Dale recently edited the first volume of Law and History Review as editor-in-chief.

Robin Davis
Director, Institute for Dispute Resolution; Associate Director, Center on Children and Families; Senior Legal Skills Professor

Chief Justice Ricky Polston appointed Davis to the Supreme Court standing Mediator Qualifications Board. She was appointed to represent the Northern Division for an initial four-year term.

Bob Dekle
Director, Criminal Prosecution Clinic, Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center; Master Lecturer

 “Rape suspect serving as own lawyer called extreme” (Feb. 8, 2013, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

Dekle commented in this article about a man on trial for rape, who is representing himself, questioning his alleged victim in court.

From the article:
While shaken, some victims rise to the occasion, answer the questions with remarkable strength and help the defendant to his downfall, said George R. “Bob” Dekle, legal skills professor at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law and a former prosecutor and defense attorney.

Often, defendants who represent themselves “don’t have extremely good judgment. They make bad decisions, and they don’t learn by their mistakes,” Mr. Dekle said.

Mr. Dekle said defendants may represent themselves because they’re suspicious of court-appointed lawyers or so manipulative that they believe they can game the legal system, perhaps by aggravating the judge into making an error that could overturn a case on appeal.

Judges sometimes give defendants “more rope than they would a lawyer” while questioning witnesses, said Mr. Dekle, who was not familiar with the Henderson case.

Nancy E. Dowd
David H. Levin Chair in Family Law; Director, Center on Children & Families

Dowd gave two lectures at Willamette University in Salem, Ore. She gave the faculty a lecture titled “Fatherhood, Masculinities and Equality” and gave a public lecture, called the Paulus Lecture — attended by an estimated 150-175 people — on “Asking the Man Question:  Men, Masculinities and Equality.”

Dowd leaves on Thursday for Sweden to be a visiting professor at Lund University and will return March 26. Her second part of this visit will occur in June.

Omri Y. Marian
Assistant Professor of Law

On Jan. 28, Marian presented his work-in-progress, “Meaningful Corporate Tax Residence,” at the Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee.

Diane H. Mazur
Professor of Law

“Situation Report: Is Kim Jong for real? Why the guys-are-gross argument won’t work against integrating women…” (Jan. 25, 2013, Foreign Policy Magazine)

Mazur was quoted in a Foreign Policy magazine article on the Pentagon’s plan to lift the ban on women serving in combat roles.

From the article:
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Marty Dempsey made their historic announcement yesterday that the Pentagon would begin the process to lift the ban on women serving in combat roles, ending what some would say is a fiction given that they are serving in combat zones already. In response to yesterday’s WSJ op-ed by a former Marine who argues that combat shouldn’t be open to women because of the gross things guys do in the field, Diane Mazur, a law professor at the University of Florida and author of A More Perfect Military, says: “If we accept this one, I suppose women shouldn’t be medics, doctors, or nurses either, because women shouldn’t be exposed to the raw reality of the human body. I know arguments ebb and flow, but this one is more than a hundred years old.”

Jason P. Nance
Assistant Professor of Law; Associate Director, Center on Children & Families

Nance’s paper “School Security Considerations After Newtown” was recently published in the Stanford Law Review Online. The cite is 65 Stan. L. Rev. Online 103 (2013). “School Security Considerations After Newtown” (Stanford Law Review Online)

Kenneth Nunn
Professor of Law; Associate Director, Center on Children and Families; Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center

“Pill-mill docs often avoid prison, but street-level dealers get locked up” (Feb. 21, 2013, Orlando Sentinel)

This article highlights a disparity in sentencing between doctors who are arrested for illegally distributing prescription drugs and street dealers arrested on similar charges. While doctors often plead no contest to racketeering charges and get probation, street dealers wind up with jail time. Nunn spoke about how street-level dealers might not have access to high-priced lawyers.

From the article:

“You get the justice you can afford,” said Kenneth Nunn, a professor at Levin College of Law at the University of Florida.

“For the most part, people who have status in our society generally get better treatment than others,” Nunn said. “I don’t think that the criminal-justice system is different from that.”

Elizabeth A. Rowe
Feldman Gale Term Professor in Intellectual Property; UF Research Foundation Professor of Law; Director, Program in Intellectual Property Law

Rowe served as a panelist at the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s Mid-Winter Institute Jan. 31. She discussed choosing among different forms of IP when starting and growing a high-tech company.

John Stinneford
Associate Professor of Law; Assistant Director, Criminal Justice Center

Stinneford’s paper  “Punishment Without Culpability” was published in the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology Jan. 17. The cite is 102 J. Crim. L. & Criminology 653 (2012). “Punishment Without Culpability” (Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology)

Michael Allan Wolf
Professor of Law; Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law

Wolf hosted and made a presentation called “Preemption Puzzles: Ambiguity Breeds Exempt/Preempt” at the Nelson Symposium Feb. 8.

Wolf also presented “Unintended Consequences of ‘Easement’ Terminology” at the Perpetual Conservation Easements: What Have We Learned and Where Should We Go from Here? conference at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law Feb. 15.

Wentong Zheng
Assistant Professor of Law

Zheng recently presented a work-in-progress, “The Revolving Door,” at the University Of Tennessee College Of Law Faculty Forum. He presented his paper “Reforming Trade Remedies” at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., and recently spoke as a panelist on “Understanding State Capitalism” at the Office of the United States Trade Representative in Washington, D.C.

Media hits

In recent weeks, UF Law has been featured in a number of news stories featuring events and visitors at UF Law:

• WUFT, 89.1 featured a radio story about Stevens’ visit
•  GTN News featured a story on Stevens’ visit
• WCJB TV-20 News featured a story on Stevens’ visit
• The Gainesville Sun featured a photo from Justice John Paul Stevens’ visit
• The Saint Peters Blog included a preview of Stevens’ UF Law visit
• The Alligator included a story about UF Law’s partnering with Colombian law schools to create a human rights center
• The Gainesville Sun ran a photo story featuring the 29^th annual Raymer F. Maguire Jr. Appellate Advocacy Competition, where the Florida Supreme Court were guest judges
• The Gainesville Sun covered a talk on the 2^nd Amendment, co-sponsored by CaribLaw and the UF Law Federalist Society
• The Florida Bar News ran a preview of the upcoming e-discovery conference, “Electronic Discovery for the Small and Medium Case”

“Blood-alcohol tests under fire in DUI cases” (March 11, 2012, Orlando Sentinel)

An Orlando woman suffered mental and physical injuries after her vehicle was struck by a woman charged with drunk driving. Defense attorneys are attempting to have the driver’s blood alcohol test dismissed. Dekle commented on the issue.

From the article:
Emboldened by the success they’ve found in quashing breath-test results, defense attorneys may be looking to employ the challenges in more cases, said longtime prosecutor Bob Dekle of the University of Florida School of Law.

“A defense attorney is going to attack the evidence even if it came down from Mount Sinai on two tablets written by the hand of God,” Dekle said. “That is what they do.”

But if there is a trend of increasing success for defense attorneys, he said it’s likely because DUI prosecutors are among the least-experienced in the State Attorney’s Office.

“They quite frequently confront the big guns: the most experienced, highly prestigious defense attorneys,” he said.

Lea Johnston
Assistant Professor of Law

Johnston’s article “Theorizing Mental Health Courts” was published by the Washington University Law Review. Johnston also presented her current work in progress, titled “Vulnerability and Desert: A Theory of Sentencing the Mentally Ill” to faculty at the University of Georgia.

Shani King
Co-Director, Center on Children and Families; Associate Professor of Law

Professors Ruiz and King presented “Essential Ethics for Advocates: Avoiding the Unauthorized Practice of Law” at The Annual COPAA (Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates) in Miami on March 10.

Lyrissa Lidsky
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair & Professor of Law

“Cincinnati Engineer Sued for Tweet: Do You Fact Check your Tweets?” (March 8, 2012, The Take Away)

In this radio interview, Lidsky was part of a conversation about a Cincinnati man who was sued for making false statements via Twitter about taxpayer money being used for a new municipal project. The lawsuit was dropped when it was ruled the man wasn’t lying. Lidsky said the question here is whether the government could punish someone whose lies aren’t directly harming an individual.

Elizabeth A. Rowe
Professor of Law; Director, Program in Intellectual Property Law

On Feb. 28 Rowe delivered a lecture on the “Basic Principles of Patent Law” to United Nations diplomats at the World Intellectual Property Organization in New York.

Daniel Sokol
Associate Professor of Law

“Apple’s market clout likely to draw more scrutiny” (March 12, 2012, Associated Press)

The U.S. Justice Department is considering filing a lawsuit against Apple based on evidence of the company working with five publishing companies in a scheme to raise the price of electronic books. Sokol commented on why Apple might not have had as much scrutiny in the past as companies such as Microsoft and Google.

From the article:
Apple may simply behave better than some of its rivals, or it may be doing business in areas that are so new that government regulators are still learning how those nascent markets function, says D. Daniel Sokol, an associate law professor who focuses on antitrust issues at the University of Florida.

“To attract antitrust attention, you have to be more than just big. You have to be big and bad,” Sokol says. “It was only 2007 when Apple released the iPhone, and only 2010 when it released the iPad. The company hasn’t had that long to be bad yet, if it is indeed bad.”

Leonard L. Riskin
Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law

• Published “The Place of Mindfulness in Healing and the Law,” in Shifting The Field of Law & Justice 99-120, Center for Law and Renewal (Linda Hager, Bonnie Allen & Renee Floyd Meyers, eds) (2007).
• Made a panel presentation on “Accessing our Inner Awareness and Intentions to Improve Conflict Resolution Practice: The Practical Role of Inner Work” at the Association for Conflict Resolution Conference in Phoenix.
• Gave a luncheon address on “Awareness and Ethics in Dispute Resolution” at a conference on Ethics in Dispute Resolution at South Texas College of Law.
• Served as a commentator (by telephone) at a conference on Buddhism and Dialogue, sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School.

Elizabeth A. Rowe
Assistant Professor

• Participated as a member of a panel at the International Trademark Association’s meeting in Orlando on November 9th on teaching trademark law.

Christopher Slobogin
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair; Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry; Adjunct Professor, University of South Florida Mental Health Institute; Associate Director, Center for Children and Families

• His book, Privacy at Risk: The New Government Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, was published by the University of Chicago Press.

UF Law Faculty in the News

Jon L. Mills
Professor; Director of Center for Governmental Responsibility; Dean Emeritus

• Houston Chronicle, Nov. 9. Appeared in an article discussing his backing of legislative leaders who say any gambling deal with the Seminole Indians must have the Legislature’s approval. He prepared the opinion at the request of House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami. Rubio is against allowing the Seminoles to have anything more than Class III slots. The article concluded with Mills saying the federal law is silent on who should negotiate such compacts on behalf of states, but the Florida Constitution gives the Legislature, not the governor, the power to “make fundamental determinations of policy.”
• Palm Beach Post, Nov. 15. Served as a Florida legal expert in an article about Gov. Charlie Crist signing an agreement with the Seminole Tribe of Florida today allowing the Indians to conduct Las Vegas-style slot machine gambling and card games, including blackjack, at the tribe’s seven casinos. Issued in a press release by House Speaker Marco Rubio, “Mills advised that any gambling compact between the state and the Seminole Tribe is invalid without legislative ratification.”

Kenneth B. Nunn
Professor; Associate Director, Center on Children and Families

• Tallahassee Democrat, Nov. 10. Quoted in the article discussing the racial composition of the jurors in the trial of eight former Bay County boot camp employees who were found not guilty of felony aggravated manslaughter of a child in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, who died Jan. 6, 2006, one day after he was hit, kneed and his limp body dragged by drill instructors at the camp. Anderson was black; five defendants were white, two black and one Asian. When jury selection ended Sept. 26, no blacks were on the panel. Civil rights advocates say jury selection is a focus of an ongoing federal civil rights investigation. On whether a racially diverse jury have mattered, Nunn said, “People from different cultural backgrounds will interpret the video differently, depending on the race of people in the video. There is a cultural bias in all of us.”

• Presented a talk titled “The Challenge of Protecting Trade Secret Information in a Digital World,” at a conference at the George Washington School of Law on Sept. 28.

Christopher Slobogin
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair; Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry; Adjunct Professor, University of South Florida Mental Health Institute; Associate Director, Center for Children and Families

• His article, “The Supreme Court’s Recent Criminal Mental Health Cases: Rulings of Questionable Competence” was the lead piece in the October issue of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Magazine.

UF Law Faculty in the News

Kenneth B. Nunn
Professor; Associate Director, Center on Children and Families

• ABCNews.com, Sept. 27. Quoted in article discussing the nationwide support and protests of the Jena Six students. Many experts were interviewed by ABC regarding the racial divide and punishments associated with both the white and black students. Regarding the level of bias in the system, Nunn said, “Do we have a criminal justice system that mistreats people on the basis of race? No. The principle is not the issue, but the practical application [of law] is where you see the problems.” The public at large basically thinks that these cases are aberrations, Nunn said, and that’s one reason why so much attention is paid to them. “It’s the idea that it’s the redneck sheriff doing this and not the way we sort of stack the odds against black criminal defendants. We can point to a few bad apples, say, ‘See, it’s them,’ and the rest of us feel great because we’re demonstrating how we disagree with racism.”

Christopher Slobogin
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair; Affiliate Professor of Psychiatry; Adjunct Professor, University of South Florida Mental Health Institute; Associate Director, Center for Children and Families

• St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 28. Quoted in a story on what the paper called the “swift but cautious” investigation of a city council member accused of sexualy abusing one of his adopted daughters, which included a phone call from the police chief to the mayor informing him of the allegations. Slobogin said it is unusual that the police chief informed the mayor of a criminal investigation, but if no details of the allegations were shared, he said it would do little harm. “The fact that this guy (Baker) was kind of his boss, muddies the waters a bit,” Slobogin said.

Barbara Bennett Woodhouse
David H. Levin Chair in Family Law; Professor; Director, Center on Children and Families and Family Law Certificate Program; Co-Director, Institute for Child and Adolescent Research and Evaluation (ICARE)

• Miami Herald, Sept. 28. Quoted in an article discussing a custody battle over a five-year-old Cuban girl and the recent ruling . Woodhouse said that a ruling in favor of the Cubas family could help propel Florida closer to other states that emphasize children’s interests over birth parents’ rights. “When there is a serious detriment to the child, that should be taken into account,” Woodhouse said. “You can’t treat a child like a piece of property. . . . Let’s not just look at blood. Let’s look at actions, conduct.”