Nota Bene
Legal skills professors Leanne Pflaum and Anne Rutledge received Faculty Enhancement Opportunity (FEO) awards. Pflaum received the award for the summer and fall 2009 term, during which time she will prepare the second edition of “Legal Writing by Design” (2001), along with a teacher’s manual and a guide to be used by judges in training their clerks to write orders, judgments, and opinions. Rutledge received the award for the summer and fall 2009 terms, during which time she will write a textbook to be used by the legal drafting faculty in the legal drafting course.
Diane H. Mazur, a professor of law, has been appointed as one of seven senior editors of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, a peer-reviewed journal “devoted exclusively to national security law and policy.” The journal includes interdisciplinary articles touching on matters of law, the military, intelligence, law-enforcement, public health and civil liberties. Mazur, a former captain in the United States Air Force, includes in her area of expertise civil-military relations, constitutional law, evidence, and professional responsibility.
Jon Mills, University of Florida College of Law dean emeritus, professor of law and director of the Center for Governmental Responsibility has been tapped to serve on the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission. Nominees recommended by the JNC for federal judges, U.S. attorneys and marshals will be among the first considered by the newly-installed Obama Administration. Mills, a former Florida Speaker of the House, has accepted an appointment by senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez to serve a two-year term on the Florida Judicial Nominating Commission.
Elizabeth A. Rowe, an associate professor of law, has been named one of 12 recipients of a University of Florida Jack Wessel Research Award. These awards, which are part of what is expected to be a one-time program funded by a one-time testamentary gift, are given to a faculty member in the first three to four years of his or her career. To be eligible, faculty members must have achieved distinction in scholarship. Rowe will receive $5000 in non-salary research support funds.
Mike Seigel, a professor of law, has been selected to receive a University of Florida Research Foundation Professorship Award for 2009-11. The research foundation professorships are intended to recognize faculty who have established a distinguished record of research and scholarship during the last five years and who are expected to lead to continuing distinction in their field. UF Law currently has two other faculty members who hold this professorship: Danaya Wright, with a 2007-09 term; and Mark Fenster, with a 2008-10 term.
Lee-Ford Tritt, an associate professor of law, director of Center for Estate and Elder Law Planning and Estates and Trusts Practice Certificate Program, and associate director of Center on Children and Families received the John Marshall Bar Association (JMBA) 2009 Professor of the Year Award. Tritt, who joined the UF Law Faculty in 2005, said that the award was especially meaningful for him after a difficult year. Tritt said that his favorite thing about teaching is the interaction with his students and the environment at the University of Florida.
Steven J. Willis, a professor of law, has been appointed to the Eighth Circuit Judicial Nominating Commission by Florida Governor Charles Crist. Willis’ four-year commission began last October and will end July 1, 2012. As a member of the commission, Willis will participate in reviewing applications, interviewing and recommending judicial candidates for appointment in the Eighth District to the governor.
Why do black and white Americans perceive police actions so differently? Is white fear of black crime justified? Do African-Americans really protect their own? Should they? These are just a few of the questions posed and examined by author and University of Florida Levin College of Law Professor Katheryn Russell-Brown in her recently released book, The Color of Crime (New York University Press). In her book, Russell-Brown, director of the UF College of Law Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations (CSRRR), explores with readers a wide range of perplexing racial crucibles regarding race and the media.
The Duke lacrosse rape case was a train wreck of criminal injustice, and for 13 months the public couldn’t look away. The new book Race to Injustice: Lessons Learned from the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case examines this high-profile pile-up between a prestigious university, an alleged rape, an unscrupulous district attorney, and a news industry ravenous for the next big scoop. In the book, author and editor Michael Seigel, a professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, assembles legal- and forensic-science experts who join him in dissecting this messy clash between due process and the public’s right to know. The result is 14 unique perspectives on a case rife with false allegations, unethical prosecution tactics and simmering racial tension.
The historic case of Euclid v. Ambler (1926) literally changed the landscape of America. What started out as a local legal battle concerning zoning and land use in a small village in Cleveland ended in an historic Supreme Court ruling that still dictates policy for every zoning official and urban and city planner in the U.S. In his new book titled, The Zoning of America: Euclid v. Ambler, author and land-use expert Michael Allan Wolf, a University of Florida Levin College of Law professor, and Richard E. Nelson Chair in Local Government, describes how the ordinance, and its defense, burst onto the national stage and became the focus of litigation before moving to the nation’s highest court.
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Willis appointed to judicial nominating commission
The Color of Crime — Katheryn Russell-Brown
Race to Injustice — Michael Seigel
The Zoning of America: Euclid v. Ambler — Michael Allan Wolf
