The number of employers conducting interviews on the UF Law campus climbed to 157 this year, and an additional 32 employers collected resumes. Last year, 153 employers were on campus, with another 43 collecting resumes. That’s a significant jump from just two years ago when 140 employers interviewed on campus and 22 collected resumes in the Fall 2004 semester.

Fall OCI began Aug. 22, the week before classes began. All interviews were conducted in the library study rooms. The visiting employers included 11 government agencies, three accounting firms, 138 private law firms, and the civilian division of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

The Florida areas recruited for included:

• 45 from Central Florida (Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, Daytona area)

• 16 from Northeast Florida (Jacksonville area)

• Four from West Florida (Tallahassee & Panhandle)

• Seven from Southwest Florida (Ft. Meyers, Naples, Sarasota areas)

• 34 SE Florida (West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami areas)

The out-of-state cities and states included:

• 13 from Atlanta, GA.

• 6 from Washington, D.C.

• States included: Virginia, Alabama, Arizona, Tennessee, Missouri, Louisiana, New York, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts

What did the Employers Have to Say?

• “The students were exceptional.”

• “Quality of students fabulous. Good resumes, good interview skills. Very bright-Well Done!”

• “Students need to be more selective in the interviews they seek. Several had no idea of our practice areas and were not interested once we told them during the interview.”

Is Spring OCI the Same?

No. While the process is the same, a different segment of legal employers tend to interview in spring. Traditionally we host more small and medium-sized law firms, rather than the large firms who visit in the fall. Also, more state government employers interview in the spring.

It is important for all students to carefully review the list of employers and their stated hiring criteria before deciding to opt out of OCI.

When is Spring OCI?

Spring OCI interviews will run from Feb. 27 through March 30, except for the week of Spring Break and the week after.

Phase 1 bids for Spring 2007 OCI are open from Jan. 23 until Jan. 29 at noon. It does not matter whether you bid on the first or last day of bidding as there is no priority system within a particular bid phase. Bidding for employers will end at noon on the closing day and the computer system will not accept late bids. Dates for remaining phases are available both on Symplicityand the CCS website.

What do I need to do?

To be sure you are prepared to “bid” (submit your resume for consideration by a scheduled employer) you must:

• Have a signed 2006 Policy & Procedure Form on file in the CCS

• Upload your resume into Symplicity

• Update your class year (1L, 2L, 3L) and graduation date

• Attend a Symplicity Training in early January

Prater’s presentation, part of the Graduate Tax Program’s speaker series, is on “The Tax Legislative Process.” Prater earned his law degree from Willamette University College of Law and his LL.M. in taxation from UF Law.

Prater initially joined the minority staff of the committee in 1990, and will begin serving under his fourth committee chairman when Congress convenes in January and Sen. Max Baucus (D-Montana) takes over as chairman.

Professors Diane Mazur, David Hudson and Juan Perea put the current debate over immigration in historical context, discussing past amnesty acts and the military’s role in the situation.

The event, which was sponsored by CaribLaw, Military Law Student Association and the American Constitution Society, drew a standing-room-only crowd that stayed afterward to continue the conversation over a Thanksgiving feast.

“There is a pre-existing conception of what Americans are supposed to look like, sound like,” said Perea. Perea took the position that, absent overpopulation, or high unemployment, there is no real “immigration problem,” despite much media commentary to the contrary.

According to Perea, although the concerns about immigration are rarely expressed in racial terms, the problem that many people seem to have with Mexican immigration is that the immigrants have brown skin and they speak Spanish, therefore threatening a pre-existing conception of the United States as a predominantly white and English-speaking country.

With regards to the guest worker program, he said, it was nothing new and had been done in the 1910s, 20s and 50s. Mexican immigrants come, and are invited to stay, because the United States is so dependent on Mexican laborers.

He pointed out that Mexican immigrants invited in during times of labor shortage were then expelled when the shortages ended. Mass expulsions of Mexican laborers occurred during the depression and after World War II to make room for American workers in the job market. Many U.S.-born American citizens, children of Mexican laborers, were expelled from the U.S. together with their parents.

“It is a cycle of invitation and expulsion,” he said.

Hudson said the immigration questions to be asked were whether they should be allowed to stay, and under what label, adding that the slate was unclear on the issue.

He spoke of previous amnesty acts that allowed those who had been here for at least five years to become naturalized, but denied naturalization to family members who were not in the U.S. with them. There are some good things that can be repeated and some things that can be changed, he said.

Mazur, who served as a captain in the United States Air Force, spoke about immigration concerns with respect to the military.

She spoke about the tension caused by dual state-federal command over National Guard forces. State governors may not want to assign these forces to border patrol, but federal law prohibits the President from federalizing them for that purpose.

Mazur supported Congress’ role in limiting the president’s power over state militia, saying, “We blur this very important civil military boundary that I think is implicit in the way the constitution was written.”

I am responsible for legal, compliance, corporate governance and regulatory affairs. We have 45 in-house lawyers with an additional staff of 100 focused on compliance and administrative tasks.

How did you come to concentrate on corporate law as opposed to other practice areas?

I have concentrated on corporate/securities law mainly because I find business interesting, and I don’t really have the patience for litigation. The corporate legal environment has changed a great deal over the past few years. There are certainly more rules, which are being applied with less flexibility and harsher sanctions. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has complicated the daily life of a public company, and has driven an increase in accounting and regulatory expense.

How has the relationship with out- side counsel changed?

Our outside lawyers are valuable partners for SunTrust, and we strive to develop meaningful relationships with them. When hiring a law firm, we look for expertise, efficiency and effectiveness.

How did the UF College of Law help prepare you for this career path?

I think law school can be a very valuable prelude to a career in corporate life. My time in law school spent focusing on the more rigorous commercial courses has been invaluable to my career. The effort put into corporate, UCC, tax and other commercial courses gave me analytical skills and basic information that I use every day. The legal profession is competitive and the business world is very demanding of its lawyers. Competition requires intensive preparation and UF Law afforded a good foundation.

Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles T. Wells, pictured above, will address the Fall 2006 graduates at the Levin College of Law’s commencement Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus.

Justice Wells assumed his duties as Justice of the Supreme Court on June 16, 1994, after being appointed by Governor Lawton Chiles. He served the court as chief justice from June 2000 through June 2002. A native Floridian, he received his bachelor’s degree from UF in 1961 and his juris doctor degree from UF Law in 1964. He was awarded recognition as a Distinguished Alumnus of UF in 2001.

Graduating students should report with their regalia to the Phillips Center Black Box no later than 1:15 p.m. More information, including directions, can be found on their website http://www.performingarts.ufl.edu/. The parking garage adjacent to the center has been reserved, and guests are encouraged to park there. A reception will immediately follow the program in the law school’s Schott Courtyard.

Levin was eager to speak with students and give his insight on being a zealous advocate and on courtroom strategies. In this roundtable, Trial Team members asked Levin questions about jurisdictional issues, jury selection, and trial preparation. He and the team dissected a criminal fact pattern and discussed state and defense theories and themes.

Levin left the team with many great tips but stressed “there is no substitute for hard work.” He told the students that this might mean sacrificing time in other areas, but “you never want to be surprised in court,” something he has avoided by being able to anticipate the issues through intense preparation.

Florida Law Review will host its annual fall symposium Friday, Dec. 1,  at 1 p.m. in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom with a panel discussion on “A Reporter’s Privilege.”

Panelists include Pulitzer Prize winner Lucy Morgan of the St. Petersburg Times, Tampa media lawyer and author James B. lakw; Levin College of Law Professor Lyrissa Lidsky. Sandra Chance, former media lawyer at Holland & Knight and now journalism professor and director of the Brechner Center at UF, will moderate the discussion.

Panelists will discuss the status of the nature and extent of the reporters’ privilege in the United States, particularly in the face of recent attempts to compell their testimony by use of subpoenas, and other forms of governmental encroachment. They will discuss whether and under what circumstances reporters may refuse to reveal their sources, and examine the case of Judith Miller of

The New York Times, who was jailed in July 2005 for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating a leak naming Valerie Plame as a covert CIA agent.

Morgan was sentenced to jail in 1973 for refusing to reveal a source, but in 1976 the Florida Supreme Court overturned the sentence and granted reporters a limited right to protect sources. In 1985, she and fellow Timea staffer Jack Reed shared the Pulitzer for investigative reporting for their work exposing corruption in the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office.