In a forthcoming article in the Boston College Law Review (“Jurisdiction to Tax Corporations”), University of Florida Law Professor Omri Marian proposes a new policy-perspective for international corporate taxation, questioning whether foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies, such as many of Apple’s, should indeed be viewed as “foreign.” The paper can be downloaded at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2245802.

“Apple’s strategy is perfectly legal,” Marian notes. “It simply highlights the U.S. tax code failure in treating companies incorporated offshore as ‘foreign’ for tax purposes, even though many of such companies, wholly owned by U.S. parents, do not exist except on a piece of paper in some tax haven jurisdiction.”

Marian suggests that the United States should adopt a functional approach to corporate taxation by defining corporations “domestic” for tax purposes using a two-pronged corporate tax-residence test: the place where the corporation’s securities are listed for public trading, or the place of the corporation’s central management and control.

Affirming that corporations are nothing more than imaginary entities, this approach asks what the policy purpose is for taxing corporations rather than becoming bogged down in the usual question of a “territorial system” or of “worldwide consolidation.”

Since we primarily care about the taxation of publicly traded corporations, Marian suggests making the public listing the test for residency of the parent, and to treat the subsidiaries managed by the parent as domestic. Under the approach, all “foreign” subsidiaries where the earnings are trapped will become domestic, and as such subject to tax in the United States. This will be an important first step toward a much necessary broadening of the U.S. corporate tax base, whether the U.S. keeps its global system of taxation, or adopts a territorial one.

Marian specializes in international taxation, comparative taxation and taxation of financial instruments. He joined the UF Law faculty in 2012 after leaving the firm of Sullivan & Cromwell LLP in New York.

Contact:
Omri Marian, Assistant Professor of Law
352-273-0975 or marian@law.ufl.edu

The University of Florida Levin College of Law experts are available to comment on the legal issues raised by the upcoming cases.

Darren Hutchinson
Cell: 202-276-0146
Email: hutchinson@law.ufl.edu

Hutchinson is a visiting professor at UF Law and will join the faculty full time in the fall. He teaches and conducts research in the areas of constitutional law, racial justice, LGBT rights, and other civil rights issues. Hutchinson has written extensively about questions of racial inequality, sexual orientation and constitutional law. He has delivered numerous lectures at law schools and universities in the United States and abroad, and has published articles in some of the nation’s leading legal periodicals.

Joseph Jackson
Office: 352-273-0882
Email: jjackson@law.ufl.edu

Jackson is a senior legal skills professor at UF Law and associate director of the Center on Children and Families. In addition to gay and lesbian family law issues such as adoption and same-sex marriage, Jackson’s expertise extends to issues surrounding homelessness and restrictions on the provision of services to those in need.

Sharon Rush
Office: 352-273-0948
Cell: 352-256-2466
Email: rush@law.ufl.edu

Rush is UF Law’s associate dean for faculty development, the Irving Cypen Professor of Law, associate director for the Center on Children and Families, and co-founder of the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations. Her areas of scholarship and teaching include constitutional law and comparative civil rights.

Jan. 24, 2013

For additional information:
Matt Walker, UF Law Communications
352-273-0650, mlwalker@law.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With electronic discovery increasingly becoming a fact of life for all litigators, the University of Florida Levin College of Law and the Electronic Discovery Reference Model are offering a first-of-its-kind conference on this rapidly growing area of law.

“Electronic Discovery for the Small and Medium Case” will be held on April 4-5, 2013 at the UF Law campus and will also be available as a live, online stream. A wide array of national experts will discuss how to competently and cost-effectively handle e-discovery in small and medium cases and will shed light on the latest developments in Florida and federal e-discovery rules. The conference also will feature demonstrations of the latest e-discovery software and tools for each phase of the e-discovery process, for matters ranging from the most humble lawsuit to the largest mega-case. The conference is part of the UF Law’s E-Discovery Project, and is underwritten by the International Center for Automated Information Research, a University of Florida foundation established to promote innovation in information technology.  Attendees will be eligible to receive 11.5 CLE credits.

“We’re very excited to be hosting this innovative conference,” said William Hamilton, UF Law’s newly appointed executive director of ICAIR and the UF Law E-Discovery Project. “As we live more and more of our lives online, e-discovery is quickly becoming an inevitable part of any litigation practice. Even the most routine cases today involve more digital data than some of the largest and most complex cases of just a few years ago. That is why we feel this conference will offer such great value to its attendees.”

Hamilton, who is also a partner at Quarles and Brady, LLP, an adjunct professor at UF Law, and dean of the Electronic Discovery Project Management Department at Bryan University, said this conference is distinguished from other e-discovery conferences in that it addresses practical applications of e-discovery in the types of cases lawyers deal with on a daily basis.

Registration is $199 for in-person participants or $99 for those who wish to attend via live stream. Each in-person attendee will receive a toolkit of trial licenses for e-discovery software used to preserve and collect electronically stored information (ESI) from desktops to the web; convert collected ESI to usable forms; perform rapid, powerful searches; and facilitate production of relevant, responsive ESI. Representatives from AccessData, Catalyst, Digital WarRoom, iConect, LexisNexis Litigation Solutions, Nuix, Pinpoint Labs, X1 Discovery and others will be on hand to demonstrate the ease and accessibility of their products – helping attendees test-drive their toolkits.

For complete registration information, visit www.law.ufl.edu/academics/ediscovery-conference.

“This conference is a great opportunity for lawyers and their staff to get pragmatic insights from leading e-discovery practitioners, whether they attend in person or online,” said George Socha, co-founder of EDRM. “Add the starter e-discovery starter toolkits and this should be a stellar program.”

About UF Law and the E-Discovery Project

The University of Florida Levin College of Law has a longstanding tradition of producing national leaders and is one of the nation’s best values in legal education. U.S. News & World Report ranks UF Law 25th among public law schools and 48th overall. The UF Law E-Discovery Project is a multidisciplinary endeavor to support the civil litigation process through electronic discovery law courses, research, the development of information retrieval methods and tools, and skills training to practicing attorneys and litigation support professionals. More information on the UF Law E-Discovery Project is available at www.law.ufl.edu/academics/institutes/icair.

About EDRM

Launched in May 2005, the EDRM Project was created to address the lack of standards and guidelines in the e-discovery market – a problem identified in the 2003 and 2004 Socha-Gelbmann Electronic Discovery surveys as a major concern for vendors and consumers alike. The completed reference model provides a common, flexible and extensible framework for the development, selection, evaluation and use of e-discovery products and services. Expanding on the base defined with the Reference Model, the EDRM projects now include nine projects including the Information Governance Reference Model project. Over the past eight years, the EDRM project has comprised more than 250 organizations, including 150 service and software providers, 61 law firms, three industry groups and 22 corporations involved with e-discovery. Information about EDRM is available at http://www.edrm.net.

# # #

For more information:

• Conference Website
• About ICAIR & the E-Discovery Project
• Conference Agenda

September 18, 2012

Contact:
Rick Goldstein
352-273-0650
goldstein@law.ufl.edu

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Three distinguished graduates of the University of Florida Levin College of Law, Lucius Durham Battle, Rebecca Bowles Hawkins and Gerald A. Williams, will be inducted posthumously Friday into the Heritage of Leadership Society. The ceremony is 3:30 p.m. in the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center, 1714 SW 34th St.

The event is closed to the public, but media are invited to cover the ceremony.

Battle, Hawkins’ and Williams’ images, along with their most significant accomplishments, are etched into glass on the second floor of Holland Hall on the law school campus as a permanent tribute to their contributions to the nation, the state and the university. An electronic display accompanies the etchings.

Battle, 1918-2008, was a 1946 graduate of UF Law. The Dawson, Ga., native reorganized State Department operations in the 1960s and was chosen by President Lyndon B. Johnson as ambassador to Egypt and as assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs.

Hawkins, 1910-2000, graduated in 1935 and continued to blaze paths for women as the first assistant attorney general of Florida in 1948. The native of Big Sandy, Tenn., served as the long-time chief of the Attorney General Office’s Opinions Division. She served as president of the Florida and National Association of Women Lawyers.

Williams, 1950-2010, was a 1975 graduate born in Pensacola. He was a labor lawyer and counsel for major South Florida school districts, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. He was among the first African-American graduates of UF Law and in 1992 became a managing partner of Atlanta-based Mack, Williams, Haygood & McLean, one of the largest African-American-controlled firms in the country.

Battle, Hawkins and Williams join 29 others in the Heritage of Leadership Recognition Society, representing illustrious personalities in the history of the University of Florida College of Law since it was founded in 1909. Members are pre-eminent graduates and others who have been involved in the college in very significant ways. They assumed national leadership positions and distinguished themselves in legal, governmental, academic and corporate sectors. They labored to improve the administration of justice and received the highest commendations for contributions to the profession and service to education, civic, charitable and cultural causes.

Members of the Heritage of Leadership Recognition Society are selected by the Heritage of Leadership Committee, which presents the slate for discussion and approval to the full membership of the University of Florida Law Center Association, Inc. Board of Trustees.

Sharon Rush, Irving Cypen Professor of Law
Rush joined the faculty at UF Law in 1986 and includes among her areas of expertise constitutional law and federal courts.
Cell: 352-256-2466
rush@law.ufl.edu

Steven Willis, Professor of Law
Willis has written an amicus brief on the health care issue for the Supreme Court and has either written or signed a brief for each Florida Circuit. He has also published three law review articles on the case. (Willis will be available after noon on June 28.)
Office: 352-273-0680
willis@law.ufl.edu

Michael Allan Wolf, Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government Law
Wolf specializes in issues dealing with constitutional law, legal and constitutional history and the Supreme Court. His book, “The Supreme Court and the Environment: The Reluctant Protector,” was published earlier this year.
Office: 352-273-0934
Cell: 352-359-2497
wolfm@law.ufl.edu

R. Paul Duncan, director for UF Center for Medicaid and the Uninsured
Duncan is professor and chair of the department of health services research, management and policy in the College of Public Health and Health Professions. He can provide answers about how the health care system works and potential next steps after the Supreme Court decision,
352-273-6073
pduncan@phhp.ufl.edu

Allyson Hall, research director for UF Center for Medicaid and the Uninsured
Hall is also an associate professor in the department of health services research, management and policy in the College of Public Health and Health Professions.
She can provide answers about how the health care system works and potential next steps after the Supreme Court decision.
352-273-5129
hallag@phhp.ufl.edu

Jon Mills — politician, media pundit and professor extraordinaire — was networking at a law school reception in honor of a visiting Florida Supreme Court Justice when I tapped him on the shoulder. “You’ve been busy,” I said, citing just a few of his recent activities ranging from multiple media appearances to lectures at national conferences.

He threw his hands in the air and laughed. “I’m supposed to be on sabbatical!” he said, and shook his head at the futility of staying away from the law school and legal world that has been his passion for more than 40 years. Mills (JD 72) is one of UF Law’s bestknown and most influential graduates, and he likes to be involved. He has earned widespread respect in his many diverse roles as an elected official, lawyer, professor, author, businessman and oft-quoted media expert on constitutional law issues. He received the University of Florida Distinguished Alumnus Award in recognition of all that hard work during the college’s May 2012 graduation ceremony.

“The education I received from Florida gave me the opportunity to be a lawyer, to be a teacher, to be a writer,” Mills said. “It’s impossible for me to give back enough to repay what that has meant to my life in terms of allowing me to have joy in the things that I do and to see that I’ve made an impact.” Mills served 10 years in the Florida Legislature and was Speaker of the House 1986- 1988. His major policy initiatives included water quality and environmental bills, child abuse prevention, high tech development, and constitutional privacy protections. While Speaker, he initiated and led the effort to build the Center for the Performing Arts and locate all UF arts facilities at the “Miracle on 34th Street.” He served on the historic Constitution Revision Commission and was named its most valuable member, chaired the drafting committee, and sponsored a substantial revision to the education provision of the Florida Constitution.
Mills is currently exploiting his hard-won knowledge of the Florida constitutional and political system. He serves as counsel for the Democratic Party before the state Supreme Court in a challenge to the Republican Legislature’s legislative redistricting map. Mills has been a lawyer in high profile national cases such as protection of privacy for the Earnhardt family, the Versace family, and the family of SeaWorld trainer Dawn Brancheau; he has appeared in courts nationwide and is of counsel to the prominent Miami law firm Boies Schiller & Flexner, LLP.

Read more here or in the upcoming Spring 2012 issue of UF Law Magazine.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The UF Levin College of Law Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations will host “A Conversation on the Shooting Death of Trayvon Martin” Wednesday in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom, HOL 180, at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

This will be an engaging discussion on the legal and social issues surrounding the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last month in Sanford, Fla. It is an excellent opportunity for those who are concerned to ask questions, provide commentary, and gain insight from members of the UF Law faculty, including Professors George Dekle, Monique Haughton-Worrell, Kenneth Nunn, Michelle Jacobs, Katheryn Russell-Brown and Michael Seigel. Topics scheduled for discussion include Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, self-defense, racism, police discretion, charging decisions, racial imagery, slave codes, prosecution and evidence.

Please visit UF Law’s website for a tip sheet with contact information for UF Law professors available to comment on the case: http://www.law.ufl.edu/news/2012/03/20/uf-law-criminal-law-experts-available-to-address-trayvon-martin-case/.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On Feb. 26, Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American youth, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old White-Hispanic man, while Martin was walking in Zimmerman’s neighborhood. Almost a month after the killing, Zimmerman has not been arrested, with Sanford, Fla. police citing Florida’s 2005 “Stand Your Ground” law as the reason, which allows a person who feels threatened in a public space to use deadly force. As the case gains national attention, with over 500,000 signatures on a Change.org petition calling for the arrest of Zimmerman, it has today gone to a grand jury, and the Justice Department and FBI have opened  an investigation on the case.

University of Florida Levin College of Law experts available

Bob Dekle, Legal Skills Professor
Cell: 386-365-4611
Email: dekle@law.ufl.edu

Areas of expertise include issues related to criminal law, self-defense, evidence, police tactics and interrogation.

Michelle Jacobs, Professor of Law
Office: 352-273-0940
Email: jacobsm@law.ufl.edu

Areas of expertise include issues related to critical race theory and criminal law.
                                                                                                                                             
Katheryn Russell-Brown, Chesterfield Smith Professor of Law; Director, UF Levin Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations
Office: 352-273-0912
Email: russellbrownk@law.ufl.edu

Areas of expertise include issues related to race and crime, criminal law.

Michael Seigel, UF Research Foundation Professor of Law; Director, Criminal Justice Center and Clinics
Office: 352-273-0914
Email: seigel@law.ufl.edu

Areas of expertise include issues related to criminal law, self-defense, and Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law.

Jennifer Zedalis, Legal Skills Professor; Director Trial Practice Team
Office: 352-273-0814
Email: zedalis@law.ufl.edu

Areas of expertise include issues related to criminal law and trial practice.

Location: University of Florida Levin College of Law and Sweetwater Branch Inn, 625 E. University Ave., Gainesville, Fla. 32601

Event Overview: The University of Florida Levin College of Law will welcome UF Law alumna and former director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy Carol Browner (JD 79) as keynote speaker for the 18th annual Public Interest Environmental Conference.

“Fishable? Swimmable? 40 Years of Water Law in Florida and the United States,” will be held Feb. 23-25 at UF Law and will celebrate the 40th anniversary of two of the most significant laws guiding water policy in Florida – the federal Clean Water Act and the influential Florida Water Resources Act. The conference is sponsored by UF Law’s Environmental and Land Use Law Program.

The conference registration fee will be waived members of the media who wish to attend.

Browner will be giving the keynote address Friday, Feb. 24 at 8 p.m. at the Sweetwater Branch Inn. Due to space limitations, please contact Matt Walker if you plan on attending this portion of the conference. For the full conference schedule, visit http://www.law.ufl.edu/piec/pdf/PIEC-Agenda-2012.pdf.

For further information:
Matt Walker, UF Law Communications
352-273-0650 or mlwalker@law.ufl.edu

Time: 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Location: UF Law Martin H. Levin Advocacy Center courtroom

Event Overview: The University of Florida Levin College of Law’s Criminal Justice Center is presenting, “A Battle for our Streets: Using RICO to Prosecute Criminal Gangs in Florida,” tonight at UF Law. Assistant Statewide Prosecutors and UF Law graduates Sasha Lohn-McDermott and Daniel Wiseman will be discussing growing gang activity in Florida, ties to larger gangs in New York and Chicago and using racketeering laws to prosecute gang-related cases.

The CJC will also be introducing a new summer externship program at the Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Media are welcome to attend. Pizza and refreshments will be served.

For further information:

Eva Achero, UF Law Criminal Justice Center

352-273-0802, eachero@law.ufl.edu

University of Florida Levin College of Law experts are available to comment on the legal issues raised by the adoption.

Lee-ford Tritt
Cell: 352-214-1729
Email: tritt@law.ufl.edu

Tritt is a professor of law at UF and is also the director for the Center for Estate Planning, director of the Estates and Trusts Practice Certificate Program, and associate director of the Center on Children and Families. In addition to Florida adoption laws and shielding assets, Tritt’s expertise encompasses a variety of areas including estate planning, charitable giving and transfer taxes.

Jeanne M. Tate
Office: 813-258-3355, ext. 101
Cell: 813-431-2151
Email: jeanne@jtatelaw.com

Tate is an adjunct professor at UF Law where she teaches adoption law and procedure. She is also an AV-Rated and board-certified adoption attorney, and managing partner at Jeanne T. Tate, P.A. with offices in Tampa, Naples and Orlando. She is a member of the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys and the Florida Adoption Council.

The supporters of SOPA and PIPA claim the acts will help to greatly reduce the amount of piracy on the Internet by essentially blocking access in the U.S. to foreign sites that are deemed to be infringing on the intellectual property of a copyright holder.

However, those in opposition of the acts believe SOPA and PIPA would lead to Internet censorship and could dramatically change the Internet as we know it.

Contact: Elizabeth Rowe
Office: 352-273-0927
Email: rowe@law.ufl.edu

Rowe is the director of the Program in Intellectual Property Law at UF Law. She joined the college in 2005 and she specializes in intellectual property disputes, patent litigation, trade secret litigation and trademark litigation.

Contact: Paul Gugliuzza
Office: 352-273-0913
Email: prgugliuzza@law.ufl.edu

Gugliuzza is a visiting assistant professor who specializes in intellectual property issues. He comes to UF Law from Jones Day in Washington, D.C., where he was a member of the firms Issues and Appeals practice group.

Lyrissa Lidsky
Office: 352-273-0941
Email: lidsky@law.ufl.edu

Stephen C. O’Connell Chair Lyrissa Lidsky joined the UF Law faculty in 1994. Her areas of expertise include constitutional law, Internet speech and media law. She is the author of three casebooks on the topics of torts, mass media law and First Amendment law.

William Hamilton
Cell: 813-476-9557
Email: william.hamilton@quarles.com

Hamilton is a UF Law alum and adjunct professor at UF Law who specializes in electronic discovery and is board-certified in intellectual property and business litigation by The Florida Bar. He is a partner at Quarles & Brady LLP.

Hina Jilani, Advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, will speak on “The Role of Human Rights Defenders in Protecting Children’s Rights.”

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 1989-94, 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 has been visiting faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, Rutgers University School of Law and University of Frankfurt.

For more information:
Debbie Willis
willisd@law.ufl.edu

The symposium will give those interested the opportunity to hear distinguished members of the global tax community discuss a range of important topics revolving around current and future tax policy.

Michael Lang, a professor and director of the LL.M. Program in International Law at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, will present, “The Third Country Aspects of the Proposals for a Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) in the EU – The CCCTB Draft Directive in the Light of the Recent European Tax Policy Debate.” Lang is also the head of the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law.

Neil Brooks, professor of law and director of the Graduate Tax Program at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University in Toronto will present, “The Impact of Prevailing International Tax Laws and Norms on Low-Income Countries.”

J. Clifton Fleming, who is the Ernest L. Wilkinson Chair and Professor of Law at Brigham Young University Law School, and Robert Peroni, the Fondren Foundation Centennial Chair for Faculty Excellence and Professor of Law at University of Texas School of Law will jointly present, “Designing a Tax Exemption for Foreign Income When the Treasury is Empty.”

The symposium will be available to view via webcast here: http://video.ufl.edu/main/liveStreams/mediasite.php?id=5679&time_id=31707.

For additional information:
Matt Walker, UF Law Communications
352-273-0650 or mlwalker@law.ufl.edu

Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor will speak about judicial reform during a panel discussion Monday at 10:30 a.m. in the Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on the University of Florida campus. The event is sponsored by the UF Levin College of Law. A news release is available here.

Former ABA president and UF Law alumna Martha Barnett (JD 73) will serve as moderator. In addition to Justice O’Connor, the panel will feature Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy Quince and U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge and UF Alumna Rosemary Barkett (JD 70).

Photographers for print publications are asked to act unobtrusively and to confine their photos to the first few minutes of the event. Television cameras and microphones will not be permitted. High resolution photos of the panel will be available early Monday afternoon on the UF Law website.
O’Connor will not be available for interviews. Barnett and Barkett will be available for interviews at 12:50 p.m. at the Sweetwater Branch Inn, 625 E. University Avenue in Gainesville.

The Graham Center and ACCENT will co-host a lecture by O’Connor on the topic of civics education at 6 p.m. in the University Auditorium.