Archive for 'May, 2012'

FIU’s College of Law conferred 184 degrees on its departing Class of 2012 on May 25 at the U.S. Century Bank Arena. Many of the new alumni have already secured positions at major law firms and public interest organizations throughout Miami and the surrounding counties. U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, who is serving in his fifth term in Congress, was the keynote speaker.

The FIU News team was there to capture all the Polaroid moments – students celebrating and parents beaming with pride.

Check out FIU Facebook to see more photos. Tag yourself and your friends! To download your “FIU grad” photo in higher resolution, go to FIU Flickr.

Read more at news.fiu.edu »

The President of The Florida Bar has appointed Professor H. Scott Fingerhut to the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee for a three-year term.  Crim Pro Rules, a standing committee of The Bar, reports to the Florida Supreme Court concerning the proposal of new rules of criminal procedure as well as changes to existing rules.  This is Professor Fingerhut’s second appointment the Committee.  His previous six years of service includes three terms as Vice Chair and as Chair of the Committee in 2007.

FIU Law Alumna Maria D. Garcia, an attorney at Zumpano Patricios & Winker, was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for Florida International University Alumni Association.

Maria D. Garcia graduated from FIU College of Law in 2008. While at FIU Law, Maria served as President of the Moot Court and received the Appellate Advocacy Award upon graduation.

Garcia, currently a member of ZP&W’s healthcare practice group, is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Cuban American Bar Association (“CABA”) and a member of the Business Buddies Board for Best Buddies Miami. She is also active with the Florida Bar Association’s Health Law Section, the Dade County Bar Association, Women’s International Shipping & Trade Association and the American Inns of Court, Spellman-Hoeveler Chapter. In addition, she has served as the President of the FIU College of Law Alumni Association.

“The College of Law is very proud of Maria Garcia, who recently became the first FIU Law graduate elected to the FIU Alumni Association Board,” said Dean Alex Acosta.

WLRN/Miami Herald news reporter and producer Kenny Malone will host FIU Law Professor Manuel A. Gomez. Professor Gomez will discuss the lawsuit filed in Miami federal court against Aroldis Chapman, a left-handed pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds. Aroldis Champan, who defected from Cuba, has been sued for $18 million by a Cuban-American man who blames the player for his imprisonment on the communist island. The lawsuit claims that Chapman falsely accused Danilo Curbelo Garcia of involvement in human trafficking, leading to his 2008 arrest and conviction in Cuba.

Professor Gómez teaches international and comparative law as well as complex and transnational litigation-related courses at the College of Law.

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MIAMI – Florida International University College of Law congratulates the incoming 2012-13 FIU Law Review Editorial Board. Editorial board members include: Editor-in-Chief Courtney Walter, Managing Editor Cristina Neuman, Executive Symposium Editor Erin Auble, and Executive Comments Editor Jennifer Soberal.

The FIU Law Review is a student-run organization responsible for producing a journal of scholarly legal works.  As a symposium-based law review, their issues are composed of articles addressing a particular area of the law, with its authors often participating in a live symposium before publication.

“I congratulate the new board members of the Law Review and look forward to working with them in the year ahead,” said FIU Law Dean R. Alexander Acosta.

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Nicholas Icaro had a rough start. When he was 5, a car accident rendered his father quadriplegic. When he was 12, his mother suffered a work injury that kept her from ever holding down another job. Public assistance followed.

(TUNE IN) – Topical Currents will host FIU law professor and Constitutional expert, Elizabeth Price Foley. She will discuss the Tea Party movement, and how she feels it’s been misunderstood and unfairly stereotyped in mainstream media. The program will air Monday, May 21st at one o’clock on 91.3 WLRN.

Elizabeth Price Foley is a self-described “recovering liberal,” who’s written The Tea Party: Three Principles. Foley serves as the Executive Director of the Institute for Justice Florida Chapter. She is also the Institute for Justice Chair in Constitutional Litigation and Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law.

Topical Currents is hosted by Joseph Cooper, who shares his microphone with a wide range of guests including community leaders, artists, scientists, historians, political thinkers and more who bring issues of interest to South Floridians.

Listener call-in line is 1-800-743-9576 that’s 1-800-743-WLRN
You can also email radio@wlrn.org
Facebook.com/TopicalCurrents

Professor George F. Knox was presented The Mario P. Goderich Legal Ethics Award by the Dade County Bar Association in recognition of his exemplary service benefiting the community, bench and bar.  The special recognition award was presented at The Dade County Bar Association’s 23^rd Annual Recognition Luncheon, held at the Hyatt Regency Miami, on April 27, 2012. The Association recognized its new Life Members, retiring members of the Board of Directors and committee chairs.

Professor George Knox came to the FIU College of Law after many years of substantial contributions to the city of Miami. Considered among the “100 Most Powerful People in Miami” by Miami Business Magazine, Professor Knox’s community credentials range from serving on our FIU College of Law Advisory Board, playing a key role in bringing both an NBA and an MLB team to South Florida, and being Co-chair of a campaign in 1997 for the United Way of Miami-Dade County which raised over $33 million in contributions.

“It was especially fulfilling to receive an honor for being faithful to the Law’s highest calling”, said Professor George Knox.

Two other special recognition awards were presented at the luncheon. The Alan R. Schwartz Judicial Excellence Award was presented to Orlando A. Prescott, Judge – Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida and The Robert L. Shevin Public Service Award was presented to Jerald Bagley, Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida.

Professor Alejandro Mayagoitia of the Panamerican University (Mexico City) spoke at the College of Law on ”Law and Nobility in Colonial Spanish America.”

Alejandro Mayagoitia received his law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.  He taught Roman law and teaches Mexican legal history and medieval and modern law at the Universidad Panamerica. Alejandro is one of Mexico’s most respected legal historians and genealogists, and he has published over 75 articles, essays, and other academic studies.

He was at FIU to work with the Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza Collection of Cuban Genealogy, a newly acquired collection of books and manuscripts in Special Collections of the Green Library. The collection is made up of over 5,000 volumes and 900 unpublished letters containing genealogy information from Cuba, as well as other Latin American countries and Europe.

Florida International University hosted a panel discussion for journalists covering Facebook’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) and its implications. FIU experts from a wide array of fields, including business, law, engineering and communication, discussed what to expect in the coming months as the world’s largest social media site goes public. Amongst those FIU experts was FIU Law Professor Hannibal Travis.

“The Facebook IPO provides our students with a great opportunity to discuss issues of growing importance, such as patents over popular new ways of communicating, and whether the government has a role in preserving competition and transparency in markets for communication and information,” said Professor Travis.

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