Hina Jilani, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, speaks at the sixth annual Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. The lecture is tomorrow at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180. It is free and open to the public.

Jilani’s work in the area of children’s rights has included working for legal aid, proposing and drafting reformative legislation, and creating and implementing programs that protect the human rights of disadvantaged groups. She is responsible for establishing the first all-women’s law firm in Pakistan in 1981. According to the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, Jilani has been under 24-hour-a-day surveillance by Pakistan since 1996 because of her activism in women, children and human rights movements.

Jilani held the position of special representative of the United Nations secretary general on human rights defenders from 2000 to 2008.

In 2006, Jilani was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on Darfur, Sudan, and in 2009, was appointed to the UN’s fact-finding commission on the Gaza conflict. She is also affiliated with the Carter Center and the UN Conference on Women. In 2008, she was the recipient of the Editor’s Award for Outstanding Achievement by The Lawyer Awards in London.

The Center on Children and Families Weyrauch Distinguished Lecture in Family Law was made possible by an endowment supported by Frank G. Finkbeiner (JD 72) and T.W. Ackert (JD 72).

Walter Weyrauch, who passed away in 2008, was a distinguished professor of law at UF Law. Originally from Germany, Weyrauch joined the UF Law faculty in 1957 as associate professor. He became professor in 1960, was Clarence J. TeSelle Professor 1989-1994, and became Stephen C. O’Connell Chair in 1994 and distinguished professor in 1998. He was named an honorary professor of law at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Germany, and was visiting faculty at the University of California, Berkeley; Rutgers University School of Law and University of Frankfurt.

Walter Weyrauch, distinguished professor and Steven C. O’Connell Chair, died on Friday, Oct. 17. Weyrauch’s retirement in December 2007 followed 51 continuous years of distinguished teaching and scholarship at UF. On Sept. 29, UF Law celebrated Weyrauch’s intellectual legacy with the Walter Weyrauch Symposium: Reflecting on the Contributions to Legal Thought of Walter Weyrauch. (See symposium program)

“UF Law lost one of its intellectual giants with the passing of Distinguished Professor Walter Weyrauch,” said Robert Jerry, dean and Levin Mabie and Levin professor. “Walter has been an active presence at the law school, as recently as last week. Many of our students and faculty knew him and will mourn his passing.”

Weyrauch’s teaching and scholarship focused on family law, business organizations, comparative law, law and society, legal philosophy, and autonomous informal lawmaking, and he is widely published in these areas.

Dexter Delony, who died Thursday, Oct. 16, was a graduate of the University of Alabama and Harvard University. Deloney taught at UF Law for over 30 years, where, among others, he taught former Governors Lawton Chiles and Rueben Askew. He retired from UF in 1983.

“Professor Weyrauch has been an exceptional teacher and respected and highly productive scholar at this institution for more than 51 years, which is a record of continuous service at one law school which is rarely achieved by anyone anywhere in the nation,” said Levin College of Law Dean Robert Jerry. “This symposium will allow us to examine and honor his impressive body of work and bring it to the attention of a new generation of law students.”

This symposium will provide an opportunity for noted scholars and friends of Professor Weyrauch to reflect upon his academic contributions. Participants will make oral comments on facets of Professor Weyrauch’s work. There is no requirement or expectation of a pre-symposium written work by participants, although the College would be most willing to receive any such writings for distribution at or prior to the symposium.

In addition, the Florida Law Review dedicated their April issue to Professor Weyrauch, which will include an article by Lynn M. LoPucki, Security Pacific Bank Professor of Law, UCLA School of Law, and Bruce W. Nichols Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, in honor of the distinguished professor.

The symposium will be held on Sept. 29, 2008 from 9 – 11 a.m. in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom (180 Holland). The symposium is open to the public.

Named in honor of Professor Walter O. Weyrauch, internationally known for his work in foreign and family law, this year’s lecture will feature speaker David Meyer of the University of Illinois, a leading scholar in family law and constitutional law. Meyer’s lecture is titled “Palmore Comes of Age: The Place of Race in the Placement of Children.“

“We are delighted that our colleague Walter Weyrauch has agreed to allow the Center on Children and Families to name an annual lecture in his honor,” said UF Law Professor Barbara Bennett Woodhouse, David H. Levin Chair in Family Law and director of the Center on Children and Families.

“For 40 years, Walter has made his mark as a teacher, scholar and role model of intellectual vigor and creativity to hundreds if not thousands of students at UF. We are proud to have the lecture series named after such a distinguished and admired colleague.”

A reception in the Schott Courtyard will follow the lecture. Weyrauch came to the United States from Germany in 1952 and joined the UF law faculty in 1957 as an associate professor of law. Today, he is a distinguished professor of law and Stephen C. O’Connell Chair at the law school, honorary professor of law at Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany, and editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law.

Weyrauch has taught business organizations, comparative law, conflict of laws, contracts, family law, law and society, legal counseling and philosophy, multinational corporate enterprise and autonomous informal lawmaking. He has been honored with the Golden Doctor Diploma from the University of Frankfurt Faculty of Law, the Florida Blue Key Distinguished Faculty Award, and the Legislative Professional Excellence Program Award. He was named Teacher of the Year in 1984.

Weyrauch has authored numerous books, including Gypsy Law: Romani Legal Tradtins and Culture (2001), and co-authored the text for his family law course, Cases and materials on Family Law: Legal Concepts and Changing Human Relationships. His 50-plus monographs, articles and review essays have been published in the Stanford Law Review, Florida Law Review, Yale Law Journal, University of Chicago Law Review and American Journal of Comparative Law, among others.

 Meyer’s recent articles have appeared in the University of Chicago Legal Forum, Minnesota Law Review, UCLA Law Review, and the Vanderbilt Law Review, among other journals. He is a frequent participant in symposia and conferences and has presented papers in Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States.

Meyer received his B.A. in History with highest honors and his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, where he also served as editor-in-chief of the Michigan Law Review. He clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Byron R. White on the United States Supreme Court. He also served as a Legal Advisor to the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague and practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Chicago before joining the Illinois faculty in 1996.

Levin College of Law Professor Walter Weyrauch (above, right) is being honored with a new annual lecture in his name presented by the Center on Children & Families.

The inaugural lecture will take place Thursday, Nov. 2, at noon in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom with family law and constitutional scholar David Meyer, Mildred Van Voorthis Jones Faculty Scholar at the University of Illinois College of Law. Meyer’s lecture is titled “Palmore Comes of Age: The PLace of Race in The PLacement of Children.”

A leading scholar at the intersection of constitutional law and family law, Meyer’s recent articles have appeared in numerous journals. In the summer of 2006, he served as United States Co-Reporter on Family Law at the Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Meyer received his B.A. in History with Highest Honors and his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Michigan, where he also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Michigan Law Review. He clerked for Judge Harry T. Edwards on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Justice Byron R. White on the United States Supreme Court.

Weyrauch, the Stephen C. O’Connell Chair and Distinguised Professor of Law, joined the UF faculty in 1957. He currently teaches family law and business organizations.