UF Law demonstrated diversity efforts in the areas of Hispanic enrollment, student services, reputation, faculty and retention rate.

“I am delighted to see that in my time as member of this faculty enrollment of Latinas/os at the college of law has doubled to better reflect the long-standing and increasing diversity of the state of Florida,” said UF Law Professor and Comparative Law Director Pedro Malavet.

“As the flagship state law school, we have a particular obligation to contribute to the delivery of legal services to our state and its citizens; that purpose is best served when our student body looks more like our state,” he said. “Given that Hispanics are the fastest growing group of Americans, a state like Florida, which is well ahead of this demographic curve, should be educating the next generation of leaders of the legal profession in our country.”

The most recent example of this is evident in UF Law alumnus Stephen N. Zack (JD 71). Zack is immediate past-president of the American Bar Association and the first Hispanic-American to hold the position in the organization’s 130-plus year existence, and was also the first Hispanic-American to be elected president of The Florida Bar. Throughout his career, Zack has been a tireless advocate of equal access to justice and upholding the constitutional rights of every citizen.

Last month, former Gov. Bob Graham and retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor joined Zack in the ceremony naming Stephen N. Zack Hall at UF Law. The naming followed a gift of $800,000 from Zack and his firm, Boies, Schiller & Flexner. The gift will go toward establishing an endowment fund to promote diversity at UF Law. The endowment will come to $1.3 million when it is eventually matched by the state.

UF Law has been ranked in the HispanicBusiness Best Schools for Hispanics top 10 list nine out of the past 11 years. Additionally, the law school is home to several student organizations that emphasize Hispanic diversity: Latin Law Students, Caribbean Law Students Association and the International Law Society. UF Law also participates in the UF Law Minority Mentoring Program and the Puerto Rican Bar Association of Florida.

Stephen Zack unveils his portrait as the fifth UF Law graduate to become American Bar Association president. (Photo by Joey Springer)

There have been plenty of great lawyers in American history.

These include lawyers who wrote the Constitution, lawyers who wrote the Declaration of Independence, lawyers who saved our nation and lawyers who fought for civil rights, a fact that the speaker made everyone aware of.

“How will this generation of lawyers be remembered?” asked Stephen Zack, JD 71, American Bar Association president and this year’s Marshall M. Criser Distinguished Lecturer.

The lecture series started at 2 p.m. Friday, Oct. 8, in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, followed by the ABA presidential portrait unveiling. The lecture series was started in 2007 and Zack is the third lecturer in the series. Justice John Paul Stevens and Justice Clarence Thomas were previous speakers.

Zack’s lecture focused on the future of the legal profession and what this new generation of attorneys will have to face once they graduate.

“The law will change more in the next 10 years than in the last 200 years,” he said.

According to Zack, UF Law graduates will practice law from every corner of the country and of the world via virtual law firms.

“The client will insist upon it,” he said.

Zack also said globalization is playing an increasing role in effective, transformative legal practice. Lawyers will have to be familiar with the way laws vary from country to country and how these legal nuances can be applied to practicing law back home.

“You need to decide in which direction our profession will go,” Zack said. “But there is a greater challenge for you, and that is whether you will preserve the justice system in this country because as we are fighting to establish rule of law around the world, we are dangerously close to losing in our own country.”

Protecting the judicial system was a major point of Zack’s discussion.

“Shakespeare said ‘kill the lawyers first’ because Jack the Butcher wanted there to be anarchy in England. He should have said ‘kill the justice system first’ because without a justice system, there is no need for lawyers,” he said.

When Zack was 14 and still living in Cuba, “the first evidence we had that we would lose our liberty was the attack on the judiciary.”

According to Zack, in the state of Florida, one half of one percent goes to fund the state’s entire justice system, including victim assistance, public defenders and court personnel.

“They say they want the best and the brightest on the bench, but you have to pay for it,” he said. “Our justice system is not a line item…It is up to this generation to make sure that this doesn’t happen.”

Zack said that what he likes to call “the Facebook and face lift generations” need to talk, learn and give the best to each other.

To current and future alumni, he said, “We were given the most powerful weapon [available]: a law degree…it means that you were given the ability to right a wrong wherever you are.”

Zack ended the speech with a personal anecdote about when he left his native country at age 14. On the night his family left Cuba after the military came into his grandfather’s shop, he asked his Russian grandfather if he felt bad.

“‘I do, I do,’” he said. “‘I worked my whole life to achieve all this and now it is all gone. But I feel good about one thing. I feel good about the fact that I’m going to the United States. Yes, I will be an immigrant, but I will never be an immigrant again because if the United States falls, I will have no place to go.’”

“It is up to this generation to make sure that the United States always stays strong,” Zack said.

After his speech, Dean Robert Jerry spoke briefly about the previous four UF Law ABA presidents and unveiled Zack’s presidential portrait. It was hung on the wall, marking Zack as the fifth Gator ABA president, more than any other law school in the last four decades.

Zack said he was honored to be on the same wall as the previous ABA presidents.

Wilbert Vancol, 3L, thought the event was very motivating and inspirational. “I appreciate the fact that he spoke about the significance of being a lawyer and what it entails.”

As Dean Jerry said, “maybe one of the students in this room will some day be on this wall.”

Following in Zack’s footsteps on the state level are UF Law alumni Mayanne Downs, who became president of The Florida Bar in June, and Scott G. Hawkins, The Florida Bar president-elect for 2011.

As president of the 400,000 member-plus ABA, Zack will work toward gaining equal access to justice for all segments of society, a major focal point of his presidency. Other important issues Zack will focus on will be sufficient funding of the judiciary, the growing use of technology in the legal world and the importance of a proper civic education for young students.

Like Zack at the ABA, Downs is making judiciary funding a major focus of her presidency at The Florida Bar. Raising awareness about how lawyers can benefit by taking advantage of technology is also a key goal during her time in office.

Zack, who moved to Cuba from Detroit with his parents at two months old, came back to the United States at the age of 14 and went to high school in Miami. After graduating from UF Law, he returned to Miami and was co-founder of the Cuban-American Bar Association. Besides being the youngest president to be elected to The Florida Bar, Zack’s other accomplishments include being a member of the team of attorneys who represented Al Gore in Bush v. Gore (2001) and serving on the Florida Constitution Revision Commission. He is also an emeritus member of the UF Law Center Association Board of Trustees.

Mayanne Downs has served as the Orlando City Attorney since 2007, is a partner at King, Blackwell, Downs & Zehnder, P.A. in Orlando, a past member of the UF Law Alumni Council and has been on The Florida Bar Board of Governors since 2002. Scott G. Hawkins is vice-chair of Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs, P.A. in West Palm Beach, where he practices commercial litigation. He also serves on the UF Law Center Association Board of Trustees, UF Foundation Board of Directors and is director of The Florida Bar Foundation.

The University of Florida recognizes Distinguished Alumni as graduates who have excelled in his/her chosen field or have performed outstanding service for the university. It is gratifying to note that nearly 30 percent of all UF’s Distinguished Alumni honored since the inception of the program have been Levin College of Law graduates. We are extremely proud to honor and recognize three UF Law alumni with 2010 University of Florida Distinguished Alumni Awards.

Stephen N. Zack, 2010 UF Law Commencement Speaker

When University of Florida Distinguished Alumnus Stephen N. Zack (JD 71) takes office as president of the American Bar Association this June, he won’t be the first Gator to hold the prestigious office, but his election will still be one for the record books.

Zack, an administrative partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, will be the first Hispanic-American president of the ABA in the organization’s 130-year history. Following his installation as ABA president, Zack will lead the organization’s 410,000 members and nearly $100 million budget, and he has already hit the ground running in promoting his agenda as ABA president to provide appropriate financial support of the judiciary and improving civic education.

Zack has a long history of leadership and achievement. During law school, he was an active member of the University of Florida student body and served as president of Florida Blue Key. In addition to the long list of professional leadership roles he has held in the ABA, The Florida Bar, his local bar association and in his community, Zack is also a founding member of the Cuban-American Bar Association and was the first Hispanic-American — and youngest — president of The Florida Bar. His career is marked by outstanding service to Florida’s citizens as general counsel to Gov. Bob Graham, as chair of the state’s Ethics Commission, as an appointee of Gov. Lawton Chiles to the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, and, most historically, as trial counsel for Presidential Candidate Al Gore during Bush v. Gore.

In a career spanning nearly four decades, Zack has always been a tireless participant in and advocate for the rule of law. His passionate belief in the civic responsibility of those who are governed to participate in their governance is a cornerstone of his agenda as ABA president, as is his devotion to the judiciary and its role in guaranteeing the Constitutional rights of every citizen. Zack holds dear the responsibility of the legal profession to uphold the laws of the country — a devotion to the rule of law that his family’s experience fleeing Cuba and Fidel Castro’s repressive regime in 1961 helped hone.

“In 1961 the first indication of the loss of liberty in Cuba was the attacks on the judiciary. It went downhill from there,” Zack said. “All constitutions are only words unless there is a commitment by the citizens to accept and defend those rights.”

Stephen H. “Steve” Grimes

Double Gator, Florida Supreme Court Justice-emeritus, and UF Distinguished Alumnus Stephen H. Grimes (JD 54) is a jurist known for his dedication to the law, to public service and for his work ethic, intellect, and personal integrity. At UF, Grimes was president of his social fraternity, Alpha Tau Omega, served as editor-in-chief of the Florida Law Review and was a member of Florida Blue Key, Phi Delta Phi legal honor society, and the Order of the Coif. Grimes served his country in the U.S. Navy between 1951 and 1953, and following his graduation from UF Law in 1954, he joined Holland & Knight, becoming head of the firm’s litigation department. He served as president of the Tenth Judicial Circuit Bar Association in 1966 and became a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers in 1971. In 1973, Grimes was appointed to his first judicial position on the Florida Second District Court of Appeal, where he served until 1987 and as chief judge from 1978 to 1980. Gov. Bob Martinez appointed Grimes to the Florida Supreme Court in 1987, and he served as chief justice of the court between 1994 and 1996. After his retirement from the court in 1996, Grimes returned to Holland & Knight as partner and the firm’s “Senior Statesman,” where he continues to mentor young lawyers. He has been recognized as a Florida Super Lawyer, and is among the “Best Lawyers in America” for white collar criminal defense, appellate law and commercial litigation.

Kenneth Hood “Buddy” MacKay Jr.

During his nearly 30-year life in public service, double Gator and UF Distinguished Alumnus Kenneth Hood “Buddy” MacKay Jr. (JD 61) has focused on improving the quality of life for Floridians, preserving and protecting Florida’s environment, and ensuring the fiscal responsibility of government. As a UF undergrad, MacKay was inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame. He achieved the rank of captain in the U.S. Air Force, and practiced law in Daytona Beach following his graduation from UF Law. In 1968, MacKay was elected to the Florida House of Representatives. He was subsequently elected to the Florida Senate in 1975, and later to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served from 1983 to 1989. In 1988, MacKay ran for the U.S. Senate but lost in a very close race to Connie Mack III. In 1990, MacKay was elected lieutenant governor on the ticket headed by Gov. Lawton Chiles, and they served two terms. With term limits preventing Gov. Chiles from running again, MacKay ran for governor but lost the election to Jeb Bush. MacKay became the state’s 42nd governor, nonetheless, due to the tragic and untimely death of Gov. Chiles 23 days before the end of his term. Following his retirement from public office after his term as governor, MacKay continued to serve his country as a special envoy to the Americas, appointed by President Bill Clinton, between 1999 and 2001. He remains devoted to Florida, and, as a certified mediator, established a project in the 5th Judicial Circuit of Florida to use mediation to resolve child-protection dependency cases. The mediation program has now been adopted by 19 of Florida’s 20 circuits.