Mary Jane Angelo
Professor of Law

Angelo has been chosen to be the “2011 Sustainable Food Systems Summer Scholar” at the Vermont Law School.

Angelo presented “Building a Resilient Agricultural System to Adapt to Climate Change” at the First Annual Fall Colloquium on Environmental Scholarship at Vermont Law School on Friday, Oct. 22.

Angelo published “Water Quality Regulations and Policy Evolution” (with Kati Migliaccio) in Water Quality, Concepts, Sampling, and Analysis (Yuncong Li and Kati Migliaccio, eds., CRC Press 2010).

Dennis Calfee
Alumni Research Scholar & Professor of Law
“UF law professor succumbs to cancer” (Nov. 20, 2010, Gainesville Sun)

“Colleagues remember law professor” (Nov. 22, 2010, The Alligator)

Calfee spoke with the Gainesville Sun and The Alligator, offering memories of Professor Moffat as a dedicated and beloved professor at UF Law.

Robert Jerry
Dean; Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law
“UF law professor succumbs to cancer” (Nov. 20, 2010, Gainesville Sun)

“Colleagues remember law professor” (Nov. 22, 2010, The Alligator)

Dean Jerry spoke with the Gainesville Sun and The Alligator, offering memories of Professor Moffat as a dedicated and beloved professor at UF Law.

Joseph Little
Emeritus Professor
“Nonlawyers on JNC raising eyebrows, red flags” (Nov. 18, 2010, Daily Business Review)

Florida’s process for appointing members of judicial nominating commissions has come under increased scrutiny after the news that a member of the 4th District Court of Appeal’s judicial nominating committee was revealed to have been involved in a Ponzi scheme. Little commented on concerns raised about Anthony V. Pugliese III, a real estate developer who was appointed to the Palm Beach Circuit judicial nominating committee.

From the article:
His limited understanding of the judicial system doesn’t surprise Joseph W. Little, a professor emeritus of constitutional law and the judiciary at the University of Florida School of Law.

Pugliese was a gubernatorial appointee and as such was required to meet only two basic requirements. Crist’s choice must be registered to vote and live within the commission’s jurisdiction.

“That being the case, it’s highly political,” Little said. “These are people the governor believes, first, are competent, second, they lean in the direction the governor leans in.”

Daniel Sokol
Assistant Professor
“State-Sponsored Competition Is New Antitrust” (Nov. 22, 2010, The Street.com)

Sokol commented on the changing nature of antitrust laws in the modern world in this article that explores state-sponsored competition between companies.

From the article:
Antitrust law historically has responded to advances in economics,” says David D. Sokol, assistant professor of law at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. “Unlike the 1950s or 1960s, antitrust today does not assume that merely because you are big, you are bad: You have to harm consumers.”

Michael Allan Wolf
Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law
“Adverse possession case in Sarasota County” (Nov. 23, 2010, Sarasota Herald-Tribune)

Wolf commented on Florida’s adverse possession law, a statute that has been on the books since 1869 in Florida. Although the law allows for abandoned property to be claimed and maintained by an outside party, people have recently been taking advantage of the law by moving into or renting out homes in foreclosure; counting on the original owners not to notice.

From the article:
The law is basically a statute of limitations, said Michael Allan Wolf, a real estate expert at the University of Florida School of Law. If a property is abandoned and the owners do not notice within seven years that someone else has moved in, the squatters can file to claim ownership.

The squatters are required to pay taxes, fix up the property and maintain it.

“It’s not designed to encourage people to steal other people’s property,” said Wolf. “That’s a side effect.”

Wolf said he was worried that the state Legislature would try to throw out the law due to the recent attention it has garnered. One lawmaker tried unsuccessfully to take the law off the books last year.

The Lawyer's Running Club, better known as Running with Lidsky, shows off their matching shirts before an afternoon jog. (Photo by Vincent Massaro)

If you see a group of law students – and maybe a few professors – running away from the law school, it’s not a mass exodus. It’s just Running with Lidsky – and they’ll be back.

On Friday afternoons, Stephen C. O’Connell Chair and Professor of Law Lyrissa Lidsky’s group of law school runners can be seen circling Lake Alice a little after 2 p.m. during fall and spring semesters, forging connections with each other and maybe blowing off a little steam from the previous week.

Lidsky – who started the weekly running club in the fall of 2008 – said the weekly runs have been more rewarding than she ever expected them to be. As her schedule became increasingly busy over the years, it was becoming more difficult to make time to connect with students on a personal level, Lidsky said, and thought a running club might provide her with such an opportunity.

“I just really appreciate the chance to get to know students whom I wouldn’t otherwise know, to have a relationship with them that’s less formal than it normally is,” she said, “it’s just been very valuable for me.”

Lidsky also points out the health benefits – it helps keep her blood pressure down and manages stress – and the unexpected benefits of an unofficial mentoring function among the students.

“It makes connections between students who might not otherwise meet, particularly between 2L and 3L students with 1Ls,” she said. “The 3Ls can say ‘I’ve been through this, you’re going to get through this, it’s ok.’”

Second-year law student Chris Grobbel agrees, saying Running with Lidsky is “a great social environment where like-minded people get together in pursuit of a common goal.”

“Law school is a stressful time for just about everyone, so an activity that is healthy, reduces stress, and empowers practitioners to deal with the mental challenges of law school is a pretty ideal match in my book,” he said.

And Grobbel is taking an active role in seeing that Running with Lidsky continues. He registered the club as an official organization with the University of Florida, which puts it in a position to keep growing.

Grobbel said registering as an official UF organization comes with its benefits. The group is a finalist for a Pepsi Refresh $15,000 campus improvement grant, which would be used to install an exercise circuit around Lake Alice for anybody on campus to use. And he said they hope to be a budgeted organization soon, which would provide opportunities for sponsoring races or bringing speakers to campus.

Although the new name for the club – the one UF officially recognizes – is the Lawyer’s Running Club, Grobbel said it will always be known as Running with Lidsky.

“Professor Lidsky is really the driving force of our organization, we would not be where we are but for her,” he said, adding, “that’s a torts joke by the way.”

The group meets on Fridays at 2 p.m. at the UF Law campus. The group size varies, but a good week will have 10 to 15 people running, Lidsky said. The group’s jog takes them on a 5k route – a little over three miles – around the west side of Lake Alice, over to Gale Lemerand Drive, then back up Village Drive to the UF Law campus. Lidsky said it is usually about a 30-minute commitment, depending on how fast one goes. And student affairs provides Gatorade for the group afterwards.

Lidsky stresses the fact that anybody in the law school is welcome and that the group accommodates people of all abilities. She said some people choose to walk while others run; either way is fine.

“All abilities, all ages, all speeds,” she said.

For the most up-to-date information about Running with Lidsky, look at its Facebook page, which will have any changes or updated information about meetings.

Francisco Valdes returned to UF to speak to a group of faculty and students. (Photo by Joey Springer)

A grey, collarless shirt fits snugly to his slim, athletic build, and his salt-and-pepper hair is tied up in a pony tail as Francisco Valdes (JD 84) backs away from the lectern, then shifts on his heels and paces forward.

He extends his arms to his left and grabs the ideas hanging there; he reaches to his right, grasping the historical figures who loiter nearby. These phantoms were Valdes’ dancing partners as the University of Miami law professor lectured Monday, Nov. 15, to a group of faculty at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Valdes, 55, returned to his alma mater to speak to faculty and students as founder and a leader for 15 years of the LatCrit legal scholarship movement, which attempts to expand the bounds of law beyond what Valdes sees as the “conventional, domestic-only, unidimensional” confines of race, gender or sexual orientation.

“It is an effort to instill the consciousness and the practice of coalitional analysis and politics — and action,” he explained.

Valdes believes LatCrit has influenced legal scholarship by conducting conferences that promote the work of junior scholars rather than senior ones, by helping students lay the groundwork for entry into the academic world and by highlighting the cooperative nature of legal research.

“We’ve tried to promote the idea that scholarship is produced in tandem with others — the ‘democratic’ exchange of ideas, not the ‘imperial scholar’ sitting alone in your room,” he said.

In the practical world of politics and judges, Valdes called the elevation of Justice Sonia Sotomayor an important landmark, but whether she will make a substantive contribution to the law is yet to be determined.

“She is the first woman of color ever to be on the Supreme Court,” Valdes said. “Beyond that, which is to some extent symbolic, the jury is out.”

And while LatCrit’s name points toward legal scholarship of problems facing Latinos (or as Valdes would have it “Latinas/os”), Valdes said the scholarship is intentionally “borderless.”

The January 1995 issue of the California Law Review was devoted exclusively to Valdes’ widely cited work, “Queers, Sissies, Dykes and Tomboys: Deconstructing the Conflation of ‘Sex,’ ‘Gender,’ and ‘Sexual Orientation’ in Euro-American Law and Society.” The work also represented Valdes’ dissertation for his doctorate of law from Stanford Law School.

UF Law Professor Berta Hernández-Truyol, who has worked with Valdes to spearhead the rise of LatCrit as an academic movement, noted the difficulty of placing an article in the California Law Review, let alone having an entire issue devoted to one’s work.

“Frank is a key figure in the critical legal movement touching on race gender, sexuality, queerness, gender, religion, class – all of the axes on which people are or can be subordinated,” Hernández -Truyol said.

The goal of LatCrit is to oppose the subordination of groups through legal policy and social action, he said. Valdes notes that laws “discriminate” or “differentiate” as a matter of course: Certain people are allowed to enter the men’s bathroom; others are allowed to enter the women’s. It is when rules and laws structurally or systematically subordinate one group to another that they fall afoul of justice. And justice, Valdes says, is his animating mission.

On Monday, Valdes glided among the ideas and characters of American constitutional law and history to explain his theory of anti-subordination as integral to the original Constitution. It is the idea that the Founding Fathers developed the structures of the document — the separation of legislative and executive powers, the division of federal and state responsibilities — in a bid to protect any one group from being structurally subordinated by any other, and to prevent the establishment of a caste system in the new republic. At that time, it was meant to protect Southerners from being overwhelmed by Yankees and vice versa, the rich from the poor, plantation owners from merchants.

Valdes emphasizes that at the time of the founding documents, the policies applied to a narrow polity —mainly white property-owning males in the different ex-colonies. But as the polity opened up after the Civil War with passage of the 14th Amendment, including its Equal Protection clause, the word equality enters the Constitution and the notion of anti-caste or anti-subordination was made textually explicit for all groups in society.

Valdes is a left-wing scholar, but he puts forward an originalist argument — more often associated with conservative legal analysis — to help correct what he considers to be the distortion of Equal Protection jurisprudence.

It is with originalism that Valdes hopes to persuade judges to abandon an interpretation of the Equal Protection clause that leads to Supreme Court victories almost exclusively by white people who file suit under the 14th Amendment to stop, as he says, “democratically adopted remedies for invidious discrimination.” He explains that “reverse” discrimination plaintiffs wrongly win these cases because of judicial conflation of remedial or “antisubordination” discrimination with “invidious” discrimination — or subordination itself. Valdes cites the pervasive and entrenched socioeconomic advantages of whites in American society as “evidence” against claims that they are structurally or legally subordinated.

And while he has hopes for social change, Valdes does not expect it to come over night.

“Legal scholarship is never about changing the world tomorrow but about changing the world over time. So, whether it’s LatCrit or anything else, the project in legal scholarship cannot be about the social results you personally can see in your own lifetime but about helping to chart a path towards them,” he said.

Law alumni share kind, encouraging words with 1Ls
The Florida Fund sent out an e-mail blast to University of Florida law alumni recently asking them to share some encouraging things to pass on to 1Ls. They have shared stories from job success to exam advice. Read them here.

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.

Alyson Flournoy
Professor of Law; Director, Environmental & Land Use Law Program
“How much will BP oil spill change offshore drilling in Gulf?” (Nov. 13, 2010, Orlando Sentinel)

In this article, which explores what the future of oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico might hold regarding prevention and safety, Flournoy commented on federal regulation and reform to help prevent future spills.

From the article:
Alyson Flournoy, a University of Florida law professor and principal contributor to a BP disaster report by the Center for Progressive Reform think tank, said federal regulators must be given far greater authority and additional resources to drive reform.

“Within the U.S. legal system, industry has had incentives for safety, but obviously they haven’t been enough,” she said.

Paul R. Gugliuzza
Visiting Legal Skills Professor
Gugliuzza presented his paper, “The New Federal Circuit Mandamus,” at the Florida Legal Scholarship Forum on Saturday, Nov. 13. The conference was hosted by Stetson University Law School.

Lyrissa Lidsky
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair, Professor of Law
“Request for documents in church case denied” (Nov. 10, 2010, Ocala Star-Banner)

A former church teacher at Open Door Community Church has been charged with 19 counts of sexual abuse against minors. The prosecutor in the case suspected the church leaders were warning its members about the possible financial consequences for the church’s future in a case like this, and tried to subpoena all written correspondence regarding the case. The defense argued such a request was a violation of free speech.

From the article:
“The balancing tends to come down in favor of law enforcement in the interest of prosecuting crimes,” said UF law professor Lyrissa C. Lidsky, who teaches First Amendment law. “That [accusation of child molestation] is such a serious crime and of such great public interest, I don’t think there’s much weight to any First Amendment case.”

Diane Mazur
Professor of Law
“The Other ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’” (Nov. 10, 2010, The Weekly Standard)

This article discusses the issue of the lack of ROTC on college campuses from the point of view that some campuses have banned the organization. Mazur’s opinion that there is no ban is referenced in the story.

Kenneth Nunn
Professor of Law
“Back off barbershop raids” (Nov. 13, 2010, Orlando Sentinel)

In the Orlando area, several barbershops have been raided with relatively little criminal activity uncovered; the most common arrest being for “barbering without a license.” Some feel that the police are being overzealous in their recent tactics; which have been reported to be unnecessarily aggressive and unfair. The police department denies being overly aggressive, but admits that some aspects of the raids could have been done better.

From the article:
Kenneth B. Nunn, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, calls the sweeps a case of “over-policing.” An expert in criminal law and race relations, Mr. Nunn called the deputies’ “response to allegations of barbering without a license … unnecessarily intrusive and overbroad.”

Michael Seigel
Professor of Law
“Request for documents in church case denied” (Nov. 10, 2010, Ocala Star-Banner)

A former church teacher at Open Door Community Church has been charged with 19 counts of sexual abuse against minors. The prosecutor in the case suspected the church leaders were warning its members about the possible financial consequences for the church’s future in a case like this, and tried to subpoena all written correspondence regarding the case. The defense argued such a request was a violation of free speech.

From the article:
“I suppose at some point you could argue the state is acting to harass a religious organization merely to harass it, or prevent it from congregating. Presumably that could rise to a level of denial of a constitutional right,” said University of Florida law professor Michael L. Seigel, who teaches evidence and criminal law.

“But, frankly,” he added, “that would have to be an extreme situation. You would have to induce some significant proof to carry the day that the government’s activity has amounted to such a burden.”

Jeanne T. Tate
Adjunct Professor of Law
“Jeanne T. Tate: Consider Adoption” (Nov. 17, 2010, The Gainesville Sun)

Tate recently wrote an editorial promoting awareness and encouragement of adoption for the more than 123,000 kids in foster care in need of loving, forever homes.

From the article:
From my vantage point as a Florida-licensed adoption attorney for more than 28 years, what we need is continued momentum that elevates our collective consciousness toward adoption and in the direction of what I affectionately refer to as a “forever family.” Without this heightened awareness, too many of our precious kids currently mired in foster care will see their adoption hopes and dreams vanquished, as they simply “age out” of the foster care system upon reaching their 18th birthday.

Michael Allan Wolf
Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law
Wolf presented the Boehl Distinguished Lecture in Land Use Policy, Phi Beta Kappa Lecture, at the The University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law Thursday, Nov. 11. His lecture was entitled “Private Property and Public Protection: The Brandeisian Alternative.”

Longtime Professor of Law Robert C. L. Moffat passed away Nov. 14 after a long illness.

University of Florida Levin College of Law Professor and Affiliate Professor of Philosophy, Sociology and Criminology and Law Robert C. L. Moffat passed away Nov. 14 in Gainesville after a long illness.

Moffat joined the University of Florida Law School in 1966 as an assistant professor before being promoted to associate professor in 1968 and tenured professor in 1971. During his nearly half-century teaching career at UF Law, Moffat specialized in law and public policy, jurisprudence, criminal law and law and morality.

Moffat leaves behind a lasting legacy of numerous articles, publications, speeches and presentations on a wide variety of topics, but his memory will also live on through the people’s lives he impacted throughout his years as a law professor.

“Professor Moffat cared deeply about his students, and took a great deal of personal satisfaction in their achievements. The depth of his love for teaching and his affection for his students were demonstrated by his reluctance to leave the classroom even in the last days of a severe and painful illness,” said UF Law Dean Robert Jerry.

His devotion also spread to his colleagues in the legal field and to the ongoing pursuit of knowledge.

“Bob had the respect of his colleagues as a dedicated and serious scholar. His immense knowledge of the legal philosophies of Lon Fuller and other influential theorists was of great benefit to those of us who sought refreshment from time to time on jurisprudential issues,” said Stuart R. Cohn, John H. & Mary Lou Dasburg Professor of Law and Associate Dean for International Studies at the Levin College of Law. “At the same time his feet were firmly implanted in the here and now and he was able to bridge chronological and philosophical gaps for the benefit of his students and in his scholarly articles. He was devoted to the law school and his students and he will be sorely missed.”

After earning his B.A., M.A. and L.L.B. from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he was editor-in-chief of the Southwestern Law Journal, Moffat went to the University of Sydney in Australia to earn his LL.M. Moffat was a Fulbright Scholar from 1962-1964 and earned First Class Honors when he graduated in 1966.

Among the many professional memberships and offices of which Moffat was a member over the years, the longest running was the American Section of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy. He joined the organization in 1966, served as executive director from 1987-1999 and was elected president of the organization for the 2003-2005 term.

Moffat consistently contributed to the world of academia throughout his extensive career, with his most recent article, “Searching for Substantive Justice: Lessons from Lon Fuller’s Natural Law,” being published in the April 2010 issue of the Iowa Journal of Gender, Race & Justice.

Moffat is survived by a son, Iain, and daughter, Kaaren.

A memorial service will be held Thursday, Dec. 9, at 2 p.m. at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in downtown Gainesville.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions in Robert Moffat’s memory be made to the Professor Robert and Janette Moffat Memorial Scholarship in Law, University of Florida Foundation, Inc. Attn: Gift Processing, PO Box 14425, Gainesville, FL 32604.