crime scene on campus.
Pinellas County crime scene investigators walked the students through the process of collecting evidence at a mock crime scene on the Gulfport campus. The law students learned how evidence presented in the courtroom is collected during investigations.
“I thought it was a great experience,” said student Charles Strauss. “The hands-on experience of seeing the investigation procedures and techniques was an invaluable asset that can be used in legal practice. The class overall, but especially the crime-scene day, has fueled an interest in the forensic sciences that I will carry beyond just law school.”
Shivani Alamo, a student at Stetson University College of Law, has won the prestigious Lewis Hine Award for her volunteer work with children.
(L-R): Lewis Hine Awards chair Vincent Mai, Shivani Alamo, the 2013 Ronald H. Brown Award winner Alberto Carvalho, and the National Child Labor Committee President Jeff Newman at the award ceremony in New York. Photo courtesy Lisa Berg.
Alamo received the New Generation Award, a special Lewis Hine Award for Service to Children and Youth, named for the National Child Labor Committee photographer who documented early 20th century exploitation of children to facilitate child labor reform.
Traveling to New York to accept the award was a homecoming for Alamo, who grew up in the city and attended high school at the Community School for Social Justice. There, Alamo explained, she simply took much of New York’s social inclusiveness for granted. It was not until Alamo came to Florida as a college student more than five years ago, that she said she noticed a palpable need for social justice advocacy in her new community, especially among young people. It was then that she began to focus on mentoring and improving the lives of teenagers.
Alamo began working with Community Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg, Fla., where she assisted the ANYTOWN program, a five-day residential program for young people that encourages youth leadership and diversity education. Stetson Law students Bianca Guerrier and Johnny Ramirez have also volunteered with ANYTOWN as counselors.
“We teach students to be inclusive rather than tolerant,” Alamo said.
By creating social situations where students experience what it’s like to be discriminated against, and encouraging dialogue about the experience, students learn why it’s important to advocate against discrimination, Alamo explained.
“We take young people through an afternoon of experiencing limited sight, hearing and dexterity to show them what it’s like to be disabled,” Alamo said. “This provides students with an experience that hopefully leads to empathy.”
Before coming to Stetson Law, and shortly after graduating with an undergraduate degree in international relations and economics, Alamo dedicated a year to serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with Community Tampa Bay. She spearheaded a new program called Facilitating the Leadership of Youth, or FLY, co-sponsored by the Rays Baseball Foundation. Young people engaged in FLY meet weekly to plan youth summits in the community that tackle social diseases like sexism, racism and stereotyping.
Getting young people talking to each other has had some positive results, Alamo said.
“We now have young people growing up in the social media age where conversations take place online,” Alamo said. “Getting them talking face-to-face with each other takes them outside of their comfort zones. They learn how to be facilitators for these difficult conversations in the community.”
Currently a full-time law student at Stetson, Alamo continues to attend weekly FLY meetings and to volunteer as a counselor with the ANYTOWN program, in addition to working as a guardian ad litem and mentor for Big Brothers Big Sisters. On Stetson’s Gulfport campus, Alamo recently helped facilitate a workshop during a diversity retreat for law students to explore how the idea of privilege influences social identity.
“All systemic social justice issues can be changed with quality education,” said Alamo, who plans to work in education law and reform after graduating from Stetson.
At the young age of 25 and in just the past five years, Alamo has impacted more than 1,000 young people.
“Quality education and cross-cultural interactions can reverse prejudices that we are all conditioned to have,” Alamo said. “Youth can change things.”
Stetson University College of Law’s Black Law Students Association was recently named Chapter of the Year for the Southern Region for outstanding community activism. The Stetson student group was selected from a pool of 43 law school chapters in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.
The students were honored during the Southern Regional BLSA Convention in Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 30-Feb. 3.
BLSA students at Stetson regularly participate in community events to advance social justice, including mentoring Boca Ciega High School students through the BLSA Drive to Strive Program and volunteering to assist people seeking petitions to restore their voting rights. The students participate in St. Petersburg’s Community Law Fest and play an integral role in educating community members about accessible legal resources.
“BLSA pays it forward through ongoing neighborhood assistance programs,” said Stetson Law Professor Darryl C. Wilson, BLSA faculty adviser. “The group provides a comfortable atmosphere and leadership opportunities for students. This victory acknowledges the Stetson chapter of BLSA as a model for other institutions seeking the optimal blend of legal and social interaction between their students and the citizens where those schools are located.”
In March of this year, Stetson’s BLSA chapter will represent the southern region in the Chapter of the Year Large Division Competition during the National Black Law Students Association Convention in Atlanta, Ga.
“The National Black Law Students Association, as a whole, strives to instill in the Black attorney and law student a greater awareness and commitment to the needs of the Black community,” said Stetson’s student BLSA president, Lakeisha Simms. “Being recognized for our efforts in reaching the NBLSA’s goals is an honor that I hope will motivate our future Stetson BLSA chapters to achieve more.”
In addition to Simms, the Stetson BLSA student executive board includes students Charis Campbell, Cindy Cumberbatch, Keyara Franklin, Brannon R. Gary, Angelica Jones and Valeria Obi.
The National Black Law Students Association is the nation’s largest student-run organization, representing nearly 6,000 minority law students from more than 200 chapters and affiliates throughout the U.S. and six other countries.
Stetson students won the New York City Bar’s 63rd Annual National Moot Court Competition. (L-R: Julia McGrath, Andrew Harris and Victoria San Pedro).
This competition is one of the most prestigious in the nation. Teams from more than 150 law schools competed in 15 regional rounds across the country in November, and the top two teams from each regional advanced to the national finals in New York City. This was the second year in a row that a team from Stetson advanced to the national finals.
The Stetson students argued in the final round before federal, state and county judges, and leaders of the American College of Trial Lawyers and New York City Bar Association.
“This was a great opportunity for our students to showcase their skills as advocates before professionals in the national legal community,” said Professor Brooke Bowman, moot court advisor. “Winning this prestigious competition means Stetson students are recognized among the best advocates in the nation.”
Stetson Associate Dean Michael Allen and Professor Louis Virelli coached the team.
Stetson student advocates have earned four world/international titles and won 60 national championships, 59 regional championships and received 40 state titles and 38 best brief awards.
Stetson University College of Law students Chad Burgess, Erin Okuno and Morgan Vasigh won the Best Brief Award at the prestigious Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship on Jan. 26 in Houston, Texas.
(L-R): Erin Okuno, Chad Burgess and Morgan Vasigh won the Best Brief Award at the prestigious Andrews Kurth Moot Court National Championship.
The invitation-only law school competition, hosted by the University of Houston Law Center Blakely Advocacy Institute, drew students from 16 law schools around the country. The invitation is based on the schools’ Blakely Advocacy Institute ranking for the previous school year.
“Stetson students acquire a strong research and writing foundation that is recognized in national advocacy competitions,” said professor and moot court advisor Brooke Bowman. “Courts today are hearing fewer oral arguments and judges are making more determinations based solely on attorneys’ written product. Learning to clearly convey the law and the facts of a case in writing is imperative in the practice of law.”
Burgess and Okuno advanced to the final round of the competition and presented before judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court.
Professor Bowman co-coached the Stetson team along with alumnus Larry Miccolis.
Two squads on Stetson Law’s Trial Team, coached by Professor Lee Coppock, met in the finals of the Florida Bar Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition. Photos by Michael Cairns.
Stetson’s Trial Team won first place at the Florida Bar Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition. (L-R): Claudette Goyanes, Adriane Ovcharenko, Diego Novaes and Brandon Blake.
Stetson University College of Law students won the Florida Bar Chester Bedell Mock Trial Competition on Jan. 18 in Orlando, Fla. Stetson has won the competition 20 out of 30 times, including last year. A total of 22 teams from 11 Florida law schools competed.
Two teams of four Stetson Law students advanced to compete against each other in the final round of the competition.
The Stetson team of Brandon Blake, Claudette Goyanes, Diego Novaes and Adriane Ovcharenko won the competition, and Stetson student William Gower III was named Best Advocate.
The Stetson team of Gower, Erica Emas, Erica Farawell and Austin Miniard placed second in the competition.
Florida Supreme Court Justice R. Fred Lewis presided over the final round.
William Gower III (L) was named Best Advocate. Shown here with Sarasota attorney Charles J. Bartlett.
Professor Lee Coppock coached the Stetson teams along with alumnus Matt Easterwood and Judge David A. Demers.
Venable partner Peggy Strand, an expert in federal wetlands and environmental law, talked with Stetson Law students about challenges to protecting biodiversity through the law at the Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture on Jan. 17.
Peggy Strand spoke at Stetson Law on Jan. 17.
Strand explained that one challenge to protecting biodiversity through the law is the lack of consensus among lawmakers on environmental issues.
“If you can’t get consensus on climate change with a polar bear as a poster child, you are not going to get consensus on biodiversity with plankton as the poster child,” Strand explained.
Strand said that there have been several success stories for endangered species through legal protections. However, endangered species are not healthy species, and protecting biodiversity requires maintaining healthy organisms. She said that a better legal system for biodiversity would include a more balanced legal approach.
“I am very hopeful for the future,” Strand said to the crowd of law students listening to her talk. “These are the kinds of issues that you are going to deal with in your practice.”
Stetson’s Edward and Bonnie Foreman Biodiversity Lecture Series brings leading experts to campus for public lectures on a range of environmental topics directly impacting the state. Stetson’s Institute for Biodiversity Law and Policy co-sponsored the lecture.
Two Stetson University College of Law students and their environmental law professor worked with the National Wildlife Federation to prepare an amicus brief in a wetlands case being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in January. » Read the amicus brief
(L-R): Professor Royal Gardner, Bill Mitch, Jan Goldman-Carter and student Marc Shumaker traveled to the Supreme Court on Jan. 15 to hear oral arguments in an important wetlands case.
Stetson second-year student Marc Shumaker and third-year law student Erin Okuno helped prepare the brief with Stetson law professor Royal Gardner and NWF attorney Jan Goldman-Carter. Shumaker and Gardner observed oral arguments at the high court on Jan. 15.
The case could impact wetlands across the country.
“Assisting with the amicus brief was an exciting and unique experience,” said Okuno. “It was incredible to work on a brief that was actually sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.”
The St. Johns River Water Management District is responsible for preserving and managing Florida’s vital water resources in all or part of 18 counties throughout the northeast and east–central part of the state.
The amicus brief, filed by Gardner and Goldman-Carter on behalf of 12 distinguished wetland scientists, academics and professionals, is a science-based brief. It describes the critical ecosystem services that wetlands provide to people, businesses and communities; the importance of “no net loss” of wetland functions; and the need for accountability in the loss and gain of wetland functions.
“There is no excuse to continue to allow wetland losses, now that we know how effective wetlands are in providing clean water and other essential services,” said Joy B. Zedler, past chair of the National Research Council Committee on Mitigating Wetland Losses Committee, and one of the amicus parties.
Stetson University College of Law student Jeffrey Harvey, who helped establish a scholarship to help veterans pay for law school, has received a prestigious Douglas B. Henderson Leadership Scholarship from the Federal Circuit Bar Association.
Jeffrey Harvey, third from the right, received his Douglas B. Henderson Leadership Scholarship at the Federal Circuit Bar Association ceremony in Washington, D.C.
Only one scholarship is awarded each year, in honor of Douglas B. Henderson, founding president of the Federal Circuit Bar Association. Harvey was awarded $10,000 and a membership in the Federal Circuit Bar Association in recognition of his outstanding leadership skills and academic excellence. He accepted the scholarship in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16.
Harvey, who spearheaded the Frederick B. Karl Scholarship for veterans, founded the Student Veterans Organization at Stetson Law. As a student, Harvey provided pro bono services to members of the military and veterans. He is a member of the Student Leadership Development Committee, a Yellow Ribbon Scholarship and Diversity Scholarship recipient at Stetson.
Currently stationed with the Florida Army National Guard in Pinellas Park, Fla., Harvey is a graduate of the Army Ranger School and a four-time combat veteran who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and spent 10 years on active duty with the U.S. Army. While in Iraq, Harvey collaborated with the Vanderbilt School of Business to stimulate small business growth in Iraq and managed hundreds of Iraqi reconstruction projects. He has been awarded the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and a Valorous Unit Award. Between deployments, Harvey earned a master’s degree in human development and leadership from Murray State University.
Harvey will complete his J.D. at Stetson Law this December.
He and his wife Katie had their first child, Henry, on June 14.
A panel of experts presented information about judicial clerkships.
Stetson Law recently hosted a panel of experts discussing the benefits of judicial clerkships.
The noontime program for students drew a crowd on Nov. 15 in the Great Hall.
Professor Catherine Cameron moderated the panel, which included Professor Jason Bent and alumni attorneys Melissa Madsen ’08, Jennifer McPheeters ’09, Daniel Smith ’08 and Katherine Wachter ’10, who talked about their own formative experiences with clerkships.
