A leading legal expert from Georgetown University Law Center will discuss the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last year on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, during the 32^nd annual Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law.

Randy Barnett, the Carmack Waterhouse Professor of Legal Theory at the Georgetown University Law Center, will present the lecture, “Who Won the Obamacare Case (and Why Did So Many Law Professors Miss the Boat)?” Friday at 10 a.m.in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Florida Law Review.

Barnett has written and commented extensively on the Affordable Care Act and represented the National Federal of Independent Businesses as their case against the ACA was presented before the Supreme Court last spring. In addition to discussing the decision’s general implications, Barnett will look at fundamental misunderstandings he perceives among the legal academic community regarding the decision’s import. Barnett’s lecture precedes an article of the same name to be published in an upcoming edition of the Florida Law Review.

Randy Barnett

The Florida Law Review Dunwody Distinguished Lecture in Law series was established by the U.S. Sugar Corporation and the law firms of Dunwody, White, & Landon, P.A. and Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody & Cole in honor of Elliot (JD 33) and Atwood Dunwody (JD 33). The honorees were brothers who dedicated their lives to the legal profession and who set a standard of excellence for The Florida Bar. As graduates of the University of Florida College of Law, they labored long, continuously and quietly to better the social and economic conditions in Florida.

The series is intended to perpetuate the example set by the Dunwody brothers by providing a forum for renowned legal scholars to present novel and challenging ideas.

An archived video of the Dunwody Lecture will be available at www.floridalawreview.com following the event.

President-elect of The Florida Bar Eugene Pettis (JD 85) will speak about law and justice to area youth. (Photo by Elise Giordano)

By Matt Walker
Senior writer

President-elect of The Florida Bar Eugene Pettis (JD 85) will speak about law and justice to student participants in the second annual Josiah T. Walls Bar Association’s Law and Justice Youth Conference. The conference will take place at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. More than 70 local middle and high school students, along with more than 40 local lawyers, law professors and law students will attend this daylong conference to discuss legal issues affecting area youth.

Pettis will speak to the students about his legal career, leadership in the community, and personal ethics. His comments will encourage students to view the law as an integral part of their lives.  He will also touch on the role of lawyers, judges and law enforcement officers in young adults’ everyday lives.

The Law and Justice Youth Conference will give area youth the tools they can use to become active and affect positive change in their community. Using resources from Street Law, a nonprofit organization which creates teaching materials for law, democracy and human rights, the conference participants will first discuss issues relating to the police in their communities.

“This year’s conference will highlight the importance of civic action and provide a forum in which youth of Gainesville are shown how the law can be a vehicle of self-empowerment and positive change. As local lawyers, it is important for us to continually encourage our youth to positively contribute to the community and create opportunities for them to interact closely with legal professionals,” states Sheree Graham, president of Josiah T. Walls Bar Association.

“As local lawyers, it is important for us to continually encourage our youth to positively contribute to the community and create opportunities for them to interact closely with legal professionals.”

Pettis, who will be sworn in as president of The Florida Bar in June, will be the first African-American in the bar’s history to serve in this position. A co-founder of Haliczer Pettis & Schwamm in Fort Lauderdale, Pettis focuses his practice in the areas of medical malpractice, personal injury, commercial litigation and employment law. Pettis has served in numerous leadership positions, including chairman of the Judicial Independence Committee of The Florida Bar and vice-chairman of the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board, and currently serves on the board of trustees of the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. Throughout his career, he has earned numerous legal awards and accolades, including being selected by his peers for inclusion in the 2010 and 2011 editions of The Best Lawyers in America in the specialties of medical malpractice law and personal injury litigation. Pettis has earned Martindale-Hubbell’s top “AV” rating for his high professional and ethical standards.

The Law and Justice Youth Conference is presented by the Josiah T. Walls Bar Association, in partnership with UF Law’s Black Law Student Association, Caribbean Law Student Association, Criminal Law Association, Association of Public Interest Law, and The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Law Student Division.

The Josiah T. Walls Bar Association and the 8th Judicial Circuit Bar Association received funding from the Florida Bar Diversity Leadership grant to support the 2013 conference.

Established in 1977 and incorporated in 1997, the Josiah T. Walls Bar Association, Inc. is a voluntary minority bar organization that has grown from five to more than 30 attorneys from Alachua and surrounding counties. At its inception, JTWBA was a social networking organization, which culminated into a support system for African-American attorneys. In 2005, members decided to expand the organization by encouraging other minority attorneys to become members. Membership is comprised of attorneys, law professors, judges and law students who live or regularly practice in the 8th, 5th, and 3rd Judicial Circuits. In the spirit and legacy of Josiah T. Walls, the association is dedicated to promoting professional excellence, giving back to the community, and mentoring future lawyers. For more information, please visit http://www.jtwba.com/index.html.

The Florida Bar YLD Law Student Division provides law students from each Florida law school with a variety of activities designed to help connect students at Florida law schools with lawyers and leaders of The Florida Bar. Among such activities are networking and mentoring opportunities with Florida Bar members, ethics and professionalism training, pro bono and community service opportunities, and opportunities to participate in the activities and work of various sections of The Florida Bar. These activities are designed to enhance the law school experience and further the future interests of the legal profession. The division works to facilitate a smooth transition between law school and practicing law. For more information, please visit http://www.flayld.org/students/.

When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, it proved to be a great step forward in showing the United States’ and Congress’ commitment to preserving our nation’s natural heritage and protecting native plants and animals from becoming extinct.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the ESA, the 19th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Florida Levin College of Law will focus on the evolution of endangered species protection over the past four decades. “The Endangered Species Act at 40: Polishing the Crown Jewel,” will be held Feb. 21-23 at UF Law.

“I’m very excited about this year’s conference,” said UF Law Professor and Director of the Environmental and Land Use Law Program Mary Jane Angelo. “We are bringing in experts from around the U.S. to discuss the act’s many successes, such as the recovery of our national symbol, the bald eagle, as well as significant challenges we face in the future such as addressing impacts from habitat loss and climate change.”

Keynote speakers for this year’s conference include Carl Safina, founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute and award winning author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross, and Zygmunt Plater and Patrick Parenteau, attorneys in the landmark decision of Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill et al. – temporarily halting the completion of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River in order to protect the snail darter, an endangered species of fish.

The conference will also include multiple panel discussions, a workshop sponsored by The Florida Bar, and training opportunities for both attorneys and those outside the legal field.

UF Law student and PIEC co-chair Chelsea Sims said the PIEC is one of the largest student-run conferences in the nation.

“It’s a great opportunity for UF students to engage with cutting edge issues surrounding endangered species such as the Florida panther, corals, sea turtles, manatees and more,” Sims said.

To view the agenda and register for the conference, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/academics/concentration/elul/public-interest-environmental-conference. UF Law students and faculty attend free-of-charge. Select “student” when registering.

“Any student that is interested in learning about the status of endangered species, the role of climate change, or the interface of science and policy regulating endangered species will enjoy this free event at the law school campus,” said Rachael Bruce, UF Law student and PIEC co-chair. “Please come out and join us.”

When the Endangered Species Act was passed in 1973, it proved to be a great step forward in showing the United States’ and Congress’ commitment to preserving our nation’s natural heritage and protecting native plants and animals from extinction.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the ESA, the 19th annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Florida Levin College of Law will focus on the evolution of endangered species protection over the past four decades. “The Endangered Species Act at 40: Polishing the Crown Jewel,” will be held Feb. 21-23 at UF Law.

The event is free-of-charge for students and faculty. Register under “student conference” (the banquet still calls for a $35 fee).

“I’m very excited about this year’s conference,” said Mary Jane Angelo, UF Law professor and director of the Environmental and Land Use Law program. “We are bringing in experts from around the U.S. to discuss the act’s many successes, such as the recovery of our national symbol, the bald eagle, as well as significant challenges we face in the future such as addressing impacts from habitat loss and climate change.”

The keynote speakers for this year’s conference include Carl Safina, founding president of the Blue Ocean Institute and award winning of author of Song for the Blue Ocean and Eye of the Albatross, and Zygmunt Plater and Patrick Parenteau, attorneys in the landmark decision of Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill et al. – temporarily halting the completion of the Tellico Dam on the Little Tennessee River in order to protect the snail darter, an endangered species of fish.

The conference will also include multiple panel discussions, a workshop sponsored by The Florida Bar, and training opportunities for both attorneys and those outside the legal field.

UF Law 3L and PIEC co-chair Chelsea Sims said the PIEC is one of the largest student-run conferences in the nation.

“It’s a great opportunity for UF students to engage with cutting-edge issues surrounding endangered species such as the Florida panther, corals, sea turtles, manatees and more,” Sims said.

To view the agenda and register for the conference, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/academics/concentration/elul/public-interest-environmental-conference.

“Any student that is interested in learning about the status of endangered species, the role of climate change, or the interface of science and policy regulating endangered species will enjoy this free event at the law school campus,” said Rachael Bruce (3L), PIEC co-chair. “Please come out and join us.”

Speaking will be P. Christopher Jaensch (JD 95), who also received a UF bachelor’s degree in history in 1992. While at UF, he was a member of Sigma Chi Fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa Society and Florida Blue Key, the oldest and most prestigious leadership honorary in Florida.

Jaensch is a member of The Florida Bar, the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the Sarasota Bar Association. He has served as president of the Sarasota-Manatee International Trade Club and serves as regional vice chair, Tampa Bay, in the Central Florida Chapter of AILA. He is active in several local organizations, including the influential Laurel Park Neighborhood Association in downtown Sarasota.

Jaensch has more than 13 years of experience in the field of immigration and nationality law and focuses his practice on four primary categories: 1) investors and entrepreneurs; 2) business executives, managers and professionals; 3) amateur and professional athletes and coaches; and 4) performing artists and immigrants with extraordinary ability.

Scott G. Hawkins, President of The Florida Bar

The president of The Florida Bar and active alumnus at the University of Florida, Scott Hawkins, will speak at UF’s Levin College of Law tomorrow at 3 p.m. in the Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center courtroom. “A Discussion with Scott G. Hawkins, President of The Florida Bar,” is presented by the UF Chapter of The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division Law Student Division, and is free to the UF Law community.

Hawkins’ topic will be “The Great Privilege of Being a Lawyer and Getting Started in the Legal Profession.” Twenty minutes will be available for questions, and a 25-minute meet-and-greet will follow. Refreshments will be served after the presentation.

Hawkins is vice chair of Jones, Foster, Johnston & Stubbs, P.A. in West Palm Beach and is board certified with The Florida Bar in business litigation. He is past president for the Palm Beach County Bar and is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. District Court for northern, middle, and southern districts of Florida, and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hawkins’ expertise includes intellectual property, trade secret disputes, software litigation, commercial litigation, utility contracts, environmental and land use law, Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), health care disability and administrative litigation. Hawkins is also a Martindale-Hubbell AV rated attorney for maintaining high ethical standards.

The event was made possible by The Florida Bar YLD Law Student Division, which is comprised of law students around the state. The division works on creating a smooth transition between law school and practicing law. The group works with The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, local bar associations and practicing lawyers to provide opportunities for networking, mentoring, legal education and community service opportunities for members.

UF representatives of The Florida Bar YLD Law Student Division include Ryan Gilbert (2L), Margaret Good (3L), Allie Menegakis (2L and division secretary) and Laura Thayer (3L).

All students are encouraged to apply for membership. For more information about the division, visit http://www.flayld.org/students/signup.php or contact Allie Menegakis at allieem@ufl.edu.

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.”

Joshua Lukman is among the UF Law grads who passed the July Florida Bar exam.

The University of Florida Levin College of Law achieved the highest passage rate on the July Florida bar exam out of the state’s 11 law schools, according to results recently released by the Florida Supreme Court.

Out of 310 UF Law grads that took the examination, 269 passed, resulting in a 86.8 percent pass rate compared to the state’s overall pass rate of 79.2 percent. Florida State University (86.2) and University of Miami (86) rounded out the top three schools.

“UF Law was first in Florida on the July 2010 Bar Exam, and continues to hold the record of having the most consistently strong performance on the bar over time of any law school in the state. When February and July exam results in the same year are combined to ensure accurate class-by-class comparisons, UF Law ranks first in 2010 and have been in the top two six of the last seven years, 12 of the last 13 years,” said UF Law Dean Robert Jerry.

“UF Law is also proud to be the only top-tier law school in Florida, the only Florida law school ranked in the top ten in the nation in the Super Lawyers ranking of alumni and the first-choice destination for most Florida residents seeking a legal education in Florida,” Jerry said.

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.