Archive for '2012'

In a recent article by the Daily Business Review, Deborah C. Espana features FIU Law’s Scholarship Program, which provides an opportunity for first-generation law students.

Fla. Law School Scholarship Program Helps First-Generation Lawyers

Daily Business Review – By Deborah C. Espana

Juan Enjamio is a first-generation lawyer. His parents came to the United States in 1970 without a college education but with the idea that higher education was the key for success.

Enjamio, Miami managing partner of Hunton & Williams, is one of 13 South Florida managing partners whose firms have committed to fund scholarships for first-generation law students to give them a chance at higher education at Florida International University College of Law.

“I’m a first-generation college graduate, and at an individual level I want other young people to have the same opportunity that I had,” Enjamio said. “Part of the reason why we are committed to help fund this scholarship is because many of our attorneys are also first-generation lawyers, and the firm values providing the same opportunity to young people in our community.”

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The following op-ed by first-year FIU Law student Frandley Julien, The high cost of staying out of politics in Haiti, originally appeared in The Miami Herald on November 2, 2012. Frandley Julien was coordinator of the Initiative Citoyenne, a civic group in Cap-Haitien, Haiti in 2001-04.

Haiti has never been a better illustration than now of Edmund Burke’s quote that “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Traditionally, a huge portion of the country’s population has always prided itself in belonging to the “silent majority,” leaving the political scene to vagabonds and the bravest of serious souls. An understandable — albeit, not excusable — reason is the fact that Haiti’s successive dictatorial regimes, particularly the Duvaliers, have raised the killing of political opponents to the level of a national sport. Being in the silent majority was a manifestation of our survival instinct at its best.

However, well-educated citizens of good will should have known that their choice to generally refrain from participating in the political process would lead the country exactly where it is now, with successive incompetent governments and the exponential deterioration of the population’s living conditions. Moreover, the premise that abstention from politics would guarantee longevity could not be farther from the truth today. Quiet, law-abiding citizens are killed, kidnapped, raped on a daily basis in today’s Port-au-Prince; everybody is at the mercy of the all-powerful gangs.

During the past couple of months, there have been more and more protests against President Martelly’s stewardship of the country. Instead of listening to the population’s grievances expressed through numerous street demonstrations, the president, upon returning from the United Nations, countered with a march of his own, leading a crowd of his partisans and state employees through the nine miles separating the international airport from the National Palace.

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By Martin Haro

Eight law clinics are currently operating within the College of Law at FIU. There, law students are not only gaining hands-on experience in many areas of practice but also improving the lives of their fellow community members. In this second part of a two-part story, we tell you about some of the cases handled by the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, the Investor Advocacy Clinic, the Health, Ethics, Law and Policy (H.E.L.P.) Clinic and the Community Development Clinic.

Since 2004, the College of Law at FIU has had a flagship clinical program that provides students with hands-on experience outside the classroom.

“We are very much a law firm focusing on educating the next generation of lawyers through close supervision of law students as they practice for the first time and provide policy advocacy and community education throughout Miami-Dade,” said clinical director Peggy Maisel of the program, which primarily serves underprivileged individuals and nonprofits that must meet a certain threshold to receive services.

In part 1 of this two-part story, we told you about the work that has been done at Consumer Bankruptcy, Environmental Law, the Family and Children’s Advocacy and the Immigrant Children’s Justice clinics. Now, we share the good word on the work of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, the Investor Advocacy Clinic, the Health, Ethics, Law and Policy (H.E.L.P.) Clinic and the Community Development Clinic.

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Senior Associate Dean Michelle D. Mason served as the keynote speaker at the 2012 National Achievers Society Induction Ceremony on Oct. 20, 2012 at the FIU Biscayne Bay Campus. The event, sponsored by the South Florida Center of Excellence at Florida International University, inducted 16 local students into The National Achievers Society (NAS).

Nationally, the Centers of Excellence have inducted more than 19,000 students into NAS since 1986 and induct approximately 300 new students each year.

NAS was established with the purpose of encouraging students in kindergarten through grade 12 to excel both academically and culturally.  By focusing on the importance of higher education and group accomplishments, NAS has enjoyed success in helping  students develop a sense of pride that has turned learners into leaders.

“A variety of role models and mentors made a significant difference for me growing up.  I feel privileged to be seen as having a perspective that could possibly assist another child as she charts her own educational journey,” said Mason.

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In the following op-ed that appeared in the October 23, 2012, edition of the Wall Street Journal, FIU Law Professor Elizabeth Price Foley makes the case that the presidential debates have failed to address an important issue: federalism.

Plenty of Debates, Not Much About States

Democrats regard federalism as quaint, Republicans at least pay lip service to it.

by David B. Rivkin Jr. and Elizabeth Price Foley

In the presidential debates, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney ranged across dozens of topics, but an important one didn’t come up: federalism. And no wonder.

The idea that the Constitution grants only limited and enumerated powers and leaves the remainder to the states is foreign to those who believe that the national government should or even could address voters’ every concern. But contrary to the view widely shared by the political class, Washington—in particular, Congress—does not have the power to pass any law it wants in the name of the “general welfare.”

Politicians should take heed. Voters are increasingly focused on the proper role of government in society: Witness the rise of the tea party and unease over the massive debt caused by entitlements and other government handouts. The continuing loud objection to ObamaCare’s takeover of health care shows that voters want to preserve the Constitution’s architecture of limited federal power.

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By Martin Haro

Eight law clinics are currently operating within the College of Law at FIU. There, law students are not only gaining hands-on experience in many areas of practice but also improving the lives of their fellow community members. In this first part of a two-part story, we tell you about some of the cases handled by the Consumer Bankruptcy Clinic, the Environmental Law Clinic, the Family and Children’s Advocacy Clinic and the Immigrant Children’s Justice Clinic.

When Peggy Maisel joined the faculty of the College of Law in 2003, she did so with a clear goal in mind: to establish a flagship clinical program that provides students with hands-on experience outside the classroom.

In August 2004, Maisel and former College of Law Professor Troy Elder launched the inaugural law clinic, the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic. Currently, there are eight clinics and a ninth is being planned to work on behalf of veterans.

About 45 percent of FIU Law students work in a clinic before graduation. Through the end of the 2011-’12 year, the students had provided more than 27,000 hours of free legal services to approximately 400 individuals, groups and organizations. That is equivalent to a court-approved value of more than $2 million in free legal services, exclusive of faculty time.

“We are very much a law firm focusing on educating the next generation of lawyers through close supervision of law students as they practice for the first time and provide policy advocacy and community education throughout Miami-Dade,” said Maisel of the clinics, which primarily serve underprivileged individuals and nonprofits that must meet a certain threshold to receive services.

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The Spain-Florida Foundation 500 Years brought together leading Latin American legal experts, diplomats and the former heads of government of Uruguay, Spain and El Salvador to discuss the impact and legacy of the Constitution of Cadiz.  The two-day conference, hosted by the FIU College of Law, was titled “Homage to the Bicentenary of the 1812 Cadiz Constitution” and started on Oct. 18, 2012.

Matthew C. Mirow, Associate Dean of International & Graduate Studies and Professor of Law, served as a panelists on a discussion on the historical aspects of the Constitution of Cadiz. In his presentation, Mirow addressed the promulgation of the Constitution of Cadiz in Florida.

“This Constitution governed Spanish Florida from 1812 to 1815 and then again from 1820 until 1821 when Spain turned Florida over to the United States,” said Mirow.  “Daily political life in Florida’s Spanish colonial cities was governed by this document, and cities like St. Augustine ordered their activities around the requirements, rights, and duties expressed in this Constitution.”

The basis for this talk has just been published by Mirow in 24 Florida Journal of International Law 1-60 (2012).

For the 5th year running, Professor H. Scott Fingerhut has been selected to The Best Lawyers in America for protecting people’s liberties as one of the nation’s top criminal defense lawyers.

Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession, with listings published in almost 70 countries around the world.  Lawyers are not permitted to pay any fee to participate or be included.

2013 will mark the 19th edition of Best Lawyers celebratory publication and include 50,178 attorneys in 128 practice areas, covering all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Professor Fingerhut began his legal career as a prosecutor in Janet Reno’s Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and opened his own law practice in 1992, where he concentrates still on state and federal trial and appellate criminal defense, as well as Florida Bar admission and regulation.

Professor Fingerhut has been with FIU since 2000.  He teaches trial advocacy, pretrial practice, and criminal procedure, coaches the trial team, and this year oversees the criminal law externship program.

Photo as seen on The Atlantic.com

In Defense of Baseball’s Infield Fly Rule

By Howard Wasserman

Baseball’s Infield Fly Rule has sparked more legal fascination than any other rule in sports. It returned to the national spotlight this past week when an unusual and controversial infield fly call in last Friday’s National League Wild Card game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Atlanta Braves short-circuited a potential Braves rally in a game the Braves ultimately lost. Opinion has been divided on the correctness of the call.

But beyond criticism of this specific call, some fans on Twitter and in web forums expressed a deeper distaste for the Infield Fly Rule itself, questioning whether it is necessary, wise, or warranted. They’re misguided: The rule is part of the sport’s fabric, uniquely warranted for a situation that’s unique to baseball.

There’s no other situation in baseball when the fielding team will be better off by not catching a fair ball than by catching it.

Here’s how the Infield Fly Rule works. When a team has runners on first and second or the bases loaded with less than two out and the batter hits a pop-fly ball (but not a line drive) in fair territory that can be easily caught by an infielder (under the rule, can be caught with “ordinary effort”), the batter is called out, regardless of whether the fielder catches the ball; if the ball drops and remains fair, it is in play and the runners can try to advance at their own risk. The rule is designed to remove the incentive for a fielder to deliberately drop an easily handled ball on the infield, which likely would allow him to turn a double play on the two base runners (and perhaps, although less likely, a triple play). It took its more-or-less current form in 1901, enacted in response to infielders actually doing this, a bit of trickery that was deemed not “sporting” at the time.

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Professor Matthew Mirow will complete a three-year term on the Southern Cone Regional Review Panel of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, Washington, DC, this year. The Council administers the award of Fulbright U.S. Visiting Scholars, commonly referred to as Fulbright Professors, for the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Board.

The Fulbright is recognized as the United States’ premiere academic exchange program.  Over the past three years, Mirow has reviewed hundreds of applications by university professors seeking to teach or to do research in the countries comprising the Southern Cone, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay.

Mirow, who had a Fulbright to Chile in 2009, said, “It is a great deal of fun to read and discuss applications from professors around the U.S. in all sorts of fields.  The Fulbright not only changes the lives of these professors but also touches so many students and professors in the host universities.  I have no doubt that the Fulbright program is tax money well spent.   It has really been an honor to have played a small part in the Fulbright process.”