Donate canned goods and personal items for ElderCare of Alachua County
The Journal of Law and Public Policy is collecting donated goods for ElderCare of Alachua County. ElderCare maintains a pantry of non-perishable items to assist struggling seniors with basic needs. The pantry accepts donations of canned goods, as well as personal items (paper towels, toilet paper, toothpaste, deodorant). ElderCare provides a wide range of services for the elderly including: meals, assistance with household chores, legal support and transportation. Collection boxes are located in the foyers of the Journal Offices and also the Legal Information Center. Donations will be delivered to ElderCare on Friday, Nov. 19. For more information about ElderCare, please visit their website.

Deadline for applying for Yegelwel Fellowship extended to Dec. 3
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. A generous gift from UF Law alumnus Evan Yegelwel, who graduated in 1980, has made this fellowship possible. Mr. Yegelwel is a partner in the Jacksonville law firm of Terrell Hogan Ellis Yegelwel, PA. The fellowship will last eight to 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. 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. First-year students are encouraged to apply for the fellowship, subject to verification of successful completion of their first-year courses prior to the start of the Fellowship term. The student must also pass a background check. To apply, please submit the following: (1) a personal statement of 500 words or less outlining any past experiences or qualifications that indicate your interest in and commitment to public service; (2) a resume; (3) two references (including names, addresses and phone numbers); (4) an official transcript and (5) a letter verifying good academic standing. Please submit a hard copy of these items to Patricia Hancock in HOL 340. If you have any questions, contact Melissa Bamba, CSRRR Assistant Director, at 352-273-0614 or bamba@law.ufl.edu.

Space still available for London Law Consortium
There is still room in the London Law Consortium, Spring Semester Study Abroad Program, which takes place from Jan. 10 – April 29, 2011. For more information on this program, check out the website. To discuss this opportunity, contact Michelle Ocepek in the Office of Student Affairs – HOL 164, ocepek@law.ufl.edu or 352-273-0620.

Jeffrey Davis
Professor of Law
“Troubled horses face loss of St. Augustine home as Ponzi scheme impacts nonprofits” (Nov. 5, 2011, The Florida Times-Union)

Five non-profit organizations in the St. Augustine vicinity are being required to return substantial donations that were originally made by Lydia Cladek. Cladek is believed to have been involved in a Ponzi scheme involving $100 million in losses.

From the article:
Demanding that donations be returned when businesses end up in trouble may be happening more due to the economy and the uncovering of more Ponzi schemes, said Jeffrey Davis, law professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. “It doesn’t matter whether the bankruptcy has started yet. If you are insolvent, you are not supposed to be giving your money away,” Davis said. “If you don’t pay your creditors, the people who you gave the money to have to cough it up.”

Charlene Luke
Assistant Professor of Law
Luke was published in the ABA Section of Taxation News Quarterly. Her article, “Three Once and Future Issues,” is featured in Vol. 30, No. 1, pg. 1 (2010).

Jon Mills
Dean Emeritus; Director, Center for Governmental Responsibility
“Summit to tackle dangers of Internet” (Nov. 5, 2010, Gainesville Sun)

Mills commented on the potential dangers of the online world for children. He was the keynote speaker at Trinity United Methodist Church’s “Summit on Internet Safety, Keeping Your Family Safe Online” on Sunday.

From the article:
“There’s a massive misunderstanding of the dangers of the Internet, from the fact that when people are browsing, they’re being tracked automatically, to social networking that can harm people in employment and harm students in their application for university,” Mills said. “The Internet can be a very dangerous place, and people just assume it’s safe and confidential.”

He said when most people think of surfing the Net, they see themselves with a cup of coffee in their warm den or office. Instead, they should think of it as being lost in a dark, dangerous neighborhood, where people are ready to rob them or hurt them. And for children, it’s especially dangerous.

Mills cited as one example of the dangers of the Internet the recent suicide of Tyler Clementi at Rutgers University after his liaison with a male student was posted by his roommate, via a webcam.

Michael Siebecker
Associate Professor of Law
Siebecker will be presenting “A New Discourse Theory of the Firm After Citizens United” Wednesday, Nov. 17, at the University of British Columbia National Centre for Business Law.

Michael Allan Wolf
Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law
“At Legal Fringe, Empty Houses Go to the Needy” (Nov. 9, 2010, The New York Times)

Wolf commented on the concept of adverse possession, when someone takes over property that has been abandoned or the owners are unreachable. It is a growing concern in the Florida real estate market as people move into foreclosed homes that have sometimes been abandoned for years. An 1869 Florida statute also says if property isn’t claimed by the original owner within seven years, the person who seized the property becomes the rightful owner.

From the article:
Michael Allan Wolf, a real estate expert at the University of Florida law school, said adverse possessors also disrupt the chain of title. Rightful owners end up having to evict tenants. The time between foreclosure and legitimate resale may be extended. Even when adverse possessors help stabilize neighborhoods, “It is not an effective or efficient cure for the foreclosure crisis in Florida,” Professor Wolf said.

Radio interview with the CBS Radio Affiliate in Seattle (Nov. 9, 2010, KIRO FM 97.3, The Ross and Burbank Show)

Wolf was interviewed based on the New York Times article to discuss the activities of “Save Florida Homes Inc.” and the legal justification behind adverse possession law. Wolf’s segment starts around 11:30 out of 36 minutes.

Wolf is presenting a work in progress, “History Counts: Four Questions for the Stop the Beach Plurality,” to a faculty workshop at the University of Louisville Brandeis School of Law on Friday, Nov. 12.

Guest speakers addressed the criminalization of homelessness and what it being homeless generally means at a panel Wednesday, Nov. 3

Some of the University of Florida class of 1960 stand with Dean Bob Jerry, far left, at the Grand Guard alumni lunch Friday, Nov. 5. (Photo by Joey Springer)

Fifty years ago, the Fredric G. Levin College of Law was simply the College of Law.

Fifty years ago, the law school was housed in Bryan Hall on University Avenue and S.W. 13th St.

Fifty years ago, the law curriculum took two years instead of three years to complete.

And now fifty years later, the College welcomed backsome of the members of the University of Florida class of 1960.

Eight UF Law and UF alumni joined Dean Robert Jerry for a Grand Guard luncheon on Friday, Nov. 5, in the faculty lounge. Alumni not only caught up on old times, but they also learned of new developments with the law school and discussed new developments in the legal profession.

They also made some light-hearted jokes.

“There are only two requirements to be in the Grand Guard,” said Ray Ferrero Jr. (JD 60). “One, that you graduated for the first time from the University of Florida in 1960, and two, you have to be alive.”

The luncheon was filled with jokes likes these, laughs and memories of times spent at UF. Alumni included emeritus professors, various committee members and current Chancellor of Nova Southeastern University, Ferrero Jr.

Although he spends his time at a different college campus, being on the UF campus reminds Ferrero Jr. of how “blessed I and my family have been to get our education from the University of Florida. I’ve made great friends, including my former law partner, and it’s an honor to be back on campus.”

The class of 1960 witnessed a decade of triumphs and lows, from Senate passing the landmark Civil Rights Act to the emergence and assassinations of former President John F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The ’60s was a time of increased political participation by college students around the country, which sparked more interest in the field of law. Students started demanding rights, holding protests against the Vietnam War and burning brassieres to refuse to conform to society.

And now, more than 70 years each in age, these alumni can witness the changes that have occurred both inside and outside of the College of Law throughout their lifetimes. Whether labeled a hippie or feminist or civil rights activist or serviceman, all members of the class of 1960 have something in common: a foundation in the Gator Nation.

Jane Gravelle discusses corporate tax issues at the inaugural tax policy lecture Friday, Nov. 12. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

During Friday’s inaugural Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Lecture at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, guest speaker Jane Gravelle was quick to point out that she wasn’t talking about lunch when she discussed Google’s recent “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich.”

The terms refer to strategies that the large corporation recently used to avoid the United States’ 35 percent corporate income tax, said Gravelle, senior specialist in economic policy in the Government and Finance Division of the Congressional Research Service. Instead, they moved profits through Irish and Dutch companies and they eventually settled in Bermuda where Google paid a much lower 2.4 percent corporate income tax.

Gravelle focused on Google’s recent headlines to illustrate current tax policy issues strategists are dealing with in her lecture titled “The Corporate Income Tax – A Persistent Policy Challenge.”

“This is what we face today with the corporate tax is these tax schemes that exploit our laws and other countries’ laws in order to essentially avoid tax on their income,” Gravelle said. “So that has made the international issue a very important part of corporate tax policy right now.”

“Do we make the issue international corporate tax policy?” Gravelle asked. “And does that dominate all the decisions we make, or can we still think as an independent country about our corporate tax and its implications for the domestic economy?”

Gravelle also went on to present the origins and evolution of corporate tax in the United States from its inception in 1909 up to the present day.

Gravelle was the first lecturer to participate in the new lecture series at UF Law.

“It’s a most auspicious beginning for this incredibly important tax policy lecture series to have a speaker of this stature, experience and wisdom of Jane Gravelle,” said Michael Friel, associate dean and director of the Graduate Tax Program at UF Law. “Her work has been extraordinarily influential and important in the economics of taxation with focus on tax policy, economic growth and resource allocation.”

The Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Lecture Series is an endowed lecture series that examines tax policy and how its implementation affects the economy and people’s lives. Gelberg, who holds a J.D. and LL.M. in taxation from UF Law, established the lecture series to bring distinguished lecturers to the college each year to speak on tax policy topics to students and faculty, and provide a special opportunity for reflection on the policies supporting the U.S. tax structure.

“The series is designed to enhance awareness of tax policy issues and encourage you – our students – to make the examination and advancement of tax policy a central part of your careers, thereby improving the tax code and making it more reflective of the financial concerns of all Americans,” said UF Law Dean Robert Jerry.

Gelberg is a practicing tax attorney and partner in the firm of Lamont Neiman Interian & Bellet, P.S., which has offices in Miami and Boca Raton. She is the co-chairperson of the South Florida Tax Litigation Association and a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

The lecture is available as an archived webcast and can be viewed at the UF Law homepage.