“Kindle users could get refunds on e-books” (Oct. 18, 2012, The Alligator)

A judge is looking to approve a settlement that says that Kindle users will get 30 cents back to each $1.32 spent on e-books due to the inflated price of books.

From the article:
Jonathan Cohen, a UF law professor, said a judge has grounds to sign this order because both parties have worked at a settlement, and it is enforceable. In this case, he said, it’s the court’s decision.

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

“Trayvon Martin shooting: Should victim’s high school file be made public?” (Oct. 19, 2012, The Christian Science Monitor)

This article discusses the changes that will be made in the Trayvon Martin case as a new judge presides over the hearings. The final trial date was set, leading to questions surrounding whether or not it is acceptable to make Martin’s high school files open to the public.

From the article:
Currently, Nelson is dealing with practical legal questions as well as the deeper moral and ethical dilemmas the trial is likely to present, says law professor George “Bob” Dekle of the University of Florida. “Right now, she’s likely playing catch-up, trying to get up to speed on what the case really involves,” he says.

“Unnecessary does not mean unlawful, and just because somebody whose stupidity or an excess of testosterone puts himself in a situation where he has to use deadly force, the defense argument is that he still has a right to defend himself, and that is a justifiable argument that could be made in this situation,” says Professor Dekle.

“Let’s say you walk up to somebody and slap him in the face and he turns around and decides to try to use deadly force against you,” he adds. “Because you provoked that situation, under the law you don’t have a right to stand your ground, but under preexisting law, if you get backed into a corner, where you cannot retreat anymore, you still have a right to defend yourself, and use deadly force doing it.”

“Of course I can’t say anything specifically about this judge, but I have seen judges in similar situations initially deny [self-defense] motions, let the jury decide, and then come back and review the decision after the conviction and then revisit the immunity issue and dismiss the case,” says Dekle. “There could be a stimulus on the part of the judge in a situation like this to see if the jury will take care of it for them.”

Paul R. Gugliuzza
Visiting Assistant Professor

The Georgetown Law Journal recently published two online responses to Gugliuzza’s article, “Rethinking Federal Circuit Jurisdiction,” as well as Gugliuzza’s reply, “Pluralism on Appeal.”  You can find the entire discussion here:  http://georgetownlawjournal.org/ipsa-loquitur.

Jon Mills
Dean Emeritus; Director, Center for Governmental Responsibility

“Florida Supreme Court discuss merit retention” (Oct. 19, 2012, The Alligator)

Dean Mills introduced the four justices who came to discuss the importance of an independent judiciary. They discussed merit retention decided through voter election as a threat to a fair and balanced judicial system.

From the article:
UF adjunct law professor Carl B. Schwait began the event, and Dean Jon L. Mills introduced the justices.

“We take for granted what the Constitution did for an independent judiciary,” Mills told the crowd.

Jason P. Nance
Assistant Professor of Law

Nance presented a working paper titled “An Analysis of Strict Security Measures in Public Schools: Evidence of Racial Disparities” at the Southeast Law School’s faculty workshop held at Tulane Law School.

“It’s a buyer’s market for young legal talent” (Feb. 2, 2012, Florida Trend)

Bishop addressed the legal job market and current hiring process in the current economy.

From the article:
“They want the security of having a job at graduation, but the market is making them wait,” Bishop says. More often, only the top-ranked graduates are offered law jobs within the first six months of receiving their degree, and Bishop says more are looking at using their law degrees in alternate careers.

Paul R. Gugliuzza
Visiting Assistant Professor

Gugliuzza presented his paper “Rethinking Federal Circuit Jurisdiction” at the Junior Faculty Federal Courts Workshop in Miami.

Diane Mazur 
Professor of Law

The Fordham International Law Journal published an article reviewing Mazur’s book A More Perfect Military: How the Constitution Can Make Our Military Stronger. An excerpt is available here.

Daniel Sokol
Associate Professor of Law

Sokol presented his working paper on cartels and corporate monitors at a conference sponsored and hosted by NYU School of Law.

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

Wolf recently published “A Yellow Light for ‘Green Zoning’: Some Words of Caution About Incorporating Green Building Standards into Local Land Use Law” 43 URBAN LAWYER 949 (2011).

Atilla Andrade

ProfessorAndrade will be speaking to the members of the Home Builders Association of Florida on the new opportunities for Florida builders in his home country of Brazil.

Nancy Dowd

Professor; David H. Levin Chair in Family Law; Director, Center on Children & FamiliesDowd presented “Barriers to Redefining Fatherhood: Masculinities and Nurture,” as part of a panel on “Redefining Parenthood” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law. The talk focused on how dominant social and cultural concepts of masculinities, as well as public policy founded on an economic definition of fatherhood, operate as barriers to redefining fatherhood around men nurturing their children.

Paul Gugliuzza

Legal Skills ProfessorGugliuzza co-authored and published “Ten Federal Circuit Cases From 2009 That Veterans Benefits Attorneys Should Know,” in American University Law Review, with Miguel F. Eaton and Sumon Dantiki.

Berta Esperanza Hernández-Truyol

Levin Mabie & Levin Professor of LawHernández-Truyol presented “On Post-Racial and Post-Other Isms: A Human Rights Approach to Justice” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law.

Shani King

Associate Professor; Co-Director, Center on Children and FamiliesKing presented “The Family Law Canon in a (Post?) Racial Era” at the National People of Color Conference at the Seton Hall University School of Law. He argued that the canon of family law inaccurately describes a race-neutral or post-racial state for family law and that the canon should correct its colorblindness so that legal authorities can address the problems that structural racism creates for African-American families. The article was the first to engage the canon’s relationship to race, or more specifically, to African-Americans in an in-depth and sustained way.

JoAnn Klein

Development Director, Center for Governmental ResponsibilityTim McLendon and JoAnn Klein, both of CGR, have just completed and published a two-year study on “Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Florida, Update 2010.” This was a joint CGR project with the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey and also involved UF Emeritus Professor of Law Jim Nicholas. The study was funded by a grant from the Florida Dept. of State Division of Historical Resources.

Joseph Little

Professor Emeritus“Health reform amendment thrown off Florida ballot” (Sept. 13, 2010, American Medical News)

Little commented on the Florida Supreme Court’s decision not to include a challenge to the national health care reform bill on November’s ballot on the grounds that it was not worded to accurately represent the amendment’s impact.

From the article:
“The Florida Supreme Court has denied several proposed amendments because they were inaccurately worded, said Joseph W. Little, professor of law emeritus at the University of Florida Levin College of Law in Gainesville. Often the authors try to insert confusing wording to make the proposal sound like something more attractive than it is.” “‘My guess is the Legislature was attempting to create votes for this [amendment],’ Little said.”

Pedro Malavet

ProfessorTV interview (Sept. 15, 2010, WCJB TV-20)
Malavet commented about UF Law being ranked no. 5 for Hispanic students by Hispanic Business magazine.

Tim McLendon

Staff Attorney, Center for Governmental ResponsibilityTim McLendon and JoAnn Klein, both of CGR, have just completed and published a two-year study on “Economic Impacts of Historic Preservation in Florida, Update 2010.” This was a joint CGR project with the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey and also involved UF Emeritus Professor of Law Jim Nicholas. The study was funded by a grant from the Florida Dept. of State Division of Historical Resources.

Don Peters

Professor; Trustee Research FellowDon Peters, along with his co-author Catherine Ross Dunham, professor and associate dean at Elon Law School has published “Civil Procedure: Skills and Values” in the new LexisNexis Skills and Values series.

Sharon Rush

Irving Cypen Professor of LawRush presented a paper at a conference in Athens, Greece in July that was sponsored by the Athens Institute on Education and Research. Her paper focused on what the U.S. and South Africa can learn from each other about fixing a problem we share: the existence and persistence of racially identifiable and unequal schools.

Michael Seigel

UF Research Foundation Professor“Granting of transfer requests ‘rare’” (Sept. 13, 2010, Ocala Star-Banner)

A federal judge recently denied Lee Farkas’ motion to have his case moved from Virginia to Florida. The former chairman of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker Mortgage Corp. was indicted on fraud charges earlier this year.

From the article:
“‘To move a case because it presents an inconvenience to the defendant is…an extremely rare event,’ said Mike L. Seigel, a law professor specializing in criminal law and white collar crime at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. To actually succeed in moving a trial, moreover, a case must be ‘really, really high profile and very emotional, typically,’ Seigel added.”

Danny Sokol

Assistant ProfessorSokol presented his research at the Latin American Competition Forum in San Jose, Costa Rica. The event was organized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Inter-American Development Bank, the Comisión para Promover la Competencia (COPROCOM) and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Commerce of Costa Rica.

Sokol’s article “Antitrust, Institutions and Merger Control” was published in the George Mason Law Review.

Fall 2010 New and Visiting Faculty and Staff

Tom C.W. Lin
Tom Lin has joined the faculty as an assistant professor of law. His current scholarship and teaching interests are in the areas of business law, securities regulation and behavioral law and economics. He was previously an instructor of law at Brooklyn Law School in New York. Prior to entering academia, Professor Lin practiced law at the New York State Attorney General’s Office, Davis Polk & Wardwell and Dewey Ballantine. He is a graduate of New York University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he served as an advanced legal writing instructor and senior editor of the Journal of Constitutional Law and the Journal of Law and Social Change.

Rachel Rebouché
Rachel Rebouché has joined the UF Law faculty as an assistant professor teaching family law and comparative family law. For the 2010-11 academic year, she will be an affiliated faculty member with the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. Prior to joining UF, she was the associate director of adolescent health programs at the National Partnership for Women & Families and an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law. Rebouché received her J.D. from Harvard Law School, LL. M. in international law from Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland and B.A. in politics and sociology from Trinity University. Following graduation from law school, she clerked for Justice Kate O’Regan on the Constitutional Court of South Africa and completed a fellowship at the National Women’s Law Center. Before law school, she was a researcher for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and a research associate at the Human Rights Centre of Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Paul Gugliuzza
Paul has joined the faculty as a visiting legal skills professor, teaching appellate advocacy and legal research and writing. Gugliuzza completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma, and graduated summa cum laude from Tulane University School of Law, where he served as managing editor of the Tulane Law Review. After law school, he clerked for the Honorable Ronald M. Gould on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Gugliuzza joins the faculty directly from the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where he was a member of the firm’s Issues and Appeals practice group.

Mark Snider
Mark D. Snider has joined the faculty as the interim visiting assistant professor in tax. Snider received his J.D., summa cum laude, from the University of Illinois in 1986 and obtained his LL.M. degree from the University of Florida Levin College of Law in 2009. He was a partner at two leading Chicago based law firms, where he practiced for more than 12 years working on complex business and financing transactions. He also worked for several years as the general counsel of a national service company, headquartered in Florida and with business locations throughout the United States, and as a partner in a law firm based in South Florida. He is admitted to practice in both Illinois and Florida.

Debra Hyatt
Debra Hyatt has joined the staff as the new registrar. She joins UF Law from Florida Atlantic University where she worked in student affairs for more than five years. A native of Tampa, Hyatt has a bachelor’s degree from UF and a master’s degree from Nova Southeastern University. She is excited about her return to Gainesville and her alma mater after living in South Florida for eight years. “Gainesville has always been like a second home to me, so it’s a thrill to be able to come back and work at the law school,” she said.

Shira Megerman
Shira Megerman joins the staff as the newest student services librarian. She comes to Gainesville from Kansas City, Mo. Megerman is available for research assistance and all student-related matters. Her office is located at HOL 175B and can be contacted at megermans@law.ufl.edu.

Grace Northern
Grace Northern joins the staff as the associate director of Development and Alumni Affairs. Northern comes to Gainesville from Washington, D.C., where she worked at the White House as Assistant to the Director of Presidential Personnel. In this capacity, Northern worked with senior members of the White House staff to identify and fill presidential appointments across the administration. Prior to her time at the White House, Northern worked on the Presidential Transition Team. As one of the first employees of the Obama for America campaign, she worked in a variety of capacities in six states during the primary and through the general election, including Florida. Before entering politics, Northern worked in the Washington, D.C. office of the Glover Park Group, a large public affairs firm. A native of Louisville, Ky., Grace received her Bachelor of Arts in English from Xavier University in Cincinnati.

Whitney Smith
Whitney Smith joins the staff as the new communications coordinator and editor of FlaLaw Online and UF Law eNews. Smith previously worked at The Gainesville Sun. She has experience in graphic and page design, online content management, editing and news and feature writing. Smith has worked on various publications before, during and after her years as a journalism student at UF and is thrilled to learn about the internal relations of the Levin College of Law and its students, faculty and staff. Feel free to contact her at smithw@law.ufl.edu or 273-0652. Smith replaces Katie Blasewitz, now working in Washington, D.C., as the electronic marketing and communications specialist at The Optical Society.

Matt Walker
Matt Walker has joined the staff as the new media relations manager in the Office of Communications at the law school. Walker brings years of journalism experience to the position, and has worked as a writer, reporter, columnist and magazine editor in Florida, Georgia and California. He will be responsible for running a vigorous reactive and proactive media relations program, including planning and implementing publicity programs, writing and disseminating press releases, and writing for UF LAW magazine and other publications. He can be reached at mlwalker@law.ufl.edu or 273-0653. Walker replaces Scott Emerson, who left the law school for a full-time position with the USDA.

Jennifer Wondracek
Jennifer Wondracek has joined the Legal Information Center as the new instructional services reference librarian. She will be working with faculty on distance learning course creation and other instructional issues. Wondracek also will be teaching legal research, both online and in the classroom, and joining the reference staff to help meet the needs of the LIC patrons. Wondracek came from Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, N.C., where she held the position of reference and government documents librarian. She obtained her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s online program in 2006 and has been a law librarian ever since. Prior to becoming a librarian, Wondracek obtained her law degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and practiced law in North Carolina. Wondracek recently co-authored an Issue Brief on the new exemptions for the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s restriction on circumventing technological access controls for the American Association of Law Libraries. She plans to continue her research on copyright law and the interaction of technology and the law.