Harris was promoted to vice president of environmental compliance for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., where she oversees environmental compliance throughout all Wal-Mart’s more than 4,000 facilities and stores nationally.

“I view my job as ensuring that we comply with all environmental laws as well as to help develop our environmental sustainability programs,” said Harris.

Harris began her career at the Fortune 500 company in January 2006 as a senior divisional director for asset protection for the Southeast Division.

Previously, she worked at the Environmental Protection Agency for 19 years where, as deputy assistant administrator for the Officeof Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, she was the senior career official responsible for managing the agency’s largest staff andhelping set and execute national environmental enforcement policy.

After devoting her entire legal career to environmental law within the public sector, Harris said this is the job she’s been waitingfor. “This is a dream job because I can really contribute to the company’s environmental compliance and make the world’s greatestcompany even better,” she said. — Natalie Caula

“That was what was happening in Birmingham, it was sort of the center of the world,” said Tanner, who is now chief of the Voting Rights Section of the United States Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, in a Nov. 9 speech in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, sponsored by the American Constitution Society. “Civil rights in Birmingham, Alabama in the 1960s was everything. That’s what everyone talked about all the time. You were pretty much on one side or the other. And I was on the other.”

Tanner, who is white, said he became involved in the civil rights movement “as a result of how I was brought up and a certain recklessness in my character.”

Tanner worked on voter registration drives with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organization founded in 1957 and later headed by one of its founders, Martin Luther King, Jr. His decision to become involved had a “somewhat socially isolating effect,” Tanner said. He recalled getting beaten up in fights, but said the adversity did little to deter him. The experience was a lot of fun, he said, and very rewarding.

“I would go into projects and knock on doors and take people to the federal registrars,” explained Tanner, who met King during this time. “Then I would hang around the SCLC headquarters and get in everyone’s way, lick envelopes and just sort of hang out, be there.”

It was during the 1960s that Tanner formed “the vision of what a just world would be.” Working for the Department of Justice for the last 30 years, he feels he has been able to achieve that vision. The department’s voting rights section enforces the Voting Rights Act of 1965, considered the most successful civil rights legislation in the nation’s history.

Tanner began working the department’s Voting Section in 1976 as a research analyst, attending law school at night at American University in Washington, D.C.

Upon graduation, he was hired under the Attorney General’s Program for Honor Law Graduates and had principal responsibility for federal voting rights enforcement in Alabama and Mississippi. After leaving his job to prosecute criminal violations of civil rights laws, Tanner returned to the voting section in 2002 as special litigation counsel to coordinate enforcement of the minority language provisions of the Voting Rights Act. He was the 2004 winner of the John Doar Award, the Civil Rights Division’s highest honor.

In his lecture, Tanner explained how the Voting Rights Act has broken down barriers and dramatically increased registration among minorities throughout the country over the years.

Still, there is much work to do. This year, the department has brought a record number of lawsuits — in communities that have attempted to return to at-large election systems and eliminate the singlemember districts, and other places where investigations have exposed poll workers who discriminate against various ethnic groups.

On the positive side, Tanner has seen many success stories — from groups of college students whose work has dramatically increased voter registration among minorities to foreign-speaking poll workers who have helped bring people to the polls who have never voted before. The work is very satisfying, he said.

“The difference that it has made in the treatment of people and in how we look at each other — again if you weren’t around in the ’50s and ’60s you will never appreciate it — but it is amazing.”

]]> http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2006/11/voting-rights-chief-shares-stories-of-a-life-spent-on-the-front-lines/feed/ 0 http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2006/11/career-services-debunking-five-popular-myths-about-the-center-for-career-services/ http://www.law.ufl.edu/flalaw/2006/11/career-services-debunking-five-popular-myths-about-the-center-for-career-services/#comments Mon, 20 Nov 2006 00:00:28 +0000 wsmitty@ufl.edu http://www.law.ufl.edu/wpflalaw/?p=4070 Myth Number One

Finding a job won’t be a problem because Career Services will place me.

While this is a popular belief, it is inaccurate. Statistics demonstrate that your first job after graduation will not be your last job. We teach you how to search and find a satisfying position.  Finding a job that is right for you takes a significant amount of time, energy and diligence on the part of each individual law student.

Counselors at CCS can help you. The first step is asking yourself the right questions and developing an understanding of what you are looking for and then focusing on how to get there. “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; if you teach him how to fish you feed him for a lifetime.” — Lau Tsu

Myth Number Two

I can’t go see a CCS Counselor because I don’t know what type of law I want to practice, so how do I know what questions to ask.

This is exactly why you should come in to speak with one of our professional counselors. All of our counselors have graduated from law school. We have all been in your shoes and understand how difficult it can be to have a goal and not know how to de- fine it once you are in law school. We can guide you through the process and help you concentrate on determining which path or paths to pursue.

Myth Number Three

My GPA is 2.79 and CCS only assists people at the top of the class…like OCI and judicial clerkships.

Both OCI and judicial clerkships are high profile programs. It’s easy to get the impression that this is all CCS does. Don’t be fooled. While these are options for some students, the majority of law students will not gain employment through these programs. There are lots  of other options available. Many employers are much more interested in your pro bono, co-cirricular, or summer and part-time legal experiences. All students should build their resume with legal experiences while in law school. Think about pro bono , externships, internships or clincs as options to pursue while you are in law school. 

Myth Number Four

There’s plenty of time. I’ll drop by CCS be- fore I graduate and they’ll get me a job then.

Time is a relative thing. Three years may seem like a long time but it goes by in a flash. While you are in law school you will have many goals. It is in your best interest to build your legal credentials as soon as possible and to continue to expand them as you finish your JD. The experience you obtain while in law school can lead to op- portunities upon graduation and beyond. One legal experience tends to lead to the next either directly or indirectly. It is very challenging for students to begin to build momentum in their fifth and sixth semesters. The earlier one begins the better.

Myth Number Five

CCS keeps talking about networking this and networking that…why do I need to network to land a post-grad position?

Networking has become a tricky concept for some law students. It is, however, the backbone of obtaining legal positions. Many of the positions available in the legal market will never show up in a publication or on a job bank. They are generally offeredby word of mouth. This means that there are times in the legal field when it truly is who you know or being in the right place at the right time. Students who make the most of their contacts and then network off those contacts will be leaps and bounds ahead of a recent graduate who has no legal experience or is an unknown in the legal community. If you want to learn more about informational interviews or networking, call for an appointment with a CCS counselor.

The Center for Career Services is a resource available to all students after their first few months in law school. Like any resource, it serves you only as much as you utilize it. Our mission is to teach, guide and facilitate your self-directed career search. This process includes not only serving as a resource, but also directing you as you explore different options both within and beyond the legal profession. Optimally, students should come in early during their law school career and continue with regular visits to expand and modify their individual approach to obtaining satisfying employment after graduation.

Born and raised in Texas, Brown’s unforgettable journey through the criminal justice system drew a rapt audience that filled room 355 B of Holland Hall with a respectful silence on Nov.  8.

In her lecture, co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations, the Black Law Students Association and the Criminal Law Association, Brown told the story of how, in 1980, she was accused of being involved in a robbery that led to the murder of a store owner in Dallas. She, however, was at work with her co-workers when the crime happened, as she would have on any other day.

Three days after the murder, Brown was contacted by her mother and informed that the police were looking for her. Shocked, Brown picked up a copy of newspaper and found the story written about a woman identified as Joyce Ann Brown. According to the story, the car that was used for the robbery was rented to a woman named Joyce Ann Brown. That’s when she decided to call the police department and volunteered to come into the police station to set the story straight.

Brown had time cards from work, check stubs, and 13 co-workers as witnesses to what she did at work on May 6, the day of the murder, to prove it was impossible for her to be at the scene of the crime. But all proof of her innocence was denied.

“I believed in our system, you see,” she said. “But when I showed them the evidence, they called me a liar.”

Although the car used in the robbery had actually been rented to a different Joyce Ann Brown, an eyewitness erroneously identified Brown from a photo and she was charged with the crime. Before the trial, police and prosecutors discovered the error but proceeded with the prosecution. Brown was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

“I might have understood if it was a false identification or if the district attorney actually really thought I was guilty of the crime,” she said. “But none of that is the truth.”

Brown continued on, speaking of her sadness for the humiliation her family went through and the tragedies that directly affected her loved ones while she was in Texas’ Mountain View prison, unable to do anything about it.

She was angry and depressed when she first went to prison. She said her none of her alibis could help her because she was an African American woman in America. When she realized that she was going to spend the rest of her life in prison, she asked God for help and began to write to everyone she knew, hoping to find someone who would take up her cause.

After an investigation by Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries and an exposé by CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Brown’s conviction was reversed because police and prosecutors had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence in their possession. All charges were dismissed in 1990.

When she was freed, she said she did not have the time to remain angry at the system that destroyed her life and family. She founded Mothers (Fathers) for the Advancement of Social Systems, Inc., a non-profit foundation that helps people being released from prison readjust to life without bars, providing support for the children and families of adult offenders at high risk for substance abuse, medical or emotional disorders, and poverty. She also wrote a book entitled Justice Denied.

“I just simply want you to be fair in your decision when you have a person’s life in your hands,” she advised the law students in the room, suggesting they think of her story and the many others who have served time in prison for crimes they did not commit.

She said she knew she was a changed person and her experience in prison allowed her to open up an organization to help those who are in need of help.

“My purpose was not to be a part of the problem, but to be a part of the solution,” she said. “I don’t regret anything. God has blessed me.”

Associate Dean for International Studies; Professor; Gerald A. Sohn Scholar; Director of International and Comparative Law
Certificate Program

• His revised two-volume treatise, Securities Counseling for Small and Emerging Companies, has just been published by Thomson/West.

• Appointed the Florida Liaison to the American Bar Association’s Business Law’s Committee on Corporate Laws.

Winston Nagan

Professor; Samuel T. Dell Research Scholar; Director, Institute of Human Rights and Peace Development

• Appointed as an acting judge on the High Court of South Africa, a court of law which, when constituted in 1994, inherited the jurisdiction of the provincial and local divisions of the Supreme Court of South Africa that was formally abolished following the postapartheid settlement.

Barbara Bennett Woodhouse

David H. Levin Chair; Director, Center on Children and Families and Family Law Certificate Program; Co-Director, Institute for Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation (ICARE)

• Co-convened a conference (with Nancy Dowd) called “Bridges to Excellence”, gathering leaders of the major child advocacy centers around the country to discuss multidisciplinary methods.

• Presented at the Askew Institute Conference on “Abuse and Neglect: Building Partnerships to Meet Children’s Needs.”

Danaya C. Wright

Professor

• Inside UF, Nov. 14. Published column in “The Blog” on UF Senate Policy Councils, through which, she wrote, the Senate takes a proactive role in policy changes and guards the acdemic missionof UF. Wright currently serves as Faculty Senate Chair.

In the News

Meredith Fensom

Director, Law & Policy in the Americas Program

• Florida Trend, November. The 2006 Latin America Business Environment Report that she and UF Professor Terry McCoy, director of the Latin American Business Environment Program, published in September was cited in the magazine’s cover story. 

Michael Allan Wolf

Professor, Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law

• Daytona Beach News-Journal,  Nov. 9. Quoted in story on building height limits imposed by voters in two Volusia County cities,Ormond Beach and Edgewater. Wolf called it a classic illustration of why regional planning is needed in Florida. “This is not textbook land-use planning … this is what we call referendum zoning, when people vote to place regulation on newcomers,” he said.

• St. Petersburg Times , Nov. 12. Quoted in an articleon Amendment 8 to the Florida Constitution, which limits government’s ability to seize property for private development and passed overwhelmingly Nov. 7 with 69 percent of the vote. With the passage of the amendment, Florida homeowners now have more protections than almost any other state against eminent domain for private development. “This takes decisions away from the officials closestto the problems that are facing local governments. It’s unnecessary,” Wolf said.

Danaya C. Wright

Professor

• Inside Higher ED, Nov. 9. Quoted in an article on her perspective of UF Pressident Bernie Machen’s Academic Enhancement Program that would charge students every semester and bring in more money without a technical raise in tuition. Wright currently serves as Faculty Senate Chair.

• Miami Herald, Nov. 11. In an article that once again looked at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences financial situation and Machen’s Academic Enhancement Plan, she said the problem had been known for years.

It was a beautiful fall afternoon Friday, Nov. 10, when four law school teams met on the field of battle to establish their dominance in the sport of kings — kickball.

This semiannual battle of the brawn, held at the S.W. Recreation Center fields, slated the “Testatritts” (Professor Lee-ford Tritt’s Estates & Trusts class) against the “Corporate Jets” (Professor Michael Siebecker’s Corporations class, pictured above), and the Tritt All-Stars (alumni from Professor Tritt’s former classes) against the Siebecker All-Stars (alumni from Professor Siebecker’s former classes).

In addition to the large number of students who turned out to play for their respective teams, the bleachers were packed to capacity with fans. All in all, over 100 students turned-out to watchlaw school history in the making.

After an action-packed nine innings of play, Corporate Jets Co-captains Ben Stetler and Alexandra Mora led their classmates to a sound victory over the Testatritts, who were co-captainedby Jorja Williams and Kyle Jacobs. On the other field, however, the Tritt All-Stars’ Co-captains Laura Post and Adam Spunberg rallied there team to victory over the Siebecker All-Stars, co-captained by Dina Finkel and Matt Klotshche.

Although slightly bruised, bloodied and battered, all had great fun and celebrated together afterwards at a local establishment.

— Lee-ford Tritt