Students ask questions and voice concerns at the April 9 John Marshall Bar Association Town Hall meeting. (Photo by Maggie Powers)

By Jenna Box
Student writer

On April 9, the John Marshall Bar Association hosted UF Law’s latest Town Hall Meeting with four UF Law deans. Historically these meetings have led to updates like the study lounge and more swipe card entries.

Dean Robert Jerry; Alyson Flournoy, senior associate dean for academic affairs; Rachel Inman, associate dean for students; and Deb Staats, associate dean for administrative and fiscal affairs, listened and addressed concerns from students on various topics.

“It’s been really encouraging to see the administration is really taking our suggestions, our wishes and our needs into consideration,” said a JMBA representative who introduced the panel. “They’ve really done a lot to help us as a student body going forward.”

Discussion highlights included:

Facilities

New water fountains, waterless urinals, better cleanliness and an increased number microwaves in the cafeteria were among suggestions and topics of question.

Staats urged students to snap photos of cleanliness issues when spotted. She said these could be used by the custodial team to target problem areas. She also encouraged students to take advantage of the two new microwaves in the cafeteria that will soon arrive and the cleaning products — such as Sani-wipes — that will be nearby.

Library Hours

Students expressed concern about library hours during football games and exam week. Currently, the library is closed during home football games.

Jerry empathized with students on this issue and said that options to make sports-infused weekends more study-friendly would be pursued, but he said that tailgating near the law school on game days poses a risk to the interior of the building if it were to be open, based on recent experiences with the restrooms that have been open on game days.

Students also requested later hours for a longer period near exam weeks and in general.

According to figures recorded by the library during past extended hours, on average only up to 10 people were in the library at the 4 a.m. hour, and about 20 during the 2 a.m. hour, said Claire M. Germain, associate dean for legal information. She also noted that staffing the library during these hours posed a problem.

For those who prefer to study late, space is currently available via swipe entry in Bruton-Geer Hall, Jerry said, and the possibility of extra classroom space will also be considered.

The planned extended hours — 7:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. — for the library began April 12, and will continue through May 2.

Curriculum and Registration

Regarding recent registration concerns, the course schedule is currently available in an Excel spreadsheet and in a PDF on the website, Flournoy said.

Flournoy also mentioned the possibility of online career guides that would list courses available to students who want to pursue a specific legal path, such as construction real estate law or sports law. Oftentimes, classes that benefit a certain type of law study aren’t necessarily labeled in a way that makes it obvious, she said.

The valuable Pretrial Practice class will be evaluated to decide if it should be expanded to a four-credit course, as students had suggested, or whether the topic warranted more than one course.

Finally, where students identify class conflicts involving a registration priority course, she advised checking both fall and spring schedules during registration. The schedules have been designed to include multiple sections of these classes.

Externships

Currently, law firms are not allowed as externships at UF Law. Jerry called this rule “a relic of the past,” even though, he said, a majority of law schools currently have the same rule as UF.

Because the externship has become a stepping stone to the job market, this is something the administration and faculty will need to look at to provide opportunities to connect new forms of skills training with the private sector, Dean Jerry said.

All input is appreciated by the administration, and students are encouraged to pass along further questions or concerns to the JMBA office.

Newly selected members of Florida Blue Key stand in the Advocacy Center courtroom with current Blue Key President Dana Somerstein, third from right. From left are Ryan Gilbert (3L), Dane Ullian (2L), Allie Menegakis (3L), Somerstein, J. Wes Stephens (3L) and Brock Hankins (2L), the incoming Florida Blue Key president. (Photo by Haley Stracher)

By Jenna Box
Student writer

University of Florida Levin College of Law students continue to lead the Florida Blue Key.

The fall president-elect is Brock Hankins (2L), who succeeds current FBK President Dana Somerstein (3L).

On April 7, five UF Law students were tapped as members into the prestigious organization, and Hankins was tapped as president-elect of FBK effective fall 2013. On April 27, they will be officially inducted along with Honorary Tapping Class 2013 members Rachel Inman, UF Law associate dean for student affairs, Glenn J. Waldman (JD 83) and Gwynne Young (JD 74).

UF Law’s 2013 spring FBK inductees are: Chelsey Clements (2L), Ryan Gilbert (3L), Allie Menegakis (3L), J. Wes Stephens (3L) and Dane Ullian (2L).

FBK was founded in 1923 at the University of Florida with the mission to unite leaders across campus and generations. Membership offers the chance to serve the community and the university while also providing personal enhancement and growth. The network of FBK includes many UF Law alumni who have gone on to become great leaders, such as Stephen C. O’Connell (JD 40), a Florida Supreme Court justice and president of the University of Florida, and Stephen N. Zack (JD 71), president of the American Bar Association from 2010 to 2011.

“I am honored to induct these wonderful leaders into the Florida Blue Key organization,” Somerstein said. “They are all incredibly hard workers and great representatives of the law school community. I cannot wait to see how they will represent Florida Blue Key as they continue their involvement and servant leadership in the future.”

Photo submitted by James Grippando. Taken by Jeffrey Camp.

By Jenna Box
Student writer

It was 1994 when a newly published author paced the floors of his local bookstore in South Florida. He grabbed a James Grippando novel from the shelf and walked toward the counter with the thriller, titled The Pardon.

“That’s my book, you know,” he told the sales clerk as he laid it on the counter.

“Yes, it is once you’ve paid for it,” she responded with a puzzled expression.

He held back the urge to whip out his license to prove his identity.

“Best $23 I’ve ever spent,” he said as he gave her the cash.

She pointed at the book, “James Gri…Grippa…Grippa-na-nando. Never heard of him. Any good?”

“No,” he said, “just lucky.”

Ten years and 20 books earlier, Grippando (JD 82) was a trial lawyer who couldn’t shake his childhood dream of becoming a writer. Today, he’s a New York Times bestselling author. His luck has yet to run out.

The double-Gator was once the editor of Florida Law Review, the general chairman of Gator Growl and a standout student.

Fresh out of law school, Grippando served a judicial clerkship immersed in death penalty cases on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. It was from this experience he drew inspiration for The Pardon.

“I was not one of those lawyers who started writing because I hated the practice of law,” Grippando wrote in an email. “I enjoy it. But it was hard to find a way to do both law and writing at a high level.”

During the height of his legal career, TV shows like “Law & Order” and writers like John Grisham started to become popular. He knew he could write like that, too, he said.

Grippando was right. His latest novel, Blood Money, came out in January, capturing the attention of readers with its stark similarity to the Casey Anthony trial. Grippando’s books are known for drawing from current real-life issues to create gripping realistic fiction.

Grippando said UF Law set him up for success in every way, from his first job as a clerk to his 12 years as a trial lawyer. Although he stepped away from the legal field for a time, he now serves as counsel at Boies Schiller & Flexner thanks to telecommuting.

Lawyer-bashers might say that the connection between being a lawyer and a fiction writer is simple, “either way, you’re making things up,” he said.

“The less cynical view is that both are story tellers,” he said. “A trial lawyer, like a novelist, needs to make his client (the protagonist) sympathetic and the adversary (the antagonist) dislikable; needs to know which facts are important to get into evidence (editing); can’t make the story overly complicated (plotting); and needs to know his judge or jury (the audience).”

For this reason, he’s not surprised so many lawyers transition easily into writing. But Grippando’s knack for storytelling wasn’t the only contribution to his success. His mother was also a published writer.

“Somehow she managed to raise five kids, work, and take courses on the side to get a doctorate degree in education,” Grippando said of his mother. “Her dissertation was later published and became one of the top textbooks in the country for nursing students. More than a quarter-century later it was still going strong in its sixth edition. I hope I can have a run like that.”

Marathon runner, mother, wife, leader, writer and avid reader.

Alexa Sherr Hartley (JD 02) is also the founder and president of Premier Leadership Coaching, LLC — a business that coaches legal professionals to be the best at what they do.

But, you may ask, why do lawyers and attorneys need coaching? Isn’t that what law school is for?

“You have to have IQ to get into law school,” she said, but EQ — or emotional intelligence — is a necessary skill for lawyers and attorneys to become “outstandingly great.”

This skill was never taught while she was at UF Law, but rather it was demonstrated by many of the faculty and staff whom she engaged with, she said.

Before Hartley became an entrepreneur, she practiced commercial and business litigation for eight years with Greenberg Traurig. During this time, she often found herself engaged in conversations with coworkers about steps they could take to solve professional problems.

“I am authentically interested in people and their stories,” she said. “I really do enjoy interacting with people. I like being a problem solver.”

She eventually realized the best use of her skills was not litigating. In the midst of not-so-favorable economic conditions and a skeptical target audience, Hartley established her coaching business.

At the time, executive coaching was new to legal professionals, she explained, so there was some resistance from her prospective customers. Some even asked her why she didn’t apply her ability to coach professionals in a different field.

But she insisted lawyers needed these soft skills, too.

“Lawyers are my people,” Hartley said. “I’ve been inside that fishbowl, I’ve seen those struggles and I know coaching is the way to overcome.”

Legal professionals often think of emotional intelligence as “nice,” she said.

“Throw ‘nice’ out the window — it’s imperative to build emotional intelligence muscles not for a feel-good thing. It makes you a more effective advocate, it makes you more profitable and it makes you a better asset … It makes good business sense. ”

Hartley teaches her clients positive conflict resolution tactics, how to be inspirational leaders and how to be more self-aware. She will contribute to The Florida Bar Leadership Academy, which begins in June.

“Alexa’s skills and experience as a lawyer have helped me to better manage my practice and clarify my career objectives,” wrote Dori Foster-Morales (JD 89), member of The Florida Bar Board of Governors. “Law school taught me how to be a lawyer, but not really how to manage the complexities of a legal practice. While I’m a work in progress (aren’t we all?), Alexa has really helped me to focus on items in my practice that I simply would not otherwise prioritize.”

Hartley runs marathons, raises her three children and blogs biweekly for Westlaw, a legal solutions blog, as a way to provide coaching for those who cannot afford it. She said her husband is the one who helps her do it all.

Despite all that’s on her plate, Hartley said she is happy to manage it all because she loves what she does.

“I walk the walk, talk the talk and walk the talk,” she said. “I push myself hard to be outstandingly great. I have to practice what I preach.”

He attended UF Law on a whim and ditched his job as a commercial litigator for seminary. The Rev. Kurt Dunkle (JD 87), a lawyer-turned-priest, described his career path as nothing short of “unexpected.”

Dunkle takes over July 1 as dean and president of The General Theological Seminary, the Episcopal Church’s flagship seminary in New York City.

When he returns as leader to his alma mater, the challenges will be monumental. In 2009 the institution faced about $42 million in debt, an almost non-existent endowment and an eroding student population, he wrote in an email.

After selling valuable excess real estate in Manhattan and turning a guest house into a conference center, the seminary brought itself out of the hole but “not out of the proverbial woods,” Dunkle said.

“The rethinking of our particular place in the life of The Episcopal Church and the growth we need as a church and a seminary will be my assignment,” he added. “UF skills and experiences are still at work.”

Dunkle said UF Law’s greatest gift was critical and creative thinking skills. He’s used these not only as a commercial litigator, but to help him face the myriad challenges he’s been presented with at unexpected turns.

“One of the obstacles I have had to overcome on this journey was not relearning how to think — those UF skills have served me well,” Dunkle said. “Rather, it was getting used to uncertainty.”

Those experiences, and Dunkle’s history after UF Law, set the stage for what he will accomplish as dean and president.

When Dunkle graduated from UF Law, he spent several years working in commercial litigation. He began at Holland & Knight in Lakeland and then moved on to Rogers Towers in Jacksonville for 13 years, where he became a partner and co-head of the litigation department.

“I always felt called by God to be a lawyer. Not by some booming voice in the sky, but by that still small voice of peace and calm that comes from being just where you are intended,” he said.

But one day in 2000, things began to change unexpectedly. He felt called to become an Episcopal priest. The idea was unwelcome, he said, and he tried to fight it at every turn.

Eventually, with assurance from fellow lawyer friends and his wife, he retired from practicing law in 2001, uprooted his family and moved to New York City to attended seminary at General.

After his ordination, he said he continued to use the skills he learned in law school to resolve issues in the midst of a changing world and church.

“I keep reading about the changes facing the practice of law and how law schools, like Florida, must adapt,” he said. “The church is not exempt from change, either.”

In 2004, a partnered gay man was elected Bishop of New Hampshire. That issue was enough to tear the almost 500-year-old fabric of The Episcopal Church, and Dunkle’s church, Grace Epsicopal in Orange Park, was not exempt.

On the day after Easter in 2006, Grace Epsicopal — sitting on seven acres with 21 buildings — lost almost all of its 1, 200 members en masse over the same issues that separated the greater church in 2004. When Dunkle became priest immediately after, he said it had $62 in the bank, about $500,000 in debt and 35 people left in its pews.

“I saw that not as a tragedy, but as a challenge,” Dunkle said. “I was called to build something — a new Episcopal Church congregation.”

Again, he attributed much of his success in re-establishing the congregation to UF Law-learned thinking. He used critical and creative methods to build the church to what it is today: Grace has more than 500 people, money in the bank and has reduced its debt to less than $200,000, he reported.

“Kurt is a terrific example of how preparation for the practice of law at UF Law, and in his case some years of experience in the practice, develops leadership skills that make a talented person like Kurt highly sought after and valued for important leadership positions — in this case, serving as the dean and president of a major seminary,” Dean Robert Jerry wrote in an email. “Shouldering the burdens of others and providing support and service to them is the essence of lawyering, so the overlap with service in a ministry is substantial.”

“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’ career as a human rights activist started in his student days at the University of Cape Town, when he took part in the Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign. He devoted his law practice to defending people charged under racist statutes and repressive security laws. Many faced the death sentence. He himself was raided by the security police, subjected to banning orders restricting his movement and eventually placed in solitary confinement without trial for two prolonged spells of detention. In 1988, Sachs was the victim of a car bomb attack carried out by South African security agents, losing an arm and the sight of one eye.

During the 1980s and early 1990s Sachs was centrally involved in drafting the African National Congress’ proposed constitution for a new democratic South Africa. As a member of the Constitutional Committee and the national executive of the ANC he took an active part in the negotiations which led to South Africa becoming a constitutional democracy. He was appointed by President Nelson Mandela in 1994 to serve on the newly established Constitutional Court, and in 2005 he authored the court’s landmark decision requiring legal recognition of gay marriage in South Africa.

“We’re absolutely thrilled to have Albie Sachs speak at UF,” said UF Law Senior Legal Skills Professor Joseph Jackson. “He’s a remarkable person and a major player in the constitutional transformation of South Africa, who has helped that country heal the divisions of the past.”

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. titled, “Combating Corruption: Kenya’s Efforts to Judge its Judges.” Visit the African Studies website for complete details, http://web.africa.ufl.edu/.

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.