While the idea sounds absurd today, up until the 1940s it was not uncommon for property deeds to include clauses that restricted the sale of property to whites only. In 1948, the Supreme Court ruled against these racially restrictive covenants and the practice was outlawed in 1968 by the Fair Housing Act.

Yale and Arizona law professor Carol M. Rose will discuss, “Property Law and the Rise, Life, and Demise of Racially Restrictive Covenants,” at the sixth annual Wolf Family Lecture on the American Law of Real Property at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The lecture will be March 13, at 11 a.m. in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center courtroom, and will also be available as a live webcast. The event is free and open to the public.

The Wolf Family Lecture will offer valuable insights for property law students, as well as those interested in constitutional law and students involved with the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations.

Rose is the Gordon Bradford Tweedy Professor Emeritus of Law, and Organization and Professorial Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School, and the Lohse Chair in Water and Natural Resources at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. Her book, Saving the Neighborhood: Racially Restrictive Covenants, Law, and Social Norms (Harvard University Press), which she co-authored with Yale Law Professor Richard Brooks, will be available March 11.

The Wolf Family Lecture Series was endowed by a gift from UF Law Professor Michael Allan Wolf, who holds the Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law, and his wife, Betty. Wolf is the general editor of a 17-volume treatise, Powell on Real Property. The treatise is the most referenced real property treatise in the country and is cited regularly by the courts, including several citations in the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Wolf family’s strong ties to the University of Florida date back to the 1930s, when Wolf’s father, Leonard Wolf, was a UF undergraduate. Since that time, two more generations of his descendants have made their way to Gainesville to study and work.

Past scholars who have delivered the Wolf Family Lecture in the American Law of Real Property include Thomas W. Merrill, Charles Evans Hughes Professor of Law at Columbia Law School; Gregory S. Alexander, A. Robert Noll Professor of Law at Cornell Law School; Lee Fennel, Max Pam Professor of Law at the University of Chicago; Joseph William Singer, Bussey Professor of Law at the Harvard Law School; and Vicki L. Been, Boxer Family Professor of Law and director of the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy at New York University School of Law.

Eugene Pettis (JD 85), the president-elect who will become the first African-American to lead The Florida Bar, speaks to area youth at the second annual Youth Law and Justice Conference on Feb. 26. (Photo by Maggie Powers)

By Felicia Holloman (3L)

UF Law hosted the second annual Youth Law and Justice Conference on Feb. 26. The day-long event brought more than 70 local middle and high school students to campus for discussions raising awareness of legal issues affecting today’s youth.

Students, legal practitioners, and faculty filled the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom for a welcome by Eugene Pettis (JD 85), the president-elect who will become the first African-American to lead The Florida Bar.

Pettis encouraged students to seek success, whatever their circumstances and hurdles.

“You cannot be afraid to succeed,” Pettis said. “Even if your family is not there to bridge your success, you must not let that define you.”

Pettis also offered a few of his early life experiences as proof, such as overcoming a speech impediment to become a successful trial attorney.

“I was able to reach deep within and grab something that is within each of us. I believed in myself,” Pettis said.

After a motivational opening, students were split into groups and dispersed to classroom workshops. In one workshop, students re-enacted a criminal proceeding. Three students played attorneys defending a student who was arrested for gang activities in a park. Three other students played prosecutors, while the rest of the class was split into witnesses and jury members.

Canaan Goldman, an assistant public defender, presided as judge over the mock trial and offered guidance to the groups.

“You are going to have to figure out what is a ‘gang’ and what is an ‘activity,’” Goldman said.

The proceeding sparked lively debate among the groups and ended with the acquittal of the defendant.

The students also attended a workshop focusing on handgun laws and provided students a chance to discuss their views on how to limit gun violence.

Kristofer Eisenmenger (JD 09), an assistant public defender, reviewed gun laws, particularly weapons that may be frequently used by teenagers. The topic triggered a flurry of questions about potato guns, air soft guns, and even slingshots.

Meanwhile, Caroline Zapiec (2L) educated students with facts about handguns, including that the U.S. has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world.

“Every day, about 32 people die due to a gun-related act,” said Zapiec.

Dane Ullian (2L) then presented the students with a hypothetical situation to change the gun laws in a fictional town. Student opinions ranged from allowing open carry of weapons to installing strict gun licensing laws.

The conference was presented by the Josiah T. Walls Foundation, in partnership with UF Law’s Black Law Student Association, Caribbean Law Student Association, Criminal Law Association, Association of Public Interest Law, and The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Law Student Division.

A leading legal expert from Georgetown University Law Center will discuss the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, during the 32^nd annual Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Randy Barnett, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, will present the lecture, “Who Won the Obamacare Case (and Why Did So Many Law Professors Miss the Boat)?” Friday, March 22, at 10 a.m.in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Florida Law Review.

Barnett has written and commented extensively on the Affordable Care Act and represented the National Federal of Independent Businesses as their case against the ACA was presented before the Supreme Court last spring. In addition to discussing the decision’s general implications, Barnett will look at fundamental misunderstandings he perceives among the legal academic community regarding the decision’s import. Barnett’s lecture precedes an article of the same name to be published in an upcoming edition of the Florida Law Review.

The Florida Law Review Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law series was established by the U.S. Sugar Corporation and the law firms of Dunwody, White, & Landon, P.A. and Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody & Cole in honor of Elliot (JD 33) and Atwood Dunwody (JD 33). The honorees were brothers who dedicated their lives to the legal profession and who set a standard of excellence for The Florida Bar. As graduates of the University of Florida College of Law, they labored long, continuously and quietly to better the social and economic conditions in Florida.

The series is intended to perpetuate the example set by the Dunwody brothers by providing a forum for renowned legal scholars to present novel and challenging ideas.

An archived video of the Dunwody Lecture will be available at www.floridalawreview.com following the event.

The following blog post is published with permission by Don Barry, executive vice president of the Defenders of Wildlife, who participated in the 19th Annual Public Interest Environmental Conference at UF Law Feb. 21-23. The blog is viewable here: http://www.defendersblog.org/2013/02/reflections-on-40-years-of-the-endangered-species-act/. 

Last week, I participated in one of the most enjoyable and illuminating environmental conferences that I have attended in the last 20 or 30 years. The students at the University of Florida law school organized and hosted a riveting two-day conference on the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and it resulted in a reunion of some of the legal and scientific pioneers who helped shaped the ESA into what it is today: the strongest federal environmental law in the country.  I was asked to be one of the opening keynote speakers, having worked on the ESA for more than 39 years in a variety of positions in the Executive Branch, on Congressional staff and with the non-profit conservation community.

When I arrived at the Department of the Interior in 1974, right out of law school, and started working as a career lawyer for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the ESA was only a few months old, having been enacted with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress in December of 1973. Once on board at Interior, I had the incredible good fortune of being assigned the task of helping FWS draft the core implementation regulations that to this day guide the Service’s methods for protecting wildlife with the prohibitions and inter-agency consultation sections of  the ESA.  Given that 2013 is the 40th anniversary of the ESA, my part at the law school conference was to look backwards and describe the early years under the ESA, and then take a look at where things stand today.

There were several things that made this conference extraordinary from my perspective.  First was the chance to listen to such iconic early ESA litigators like Zyg Plater and Pat Parenteau, now both law professors at New England law schools.  Zyg was the attorney that took the famous snail darter case against the Tellico dam all the way to the Supreme Court where he won a resounding victory. His case set the precedent that federal agencies MUST avoid putting endangered species in jeopardy of extinction.  Pat was similarly involved in some of the earliest, most important court victories under the ESA that reaffirmed the obligations of federal agencies to avoid actions that would jeopardize such iconic species as endangered whooping cranes and Mississippi sandhill cranes.  In addition to Zyg and Pat, there were other riveting keynote presentations made by some of the country’s most renowned conservation biologists like Dr. Carl Safina and Dr. Reed Noss.

But the most rewarding part of the conference was getting the chance to spend time, as brief as it was, with the law students who had spent so much of their time organizing and hosting the event on top of their already crushing workloads at school. When I asked a number of the conference organizers what had motivated them to take this heavy responsibility on, and what had attracted them to the ESA, the answers were always the same:  that they had grown up loving nature and wanted to apply their developing legal skills to help preserve this country’s disappearing natural heritage.  To a person, despite a discouraging job market and crushing levels of debt coming out of law school, they hoped that they would be able to embark on a career of environmental law.

I am now in the twilight of my long and rewarding professional career and I often wonder – and sometimes worry – about who will eventually step up and become the new advocacy voices for our voiceless imperiled species, once veterans of past ESA battles like Zyg and Pat and Carl and Reed and I are gone?  My time spent among the law school students at the University of Florida has now given me my answer: A whole new generation of advocates is ready – they are eager, they are committed, they care. Whether as future citizen activists in their communities or as attorneys for the environmental community, the Florida law school students and other wildlife activists like them across the country are ready to take on the challenges of the next 40 years of the ESA, and to leave their mark for conservation.  This issue is ultimately about this country’s values as we stand at a conservation crossroads: one road leads to extinction, the other leads to recovery, and the choice that needs to be made is so painfully clear. It is reassuring to me – and should be to all who care for the future of imperiled wildlife – that the values that enabled us 40 years ago to commit so fully to protecting wildlife, are still present in today’s young men and women, and they will ultimately find their way to help this country once again make the right choice.

More than a year after the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, legal, social and cultural questions raised by the case are still being discussed across the country. The Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations will analyze a number of these questions during the 10^th annual CSRRR Spring Lecture, which will bring together experts from nine different departments at UF along with keynote speaker, New York Times op-ed columnist Charles Blow.

“At Close Range: The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin,” will take place March 20, at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180. The panel presentations will be from 9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and Blow’s keynote lecture will be from noon to 1:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and law school parking restrictions will be lifted in the green lots.

The panels will look at a wide variety of issues raised by the case, from a multitude of academic perspectives. Some of the featured panels include “Jim Crow Riding High: The 21^st Century Assault on African-American Voting Rights in Florida,” “Half-Baked: Weed, Race and the Demonization of Trayvon Martin,” and “Racial Profiling, Security and Human Rights.”

“The Trayvon Martin case is a social touchstone precisely because it serves up topics we’re uncomfortable talking about in public, including race, crime, policing, interracial crime, use of deadly force, black crime victims, Southern race relations, media representations of race, and gun control,” said Katheryn Russell-Brown, director of the CSRRR and Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law. “The case offers an important opportunity for us to learn about, discuss and debate these myriad and overlapping issues. Our Spring Lecture event will contribute to the national discussion of the case and emphasize policy recommendations.”

The departments of political science; health services; philosophy; sociology, criminology and law; journalism and communications; history; English; anthropology, and African-American studies will all be represented. The academic papers, which comprise the basis for the panel discussions, will be compiled for the first installment in a new series in collaboration with UF Law’s Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center. The panel agendas and abstracts for the papers can be seen in the Collections of the UF Law Scholarship Repository at, http://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/csrrr_events/10thspringlecture/panels/. For more information regarding the spring lecture, please visit the CSRRR homepage, http://www.law.ufl.edu/academics/centers/csrrr.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law’s CSRRR is committed to fostering communities of dialogue on race. The center creates and supports programs designed to enhance race-related curriculum development for faculty, staff and students in collegiate and professional schools. Of the five U.S. law schools with race centers, the CSRRR is uniquely focused on curriculum development.

About Charles Blow

After graduating cum laude from Grambling State University, keynote speaker Blow joined The New York Times in 1994 as a graphics editor and quickly became the paper’s graphics director, a position he held for nine years. The Louisiana native went on to become the paper’s design director for news before leaving in 2006 to become the art director of National Geographic Magazine.

Blow often appears on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight, Starting Point and AC360. He has also appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, the Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell and Hardball with Chris Matthews, Fox News’ Fox and Friends, the BBC and Al Jazeera, as well as numerous radio programs.

The Family Law Society, the Center on Children and Families, and Gators for Alternative Dispute Resolution present “Alternatives to Divorce Litigation: Collaborative & Mediation Techniques” today at 1:30 p.m.

The Family Law Society will hold a moderated discussion on dispute resolution techniques in family law cases. Experts and guest speakers Robert Merlin (JD 78) and Elinor Robin will compare and contrast collaborative law approaches and family law mediation. The event will begin with refreshments in the foyer of the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center at 1:30 p.m. The discussion will begin at 2 p.m. in the courtroom.

Email mgoodson@ufl.edu with any questions.

Merlin graduated cum laude from UF Law in 1978. He is board certified in marital and family law and a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Court Mediator. His practice focuses on family law, collaborative family law, family mediation, and guardian ad litem.

Elinor Robin received a Ph.D. in psychology, with a specialization in conflict management from the University of Cincinnati in 2006. She is a licensed Mental Health Counselor and licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, as well as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Court Mediator and Primary Mediation Trainer. Her practice focuses on professional and personal relationship conflict.

Florida ADR Client Counseling Team is top in Florida

University of Florida Levin College of Law students Rachael Simpson (2L), at left, and Katherine Artman (2L) won second place in the 2013 American Bar Association Regional Client Counseling Competition. The students ranked first among law schools in attendance from the state of Florida, including Stetson University College of Law, Florida State University College of Law, Florida A&M University College of Law, and Florida Coastal School of Law. Other schools competing included Emory University School of Law and Mercer University – Walter F. George School of Law.  The competition was held in Ft. Lauderdale on Feb. 9.

Ajay Singh (JD 12) coached the team and Karina Rodrigues played an integral role as the team’s competition strategy coordinator.

The Florida ADR Team, now in its second year competing, also placed fifth, out of 24 teams, at the American Bar Association Regional Negotiation Competition in the fall. The team members were second-year students Elesa Rectanus (2L) and Nick Vargo (2L). Florida’s ADR Negotiation team came out ahead of schools including Emory University School of Law, Florida State University College of Law, and University of North Carolina School of Law.

Florida Moot Court send teams to state, national competitions

Two teams traveled to Las Vegas Feb. 13 for the American Bar Association Regional round. Jessica Andrade (2L), Ryan Gilbert (3L) and Dee Dee Scheller (2L) comprised one team; Ian Dankelman (2L), Danielle Grundt (3L) and Brandon White (3L) comprised another. The teams were coached by Dylan Shea (3L) and Kelsey Veitengruber (3L), respectively. Both teams advanced to the round of 16 before being eliminated.  Dankelman, Grundt and White were awarded the 3rd place brief award.

Zachary Ritz (3L), of the Florida Moot Court team, paired with fellow Tax Moot Court Team members, Caitlin Foster (3L) and Hans Tanzler (3L), competed in the National Tax Moot Court Competition. The team traveled to Miami to compete the weekend of Feb. 9, and placed fifth in the competition.

Megan Coughlin (2L) and Nate Diehl (2L), coached by Ryan Hopper (3L), competed in the National First Amendment Moot Court Competition on Feb. 21-22 in Nashville. They competed well, but did not advance to the finals. Hopper noted, “Megan and Nate were phenomenal and performed with all of the skill, confidence, and class we expect of our advocates. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re capable of competing with the best and winning.”

Nick Andrews (3L), Robbie Boone (3L), and Bob O’Linn (3L), coached by Kristina Gandre (2L), competed in the Cristol, Kahn, Paskay Bankruptcy Cup in Miami on Feb. 23. The team advanced to the semi-finals and placed in third overall. Boone won the Best Advocate Award at the competition. The team competed again in the Duberstein Moot Court Competition in New York over spring break. Results were not available at the time of publication.

Careers with the U.S. Department of State event Wednesday

The Center for Career Development and the International Law Society will host Andrew Passen, a Diplomat in Residence (DIR) with the U.S. Department of State, on Wednesday at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (HOL 180) to discuss career opportunities for students interested in international relations. Students who would like to meet with Passen between 1 and 2:30 in a small-group setting may sign up for a time slot by contacting the CCD. To learn how you can use your law degree to serve and see the world, join the CCD on Wednesday.

Passen has more than 30 years experience in Foreign Service positions and has served in numerous international posts. His first overseas posting was as a Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in the kingdom of Swaziland from 1981-1984. He taught biology, chemistry, and physics to over 700 students in a rural high school. Passen lived with a Swazi family, learned farming, and became fluent in the local language of siSwati. Subsequent positions included serving as a Team Leader of the Baghdad Provincial Reconstruction Team in Baghdad, Iraq. Additional assignments have included Kaduna, Nigeria; Lusaka, Zambia; Bern, Switzerland; Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire; Montreal, Canada; Dakar, Senegal.

Spring Book Awards Ceremony takes place Friday

Created to honor scholastic achievement in legal education, Book Awards recognize the outstanding student in each course at the Levin College of Law. The Book Award Program provides unrestricted funds to support students and student organizations, faculty teaching, research and development, and student/alumni programs and services. Book Awards in Graduate Tax courses provide unrestricted funds to support the Graduate Tax Program. The ceremony is at 3 p.m. Friday at the Reitz Union Auditorium.

Annual Youth Summit slated for Friday

The Annual Youth Summit, sponsored by the UF Law Center on Children and Families and the Criminal Justice Center, will host the Pace Center for Girls – Alachua at the law school Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center. The Youth Summit informs young people about rights, responsibilities and consequences of their actions.

LIC Notes: Research Time Saver: 50-state surveys

Have you ever needed to compare how several states treat an issue for an article or book that you are writing? A 50-state survey may be useful for your research. 50-state surveys compare every state’s law on a specific issue, usually listing the citation to the law and providing a brief summary. If the survey is accessed through an online research platform, such as LexisNexis or Westlaw, the laws will usually be linked to in full.  50-state surveys do not exist for every law, but they can be a time saver when they do exist. 50-State Surveys can be accessed through Westlaw Classic (SURVEYS), Lexis.com, and the UF catalog. If you find yourself in need of a 50-state survey and need assistance locating one, contact your library liaison or call the reference desk at 352-273-0723.

Dean hosts Music Night Sunday

Got a hidden musical talent? Show it off at the upcoming Music Night 2013 to be held Sunday, March 17, at 7 p.m. at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and his wife, Lisa. All students and faculty are invited – but the “ticket” to attend is that you must bring a dessert and agree to perform a musical piece (play an instrument or sing a song). A piano will be available. Each participant can bring one guest. Space is limited, so sign up is on a first-come, first-serve basis. To register, stop by the Dean’s Office and see Doris Perron.

South African freedom fighter to address gay marriage at UF Law

Albie Sachs, retired Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and life-long freedom fighter in the struggle against apartheid, will speak about gay marriage at the University of Florida Levin College of Law Tuesday, March 26 — the same day the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging California’s ban on gay marriage.

“Gay Marriage and the Promise of Equality” will be at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180, with a book signing immediately following. The talk is free and open to the public. Parking restrictions in the green areas at the law school will be lifted for the event.

Sachs’ talk is co-sponsored by UF Law’s Center on Children and Families and UF’s Center for African Studies.

Sachs will also be giving a talk at the Center for African Studies at 4 p.m. the same day. Check FlaLaw next week for more information.

UF Law Alumni and Student Orange & Blue-B-Que

Join your fellow (and future) UF Law alumni at the law school campus on Saturday, April 6, at 11 a.m. (before the spring Orange & Blue Debut football game) for this inaugural event hosted by the Center for Career Development. The CCD hopes to provide an atmosphere that helps foster connections between current and future generations of Gator lawyers. RSVP by March 31 here: Orange and Blue-B-Que RSVP.

Professor Shani King is looking for a research assistant for a short-term project with the potential for more work in the future. Interdisciplinary work is a plus, as the project involves law, history, sociology, and political science. Of particular interest are individuals who have expertise in critical legal studies, organizational, structural and institutional discrimination, and LGBT legal studies. Submit a resume and cover letter and the name of two references (preferably one of whom is a UF law professor) to kings@law.ufl.edu.

Public Justice essay contest awards $5,000 to winner

Public Justice is holding its annual Hogan/Smoger Access to Justice Essay Contest, which gives $5,000 to the winner. The intent-to-enter deadline has been passed, but the essay submission deadline is March 31 for those who met the initial deadline. This year’s topic is “Is Democracy For Sale? Have Citizens United’s holdings run amok? Legal challenges left to Super Pacs? Can funding disclosure be required?”

The winner of the essay contest will receive $5,000, a free 2013 Public Justice Foundation Student Membership, and the essay will be featured on the Public Justice website and in the nationally disseminated Public Justice newsletter. The contest is open to all law students who are currently enrolled in a U.S. accredited law school.

If you have any questions about the essay contest, contact Cassandra Goings at cgoings@publicjustice.net or 202-797-8600.

Tim Center, executive director of Sustainable Florida, standing, facilitates, from left, a conversation among Daniel Rohlf, an associate professor at Lewis & Clark in the school’s environmental and natural resources program; Amelia Savage, attorney at Hopping Green & Sams; John Kostyack, vice president of Wildlife Conservation for the National Wildlife Federation; and Reed Noss, Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Central Florida during a panel on Feb. 22 at the 40th Annual Public Environmental Interest Conference at UF Law. (Photo by Maggie Powers)

By Lindsey Tercilla
Student writer

More than 250 students and environmentalists reflected on 40 years of the Endangered Species Act at the 19^th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference Feb. 21-23.

The conference, which spanned Thursday to Saturday, included multiple panel discussions, a workshop sponsored by The Florida Bar, and training opportunities for attorneys and those outside the legal field.

Tim Center, executive director of Sustainable Florida, facilitated a Friday afternoon conversation among a panel of speakers about the ESA’s future in Florida.

While the act has been a great tool in providing protection for many species, John Kostyack, vice president of Wildlife Conservation for the National Wildlife Federation, observed that the act has not evolved to account for species migration.

“The ESA is one small tool in a larger tool box,” he said. “Ninety percent of the force to change the act will be through economic incentive.”

Kostyack then posed the question of whether or not there is a happy meeting ground for how to change the act.

Amelia Savage, attorney at Hopping Green & Sams, assists developers in acquiring building permits navigating the regulatory process, the legislative arena, or a litigation setting with regard to environmental law. Savage provided a different perspective from the land development and construction side of the argument.

Daniel Rohlf, an associate professor at Lewis & Clark in the school’s environmental and natural resources program, focused on addressing sections four and seven of the ESA. The difficulty comes with defining an endangered species.

“It’s amazing that we still aren’t sure what an endangered species is,” he said.

There’s also the question of how much security we want for species biodiversity.

Classifying endangered species, amending the act, and accounting for a sufficient amount of biodiversity are all at the forefront of environmentalists’ minds. However, one major thing that affects the ESA and environment alike is our ever-growing population.

Reed Noss, Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor at the University of Central Florida, spoke about this growth in relation to new species and our duty to the environment.

“There’s a lot going on simply due to population growth and overconsumption that could lead to the extinction of some species before we’ve even named them,” Noss said. “We are custodians and stewards of the land. The land is not a commodity that belongs to us.”

Keynote speakers for this year’s conference included Carl Safina, founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute and award winning author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross, and Zygmunt Plater and Patrick Parenteau, attorneys in the landmark decision of Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill et al. – temporarily halting the completion of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River in order to protect the snail darter, an endangered species of fish.

The UF Journal of Law and Public Policy will examine this topic more closely at its annual Media Law Symposium on Thursday in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center at the UF Levin College of Law. The event will include a reception at 11:30 a.m., followed by a panel discussion at noon. The discussion, which will include a question and answer period, will conclude at 2 p.m. The event is free and open to students, professors, practitioners and the public.

Panelists include UF Law Professor Lyrissa Lidsky; First Amendment and media law attorney Craig D. Feiser; attorney Kristen Rasmussen, who authored the amicus brief presented to the U.S. Supreme Court for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press; and Col. Michael L. Smidt, staff judge advocate of U.S. Special Operations Command.

This symposium is sponsored by the Florida Free Speech Forum and the American Bar Association Law Student Division at UF Law.

CLE credit will be offered for this event.

UF Law Professors Wentong Zheng, standing, Tom Lin and Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol speak Feb. 26. about “Immigrants and the American Experience” during a lunch presentation at UF Law. (Photo by Maggie Powers)

By Jenna Box
Student writer

“The American story is an immigrant story,” Professor Tom C. W. Lin said as he opened “Immigrants and the American Experience” a panel held at UF Law on Feb 26. Together, three distinguished UF Law professors of immigrant background offered their views on immigration to inspire students to unify and press onward toward their goals in the midst of obstacles.

Professor Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol’s experiences as an outsider during her years as a young professional and other anecdotes offered an empathetic voice to the many students who feel like outcasts in an environment that seems to cater to native-born Americans.

“I can’t remember how many law students who are immigrants come up to me and say, ‘Do you really believe that I can do litigation? Do you really believe that I can argue in the courtroom? How can I compete with American students?’” said Professor Wentong Zheng, who came to America as a student at 24 years old. “There might be limitations on an immigrant, but I think the biggest limitations are those you impose yourself.”

Hernández-Truyol echoed his sentiments, relating how she worked hard to become one of two Latina law teachers in the nation at the time she was hired. Now in her 30th year in the field, she said education is the key to a better community and a better understanding of “who we are.”

Lin added that progress toward a more perfect union will take the hard work of everyone in America.

Lin is an assistant professor of law and assistant director of the Criminal Justice Center and has teaching and scholarship interests in business associations, corporations, contracts, securities regulation, behavioral law and economics, privacy law and white collar crime.

Hernández-Truyol is a Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law and has teaching and scholarship interests in international law, international human rights, gender/race issues and Latina/Latino issues in the law and employment discrimination.

Zheng is assistant professor of law and has teaching and scholarship interests in international trade, international business transactions, antitrust and competition policy, Chinese law, commercial law and economics.

The panel was hosted by the Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Center for the Study of Race & Race Relations, Immigration Law Association and Latino Law Student Association.