NEWS BRIEF
Martin Levin Law Advocacy Center to Break Ground This Summer
Thanks to support from Levin College of Law alumni and friends, UF law faculty, staff and students will soon enjoy a legal advocacy center second to none. The Martin Levin Law Advocacy Center, the core of a $5.2 million construction project scheduled to break ground this month, will expand legal advocacy education and provide state-of-the-art trial facilities for the college. Named in honor of Martin H. Levin, son and former colleague of Pensacola attorney and college namesake Fredric G. Levin, the center will put UF Law at the forefront of major law colleges providing students with sophisticated facilities and services.
The impressive stand-alone 20,000 sq. foot center will boast a two-story grand foyer and glass entry with an open staircase that will rise south of Bruton-Geer Hall. It will house a fully functional trial and appellate courtroom on the first floor with a 98-seat gallery, bench for seven judges, a jury box and attorneys’ tables. The courtroom also will accommodate judge’s chambers and a jury deliberation room.
Fred Levin, a 1961 alumnus of the UF law school, contributed $2 million for the center as the lead gift to the University of Florida Levin College of Law. In addition to significant gifts from others, Levin’s gift was matched by the State of Florida Alec P. Courtelis Facilities Enhancement Challenge Grant Program to bring the total contribution to $5.2 million.
Levin is well known as one of the most successful trial attorneys in the country. In 1999 he provided a $10 million cash gift that, with $10 million in state matching funds, moved the college’s endowment into the top 10 of all public law schools in the nation.
Other donors included Robert M. Montgomery, Jr. & Associates in West Palm Beach, Robert Kerrigan of Kerrigan, Estess, McLeod & Thompson in Pensacola, and the Baynard Trust. Montgomery and Kerrigan have exceptional trial records and were instrumental in representing the State of Florida in its $13 billion settlement against the tobacco industry.