Sarah Papadelias (1L) volunteers for Puppy Hill Farm at PetSmart as part of JMBA’s community service event benefiting local organizations.

By Francie Weinberg
Student writer   

The John Marshall Bar Association’s annual community service week Oct. 8-14 gave students at the University of Florida Levin College of Law an easy and fun to way to give back to the community.

The week began on Monday, Oct. 8, with Canned Immunity, a canned food drive that donates directly to St. Francis House, a homeless shelter and soup kitchen in downtown Gainesville.

For the second year in a row, students of Professors John Stinneford, Lyrissa Lidsky, Mark Fenster, Lea Johnston, Lee-ford Tritt and Jason Nance who brought cans to class were granted “immunity,” and were not called on for the day. Students also brought cans to the JMBA table. Approximately 650 cans were donated.

“I required students to bring at least two cans to class to get immunity,” Stinneford said. “When calling on students, I generally did not look to see whether they had the cans so they could claim immunity in front of the class and hopefully motivate classmates to bring their own cans the next day. I even let one unprepared student claim retroactive immunity by bringing his cans the following day. It was definitely a good time, and I’m glad to hear it was successful in gathering food for the needy.”

On Oct. 11, JMBA hosted a community service social at Mother’s Pub and Grill. Proceeds went to Caiti Pomerance, a second-year law student who will be biking from Maryland to California next summer in the 4K for Cancer benefiting the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults.

Along the way, Pomerance and her bike group will participate in cancer-related service projects, including visiting cancer centers, cooking dinner at Hope Lodges and participating in Pedal Pals. Pomerance brought her journal to Mother’s to allow attendees to write down names of anyone they knew who were affected by cancer so she could ride in honor or memory of them. The social raised $820 and JMBA donated $180 to make it an even $1,000.

Law students groomed and fed horses at the Retirement Home for Horses at Mill Creek Farm in Alachua  as part of JMBA community service week earlier this month.

Throughout the weekend, the JMBA general board participated in onsite community service at four different organizations — The Retirement Home for Horses, Puppy Hill Farm, Hospice Attic Resale Store and Al’z Place.

The horses are no longer ridden or required to work. Eight law school volunteers helped to groom and feed them. An additional 12 volunteers helped adoptions at PetSmart with Puppy Hill Farm by walking, cleaning and attending to the dogs and cats at the store.

Puppy Hill Farm rescues animals from “kill shelters” and helps to adopt or obtain foster homes for them. Seven members helped sort through and clean items at Hospice Attic Resale Store, which donates proceeds to Haven Hospice.

Finally, 10 members volunteered at Al’z Place on Oct. 19 by going to music class and playing games with the day clinic’s attendees affected by Alzheimer’s disease.

“I was nervous people would be reluctant to help just because, as law students, a lot of times we get caught up,” said Kelly Wicker, vice president of community service for JMBA. “People really want to help; they just have to have people who are willing to get them out there.”

One of Wicker’s favorite community service events is making food baskets of full Thanksgiving dinners. Representatives will be coming around to classes to explain how students can participate starting in November.

With those donations and more from 2Ls and 3Ls, JMBA collected 379 cans to donate to Bread of the Mighty Food Bank. On Friday, Oct. 14, JMBA hosted a community service social at Tall Paul’s and accepted $5 donations.

By the end of the night, the group collected $667, which it will donate to the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

To end the week, JMBA members participated in a community service project at Haven Hospice Attic, where volunteers helped clean and organize donated items.

JMBA would like to thank everyone for their donations during the week.

More than 100 UF Law students were honored at this year’s Pro Bono and Community Service Brunch for their dedication in serving others.

More than 100 UF Law students were honored at this year’s Pro Bono and Community Service Brunch for their dedication in serving others.

The event was held to applaud the efforts of students who went above and beyond what is expected of the typical law student. The students honored dedicated at least 35 hours in their respective programs.

“I think it’s not only an outstanding opportunity to provide to under-served populations, it’s a testimony to the responsibility and dedication of our students,” said Assistant Dean for Career Services Linda Calvert Hanson.

The two programs, Pro Bono and Community Service, serve similar purposes of helping others but use different avenues. The Pro Bono Project allows students the opportunity to serve those in need with legal volunteer work, and an attorney usually supervises these students. In contrast, the Community Service Project allows students to be recognized for volunteer work benefiting the community at large.

As an advocate for pro bono causes, Dean Robert Jerry commended the honorees. “The community service you have done illustrates and manifests what we stress here. As someone who gives back to the community this will be important to what you do once you leave the law school,” he said.

Among the students honored, career services also acknowledged two exceptional students as Students of the Year.

Third-year law student Andrew Comiter is one of the two students who received the Student of the Year Award. The “Double-Gator” combined his passions of baseball and helping others in the Gainesville community to earn the honor.

As a young boy growing up playing baseball he was always being coached, but while he was an accounting student at UF he had the chance to see the “flip side of things” on the baseball field by volunteering to coach with the Gainesville Babe Ruth Baseball League camps before graduating in spring 2003.

When he returned to Gainesville in 2006 to attend law school, Comiter continued his involvement with the organization. He spent four to five months and 64 hours as head coach of a baseball team for 13- to 15-year-old students. “It was time consuming but overall a lot of fun,” Comiter said.

Although he said he enjoys law school and his other involvements, including serving as president of Florida Blue Key, the change of pace from a typical day at school was a blessing. In comparison to his classes the baseball field was “fun-natured competitiveness,” he said.

Comiter viewed the prestigious award as a true honor but was more thrilled to see the difference he made in the lives of the young boys he coached. “It’s very exciting and nice. I’m just glad that it did make a difference and other people recognize it.” After graduation this May, Comiter said he plans to join the UF Law graduate tax program and focus on becoming an attorney.

The other Student of the Year award recipient was Jessica Lillesand. The Miami, Fla., native extended her study abroad experience in order to work as a legal intern at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

While studying abroad in Holland and taking classes at Leiden University in spring 2007 through UF Law’s study abroad program, she became very interested in public international law. She then applied to work for the Tribunal during the summer but enjoyed the internship so much that she decided to extend her stay through the fall.

While at the Tribunal, she worked for the defense counsel for two different defendants indicted on several charges of crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war, she said. The third-year law student performed tasks from general legal research on procedural issues to preparing the case for trial.

Lillesand said she is honored to receive the award for Student of the Year but is more delighted to see attention devoted to pro bono causes. “I think it is important for all law students to experience doing some kind of pro bono, and I hope that soon a pro bono requirement will be implemented for all students as a prerequisite to being admitted to the Bar,” she said.

Although her father is an attorney, he wasn’t the only catalyst that drove her to pursue law career. “My desire to pursue a career in law came from a hope that I could help others and influence their lives in a positive manner. I think it is important to cultivate this desire early in a law student’s career, so that we can produce a more civic-minded group of practicing attorneys,” she said. “I hope I get the chance to do a lot more pro bono work wherever I end up practicing.”

While interning, Lillesand logged nearly 500 hours of pro bono work from June through November and sometimes worked 14 or 16 hours a day, especially during the trials.

After graduation this May, Lillesand said she plans to work a few years with her father’s firm in Miami and then purse a master’s degree in international relations, political science or international economics. “I’d like to eventually do some kind of policy work, effecting change at the big picture level,” she said.

Other students honored at the brunch include, Kelley Abramowich, Patricia Alten, John Austin, Emily Banks, Meredith Barrios, Matthew Belisle, Marshall Bender, Robert Braxtoon, Geoff Brougher, Timothy Buskirk, Kristin Carpenter, Nakku Chung, Seth Claytor, Kristine Coffin, Adam Cohen, Beverly Collins, Andrew Comiter, Katie Coxe, Natalie Davy, Christopher Deem, Lisa Ellison-Cherney, Sean Estes, Rebeca Feldman, Alexander Fischer, Stewart Gold, Lisa Goldberg, Megone Gordon, Jonathan Grayson, Nicole Griffin, Natalie Guerra, Jason Hall, Blake Harris, Michael Hersh, Melissa Hochmouth, Andrew Hoffman, William Holcombe, Courtney Hollen, Michael Hooi, Serena Hu, Margaret Hunt, Robert Hyte, Erica Jaffe, Christopher Jahr, Jennifer Jones, Witold Jurewicz, Christie Kelley, Scott Kennelly, Genie Key, Tariq Khan, Brent Kimball, Melanie King, Kim Koleos, Kay Lennon, Bradley Lerman, Trami LeTran, Jillian Levy, William Lewis, Brett Lieberman, Jessica Lillesand, Tracy Lizza, Michael Luongo, Sean Malvin, Christine Manning, Nessa Manten, Giannina Marin, Lauren Marks, Andrew Mayo, Bernard McManus, Kristin Mentzer, Andrew Miller, Jazil Mohammad, Jennifer Morando, Theresa Murphy, Christina Paradowski, Crystal Patterson, Christopher Pavilonis, Kristen Rassmusen, Matthew Rector, Jee Min Rhee, Lauren Riggio, Andie Ross, Stacey Schwimmer, Dena Setzer, Johann Smith, Lyndie Smith, Emily Snider, Regina St. Cyr, Jason Stark, Erin Swick, David Torre, Dana Trachtenberg, Tania Varela, Stephen Villeneuve, Steven Walter, Christian Waugh, Ryan Weeks, Jorja Williams, Erin Wolfson, Mindy Yergin, and Cynthia Zurawsky.