Rob Birrenkott
Interim Assistant Dean in Career Development 

“Like other schools, UF law school working to expand fellowships” (March 19, 2013, The Alligator)

The article looks at a national trend of law schools helping to ensure real-world experience for graduates. Birrenkott weighed in on what steps UF Law is taking in this area.

From the article:
Rob Birrenkott, the interim assistant dean in career development at the Levin College of Law, said now is an interesting time for law because there is a lot of innovation in the field.

“What UF is doing is taking bits and pieces of different approaches,” Birrenkott said.

For the past two years, UF’s law school has had a postgraduate fellowship program that allows students to partner with entities to help underserved populations, he said.

Charles W. Collier
Professor of Law, Affiliate Professor of Philosophy

Collier’s article “Gun Control in America: An Autopsy Report,” has been accepted for publication in 60:3 Dissent (2013), a peer-reviewed journal.

Elizabeth Dale
Affiliate Professor of Law

Dale’s article “From Opera to Real Democracy: Popular Constitutionalism & Web 2.0″ was published in the Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies. The cite is 6 Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies [Great Britain] (March 2013). “From Opera to Real Democracy: Popular Constitutionalism & Web 2.0,” (Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies).

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

Nance’s article “Random, Suspicionless Searches of Students’ Belongings: A Legal, Empirical, and Normative Analysis” was published in the Colorado Law Review. The cite is 84 U. Colo. L. Rev. 367 (2013).  “Random, Suspicionless Searches of Students’ Belongings: A Legal, Empirical, and Normative Analysis” (University of Colorado Law Review)

Sharon E. Rush
Associate Dean for Faculty Development; Irving Cypen Professor of Law; Associate Director, Center on Children & The Law; Co-founder, Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations

Rush gave a three-hour “Introduction to Constitutional Law” course to the Polish Bar on March 13 in Warsaw, Poland. The program was equivalent to UF Law’s CLE programs.

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”

Elizabeth Dale
Affiliated Associate Professor of Law
Dale presented a paper to the American Bar Foundation/Illinois Legal History Seminar Oct. 18. The paper is “Putting ‘Liberty’ in its Place: Discussions of ziyou, Slavery, and Sovereignty in Turn-of-the-Century China.”

Robert Jerry
Dean, UF Law and Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of Law “UF-sponsored health plan costs $300 more this year” (Oct. 15, 2010, The Independent Florida Alligator)

Because of a change in providers this fall, UF students saw an increase of almost $300 in the cost of their school-sponsored insurance plans, with a very similar plan to what was already in place. The director of the Student Health Care Center said they changed providers to avoid an even bigger increase in rates.

From the article:
Robert Jerry, dean of the Levin College of Law, said he is not surprised that student plans are increasingly expensive. The student population is healthier than most demographics, so student insurance is priced to make more profit than other insurance products, he said.

Jerry believes the new health care legislation passed by Congress may also have an effect on student health care plans. The new law states that full-time students can be covered by their parents’ insurance up until age 26.

There are ways to bring insurance costs down for students, but it’s not in the hands of the university, Jerry said. If the state and federal governments team up to regulate insurance and provide everyone with some degree of health care, costs would go down.

“We ought to have a system where everybody has some kind of access to basic health care,” he said.

Lyrissa Lidsky
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair, Professor of Law
“Wannabe warriors an ‘insult’ to their bravery” (Oct. 17, 2010, Pensacola News Journal)

The Stolen Valor Act of 2005 has been gaining some attention lately with two cases involving the act in federal appeals courts. The act made it a federal offense to wear a military medal or for a person to say he or she earned a military medal if the person did not in fact earn a medal. Opponents of the act say it violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutional, but admit the speech it would protect in this case is reprehensible.

From the article:
Lidsky said it is constitutional to punish people for making false statements in certain contexts — such as fraud, defamation, lying under oath or shouting “Fire!” in a crowded theater — but the Stolen Valor Act is tricky because it doesn’t show clear damages to a victim.

“It’s making it a crime to tell a lie, but it’s making it a crime to tell a relatively harmless lie,” Lidsky The authors of the law contend that the lies erode the true value of military honors, but Lidsky asked, “Is there any evidence that that has had any effect on the morale of the troops?”

Joseph Little
Emeritus Professor
“Elect or appoint judges?” (Oct. 17, 2010, Orlando Sentinel)

Little commented on the benefits of having a system where voters can elect trial judges.

From the article:
Those who favor election, including Professor Joseph W. Little of the Levin College of Law at the University of Florida, say it protects the public by making judges more accountable.

Diane Mazur
Professor of Law
“How Does the Military Prove That Someone is Gay?” (Oct. 13, 2010, Slate)

Mazur is thanked as a source at the end of this article, which looks at the various methods the military has used to determine if a member of the military is gay. The determination and discharge proceedings usually focus on the actions of the person under scrutiny, rather than his or her actual sexual preferences.

“There is no legal reason to appeal DADT ruling” (Oct. 18, 2010, San Marcos Mercury)

The column looks at the recent ruling that found the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy unconstitutional and presents an argument about why there is no legal obligation to appeal the ruling. The article references a memorandum Mazur wrote on the topic.

From the article:
Diane Mazur, a professor of law at the University of Florida College of Law, has laid out in a legal memorandum the basics about executive discretion to decline to appeal laws held to be unconstitutional. Mazur’s primary areas of research include civil-military relations and military law generally. In her memorandum, she explains that the usual expectation is that the Justice department “will defend federal laws from constitutional challenge.” However, the usual practice is not mandatory: “There are well-recognized, standard exceptions that give the executive branch discretion in deciding whether or not to defend a law in some circumstances, and they would apply in deciding whether to appeal a court ruling finding that (DADT) is unconstitutional.”

Michael Seigel
Professor of Law
“Should authorities need a warrant to put a GPS tracking device on your car?” (Oct. 17, 2010, St. Petersburg Times)

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that law enforcement can use Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to track suspected criminals – without obtaining a warrant. The court also indicated that police could also go onto private property in order to install a GPS device. Seigel commented on Florida’s laws pertaining to the use of GPS.

From the article:
To use GPS tracking, they simply must convince a judge that it’s “relevant” to their investigation, said University of Florida law professor Michael L. Seigel.

“It’s a much lower standard,” he said. “It’s not requiring them to show any suspicion about an individual’s guilt.”

There’s also an easy way around state law. Local agencies could just ask the federal government for help. Federal agents don’t need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in Florida, Seigel said.

Presented “Promoting Agricultural Production, Healthy Communities and Biodiversity through Ecoagriculture” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Fletcher Baldwin

Presented a paper titled, “The rule of law: an essential component of the financial war against organized crime and terrorism in the Americas, Uruguay round,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Financial Crime & Street Crime,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Elizabeth Dale

Commented on the panel, “The Intersection of Law & Society with Public Labor and Employment Law,” and she presented a paper at a panel (which she organized), “Deploying History: Uses of the Past in Constitutional Discourse, Comparative Studies,” at the Law and Society Association conference in Chicago in May.

Nancy Dowd

Dowd made presentations on masculinities and feminist theory at two conferences in March at Harvard Law School and the Center for Applied Feminism at the University of Baltimore Law School.

Joan Flocks

Co-authored a paper titled, “The Role of Employers and Supervisors in Promoting Pesticide Safety Behavior among Florida Farmworkers,” which was published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 53(8):814-824, 2010. Flocks was also one of six invited reviewers nationwide for a report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, “Assessing the Effects of the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill on Human Health” which came out of a June 2010 meeting and is currently available for free in prepublication at http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12949.

Commented on the panel, “Comparative Perspectives on the Environmental/Human Rights Link in the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Berta Hernandez-Truyol

Commented on the panel, “Comparative Perspectives on the Environmental/Human Rights Link in the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Lea Johnston

Johnston presented “Wrestling with the Problem: Exploring the Promise of Social Problem-Solving Theory for Representational Competence,” at the American Psychology-Law Society Annual Conference in March, and presented her current work-in-progress, “Mental Health Courts: Theoretical and Empirical Deficiencies,” at the SEALS new scholars workshop in early August.

Pedro Malavet

Presented a paper titled, “Comparative Law as Looking Glass: What Foreign Legal Systems Can Teach us About Ours,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Martin McMahon

Published “Living with the Codified Economic Substance Doctrine” in 128 Tax Notes 731 (Aug. 16, 2010).

Timothy McLendon

Presented “Eco-Constitutionalism: Authority or mandate? Florida’s awkward experience” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Agro-Ranching and the Environment,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Jon Mills

Commented on the panel, “Emerging Legal Issues in Uruguay and the Americas,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Stephen Powell

Presented a paper titled, “Managing the rule of law in the Americas: an empirical portrait of the effects of 15 years of WTO dispute resolution on civil society in Latin America,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Commented on the panel, “Trade, Business, and Dispute Settlement,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Michael T. Olexa

Presented a paper titled, “Chemicals, Cosmetics, and Consumers,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Don Peters

Presented a paper titled, “It Takes Two to Tango, and to Mediate: Legal Cultural and other Factors influencing United States and Latin American Lawyers’ Reluctance to Mediate Commercial Disputes,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Leonard Riskin

Presented “Finding the Appropriate Problem Definition in Mediation” at the Annual Symposium on Dispute Resolution in the Courts in April.

Danny Sokol

Sokol was announced as the series co-editor of the new series “Global Competition Law and Economics,” to be published by Stanford University Press. He has also been appointed as one of the members of the editorial advisory board for the “Antitrust Chronicle,” a publication of Competition Policy International.

Jeff Wade

Commented on the panel, “Agro-Ranching and the Environment,” at the CGR’s 11th annual Conference on Legal and Policy Issues in the Americas in May in Montevideo, Uruguay.

• Dale was appointed to another five year term on the editorial board of Law and History Review.