The conference will bring together 35 or so scholars, practitioners, and representatives of international organizations from 20 or so countries to present papers in their areas of specialized expertise. Claire M. Germain, UF Law associate dean for legal information and Clarence J. TeSelle Professor of Law, will present “Issues of Translation” at the conference. This conference will provide information on multiple levels — understanding the rules of the CISG, the application of the CISG by signatory countries, theoretical insights, and its use by international transactional attorneys. It will also include a presentation by Luca Castellani, legal officer in the Secretariat of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, on the substance and status of complimentary conventions. Total available CLE credits: 14.5 CLE credits. For more information, visit the webpage. To register, click here.

“It was putting everything under the sun to do in one summer,” she said. “I wanted to make the most of my summer. I wanted to take classes, I wanted to travel and I wanted to work. The (summer in France) program allowed me to do all three of these things.”

And as the applications for UF Law’s three summer study abroad programs open this month, Leventhal stressed how important it is for law students to seek an international perspective.

“As much as we like each other, it’s nice to have a different perspective and act as an ambassador of sorts,” she said.

While students take classes at French universities in the France program, Leventhal said Gators who fear speaking French needn’t worry. Classes, which are attended by a mixture of American and French students and taught by both French and American professors, are taught in English.

“You definitely don’t need to speak French. Thank goodness for that because my French is awful,” Leventhal said. “But it’s always nice to understand what people are saying around you.”

UF Law’s Associate Dean for International Affairs Stuart Cohn, who will also teach a class this summer in France as part of the 2012 program, elaborated on Leventhal’s mention of foreign classes, saying learning with foreign students is one the program’s best assets.

“Our students interact with foreign students. Our students get a sense of practicing law in a foreign country…and they do this all in a marvelously beautiful place,” Cohn said. “It’s an extremely enriching experience academically, culturally and personally.”

UF also offers the only American Bar Association-approved American summer program with the University of Cape Town in South Africa as well as a summer program in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Aside from the academics Leventhal described as “just as rigorous” and meaningful as classes as UF Law, students who are selected for UF’s three study abroad programs have a privilege not many other law students have. They get foreign culture, foreign food and they get world-class art.

It’s not every day you can see the Mona Lisa after classes. “There is really a strong sense of French pride and French culture that really just came about from walking around,” Leventhal said. “And (Montpellier) is still maintained in medieval style, but it’s presented in the 21st century.”

And if the medieval architecture of a 1,000-year-old city isn’t enough, Leventhal is quick to note another difference between taking classes in north central Florida and taking classes in the south of France.

“The schedule is definitely very student-friendly, travel-wise,” she said. “You can go to Barcelona for the weekend; you can go to Italy for the weekend.”

In the end, Leventhal’s trip across the Atlantic was more than taking six credits toward her law degree. It was a life-changing experience she’s eager to share with everyone. And when fellow students learn about insurance law on Wednesday, run with the bulls in Pamplona on Saturday and flit off to Amsterdam another weekend, it’s not hard to understand why Leventhal’s so eager to share those experiences.

“It’s not just five weeks in a beautiful country,” she said. “It’s so much more.”

Cohn said students who would like more information on any of UF Law’s three summer study abroad programs should email Michelle Ocepek, student programs director, at ocepek@law.ufl.edu or visit the summer programs’ website at http://www.law.ufl.edu/students/abroad/.

Applications for UF’s programs in Cape Town, France and San Jose are due March 23.

UF Trial Team members, from left, Trae Weingardt, Tara Tedrow, Anita McNulty, and Brandon Rose placed second in the 12th Annual National Trial Advocacy Competition at Michigan State University College of Law. (Photo by Nicole Safker)

The UF Trial Team sent third-year law students Tara Tedrow, Anita McNulty, Trae Weingardt and Brandon Rose Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 to the 12th Annual National Trial Advocacy Competition at Michigan State University College of Law. The four students competed as advocates and witnesses, alternating roles depending on which side they were assigned to represent during trial.

Though nearly 55 teams applied to compete, the tournament selected only the top 28 teams from law schools around the nation. After trying two defense cases and one prosecution case during the preliminary rounds, the top eight teams were selected to move on to the quarterfinal round.

UF progressed to the quarterfinals, where the prosecution, represented by Anita McNulty and Trae Weingardt, won the trial and the team moved on to the semifinals. The defense, represented by Tara Tedrow and Brandon Rose, won the semifinal round, pushing the team to the national finals, narrowly missing first place in a split decision.

On Oct. 14 at UF Law in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center Courtroom, the Trial Team invites the law school community as it celebrates the addition of 15 new members and recognizes the outstanding performance of its Final Four Competitors for an exhibition at 1 p.m. Arguing for the prosecution will be Benjamin Baird and Zachary Jellson, and for the defense, Stephanie Koffler and Katie Thomason.

The Trial Team is honored to announce the presiding judge, Judge Jonathan Gerber (JD 93), of the 4th District Court of Appeal. Judge Gerber is former Trial Team president at UF Law who has generously provided his support to the Trial Team over the years.

The Trial Team is grateful to its esteemed jury panel and sponsoring law firm of Rumberger Kirk & Caldwell for their continuing and generous support of the Final Four Competition. A panel of attorneys from Rumberger Kirk & Caldwell will determine the award recipients and verdict, and will provide advice to the competitors.

In the book, Belkin describes reaching out to Mazur who is also co-director of the Palm Center, a University of California research center on military issues headed by Belkin. He sought her legal expertise regarding the possibility of President Barack Obama issuing an executive order to end the policy.

“Within days, Mazur got back to me with good news. In 1983, Congress had passed a statute colloquially known as the ‘stop-loss’ law. (Formally, it’s 10 U.S.C. § 12305, Authority of the President to Suspend Certain Laws Relating to Promotion, Retirement, and Separation.) Under this law, the president has the right to modify or suspend any statute relating to military separations during times of national emergency…,” wrote Belkin.

Mazur said her research was controversial across the political spectrum. Opponents of repeal objected to presidential authority because they wanted to keep the policy in force, but even repeal supporters fought the executive order option. In How We Won, Belkin explained that gay advocacy groups feared alienating Obama and so backed his position that he had no legal authority to suspend the policy unilaterally.

Media sources picked up on Mazur’s research after its publication by the Palm Center. Coverage included television reports by Rachel Maddow, Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” and CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Journalists questioned White House press secretary Robert Gibbs for weeks on why the president would not sign an executive order, Mazur said.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Belkin cited the executive order proposal among the most important factors turning the tide toward repeal.

“Unlike some other issues that require 60 Senate votes, President Obama had the option to suspend DADT via an executive order. Once the public learned this, a lot of heat was directed his way, and this pressure helped rededicate the White House to a legislative solution,” Belkin said.

Mazur’s recent book, A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger, available from Amazon.com and Oxford University Press, offers a comprehensive look at the military, the Constitution and the health of the all-volunteer force.

UF Law demonstrated diversity efforts in the areas of Hispanic enrollment, student services, reputation, faculty and retention rate.

“I am delighted to see that in my time as member of this faculty enrollment of Latinas/os at the college of law has doubled to better reflect the long-standing and increasing diversity of the state of Florida,” said UF Law Professor and Comparative Law Director Pedro Malavet.

“As the flagship state law school, we have a particular obligation to contribute to the delivery of legal services to our state and its citizens; that purpose is best served when our student body looks more like our state,” he said. “Given that Hispanics are the fastest growing group of Americans, a state like Florida, which is well ahead of this demographic curve, should be educating the next generation of leaders of the legal profession in our country.”

The most recent example of this is evident in UF Law alumnus Stephen N. Zack (JD 71). Zack is immediate past-president of the American Bar Association and the first Hispanic-American to hold the position in the organization’s 130-plus year existence, and was also the first Hispanic-American to be elected president of The Florida Bar. Throughout his career, Zack has been a tireless advocate of equal access to justice and upholding the constitutional rights of every citizen.

Last month, former Gov. Bob Graham and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor joined Zack in the ceremony naming Stephen N. Zack Hall at UF Law. The naming followed a gift of $800,000 from Zack and his firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner. The gift will go toward establishing an endowment fund to promote diversity at UF Law. The endowment will come to $1.3 million when it is eventually matched by the state.

UF Law has been ranked in the HispanicBusiness Best Schools for Hispanics top 10 list nine out of the past 11 years. Additionally, the law school is home to several student organizations that emphasize Hispanic diversity: Latin Law Students, Caribbean Law Students Association and the International Law Society. UF Law also participates in the UF Law Minority Mentoring Program and the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida.

Hap Shashy (JD 73), chief counsel to the IRS from 1990 to 1993 and now Partner in Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP, explains the debt and deficit to UF Law students and faculty during the Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Lecture on Friday, Sept. 30. Watching are Eric Solomon, assistant secretary for tax policy in the U.S. Treasury from 2006 to 2009, now director of Ernst & Young LLP's National Tax Department; and Lindy Paull (JD 79, LLM 80), former Senate Republican Finance Committee staff director and chief counsel, now principal at PriceWaterhouseCoopers. (Photo by Kimberly Burroughs)

The federal debt and deficit are rising to never-before-seen heights, and this reality is driving Congress and the president to get serious about deficit reduction. Despite a newfound determination from the political class to deal with the problem, the way forward for federal taxes and budgets remain uncertain, according to three experts who spoke at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Students, faculty and staff filled the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180, for the second Ellen Bellet Gelberg Tax Policy Lecture on Friday, Sept. 30, when three experienced Washington hands laid out their insights on tax and budget policy.

Click here for a webcast of the lecture.

Annual spending exceeding government revenue – what’s known as the deficit – has been customary since World War II, explained Hap Shashy (JD 73), chief counsel to the IRS from 1990 to 1993 and now Partner in Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP.

Shashy pointed to two line graphs showing the deficit bouncing along with a small gap between spending and revenue through most of the post-war period. Until, that is, came an economic shock to the system.

“The deficit transcends time, it transcends political parties … and it also transcends different versions of the tax system,” said Shashy, who sits on the Levin College of Law Board of Trustees. “And then the meltdown hits and the Great Recession hits and that’s when the deficit – the gap – became very big, unsustainable, and got everybody’s attention and people started thinking seriously about what needs to be done with it.”

Three years since the economic meltdown of 2008 and the national debt has grown rapidly, equal to about 100 percent of the economy’s yearly output. Even after the economy recovers from its current doldrums, rapidly expanding health care costs and interest on the national debt will keep deficits high, Shashy noted.

This rapid increase in the debt and deficit has spurred on initiatives such as the House-Senate supercommitee, charged with finding $1.5 trillion in deficit reduction through 2021, said Lindy Paull (JD 79, LLM 80). Paull was Republican staff director and chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Finance Committee from 1986 to 1998 and is now principal at PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP where she guides clients through the governmental tax and regulatory thicket.

“The debt is something a lot of people have started to seize on – the growth of the debt, the size of the debt relative to the size of the economy,” Paull said. “And that’s why I think you see a lot of alarm bells going off with policymakers, while you really didn’t see that in the early days of deficits.”

Shashy said solving the problem is likely to include a combination of spending cuts, tax increases and growth for the economy.

How much of any of these elements will contribute to solving the debt-and-deficit problem remains uncertain because of political deadlock over whether to raise taxes; upcoming elections that could alter the political landscape; the knotty issue of tax reform; and the confusing nature of budget deficit and debt projections.

One way to slice through this problem could be a value added tax.

“There has been testimony before Congress that all roads lead to a VAT,” Paull said. “Economists believe they don’t impact economic growth the way income taxes do.”

A VAT, which 140 other countries employ, is similar to a national sales tax but the tax is applied at each level of production. It could raise $3 trillion to $7 trillion in 10 years and that money could be used to lower income tax rates, to lower the deficit or be directed toward health care costs, which many other countries use VAT revenues for, Paull said.

Following other countries in using a VAT for health care costs could make sense in the American context because Medicare and Medicaid represent the largest drivers of the debt, Paull noted.

And then there is the option of comprehensive tax reform. Comprehensive tax reform is often used as shorthand for eliminating deductions for individuals and corporations to simplify the system. Deductions tend to encourage behavior that isn’t optimally productive so the more deductions, the less efficient the economy.

Though it is only 10 percent of the nation’s tax revenue, corporate taxation policy takes up a seemingly much larger percentage of the tax policy debate, said Eric Solomon, assistant secretary for tax policy in the U.S. Treasury from 2006 to 2009, and now director of Ernst & Young LLP’s National Tax Department.

He said the corporate tax system is widely blamed for encouraging American companies to keep overseas profits overseas because companies are taxed if those profits are brought home. Converting to a territorial tax system, which other major economies use, might help solve that problem. The repatriating of American companies profits could create jobs, increase economic growth and thus restrain the deficit.

While altering the tax system might goose economic growth, it almost certainly would redistribute the tax burden. But it might not raise much more revenue for the government as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product.

Another of Shashy’s graphs showed that taxes raised by the government as a percentage of GDP have stayed constant at about 18 to 19 percent of GDP. Sashay, the former IRS counsel, notes that every change in the tax regime since World War II has prompted a change in the behavior of taxpayers so that roughly the same percentage of national income goes to the taxman.

“That’s the business you’re going to be in pretty soon: Responding to tax changes, helping tax payers figure out some way to navigate this morass we call the U.S. tax system,” Shashy told UF Law students.

Gelberg (LLM 77), who sponsors the lectures, was a practicing tax attorney and partner in the firm of Lamont Neiman Interian & Bellet, P.A., which has offices in both Miami and Boca Raton. She is a member of the Levin College of Law’s Board of Trustees.

The lecture series examines tax policy and how its implementation affects the economy and people’s lives as well as the underlying policy considerations that lead to the tax rules, which tax professionals deal with everyday. Gelberg holds a J.D. and an LL.M. in taxation from the college of law.

Hina Jilani, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, speaks at the sixth annual Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The lecture is tomorrow at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180. It is free and open to the public.

Jilani’s work in the area of children’s rights has included working for legal aid, proposing and drafting reformative legislation, and creating and implementing programs that protect the human rights of disadvantaged groups. She is responsible for establishing the first all-women’s law firm in Pakistan in 1981. According to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Jilani has been under 24-hour-a-day surveillance by Pakistan since 1996 because of her activism in women, children and human rights movements.

Jilani held the position of special representative of the United Nations secretary general on human rights defenders from 2000 to 2008.

In 2006, Jilani was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on Darfur, Sudan, and in 2009, was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict. She is also affiliated with the Carter Center and the UN Conference on Women. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Editor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement by The Lawyer Awards in London.

The Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law was made possible by an endowment supported by Frank G. Finkbeiner (JD 72) and T.W. Ackert (JD 72).

Walter Weyrauch, who passed away in 2008, was a distinguished professor of law at UF Law. Originally from Germany, Weyrauch joined the UF Law faculty in 1957 as associate professor. He became professor in 1960, was Clarence J. TeSelle Professor 1989-1994, and became Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in 1994 and distinguished professor in 1998. He was named an honorary professor of law at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Germany, and was visiting faculty at the University of California, Berkeley; Rutgers University School of Law and University of Frankfurt.