After being introduced through a mutual friend on the moot court team in the fall of 1988 at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Marc Chapman (JD 89) and Tracy Duda Chapman (JD 90), became friends right away.

But it wasn’t until they worked at the same law firm in Orlando that they started dating.

“They didn’t have policy against it,” Tracy said of their relationship at the firm. “But we both were concerned over whether or not that was a smart thing to do.”

Fast-forward to 2013. The Chapmans now have two daughters, aged 12 and 15, and have been married for 19 years.

Tracy is the senior vice president and general counsel of A. Duda & Sons, Inc., a diversified land company with operating divisions and subsidiary companies in agriculture, real estate development and related businesses. She is also the CEO of The Viera Company, a subsidiary of DUDA that manages the commercial and residential development of DUDA’s non-agricultural property in Florida, and is the master developer of the master-planned town of Viera in Brevard County, Fla.

In February, Marc was elected president of Dean Mead, a full service business law firm based in Orlando with three other offices around the state (Ft. Pierce, Viera and Gainesville) and nearly 50 attorneys. He practices in the area of commercial litigation, including banking, construction, real estate, commercial landlord/tenant and probate litigation, as well as creditors’ rights and non-compete/trade secret enforcement.

As a couple of Gator grads with diverse paths in law, Marc and Tracy said passion for a chosen field is recipe for success.

“You have to enjoy and like what you do,” Tracy said. “If you choose a field that you’re interested in, it makes going to work a lot better.”

While Tracy is passionate about agriculture law, working for her family’s company makes her strive even harder for success.

“I have stock in the company. My daughters have stock in the company. So I have a vested interest in its success,” she said. “You feel like you’re continuing the legacy of passing on the business to future generations.”

Tracy also recommends that students continuously seek knowledge outside of their chosen career path as a means of broadening their horizons and as preparation to take on unexpected jobs.

Marc adds that students interested in commercial litigation should take a number of business classes.

“In addition to the litigation issues, you’re going to advise clients on some type of corporate, tax or other business issue impacted by the litigation in most cases,” he said. “You need to at least recognize the business issues so you can refer your client to the appropriate advisor.”

He also gives a simple but crucial piece of advice to law students and recent graduates: Be a good listener. It is the only way to really figure out what a client wants and actually needs, he says.

Marc and Tracy say they have been fortunate for the ability to participate in many philanthropic events. Together they’ve donated to the St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and School, the HOPE Foundation and UF Law, among many others.

They enjoy traveling and taking their daughters to the Keys every summer, which presents Marc a perfect place to enjoy his hobby of fishing and Tracy a lush landscape as family photographer.

They are also huge football fans. Marc, a seven-year Gator, is a Champions Club season ticket holder, and Tracy spends many football weekends at the University of Alabama, her undergraduate alma mater.

“We don’t see each other much on football weekends,” Marc said. “And when the Gators play Alabama, we sit on opposite sides of the stadium.”

Makar, approaching his fourth year as solicitor general, spoke of the five cases his office litigated that reached the U.S. Supreme Court in 2009. Makar personally argued four of them.

“I thought I’d died and gone to heaven,” he said about having more than one case reach the U.S. Supreme Court.

Makar said the Supreme Court hears around 80 to 90 cases a year, and that Florida has averaged less than one case a year for the last 30 years.

This makes Makar’s five cases in one year a tremendous accomplishment for the state. Makar even said that the woman working in the U.S. Supreme Court cafeteria saw him so many times that she assumed he worked there and offered him employee pricing.

As for what it is like arguing before the court, Makar said, “It’s like being a pingpong ball in a room full of pingpong paddles,” referring to how rapid the examination can be during a session.

Makar argued his first U.S. Supreme Court case Florida Department of Revenue v. Piccadilly Cafeterias, Inc., during the 2007-2008 term.

Makar’s next two cases, Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida, both dealt with juveniles who were given life sentences in jail without parole for committing non-homicidal criminal acts.

The following case, Stop the Beach Renourishment Inc. v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, discussed the issue of homeowners who were against the reconstruction of the beach that their houses rested on. The plaintiffs argued that the owners would be forced to establish a property line if the beach was replenished instead of just adopting the larger piece of sloping property that had begun to erode. Stop the Beach lost.

This case inspired a cartoon in The Washington Post by Tom Toles showing a state worker pouring sand onto the beach, saying, “We’re giving what’s left of your beach, and your house some protection, courtesy of the taxpayer,” and one of the homeowners protesting, “That’s a taking.”

Holland v. Florida, Makar’s most recent case, examined the one-year statute of limitations under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. Holland won.

When talking about the work he had to do to ready himself for the cases, Makar stressed one word: preparation.

“If you’re prepared,” Makar said, “you can go in front of any judge in any court.”

While he did say that the U.S. Supreme Court is “the most advocate-friendly environment,” Makar emphasized what a “tremendous amount of work” each case required.

“It wasn’t just me,” he said, referring to the other lawyers who helped research and prepare for the cases.

Each case required two to four people for the brief-writing process, and sometimes up to 25 drafts were written, he said.

During his time at the U.S. Supreme Court, Makar had several sketches done of him while he was litigating. He said that his favorite image of the courthouse, however, was one of his 9-year-old son standing on the steps in front of the building holding a briefcase and bearing a wide grin.

As solicitor general of Florida, one of Makar’s duties is to serve as a law professor at the Florida State University College of Law in Tallahassee.

“I just love the learning process,” he said. “‘The learning is never over’ is my philosophy.”

Even though he now has ties in Seminole Country, Makar still reflects on his days as a Gator at the Levin College of Law. While he was in law school, Makar founded and served as editor-in-chief for the University of Florida Journal of Law and Public Policy.

What was one thing that helped motivate him? “Burrito Brothers,” he said after his talk. He said he would push himself to study just a little bit longer or a little bit harder because he knew his reward would be a big burrito at the end of the day.

Although Makar has been busy and one would assume stressed, he said that “the only downside of the job is that it has an end.”