Spend an evening with pioneers of U.S. Civil Rights Movement
The University of Florida Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR) and the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program (SPOHP)* present “An Evening with the Dues: Pioneers of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement” Wednesday, Feb. 16, from 6-8 p.m. with a reception and book signing followed by lecture in the Buddy and Anne McKay Auditorium of Pugh Hall. The event honors the work and legacy of Patricia Stephens Due and John Due. The Dues will discuss their lives, work, and the future work that needs to be done for social justice. In 1960 Patricia Stephens Due and four other students from Florida A&M University made history when they served 49 days in jail after being arrested for sitting-in at a lunch counter. Ms. Due and her fellow protestors refused to pay a fine and instead chose to go to jail in order to highlight the injustice of legal segregation. This was the first jail-in of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and the beginning of Mrs. Dues work fighting for human and civil rights in America. Ms. Due and her husband, civil rights attorney John Due, have fought for human rights since their days on the campus of Florida A&M University. Ms. Due is the recipient of many awards, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Outstanding Leadership, the Ghandi Award for Outstanding Work in Human Relations and the NAACP Florida Freedom Award. John Due is a 1963 graduate of the FAMU College of Law. *UF event co-sponsors: African American Studies Program; Bob Graham Center; Center for African Studies; Center for Women’s Studies & Gender Research; Department of Anthropology; George A. Smathers Libraries; History Department; and the Office of the Provost.

JMBA hosts student-faculty-alumni softball game and picnic Saturday, Feb. 19
Join local alumni, students and faculty Saturday, Feb. 19, at 3:30 p.m. at Westside Park, as the John Marshall Bar Association hosts a picnic and friendly game of softball between students, alumni and faculty. Many local alumni are expected to attend, which will provide a valuable networking opportunity for students, and include local alumni in the UF Law community. Please check back for more details as they become available.

Princeton Review seeks input from law students
The Princeton Review has once again named the University of Florida Levin College of Law one of the best law schools in the nation. Distinguished schools will be profiled in the 2012 edition of Best Law Schools. In order to help them represent UF Law accurately, please fill out the following survey to author a new “Students Say” profile and update our ratings.

Save the date for UF APALSA Annual Conference
The University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Asian Pacific American Law Students Association will host its second annual UF APALSA Conference March 23-26. The forum on Labor Trafficking with keynote speakers and a film will take place March 23-24, a leadership development and philanthropy fundraising event will be held March 25, and the conference will close March 26 with an outdoor event and Southeast APALSA Mixer. Please visit https://sites.google.com/site/ufapalsa for more information. To volunteer or be part of the program, please contact Thao Tran, president, at Thao.Thanh.Tran@gmail.com or Nguyen Luu, professional development chair, at nguyen1698@gmail.com.

That opportunity is a judicial clerkship, and on Tuesday, Feb. 1, the North Central Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, along with the Center for Career Development, hosted a Federal Judicial Clerk Roundtable to present information on clerking.

The roundtable included three graduates of the University of Florida Levin College of Law. Larry Dougherty (JD 09) served as editor-in-chief of Florida Law Review before clerking for Judge Charles Wilson of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit and now practices in Tampa.

Lindsay Saxe (JD 09) was also a member of Florida Law Review, where she served as research editor and then executive notes and comments editor. She is clerking for Judge Steven Merryday of the United States District Court of the Middle District of Florida.

Midori Lowry (JD 94) has made clerking her career, and has clerked for Judge Stephan Mickle, of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Florida, since 1998.

Also participating in the roundtable was Stephen Smith, a 2010 graduate of Vanderbilt University Law School. Smith clerks for Magistrate Judge Gary Jones of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Florida. Judge Jones, who is also the current president of the North Central Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, attended the event, and gave opening remarks.

Dougherty said his experience with the law taught him that one of the most important abilities that an attorney can possess is being able to predict how cases will be resolved.

While clerking, he said that he was able to constantly observe why and how decisions were made, and that opportunity has allowed him to understand the law and the processes of the court system much better.

This allows for more accurate advice, and as Dougherty said, “your counsel, your judgment and your advice are obviously the most important things you can offer your client.”

The decision to clerk instead of practice immediately is an important decision, and one that requires a great deal of thought. Lowry was able to get a taste for clerking while in law school when she served as a clerk in Ocala for the 5th Judicial Circuit after being chosen by the Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, which sponsored the clerkship.

She also volunteered as a clerk in Gainesville for the 8th Judicial Circuit before clerking for Judge Mickle. The chance to look at cases from an objective standpoint was one of the things that first drew Lowry to clerking.

“One of the best things about it is that if you are lawyer, you’re always trying to put the law in the light most favorable to your client,” Lowry said. “But when you’re working for the court system, you remain neutral and just go with where the law takes you. So there’s something very pure about it, and it’s just wonderful to do.”

The advantages to clerking don’t stop after the clerkship is over, either. Firms and other employers hold former clerks in high regard, as do other employers, so clerking can be an excellent addition to one’s resume.

Saxe said that in law school, she would often interview with firms who would ask why she was interested in practicing in their area of Florida. Being from Ohio, and having worked in Washington, D.C., prior to law school, she was not able to come up with much other than being at UF and liking Florida.

“I’ve been in the process of looking for a job in Tampa, and have found that it has made a huge difference,” she said. “I know I would not have gotten some the interviews I’ve been able to get without the clerkship.”

Considering the advantages that clerking provides, it should come as no surprise that clerkships are highly sought after, and that getting one is not easy for anyone. Smith recommended that students get to know their professors well, as letters of recommendation can be very important.

“I’m not saying go to office hours every single week,” he said, “but I think something that is important is getting to know your professors, even if that’s only going up after class and introducing yourself after the first week or so.”

Smith was speaking from experience, saying that he had not done this enough during his first two years of law school. “When they told us to start looking around for people to recommend us, I was caught off guard.”

At this point, Judge Jones chimed in to say that he called the professors who had recommended Smith, and had had an in-depth conversation with them.

“I think more and more judges are doing that,” Jones said, “and that was certainly a very valuable part of Steve’s application.”

Jones also mentioned the importance of references being able to say something about the applicant as an individual, and not merely mention that the student received a high grade in class.

Urofsky, author of “Louis D. Brandeis: A Life,” provided insights and anecdotes of the many phases of Supreme Court Justice Brandeis’ long career. Brandeis helped invent the modern law firm, moving the field to a more specialized profession and introduced the idea of pro bono legal practice. Brandeis was a linchpin of reform with his involvement in creating the Federal Reserve Act, the Clayton Antitrust Act and the Federal Trade Commission.

Urofsky’s book is the “best biography of one of the greatest justices and, more importantly, one of the greatest lawyers and citizens in the history of the U.S.,” UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf said.

While researching Brandeis’ four public careers — lawyer, reformer, Zionist, and judge — proved easy, Urofsky said “getting at Brandeis the person was the hardest part of this book.” Brandeis had four very public careers and a very private life.

While introducing Urofsky, Wolf credited his good fortune with the opportunity to meet Urofsky in the late 1980s while the two worked in Virginia. Urofsky is the “kind of scholar and person who brings people within the zone of his influence and gets people to do things they were not intending on doing,” Wolf said. “And they are happy about it.”

Urofsky is currently a professor of law and public policy and a professor emeritus of history at Virginia Commonwealth University and was chair of the history department.

“It’s surreal for me because I’m sweating, my heart is beating out of my chest and I’m not even the one that could be going to prison,” Schaffnit said.

During these moments of apprehension, Schaffnit, who owns a private practice in Gainesville specializing in criminal defense, is reminded why he chose to be a trial lawyer.

“I got into the law to be in a courtroom, to be amongst other lawyers and to do battle,” he said.

It was this passion that drove him to accept a job as an assistant public defender in the 8th Judicial Circuit of Florida during his third year at UF Law.

The job came with no health care benefits or retirement plan, but it provided Schaffnit with ample opportunity to be in court.

“There is no better place to get courtroom experience than as a prosecutor or assistant public defender because the sheer volume of cases dictates that you would be in the courtroom a lot,” he said.

Schaffnit’s first assignment was to represent juveniles in Alachua and Levy counties and mentally ill defendants in the circuit’s mental health courts. While still pursuing his degree, he rode his motorcycle across county lines to make it from his classes to courtrooms and mental institutions.

John Kearns (JD 72), an attorney at the public defender’s office at the time of Schaffnit’s hiring, first met Schaffnit when he was a highly involved undergraduate at the University of Florida.

Schaffnit brought Kearns in to meet with the Gainesville division of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Kearns began to notice Schaffnit’s passion for the law and his drive to help those less fortunate.

“I admire that (Schaffnit) is one of the few people who knew they wanted to be a lawyer from an early age and pursued it,” Kearns said about his good friend. “He gained an excellent reputation at the public defender’s office and has become an outstanding state and federal litigator.”

It was in juvenile court that Schaffnit said he learned the most about the law and his ambitions. During a hearing, he objected to one of his clients being taken into protective custody by the state and was challenged by the judge to open up his home to the young defendant. Schaffnit agreed and became a registered foster parent for three years.

Schaffnit previously volunteered as a mentor in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program.

“I was on a lot of committees geared toward helping the kids who needed it and this was just taking it to the next step,” Schaffnit said.

During his eight-year tenure with the public defender’s office, he defended clients in cases ranging from traffic infractions to a “gruesome” first-degree murder.

After observing what he calls a “higher bar” during his time at the public defender’s office, Schaffnit made Gainesville his home.

“I have the opportunity to be civil or friends with people that would normally be my adversaries because the judges (in Alachua County) hold the attorneys to such high standards,” Schaffnit said. “Usually this will lead (lawyers) to respect each other.”

In 1984, Schaffnit opened a private practice so he could take more cases in the United States District Court and challenge himself.

“In federal court, you have no discovery depositions and you have to think on your feet,” he said. “This definitely excited me because it’s almost a David versus Goliath situation.”

Since opening his practice, Schaffnit has argued and filed briefs at every level of the state and federal courts, except for the Supreme Court of the United States, where he has only filed briefs.

Fletcher Baldwin Jr., emeritus professor of law at UF’s Levin College of Law, was glad to see his friend and former student stay in Gainesville.

“(Schaffnit) has done a lot for Gainesville and the university over the years,” Baldwin said. “He gives back to the community and values friendship.”

Schaffnit has judged and lectured in UF Law’s trial and appellate advocacy programs. He takes the opportunity to prepare the students for the realities of practicing law, whether or not they ever go to trial.

“The best advice I can give (law students) is to be honest, have integrity and to always make sure what you’re representing is the truth,” he said.

Schaffnit, 58, gave up racing motorcycles at the request of his wife, Brenda. They have one son, Brian, 27.

Schaffnit has found new hobbies in wine tasting and sailing, which he hopes to do more once he retires.

A longtime fan of the Gators and member of the Gainesville Quarterback Club, Schaffnit still enjoys going to UF’s athletic events and his Saturday walks to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium during football season.

“I like being in a town that is dominated by a university. If (Gainesville) had a beach, I would retire here.”

On Sunday, Jan. 30, about 25 students, faculty and friends gathered at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and his wife, Lisa, for UF Law’s annual Music Night.

Students swapped their casebooks and highlighters for guitars, cellos, trumpets and even feather boas and silly hats in a display of the multitalented nature of the student body at Levin College of Law.

The event was free to attend and open to all students and faculty, but there were a few conditions: To get in the door, you had to bring a dessert and be willing to perform a musical act. Performances included classical concertos, a John Denver sing-along and a scene from the Broadway musical “Wicked.”

Dean Jerry explained that the event, which he has hosted — with a few interruptions — for about ten years, was inspired by a similar practice of Austrian composer Franz Schubert. Schubert, he said, was known for opening his home to friends to nurture their creativity.

For the first performance, Dean Jerry played on the piano an original song entitled “Undeleted House,” enlisting the help of Professor Leonard Riskin on the maracas. He was followed by eight student performances. After the performances were through, guests shifted their attention to the myriad desserts on display in the kitchen.

Dean Jerry said that the aim of the event was to get students and faculty together and share experiences unrelated to law or the classroom. He said that he is consistently impressed by the wide range of musical talent on display at Music Night.

Makar, approaching his fourth year as solicitor general, spoke of the five cases his office litigated that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009. Makar personally argued four of them.

“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” he said about having more than one case reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Makar said the Supreme Court hears around 80 to 90 cases a year, and that Florida has averaged less than one case a year for the last 30 years.

This makes Makar’s five cases in one year a tremendous accomplishment for the state. Makar even said that the woman working in the U.S. Supreme Court cafeteria saw him so many times that she assumed he worked there and offered him employee pricing.

As for what it is like arguing before the court, Makar said, “It’s like being a pingpong ball in a room full of pingpong paddles,” referring to how rapid the examination can be during a session.

Makar argued his first U.S. Supreme Court case Florida Department of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc., during the 2007-2008 term.

Makar’s next two cases, Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida, both dealt with juveniles who were given life sentences in jail without parole for committing non-homicidal criminal acts.

The following case, Stop the Beach Renourishment Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, discussed the issue of homeowners who were against the reconstruction of the beach that their houses rested on. The plaintiffs argued that the owners would be forced to establish a property line if the beach was replenished instead of just adopting the larger piece of sloping property that had begun to erode. Stop the Beach lost.

This case inspired a cartoon in The Washington Post by Tom Toles showing a state worker pouring sand onto the beach, saying, “We’re giving what’s left of your beach, and your house some protection, courtesy of the taxpayer,” and one of the homeowners protesting, “That’s a taking.”

Holland v. Florida, Makar’s most recent case, examined the one-year statute of limitations under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Holland won.

When talking about the work he had to do to ready himself for the cases, Makar stressed one word: preparation.

“If you’re prepared,” Makar said, “you can go in front of any judge in any court.”

While he did say that the U.S. Supreme Court is “the most advocate-friendly environment,” Makar emphasized what a “tremendous amount of work” each case required.

“It wasn’t just me,” he said, referring to the other lawyers who helped research and prepare for the cases.

Each case required two to four people for the brief-writing process, and sometimes up to 25 drafts were written, he said.

During his time at the U.S. Supreme Court, Makar had several sketches done of him while he was litigating. He said that his favorite image of the courthouse, however, was one of his 9-year-old son standing on the steps in front of the building holding a briefcase and bearing a wide grin.

As solicitor general of Florida, one of Makar’s duties is to serve as a law professor at the Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee.

“I just love the learning process,” he said. “‘The learning is never over’ is my philosophy.”

Even though he now has ties in Seminole Country, Makar still reflects on his days as a Gator at the Levin College of Law. While he was in law school, Makar founded and served as editor-in-chief for the University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy.

What was one thing that helped motivate him? “Burrito Brothers,” he said after his talk. He said he would push himself to study just a little bit longer or a little bit harder because he knew his reward would be a big burrito at the end of the day.

Although Makar has been busy and one would assume stressed, he said that “the only downside of the job is that it has an end.”

Hollywood superstar and philanthropist Angelina Jolie saw her as a children’s rights advocate instead.

Ten years since coming to the United States, Nozile returned Jan. 30 to her home country as the first Jolie Legal Fellow.

Sponsored by the Jolie-Pitt Foundation, this year-long fellowship places Nozile as a special assistant to the Haitian government. Her job is to ensure the rights of vulnerable Haitian children. She may also have the option to continue in the position after she completes the first year.

Nozile said “there was no time to be star-struck” when she met Jolie.

There was work to be done.

“A lot of kids are lost in the system in Haiti. Children who are in conflict with the law need representation,” Nozile said. “They need an advocate, they need a lawyer pushing through to make sure their voices are heard.”

And Nozile knows first-hand what it is like to be a vulnerable Haitian child.

When Nozile was 3, her mother died giving birth to her younger brother, leaving her father as the sole provider of five young children. However, her father was not in a position to provide for such a large family. He had no training, no education and no employment. Nozile and her siblings often went without food because her father could not afford to feed them.

“I think my situation, or, my dad’s situation, unfortunately, is very much common in Haiti,” Nozile said, “and that’s why you have children being put in precarious situations; just because of poverty, because their parents aren’t really able to take care of them.”

Jolie, who selected Nozile for the position, pointed to UF Law graduate’s life experience as a key to her work in Haiti.

“As a promising attorney, she will draw on her personal experience as she returns to help strengthen the Haitian judicial system,” Jolie said in a news release. “Nathalie will be working to help ensure equal access to justice and the protection of children’s rights in Haiti.”

Vulnerable Haitian children may be kidnapped or sold into servitude, prostitution or slavery due to “increased insecurity” in the country because of the earthquake, according to a Feb. 2 report from the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Struggling over the decision, Nozile’s father decided to send Nozile and two of her siblings to the Santo SOS Children’s Village, part of a nonprofit organization in 132 countries and territories dedicated to providing long-term care for children unable to grow up with their biological families.

According to Nozile, SOS provided her with a family, a home, a free education and “just a wonderful environment for children to be raised in, protected from anything that potentially goes wrong in countries such as Haiti.”

And so it was in this environment that Nozile grew up from the age of 3 until she was 16 years old, when she was granted permission to live in the United States and moved to Philadelphia. Her father had received refugee status from U.S. immigration six years earlier and Nozile was reunited with him.

Nozile attended Penn State University for her undergraduate degree and completed her law degree last year.

The plan was always for her to go back to Haiti and practice law, but after the earthquake that shook her island nation to its core, Nozile questioned whether going to law school was the right thing for her to have done with her life.

“There was all this devastation, and truly at that point lawyers weren’t giving very much help,” she said. “So I had that moment of doubt thinking that maybe I made the wrong career choice in wanting to become a lawyer and not a doctor.”

Nozile remembered the days when her SOS mother called her the “Devil’s advocate” because she used to always take someone’s side in a discussion, even if the discussion didn’t directly pertain to her. She said that her SOS brothers and sisters knew she wanted to be a lawyer since before she can remember.

“I realized that being a lawyer is actually one of the most important things that you could be in Haiti,” she said.

“(For example) … If there had been better (housing) codes or better enforcement of those codes if they existed … a lot less people would have perished. And the people who would have made those (housing codes) happen are lawyers,” Nozile said.

Similar to when she was a young girl growing up in Santo, Haiti, Nozile continues to say things to spark discussion.

Jonathan Blocker (JD 09), met Nozile in 2009 through the Black Law Student Association after she transferred to UF Law. Blocker stays in contact with her through social media outlets, such as Facebook.

“She pops up in news feeds with a news article about a new topic (about Haiti) fostering discussion and awareness,” Blocker said.

“She goes outside of the mainstream news sources,” he said. “I learned a lot more about the island just from her Facebook.”

And according to one of Nozile’s former professors, Elizabeth Rowe, associate professor of law and director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law, other students can learn a lot from Nozile as well.

“They should be inspired by her story, be motivated to follow their dreams, and work to make it happen,” Rowe said. “Nathalie was able to secure a nontraditional legal job right after law school and those positions don’t come easily. It was her persistence and her willingness to discover options for her career that may not be part of the mainstream that led her to this amazing opportunity.”

Nozile said simply: “I am ready to go to work.”