Got a hidden musical talent? Show it off at the upcoming Music Night 2009, to be held Sunday, March 29, at 7 p.m. at the home of Dean Bob Jerry and his wife Lisa. All students and faculty are invited — but the “ticket” to attend is that you must bring a dessert and agree to perform a musical piece (play an instrument or sing a song). A piano will be available. Each participant can bring one guest. Space is limited, so sign up is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To register, stop by the Dean’s Office and see Doris Perron.

Jessup Moot Court Team placed ninth in Southeast Super Regionals

UF’s Jessup Moot Court Team placed ninth overall out of twenty two teams competing in the Southeast Super Regionals. The participants were Rachel Malkowski (2L), Wayne Atkinson (2L), Michael Stewart (2L), Jason Zimmerman (2L) and Jeff Dambly (2L). Participants are evaluated by their oral skills as well as their written memorials. Rachel Malkowski was awarded first place oralist out of approximately 88 participants. Michael Stewart placed 19th out of all individual oralists. The case involved a dispute between two countries argued before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The main issues concerning the dispute included state sovereignty, extradition, sexual exploitation, and the jurisdiction of the ICJ. The Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition is the world’s largest moot court competition, with participants from over 500 law schools in more than 80 countries. The team received support and coaching from its faculty advisor Professor Jon Mills, team President Patricia Camino (3L), and team Vice-President Han Huang (3L). Special thanks to the coaches Eric Burger (3L), Morgan Weinstein (3L), Dmitri Goubarkov (3L) and Kate Haddock (3L). In addition, we thank professors Tim McClendon, Henry Wihnyk, Mary Adkins, Michelle Jacobs, and Joseph Little for their time and support. For more information e-mail Patricia Camino at pcamino@ufl.edu.

Students receive book awards for academic excellence

Students, faculty and friends of the law school gathered in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom Feb. 27 to honor book award recipients for the spring semester. Presented every semester, book awards recognize the top performers in each class, and give alumni a chance to support academic excellence at the UF Levin College of Law. More than 100 students were honored for their performance in classes in the spring. Multiple award winners included Joshua S. Altshuler, Crystal Espinosa, Kevin Hall, Jennifer Hartzler, Heather J. Howdeshell, Kathryn Ward Hurd, David Karp, Allison Riggs, Brandon Sherlinski, Emily A. Snider and Nickisha Webb. If you have received a book award, but weren’t able to attend the ceremony, you can pick up your plaque in the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs at 267 Holland Hall. The office is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
• See full list of winners

L.A.W. hosts meet and mingle with faculty and staff

The Law Association for Women hosted a Faculty Meet-and-Mingle on Thursday, Feb. 26, at the law school, to kick-off its Women’s History Month events. Students mingled with female law school faculty and staff, while partaking in bagels, pastries and juice. Participants discussed law school courses, possible career paths, and current events.

Help survivors of domestic violence in our community

Help survivors of domestic violence in our community by donating to the Family Law Society’s food and supply drive. All donations benefit Peaceful Paths, a domestic abuse network that serves survivors of domestic violence in Alachua, Bradford and Union counties. Each year, Peaceful Paths provides safety, support, and the empowerment necessary for hundreds of families to move to self-sufficiency in our community. Peaceful Paths is in great need of necessary tangible items, especially food items, in order to continue the help they provide to these families. Donation boxes are available in the library and student affairs office lobbies from Monday, Feb. 23 through Friday, March 6.

Time is running out to apply for financial aid

For those of you who have not already done so, now is the time to apply for aid for the 2009-2010 academic year. I encourage you to apply by April 1 using FAFSA on the Web. Just go to http://www.fafsa.ed.gov and follow the instructions on the site. After applying via FAFSA/Renewal FAFSA on the Web, you can check the status of your application and/or make corrections online. You will need to use your Federal Access Code (PIN) to complete the 2009-2010 FAFSA.

Levin College of Law Faculty and Student Art Show

Calling all student and faculty artists. We are now accepting artwork in any medium (ie. sculpture, painting, photography) for the fourth annual Levin College of Law Faculty and Student Art Show. Artwork will be displayed in the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center. Please email digital image submissions with a brief description to Eric Berger at ecburger@gmail.com by Monday, March 16. Students and faculty will be notified if they are selected by late March. If you have any questions please e-mail Eric Berger or Alexis Cooper at lex314@gmail.com.

Financial aid for Florida Bar prep and exam

Are you making plans to take the Bar and wondering where you will come up with the financing necessary for these out-of-pocket expenses? There are private loan companies who will make Bar exam loans to students who are in their final year of law school. These loans can be used for a student’s living expenses while studying for the Bar, Bar prep classes and other Bar related expenses.

Sallie Mae
1-800-984-0190
www.salliemae.com

Wells Fargo
(To apply, student would need to have some type of account/loan with Wells Fargo)
1-800-378-5526
www.wellsfargo.com/student/

For more information contact Financial Aid Coordinator Carol Huber at 352-273-0620.

Spring Break Library Hours

Friday, March 6: 7:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday- Sunday, March 7-8: CLOSED
Monday- Friday, March 9-13: 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 14: CLOSED
Sunday, March 15: 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 p.m. (regular hours resume)

More than 40 UF alumni participating in the Back to College Weekend attended the Feb. 21 panel discussion at the law school. Titled, “President Obama’s Tax Initiatives and the Congressional Response,” the interactive session kept the diverse Back to College audience fully engaged. Moderated by Graduate Tax Program Director Michael Friel, the panel included Hugh F. Culverhouse Eminent Scholar in Taxation Lawrence Lokken, Professor Patricia Dilley, and Alumni Research Scholar Dennis Calfee.

One of the first questions from the audience dramatized how deeply the financial meltdown has impacted the average person.

“My son and I, we invested in a 401K. Do you have a final analysis of what’s happened to it? Where is our money?”

The query was in response to Lokken’s presentation on how the mortgage meltdown began and his analysis of the different mortgaging practices in which banks engaged, how mortgages were bundled into investment instruments and why these investments became viewed as “toxic assets.”

“That is a complicated question to which I do not have the answer,” Lokken replied, after reassuring the questioner that his 401K likely did not include bundled mortgages. “The thing that is interesting about these instruments is you can now go out and buy them for 20 cents on the dollar. … That is because people are expecting fantastic losses, which is more than likely not true.”

Lokken went on to say that people buying up these investments at pennies on the dollar are likely to make billions and billions of dollars on their investment, because the perceived risk is far higher than the actual. For the investor to lose money, 80 percent of the mortgages bundled in the instrument would have to be foreclosed, he said.

“We have a lot of home foreclosures, but do any of you live in a neighborhood where foreclosures exceed 80 percent?” asked Lokken.

Dilley followed Lokken’s presentation with a lively overview of executive compensation limits placed in the recently-passed stimulus bill. She also spoke extensively on payroll taxes and disparities in the wage base that support the Social Security program. Dilley predicted retirement issues would be the next component of the financial crisis that the Obama administration would need to address. This is an area in which Dilley has significant insight, since she worked for many years with Congress for the House Ways and Means Committee and served as the staff director for the Social Security Sub-committee of House Ways and Means, which helped craft the 1983 Social Security amendments.

“Traditionally, the wage base is supposed to be set at a level that would include 90 percent of wages in the U.S. economy. That is based on the notion that most income in our economy comes from wages and that wage levels are spread more or less evenly across the economy,” Dilley said. “This assumption is no longer true.”

She explained that total wages now subject to FICA has fallen from 90 percent in 1982 to 86 percent in 2004. This is due to the great disparity between average wage increases and compensation increases at the highest level. In other words, the bloated executive compensation packages causing so much consternation amongst those contemplating the banking bailout have also contributed to a greater proportion of wages escaping the wage base in support of Social Security.

“Why is this important? If the wage base had kept pace with the 90 percent level, it would eliminate almost half of the long-term deficit of the Social Security program, that is its 75-year deficit,” Dilley said. “So that’s one reason why it’s a popular topic for addressing Social Security’s long term program.”

Calfee followed Dilley’s presentation with a brief overview of federal estate and gift taxes and the generation skipping transfer tax. He outlined the Economic Growth and Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2001 enacted during the Bush administration. The act followed a graduated schedule of increased exemption from federal estate and generation skipping transfer taxes up to $3.5 million per individual and $7 million per married couple in 2009.

The act stipulates that the estate of any person who dies after Dec. 31, 2009 will not be subject to federal estate or gift taxes. After Dec. 31, 2010, the taxes would revert to the levels that were in place in 2001 — an exemption of $1 million per individual and a 55 percent rate of taxation of the estate in excess of the exemption. This one-year hiatus from federal estate and generation skipping transfer taxes has placed pressure on the Obama administration to act, and there has been a lot of concern about what the president would propose to replace it.

“Well, I want you to know we called the White House about an hour ago to find out if he’d decided,” Calfee joked. “But they’re focused on the stimulus plan and they’re not thinking about this too much, so we basically have to go by what Obama said during the campaign.” Calfee explained that, based on what he said during his campaign for the presidency, Obama would keep the applicable exemption amount at $3.5 million, and the rate at 45 percent for both estate and generation skipping transfer taxes.

As the session drew to a close and final questions were being taken, the conversation returned to the dire state of the economy.

“Is the stimulus package going to work?” one person in the audience asked.

“Well, I’ll do the typical law school professor weasel… It depends on what you mean by ‘work,’” Dilley quipped to laughter from the audience.

“We want to see that you have practical legal experience,” said Otto Immel, a partner with Quarles & Brady LLP, Naples, Fla. “Your resume has to prove that you are hardworking, can multitask and work effectively under pressure. You won’t get hired if you hang out and work on your tan all day.”

Immel and Kelly Davis, also a partner with Quarles and Brady, were on campus recently to provide students insight on what employers expect from potential employees.

Experience preferred by potential employers

• Clerkship
• Corporate
• Judicial
• Government agency
• Research assistant
• Respected non-profit

Proven skills sought by employers

• Research
• Analysis
• Application
• Writing
• Advocacy
• Negotiation

Considerations employers make when hiring

• Work ethic
• Writing skills, including grammar spelling citation
• Analytical ability
• Good interpersonal skills
• Personality
• Organizational skills with the ability to manage and prioritize competing demands
• Team player

“I was very pleasantly surprised and honored to have received this award.” said Liu, who is a first-generation college and law student. “In our dynamic multicultural society, it’s wonderful to see great firms reaching out and encouraging diversity in the legal workplace.”

Constangy initiated this award program in order to recognize the achievements of law students who have demonstrated their interest in diversity and their continued commitment to diversity in the profession of law. Liu was also the recipient of a similar Diversity Scholarship awarded by Foley & Lardner LLP in 2008.

Liu was motivated to pursue a career law through her childhood experience of helping her parents with the family business. She noticed a sharp disparity between the numbers of lawyers who were available to serve the Asian-American community. Fluent in Mandarin Chinese and Fujianese, Liu hopes to fulfill that role and to serve as a role model for other ethnically diverse law students.

Committed to furthering diversity in the legal profession, Liu is currently the president of the Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (APALSA) and the secretary for the International Law Society. Liu has also served as the vice president of special events for the Law Association for Women, where she coordinated events such as the Women Judge Panel.

“I think it is important to identify your interests and find a nice balance,” said Liu. “For me, staying active throughout the semester has helped to give more meaning to my overall law school experience.”

During her undergrad at the University of Miami, Liu loved to study abroad, going overseas on three occasions.

“I love studying different cultures, meeting different people and especially trying new food.” said Liu, who has studied at Oxford University, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University (in Beijing, China).

Following college graduation, Liu was awarded a Fulbright fellowship by the U.S. Department of State to conduct research on social and economic development in China.

Liu said that her favorite study abroad experience was in Hong Kong. “Hong Kong is a rare and eclectic mix of the two worlds I adore; a dazzling metropolis of East meets West.” Liu said. “I can go have authentic Chinese food one night, and then I can go and have good steak and burgers the next.”

Lott, a senior research scientist at the University of Maryland, argued Wednesday that those with concealed weapons permits should be allowed to carry them onto campus.

The Federalist Society brought Lott to campus.

Criminals do not care if guns are prohibited on school campuses, Lott said. In fact, it makes it easier for them to kill people, he argued.

“Rather than creating safe zones for victims, we’re creating them for criminals,” said Lott, who has written many books and articles on guns and gun control.

Lott argued that a criminal that wanted to kill many people on a campus would not go through the process of getting a proper permit. Nor would he or she worry about the punishment for bringing a gun on campus considering the other punishments coming or likely death of the criminal.

Lott conducted a study on multiple victim public shootings between 1977 and 1999 and found that all of the killers either died (75 percent) or expected to die (25 percent).

Because of that, there is no way to deter them from killing, so the only way to end their massacre would be to kill them first, Lott said.

The greater probability they would be stopped, the greater the deterrence, Lott said.

He said about three percent of Florida’s population has concealed weapons permits. If a killer went into a classroom, he or she would not know who had a gun and would not know who to shoot first. Instead of the killer being able to take many people out, someone would shoot him or her first, Lott said.

Lott argued that the media does not do a good job covering when a law-abiding citizen using a gun stops a potential crime.

In 2001, he said, the media wrote approximately 190,000 words on gun crimes, and not one story mentioned a citizen using a gun to protect himself or someone else.

And while Lott understands that a murder is more newsworthy than someone stopping a crime, he gave examples of newsworthy events that the media ignored that someone stopped the crime with a gun.

In 2002, at Appalachian Law School in Virginia, a shooter opened fire. A couple of students ran to their cars and got their guns and eventually subdued the shooter.

Out of 218 stories, only three mentioned that students subdued him with guns. One of the students was interviewed heavily and not quoted. Lott said every reporter knew about it, and 47 reporters interviewed one of the students that stopped the killer. The Washington Post said students pounced on the attacker but did not mention their guns.

Lott used statistics from Florida concealed weapons permits holders to address whether chaos would break out in the classroom. Between Oct. 1, 1987 and Dec. 31, 2008, Florida issued 1.46 million concealed weapons permits. Out of all of those, there have only been 166 weapons violations, and most of them were accidentally carrying a weapon into a gun-free zone, Lott said.

Further, Lott said that out of five million concealed weapons permit holders in the country in 2007, there were only nine murders.

Joan Flocks, director of the Social Policy Division of the Center for Governmental Responsibility at the Levin College of Law is seeing to it that the risks of pesticide exposure to farm workers are brought to the attention of the public.

Citing the Agricultural Health Study, conducted by the National Institutes of Health and Environmental Protection Agency in 2008, which indicated that those with “increased, regular exposure to pesticides have high rates of a variety of cancers,” Flocks presented her findings regarding the association between human health risks and pesticide exposure and the social and political disadvantages of farmworkers to the President’s Cancer Panel in Indianapolis on Oct. 21, 2008.

Flocks’ interest in the plight of farmworkers began while she was conducting research in Indiantown, Fla., for her master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida. Impressed with the determination of farm workers to work and survive in the United States and to secure an education for their children and even to send money home to still-struggling families, Flocks began to concentrate her efforts in aiding these underrepresented people.

After earning her JD from the University of Florida College of Law in 1991, Flocks practiced law for five years before returning to the University of Florida to manage environmental justice and community-based research projects as a research assistant professor at the College of Medicine. In 2003, Flocks began her work with the Center for Governmental Responsibility, where she remains.

According to Flocks, farmworkers are members of a disadvantaged group. Approximately 75 percent are born in Mexico, leading to a language barrier upon their arrival in the United States, and nearly all are from a low socioeconomic group with little access to healthcare. Additionally, farmworkers suffer high rates of occupational illnesses and injuries, including those associated with pesticide exposure—a significant and serious category of occupational hazards.

Flocks explained that within the free market system, workers’ wages are often thought to reflect workers’ acceptance of workplace hazards, but in the case of farmworkers who are ill-informed of the risks, they are “impaired in their ability to make informed personal risk assessments.”

Even more alarming is that the workers who are aware of the risks to their health that the pesticides present are afraid to speak up, because many of them are undocumented immigrants. As temporary, seasonal workers, they can also be sent home by their employers from work at any time. Their silence is often bought by the opportunity to work.

In the case of pesticide regulation, as Flocks explained in her presentation to the President’s Cancer Panel, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) weighs matters of human health against the economic value of using pesticides in the farming industry. Too often, human health concerns lose and the potential for greater profits take precedence.

The easy question, of course, is asking why the government does not provide stricter regulations to protect farmworkers. The EPA’s Worker Protection Standard (WPS) was designed to directly regulate farmworkers’ conditions of exposure at their worksites and indirectly regulate pesticide exposure by educating the farmworkers themselves. The intent of this education is to empower farmworkers to seize control of their own working conditions, yet the current regulations are still grossly inadequate and underenforced.

Another reason for the failure of government regulation to protect farmworkers is the ability of agricultural employers to use labor arrangements to circumvent regulation. For example, employers often using labor contractors to recruit and manage farmworkers, thereby making the farmworkers subcontractors themselves. Flocks explained that this practice lends itself to even more distance between the farmworkers and their employers and places responsibility for workplace safety onto the workers, diminishing employers’ liability for regulatory violations.

Perhaps even more threatening to farmworkers than the known dangers of exposure to pesticides are the unknown dangers. Little is known about chronic, long-term effects of pesticide exposure or about synergistic and additive effects when workers are exposed to many substances during years of labor. With the constant development of new chemicals and pesticides to yield larger production and to grow more visually appealing produce, farmworkers are being exposed to substances that employers should intuitively know are dangerous, yet are under little pressure to restrict.

One solution that Flocks recommends is to shift regulation of pesticides at agricultural workplaces from the EPA to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which regulates most workplaces and which requires more extensive training and information about workplace chemicals than the current WPS.

Flocks also urges the public to take a more proactive stance to combat the plight of farmworkers, including bringing consumer pressure on specific visible industries and bringing lawsuits under legal theories that do not rely on providing currently unavailable scientific proof that a specific pesticide causes a specific illness or that the employer had intent to harm a worker.

While these strategies have achieved modest success, Flocks emphasizes that their future success relies on the view of environmental injustices as human rights violations and that only through a progressive, public change in attitude toward the risks of pesticides and chemicals will farmworkers’ safety and rights finally be protected.

The law student-organized conference titled, “Beyond Doom and Gloom: Illuminating a Sustainable Future for Florida,” took place from Thursday through Saturday.

Michael Willson (2L), co-chair of the conference, felt that it was important for participants to look past salacious headlines about the environment and seek positive changes.

“Something’s got to change or else we’re going to run out of things that make our state livable,” Willson said. “Bad things are going to happen, but what are we going to do to take it in another direction?”

At the conference’s opening plenary Friday morning, Eric Wachsman, a UF engineering professor, echoed Willson’s positive sentiments.

“Florida has the natural resources to be a leader in sustainability,” Wachsman said.

The PIEC allowed participants to choose from three different tracks, each consisting of a different series of sessions.

The science and technology track examined what research is currently available about Florida’s environmental situation, said Willson.

The second track focused on progressive regulation, which consists of affecting state environmental policies.

“Progressive regulation is, ‘ok, how do we integrate all this research?’” Willson said.

The third track, social marketing, emphasized methods to get the average American to understand and support environmental policy changes.

“It kind of comes full cycle,” Willson said.

Social marketing is designed to promote voluntary behavioral change, said UF agriculture Professor Paul Monaghan during the opening plenary.

One of the many environmental issues in Florida stems from lawn care. There are currently five million acres of lawns in the state.

“Most people are watering more during the rainy season,” Monaghan said. “Those who have an irrigation system often overwater.”

Another important issue in Florida is diesel emissions. Florida is a focal point for ships because of its large number of ports.

“Fifty six percent of the cruise ships in the U.S. leave from Florida,” said Chuck Littlejohn, an attorney with Littlejohn Mann & Associates in Tallahassee.

Port maintenance can cause a variety of problems, including disrupting wildlife, said Kelly Samek of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“You have to dredge annually to create it, maintain it and to expand it,” Samek said. “We should care more about supporting ports.”

An afternoon session titled, “The Long Slow Flood,” addressed the dangers of rising sea levels. Florida’s coastline is particularly vulnerable to changes in sea level.

Katherine Isaacs (3L) explained how humans have disrupted natural coastal erosion patterns in Florida by building armored sea walls.

“It does have long-term environmental impacts,” Isaacs said.

Issacs suggested the construction of “living shorelines,” which use natural elements to create sustainable coastlines.

“Living shorelines are an environmentally friendly alternative to prevent homeowners from falling prey to natural erosion,” Isaacs said.

In the same session, Martha Collins, an attorney with Collins & West, expounded upon Florida’s precarious coastal situation.

“The entire state is only 0 to 150 feet above sea level,” Collins said.

Nevertheless, as the conference’s name suggests, not everything was about doom and gloom.

In a session about social marketing, Preston Robertson (JD 90), vice president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, expressed his optimism towards Florida’s future.

“Ten years ago, I was on the ‘doom’ side,” Robertson said. “Our next generation, you all, are much better prepared to be environmental stewards than my parents’ generation.”

The conference’s closing plenary on Saturday afternoon ended on an optimistic note as well. John Hankinson (JD 79), a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, engaged in an impromptu harmonica performance.

“I’m trying to get everybody to march out the door without any sense of doom and gloom,” Hankinson said.

Over 30 attendees clapped along as Hankinson sang a Ry Cooder cover.

“The only reason to be workin’ is to be feelin’ good,” Hankinson sang. “The fate of the planet is in our hands.”

“That was a great note to end on,” said Simone Harbas (2L), co-chair of the conference.

Harbas hoped that participants left with a sense of empowerment about their abilities to serve as environmental stewards.

“We might not necessarily fix things or even get as close to ideal,” Harbas said. “But it’s worth a shot that they have a positive message about actually affecting that change on a small level and having a plan for the future.”

With so many new laws and regulations regarding shoreline land use, exclusion rights have become muddy. On March 17 at 2 p.m. a nationally known expert in property law will discuss this issue during the University of Florida Levin College of Law Second Annual Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property.

Land-use, environmental and real property attorneys and zoning officials dealing with waterways, shoreline property owners and those interested in property law are invited to hear Gregory S. Alexander, a professor of law at Cornell University Law School, speak on “Ownership and Its Obligations: Public Access to Beaches and Other Encroachments on the Right to Exclude.” The event, being held at Holland Hall 180, is free and open to the public.

“I am humbled to be invited to deliver the Wolf Family Lecture, endowed and named by the family of one of this country’s most distinguished legal scholars of property law,” Alexander said. “I hope that my remarks concerning recent developments affecting the land owner’s right to exclude will befit the occasion and be of interest to the University of Florida College of Law community.”

The lecture series was endowed by a gift from UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf and his wife, Betty. Wolf, the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, is the general editor of a 17-volume treatise, Powell on Real Property, the most referenced real- property treatise in the country, which is cited regularly by the courts, including several citations in the United States Supreme Court. The treatise is a legal source that lawyers, law professors and judges have relied upon for more than 50 years.

“My wife and I are very excited about the selection of Professor Alexander as the speaker for the Wolf Family Lecture,” said Wolf. “He has chosen a timely topic of interest to continue the lecture series.”

Alexander is the A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell Law School where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. Following his graduation from Northwestern University School of Law, he clerked for the Hon. George Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. After he completed further study as a Bigelow Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School, Alexander became a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law. Alexander is also a prolific and recognized writer. His most recent book is titled The Global Debate Over Constitutional Property: Lessons for American Takings Jurisprudence.

Danaya Wright, the UF Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law and a former student of Alexander, said lecture participants will gain valuable insights into property ownership and its obligations.

“For anyone concerned with public access to beaches and other natural resources, this lecture should prove very educational,” Wright said.

“Though I often encourage students to resist encroachments on public rights, I prefer they not get arrested,” Wright added with a smile. “Professor Alexander’s approach, if followed by more people, should make resistance less necessary and natural resources more accessible. You can’t beat that!”