“Golden Hills seeking bankruptcy protection” (Feb. 28, 2012, Ocala Star-Banner)

With the Golden Hills Golf and Turf Club filing for bankruptcy in February, this article looks at the causes and implications of the filing. Davis offered insight into what it means for a business to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

From the article:
Chapter 11 bankruptcy isn’t the end for Golden Hills. They can still conduct business, but still owe some of their creditors money.

“Chapter 11 is known as business reorganization,” said Jeffrey Davis, a law professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “The goal is to arrive at a plan that over time pays the secured creditors and the unsecured creditors under the terms.”

Lyrissa Lidsky
Stephen C. O’Connell Chair & Professor of Law

Lidsky’s article “Incendiary Speech and Social Media,” was just published in Texas Tech Law Review.

Lidsky traveled to Florida Coastal School of Law on March 2 to give a presentation at the Law Review’s Cyber Law Symposium.

Tom C.W. Lin
Assistant Professor of Law

Lin recently published “The Corporate Governance of Iconic Executives” in 87 Notre Dame L. Rev. 351 (2011).

Joseph Little
Professor Emeritus

“KEL law firm sues Better Business Bureau over rating system dispute” (Feb. 21, 2012,Orlando Sentinel)

KEL law firm in Orlando is suing the Better Business Bureau after the organization gave the law firm a rating of “F” because of client complaints. The law firm is claiming the bureau’s rating system is biased and flawed. Little stated that as long as the Better Business Bureau can back up its rating system and claims, its conclusions about businesses are protected speech.

From the article:
Still, a BBB agency can’t just publish information without proper due diligence to verify it, said Joseph W. Little, a professor emeritus at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law. The burden would be on KEL to prove reckless negligence by the BBB, he said.

“The BBB has common law right to express fair comment and honest opinion based on true facts,” Little said. “If it does that, then it is protected speech and opinion, even though it is not the opinion the law firm would want them to have.”

“House passes random drug testing bill” (March 2, 2012, Associated Press)

The article addresses questions raised after the Florida House passed a bill that would allow state employees to submit to random drug tests. Little discussed the constitutionality if the bill were to become a law.

From the article:
For the plan to be constitutional, the state’s interest in testing employees for drugs must outweigh the employees’ right to privacy, said Joseph Little, a professor emeritus of constitutional law at the University of Florida’s Levin College of Law.

“There has to be something special about the employment, though, like law enforcement officers or those with a security clearance,” Little said. “But if there’s no special need, you probably can’t do it.”

Jon Mills
Dean Emeritus; Director, Center for Governmental Responsibility

“Justices seek input on how to handle new redistricting rules” (Feb. 29, 2012, The Miami Herald)

The Florida Supreme Court questioned lawyers representing Democrats and Republicans about how to interpret Florida’s new redistricting rules last month. Mills was on-hand to represent the Democrats and was quoted in the article.

From the article:
“You are the ultimate authority,” said Jon Mills, a University of Florida law professor and former House speaker arguing for the Florida Democratic Party. The Legislature’s interpretation “may be interesting but your interpretation is binding.”

Leonard Riskin
Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law

During the fall semester of 2011, Riskin was a visiting professor at Northwestern University School of Law. While there, he received a Dean’s Teaching Award for 2011-2012 (awarded by the dean, based on student evaluations).

In October, he gave two plenary presentations on “Managing and Connecting Inner and Outer Conflict: Integration of IFS and Conflict Resolution Theory and Practice,” at the international Conference of the Center for Self-Leadership in Boston and the Pre-Conference Workshop.

He also moderated a panel presentation on The Chicago Mortgage Foreclosure Mediation Program, sponsored by the Northwestern Law Hispanic Student’s Association and the John Marshall Law School Mediation Program.

Daniel Sokol
Associate Professor of Law

Sokol presented his early work “A Transaction Cost Economics Explanation of Law and Entrepreneurship Vertical Contracting” at IU Bloomington Mauer School of Law.

Jeff Wade
Director of Environmental Division, Center for Governmental Responsibility

On Feb. 17-18, Wade participated in a conference as part of the run-up to the UN Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, scheduled for June of this year. The conference, titled “Contribution of International Environmental Law to Sustainable Development: Global and National Perspectives,” was held at the University of Delhi Faculty of Law in New Delhi, India. Wade presented a paper, “Coastal Development in an Unstable Climate: Precaution, Adaptation and Resilience,” and moderated a panel on marine pollution and coastal regulation.

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

Wolf made a presentation on judicial takings with Bill Treanor (Georgetown) at the Third Annual Meeting of the Association for Law, Property and Society, at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., on March 2.

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.