Alumni Profiles
Gov. Charlie Crist appointed UF Law alumnus Jorge Labarga to the Florida Supreme Court on Jan. 2. Labarga, of Wellington, Fla., was a state circuit judge who Crist appointed to an appellate court position in December 2008. He was named to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Harry Lee Anstead.
Mobsters, murders, tax evasion and health care fraud, it may read like the back cover of a crime novel, but it’s just another day at the office for Assistant U.S. Attorney Jay G. Trezevant (JD 87).
Don Slesnick (JD 68) still remembers the day he decided to run for mayor of Coral Gables, his hometown and a posh South Florida city of 43,000 residents.
David A. Brennen (JD 91, LL.M. 94) has been named dean of the University of Kentucky College of Law.
Following an extensive, national search, Whittier College President Sharon Herzberger announced in February that Penelope Bryan (JD 81) has been appointed dean of Whittier Law School, effective July 2009. Bryan will succeed the current dean, Neil H. Cogan, who has helmed the law school for the past eight years.
Just five years after graduating from law school, Sean M. Shaw (JD 03) took a big step into public office as Florida’s insurance consumer advocate. Tapped for the position by Florida’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, Shaw began his new full-time post on Nov. 17 leaving the Tallahassee firm Messer, Caparello & Self, P.A. where he specialized in employment discrimination defense.
For UF Law grad J.J. Wilson (JD 07), a change of heart in law school has led to her landing a competitive job with a United States senator.
By age 12, Zainabu Rumala was enrolled in college courses, by 18, she’d received a bachelor’s degree and by 22 she’d graduated from law school. In her current position as a law clerk with Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince, Rumala shows few signs of slowing down.
Vee Leonard (JD 99) didn’t travel down the path most would call a typical road to law school. She got off the highway and waited a bit before getting back on.
At the age of 37, Leonard went back to school to finish her bachelor’s degree at the University of Central Florida. She earned a degree in legal studies and said her professor continuously tried to get her to attend law school.
Michael E. Kinney secured a landmark ruling from the Supreme Court of Virginia in an international child abduction case recognizing the fugitive disentitlement doctrine for the first time in Virginia’s history. That doctrine holds that a fugitive from justice "cannot seek relief from the same judicial system whose authority he evades."
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Jorge Labarga
Jay Trezevant
Donald D. Slesnick
David A. Brennen
Penelope Bryan
Sean Shaw
J.J. Wilson
Zainabu Rumala
Vee Leonard
Michael E. Kinney
