Juan Perea
Cone Wagner Nugent Johnson, Hazouri and Roth Professor

• Published Race and Races: Cases and Resources for a Diverse America (with Richard Delgado, Angela Harris, Jean Stefancic and Stephanie Wildman) (2nd Ed., 2007).

Leonard L. Riskin
Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law

• Co-taught a Negotiation Institute at Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies with Daniel Shapiro of Harvard Law School and Harvard Medical School in July.

Elizabeth A. Rowe
Assistant Professor

• Presented paper, “Exploring a Take-Down Provision for Trade Secrets on the Internet,” at the 2007 Intellectual Property Scholars Conference in Chicago on Aug. 9.

Michael L. Seigel
Professor

• Published “Bringing Coherence to Mens Rea Analysis for Securities-Related Offenses,” 2006 Wisconsin L. Rev. 1564 (2006).
• Published “Some Preliminary Statistical, Qualitative, and Anecdotal Findings of an Empirical Study of Collegiality Among Law Professors,” 13 Widener L. Rev. 1 (2006).

UF Law Faculty in the News

Leonard L. Riskin
Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law

• San Francisco Chronicle, July 20. Quoted in an article on the importance of stress-reducing mindfulness mediatation in the legal world. Riskin, who began discussing mindfulness meditation in his law classes in 1999, wrote an article, “The Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers and Their Clients,” which launched a nationwide awareness. He is referred to in the San Francisco Chronicle article from a previous interview with an online legal magazine, Mediate.com. “I believe that mindfulness can help mediators and other dispute resolution professionals (including lawyers) feel better, get more satisfaction out of their work, and do a better job for their clients.”

Michael L. Seigel
Professor

• St. Petersburg Times, August 28. Quoted in an article discussing the selection of a new U.S. attorney for the north and central Florida region despite the recent resignation of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “I wouldn’t see this as hampering it at all,” he said. “Typically, the attorney general doesn’t get involved in the selection of the individual U.S. attorneys.”

There are a number of new faces among the faculty and staff at the Levin College of Law this fall.

• Assistant Professor Shani King (pictured left) has come to UF Law from San Francisco, where he was a staff attorney with Legal Services for Children. King has a B.A. from Brown University and a J .D. from Harvard Law School.

• Assistant Legal Skills Professor Leslie Knight has joined the faculty from UF’s Office of the General Counsel, where she continues to be Of Counsel to the University. Knight has a B.S. from Florida State University and a J.D. from Duke University School of Law.

• Vince PremDas and Victoria Rudd (pictured right) are new members of the team in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs, where Sara Grimm arrives from her previous post at Ohio State on Sept. 4 to take charge of the law school’s annual giving programs. PremDas has a B.S. from UF. Rudd has a bachelor’s degree from York College of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree from Seton Hall University. Grimm has a B.A. from Pennsylvania State University.

• In the Office of Communications, Hedda Prochaska is making great improvements to the law school’s website as the new Online Communications Coordinator (Webmaster). Prochaska has a B.A. from UF and is working toward a master’s degree in Mass Communications at the UF College of Journalism and Communications.

• Former Conservation Law Fellow Thomas Ruppert (pictured left), a familiar face around the law school, is the new Conservation Clinic Assistant in Environmental Law, a position created last fall in the Center for Governmental Responsibility. Ruppert is 2003 graduate of the Levin College of Law.

• Visting Assistant Professor of Law Gary Lucas will teach in the tax program. Lucas has a B.B.A. from Marshall University, a J.D. from Tulane University Law School and and LL.M. in Taxation from the UF Levin College of Law. Each year the tax law faculty recommends a candidate for Visiting Assistant Professor of Law from a pool of outstanding graduates and current students. The selection is based upon scholarship, academic record, potential for teaching, the nature of the candidate’s experience, and an expressed desire to contribute to the field of legal education. Lucas was selected for this position for 2007-2008.

• Jake T. Henry, III (pictured right) has joined the Office of Admissions as assistant director. Henry has a B.S. from the University of Southern Mississippi and a J.D. from Washburn University School of Law.

• The law school’s professional staff has been bolstered by the arrival of Michelle Ocepek, the new director of student programs in the Office of Student Affairs. Ocepek has B.S. from Ashland University and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University.

• Mark Robinson is the new Director of Information technology. Robinson has a B.A. and a master’s degree from UF.

• Last spring, Assistant Dean for Administrative Affairs John Plummer (pictured left) arrived from Mercer University in Atlanta. Plummer has a B.A. from Kansas Wesleyan University, and an MBA and a J.D. from the University of Kansas.

The chapter, founded at UF in 2003, also received the Network Building Award for Continuing Commitment to Diversity.

“The quantity and quality of our programming, as well as our willingness to collaborate with other student groups, earned us recognition on the national level,” said Chapter President Adrian Chandler (pictured left), who will graduate this December. “The chapter’s increased visibility in the national organization will greatly increase our ability to bring high caliber speakers in law and public policy to UF.”

The ACS chapter at UF has sponsored numerous lectures and debates focusing on Constitutional issues and public policy, including former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, Duke Law Professor Erwin Chemerinsky, and Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince. Last year, the chapter sponsored more than 40 events on campus, including the Food For Thought Lecture Series. Founded nationally in 2001, ACS is one of the nation’s leading progressive legal organizations. According to its website, www.acslaw.org, ACS is a rapidly growing network of lawyers, law students, scholars, judges, policymakers and other concerned individuals whose mission is “to ensure that fundamental principles of human dignity, individual rights and liberties, genuine equality, and access to justice enjoy their rightful, central place in American law.”

“We’ve grown by leaps and bounds in the past seven years,” said Chandler, who joined the group during her first semester of law school in Spring 2005. “Our speakers usually seek to promote progressive interpretation of the law that focuses on equal justice and civil liberties and rights and things of that nature.”

Chandler and fellow chapter member Eduardo Mordujovich were among about 150 students who received scholarships to cover the cost of registration and greatly defray travel expenses to attend the conference. Chandler also was one of about 30 students from around the country recognized by ACS as Next Generation Leaders, which will enable her to do research and writing for the organization.

“It’s very exciting and an awesome chance to network with some of the big names in law and public policy in the country,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to it. I’ll be doing more to get the organization’s name out there and I’ll be doing chapter-building and things of that nature in Florida and the Southeast.”

Zimmerman, who is a trial attorney in the Environment and Natural Resources Division with the United States Department of Justice, in Washington, D.C., pursues her passion for the environment by enforcing laws in the Pacific Northwest and Midwest area of the U.S.

She got her start learning about environmental law while at UF Law, where she was a co-chairwoman of the 10th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference hosted by UF Law. As a co-chairwoman, Zimmerman got to mingle with leaders in the environmental law field.

“Taking part in the conference in particular was very significant because I got to meet and speak with practitioners, leaders of non-profit organizations, professors and other students,” she said. “I think taking part in activities was really an invaluable part of law school.”

Zimmerman’s interest in environmental law led her to study abroad in Costa Rica, where she learned how other countries handle environmental issues.

“International environmental law was one of my favorite classes, which led me to want to learn about other countries’ policies,” she said. “I got to work with lawyers from all over Latin America and got many different perspectives on the practice of environmental law.”

When the Department of Justice gave her the opportunity to do environmental enforcement, Zimmerman jumped at the opportunity. Current UF law students should look into what the government has to offer, she said.

“I took part in the Attorney General’s Honors Program that’s geared for new attorneys coming out of law school or finishing judicial clerkships,” she said. “I absolutely love the job and I encourage students to look into the program.”

Working with the U.S. Government is one of the best decisions she ever made because of the opportunity to work big cases immediately, she said. She recently negotiated a settlement where a big farm production company was discharging manure into a river in violation of the Clean Water Act and not meeting the Confined Animal Feeding Operations permit program’s standards. After some tough negotiating, Zimmerman says the company is now improving their practices.

“Working for the government has been an absolutely amazing experience,” she said. “I get to work with the best attorneys, handle my own cases and get a lot of responsibility that a large firm wouldn’t offer.”

Law students can apply for summer internships or the Attorney General’s Honors program on the Department of Justice’s website at www.usdoj.gov. The deadline for applications is Sept. 17.