BLSA Moot Court and Mock Trial teams compete at Southeast Regional Black Law Students Association Convention
The UF Black Law Students Association (BLSA) Moot Court Team and Mock Trial Team competed at the Southeast Regional Black Law Student Association Convention in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Competitors on the Moot Court Team included, Daphne Duplessis (2L) and Wilbert Vancol (2L). The Mock Trial Team competitors included, Jesse Butler (3L), Sherley Jean (1L), Guichard St. Surin (2L), and Alfredo Zamora (3L). The UF BLSA Moot Court Team and Mock Trial Team competed against over 50 teams across the Southeast and were among the top competitors. The Black Law Students Association would like to thank Professor Haughton-Worrell for her significant help and coaching assistance. The Black Law Students Association would also like to thank the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations(CSRR) for making it possible for the UF BLSA teams to participate and compete in the Southeast Regional Black Law Students Association Convention. The Center for Race and Race Relations is committed to fostering communities of dialogue, embracing historically and empirically based thinking, talking, teaching, and writing on race, and creating and supporting programs designed to enhance race-related curriculum development.

Applications for the Summer 2010 Yegelwel Fellowship are still being accepted: Deadline extended to Jan. 29
Applications for the Summer 2010 Yegelwel Fellowship are still being accepted. The deadline for submission of application materials has been extended to Jan. 29. The fellowship provides a $4,000 stipend to a UF Law student to participate in a Summer Fellowship Program at the Anti-Defamation League, Florida Regional Office in Boca Raton. The Fellowship will last 8-10 weeks, with the student committing to a minimum of 35 hours per week. The fellow will be supervised by the ADL Southern Area Counsel. Previous fellows conducted legal and legislative research on a broad variety of subjects including amending Florida’s hate crime law to include homelessness as a protected category, the teaching of intelligent design in the public school science classroom, and the scope of separation of church and state under the Florida constitution. The fellow also handled constituent discrimination complaints and participated in ADL meetings, functions and events. The Yegelwel Fellowship is limited to UF Law students who have successfully completed the first-year required curriculum, including Constitutional Law, and who are in good academic standing prior to beginning the fellowship. “Successful” completion of the first-year required curriculum means earning a passing grade in each course and maintaining an overall GPA of at least 3.0. See the Center Web site for more details. If you have any questions, please contact Melissa Bamba (CSRRR assistant director) at 352-273-0614 or bamba@law.ufl.edu.

Thank you for donating
Jewish Law Students Association, Christian Legal Society and the Florida Law Review raised more than 80 pounds of nonperishable foods for Bread of the Mighty Food Bank last semester. Thank you to everyone who donated!

• “Florida schools rated eighth” (Jan. 14, 2010, St. Pete Times)
  Mills explains that while Florida schools have moved up in the rankings, it doesn’t mean there is not room to improve. Getting better, though, doesn’t mean good enough, said Jon Mills, a University of Florida law school dean who helped file a lawsuit in November that charges Florida with violating the state constitution by not providing high-quality schools. “We may be one of the most improved in the country,” said Mills, a former Democratic speaker of the House. “But if we move from No. 50 to No. 40, that still isn’t high quality.”
• Mills moderated “Social Media: Promises, Pitfalls & Perils” on Jan. 22 as part of the Strategic Communications Seminar Series.

The Florida Law Review presents its annual 2010 Dunwody Distinguished Lecturer: Dean John C. Jeffries, Jr. On Feb. 16, at 11 a.m. in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (room 180), Dean Jeffries will deliver a lecture titled, “Rationalizing Qualified Immunity.” This lecture is free and open to the public; everyone is encouraged to attend.

Jeffries served as dean of the University of Virginia School of Law from the fall of 2001 until the summer of 2008. Jeffries joined the Virginia law faculty two years after earning his law degree there in 1973. His primary research and teaching interests are civil rights, federal courts, criminal law, and constitutional law. Jeffries has co-authored casebooks in civil rights, federal courts, and criminal law and has published a variety of articles in those fields. He also wrote a biography of Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr.

In 1986, Jeffries was appointed the inaugural Emerson Spies Professor of Law, a position created to honor a long-time teacher and former dean. Jeffries has also held a variety of other academic appointments, including the Arnold H. Leon Professorship.

During law school, Jeffries served as editor-in-chief of the Virginia Law Review. He received the Z Award for the highest academic average and the Woods Prize for the outstanding graduate. Immediately after graduation, he clerked for Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr., before serving in the U.S. Army as a second lieutenant.

Can’t make it to Gainesville for the lecture? Join us online via live webcast at www.floridalawreview.com.

As part of this effort, the law school is joining the efforts begun by Gators United for Haiti, which is a student run philanthropic project started by UF students. The goal of Gators United for Haiti is to motivate the Gator Nation to raise $50,000, for Haiti relief efforts. Gators United has several collection sites across campus including Turlington Plaza, Plaza of the Americas, the J.Wayne Reitz Union, and now the Office of Student Affairs at the law school has been added as a site. Therefore, anyone may bring donations to 164 Holland Hall, the Office of Student Affairs at the law school between 8-5 p.m., Monday–Friday to assist in these relief efforts.

Donations must be in the form of cash or check with checks made out to the University of Florida. If anyone wishes to make a donation by credit card, organizations such as the Red Cross or Yele, a grassroots organization based in Haiti, have been recommended. Additionally, you may find a list of other ways you may contribute to this massive and much needed relief effort, below:

How you can help

Gator Law is joining forces with the Gators United for Haiti
Starting January 19, 2010, from 9 a.m.-3 p.m., the John Marshall Bar Association, Black Law Students Association, Association for Public Interest Law, Phi Alpha Delta, International Law Society, and Florida Association for Women Lawyers will have “donuts for donations” and “candy for cash” to collect donations for the Relief Efforts in Haiti. Please stop by the table and show your support for the cause. If you wish to help in this effort, please stop by the table and sign the Tabling Sign-Up sheet. If any other organizations would like to join in our efforts, please contact Kyla Tan at kyla.tan@gmail.com or Alkeyvia Walker at alwfsu06@gmail.com.

Use LexisNexis points to help Haiti
Join LexisNexis in supporting Haiti relief efforts. Log on to www.lexisnexis.com/lawschool and click on the Help Haiti Web Banner to donate some of your Lexis Rewards Points. A donation of only 250 points or more to the American Red Cross will directly support Haiti Rescue Efforts. It’s that simple – log on today!

American Red Cross

• Text: “HAITI” to “90999” for a $10 donation. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill.
• The organization is also accepting donations through its International Response Fund, www.redcross.org
• 1-800-REDCROSS
• 1724 NE 2nd St., Gainesville, FL 32609

Club Creole at UF

• Yele Haiti, founded in 2005 by musician Wyclef Jean to bring hope to those in Haiti, is collecting donations for earthquake relief. Club Creole is collecting donations to be distributed by Yele Haiti. Text: “YELE” to “501501” for a $5 donation. The amount will be added to your next cell phone bill.

Project Haiti

• UF medical students www.projhaiti.org
• Donations will buy medicine, bottled water, canned food and other supplies. Project Haiti volunteers will be on the ground in Port-au-Prince on March 6.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

• www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate
• Already have medical personnel treating the injured in Port-au-Prince.

Local churches collecting donations

• Trinity United Methodist Church, www.trinitygnv.org
• Grace United Methodist Church, www.gracefl.org
• First Assembly of God, www.first-assembly.org

Heather Thornton, resource counselor at the law school, is available on an individual basis or for group counseling for all students in need of counseling or emotional support. Her office hours are M-F from 8:15 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and by appointment only.

Additionally, you may also contact the Counseling and Wellness Center at 352-392-1575, or Student Health Services at 392-1171. Counseling services are located in Peabody Hall, room 301 and are available between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Additional information regarding counseling services is available at www.counsel.ufl.edu. Also, the Alachua County Crisis Center is available for assistance 24 hours a day should you or even a non-UF student need assistance. They may be reached at 352-264-6789. It is important to remember to reach out to your friends, family or counselors during this difficult time.

The university will continue to keep you updated on how you can helps and where to go for support. At the same time, you may always contact the Office of Student Affairs for any assistance you may need.

The new Intimate Partner Violence Assistance Clinic is a partnership between the UF College of Law Center on Children and Families and Virgil D. Hawkins Civil Legal Clinics, UF’s College of Medicine, Shands HealthCare, and Gainesville’s nonprofit Peaceful Paths Domestic Abuse Network. The innovative clinic will be staffed by UF law and medical students who have been trained and certified to work with survivors of domestic-violence and by social and mental health workers from Shands at the University of Florida and Peaceful Paths. The clinic, set to open in May, will be located in the obstetrics, gynecology and pediatrics clinic at Shands at UF in Gainesville. The location was chosen due to the number of abuse victims treated in the clinics.

“Currently, those experiencing domestic violence may have to set up several appointments to seek help through numerous providers, which can be very difficult for these victims,” said Teresa Drake, director of the clinic, a nationally recognized educator on domestic violence and a former assistant state attorney with the Eighth Judicial Circuit in Florida, where she served as division chief for the domestic violence unit. “The staff at the clinic will conduct comprehensive needs assessments to determine what services are required and guide them through each process. The services provided by the clinic will include medical treatment, mental health and housing counseling, and legal consultations regarding protective injunctions, child support and court proceedings.”

According to a 2007 Uniform Crime Report, more than 2,300 incidents of domestic violence occurred in the clinic’s service area, which includes Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Gilchrist, Levy and Union counties. Existing legal service providers were able to respond to only 951 requests for legal assistance in 2007, leaving as many as 1,349 documented domestic violence victims with unmet legal needs.

“These problems are not unique to the Eighth Circuit, or to Florida,” said Theresa Harrison, executive director of Peaceful Paths. “All around the country, domestic violence survivors fail to receive the needed services, often because the process of contacting the separate providers, attending appointments and following up is just too overwhelming. We hope the clinic will serve as a model for service delivery in other jurisdictions where survivors’ needs are unmet.”

To meet the objectives of the grant, the clinical collaboration will develop protocols and cross-training procedures for clinic staff, develop and implement domestic violence curriculum and training throughout courses within the law and medical schools, and conduct community outreach by providing information about the clinic in targeted locations throughout the service area.

Those impacted by domestic violence in the six-county service area should call 1-800-393-SAFE (7233).

The lecture will also be Webcast live via a link on the UF Law home page, and an archived version will be available online following the event.

Tickets for the lecture are being distributed on a first-come, first-served basis by the Office of Student Affairs until all 700 have been picked up. In order to be eligible for a ticket, students need to present to the Office of Student Affairs a valid law school UF ID. Only one ticket will be available per student and students are not allowed to pick up tickets for other students. Please pick a ticket up only if you plan on attending the event.

Details about the lecture and other events related to Justice Thomas’ visit were sent to the law school community in an e-mail last week. Students with questions should contact the Office of Student Affairs at 352-273-0620. Any other questions, including media inquiries, should be directed to the Communications Office at 352-273-0650.

For the most up-to-date information on ticketing, policies and procedures check your e-mail and the UF Law homepage.