Members of the 2012-2013 Executive Board of the National Black Law Students Association were asked to give their best advice on what Black pre-law students should do to prepare for a successful law school experience. Here is what they wanted to share.

Advice:

As a third-year Black law student, I know that part of my duty is to assist the next generation of Black law students. In order to prepare for law school, Black college and graduate students should consider the following five steps (same advice I give my mentees).

(1) Find a mentor. Consider finding a mentor in a local bar association, a family friend who happens to be an attorney, or a person who is currently in law school. The key to success is finding answers for questions you may have. Mentors can answer your questions about law school and assist you with the law school application process.

(2) Create a support system. You will go through so many changes before, during, and after law school such that a good support system could make or break your success. If it wasn’t for my parents, brother, family, and friends I know that I would not have been able to survive law school.

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FIU Law’s Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic and Professor Juan Carlos Gómez were featured in a recent Miami Herald article for their work with low-income undocumented migrants applying to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

Professor Gómez is a Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor of Law at FIU. Gómez has been defending the rights of individuals in immigration matters for the last twenty years. During this time he has represented persons before the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, the United States Departments of Justice and Homeland Security in complex immigration matters. Within the field of immigration law, he has helped thousands of individuals in situations including removal and deportation proceedings, family immigration, and the transfer of professionals and executives to the United States.

“You hear all of these incredible stories of young people who have been brought to the United States and have such hope to contribute so much,” Gómez said. “They want to run businesses. They want to be accountants. They are paying for college out of their own pockets. These are incredible human beings, who will only make us a richer nation.”

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The legal community came together Sept. 29 to celebrate 10 years of FIU Law. In the process, nearly $1 million was raised for fellowships and scholarships, ensuring that the college’s promise to educate a unique type of lawyer will be kept for generations.

“Miami opens its doors to all individuals with the will and the heart to seek and achieve success. FIU Law will do the same,” said College of Law Dean Alexander Acosta, addressing more than 400 law students, lawyers, judges, alumni, faculty and university leaders who gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel Miami. “There is something special about the FIU Law student. They do not believe in limits. They charge forward with the attitude that with hard work and an excellent education nothing is beyond their grasp. This is the attitude that makes FIU Law and FIU Law graduates distinct.”

The Judge Aaron B. Cohen Foundation, law firms and individuals contributed to the $918,000 fundraising effort. Net proceeds will directly benefit law students by providing summer stipends and by funding scholarships for first generation students.

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The following op-ed by first-year FIU Law student Frandley Julien, Haitian leaders avoid root problems, originally appeared in The Sun Sentinel on September 30, 2012.

Those who follow Haitian politics closely have noticed that, for the last 25 years, no government has matched the current team’s ability to come up with innovative ideas, or their eagerness to achieve quick results. However, one’s enthusiasm is quickly dampened upon the realization that no other government has had so little institutional knowledge either.

Therefore, the current government’s entrepreneurial spirit, uplifting at first, may mean more trouble for the country if its innovative drive is unleashed with little respect for the institutions, and without a clear understanding of what it would take to achieve irreversible democratic, economic and social progress.

The current government approaches Haiti’s challenges as if it were a new country, with no history or antecedents. Everybody agrees Haiti has a great potential for tourism, that its hard-working people could constitute the ideal workforce for scores of local and foreign businesses.

But what the government fails to realize is that until Duvalier’s departure, thousands of tourists were visiting Haiti on a weekly basis, that all the jobs we are trying to attract, we had them until then. Why did these enterprises leave? Why did the tourists stop visiting us? The answer is a no-brainer: political instability and insecurity.

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How many paintings have you installed at Florida International University’s College of Law and when were they made?
I’ve installed 6 paintings in the law school. They were made between 2000 and 2011.

Why did you choose to install the works at the College of Law?
An academic context is a great place to present my work as part of a serious discourse in which students and visitors alike can participate. I’ve been eyeing the large walls at the College of Law since my time as a student in the Master’s of Fine Art program at FIU.  In fact, I have 20 large-scale paintings currently being displayed throughout the various buildings of FIU’s North, South and Miami Beach campuses.  It’s important as an artist to find places to show one’s work.  FIU has been a great partner in helping me do so.

Why are the paintings so big?
They have to be.

How long did it take to make each one?
Between 6 months and 3 years.

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In a recent article, FIU Law Professor Thomas Baker is quoted on why the Supreme Court’s fall session begins without any direct First Amendment cases. He states the dearth of First Amendment cases could mean that the justices “are turning in other directions after having decided some important speech and religion cases the last couple of years. The idea is that they decide some big cases, like the ministerial-exemption case and then back away to allow the lower courts to work out the details.”

With over three decades of law teaching experience, Professor Baker is a nationally-recognized constitutionalist who has received numerous awards for his teaching, including the first-ever Pioneer Award for his commitment and dedication to students from the FIU Student Bar Association in 2004. Professor Baker publishes commentaries and is frequently quoted in the national media as an expert in constitutional law and the federal courts.

High court spotlight misses First Amendment

By Tony Mauro

The Supreme Court’s fall session begins without any direct First Amendment cases on the argument docket, signaling a possible respite from free-speech and religion cases for the near-to-middle future.

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Maritza Hernandez, RN – FIU Health Law & Policy Clinic Client (l-r); Natalie Castellanos – staff sttorney, FIU Health Law & Policy Clinic; Pamela Roshell – regional director (Region IV), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; Betsy Havens – attorney and Equal Justice Works fellow, Florida Legal Services, Inc.; Jersey Garcia – executive director, MI LOLA; and Jeannett Spencer – Department of Labor, Wage & Hourly Divisions lead discussion on benefits of the Affordable Healthcare Act. — Miami Times photo/Jose Perez

On Saturday, September 15, 2012 the Florida International University Health Law and Policy Clinic staff attorney, Natalie Castellanos, participated in the National Council of Negro Women’s National Health Care Reform Tour.

Castellanos graduated from FIU College of Law in 2011, where she was active as president of the International Law Students Association and worked at the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and International Human Rights Legal Clinic.

The two-part event – a health fair and a health care reform information session – was held at Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens. Castellanos was one of six panelists who participated in the information session, discussing health care reform and its effect on the FIU Health Law Clinic’s clients to an audience of seventy. Joining Castellanos onstage was one of the clinic’s clients, Maritza Hernandez, who courageously shared her personal story of attempting to access health care after she lost her full-time job as a nurse, had no health insurance, and was diagnosed with a degenerative spinal disease.

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Professor George Knox will deliver a lecture at the next S.T.E.P.P. event on Friday, September 28, 2012. His talk, titled “The Thrill of Sharing: How the Power of Sharing Can Fulfill Your Life,” will begin at noon in Graham Center – 140 at the FIU Modesto A. Maidique Campus.

“The focus of my talk is that sharing is an inherent human trait; it comes naturally and is hard to resist. It makes us feel good, and it enriches us,” said Knox.

The event is part of the “Striving to Enhance Personal Performance” initiative designed by Florida International University to help employees excel personally and professionally. The initiative is designed to provide the tools and motivation that stimulate personal and professional growth and development.

As a force of social change, Mr. Knox’s career and personal endeavors have been marked by empathy, compassion and the gift of sharing to make an incredible difference in the lives of so many.

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With Chief Judge Federico A. Moreno administering the oath, Trial Advocacy Adjunct Professor Bernardo (“Bernie”) Pastor was sworn in as the 53rd President of the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association.

Consisting of more than 15,000 federal lawyers — including 1,200 federal judges — the Federal Bar Association works to strengthen the federal legal system by promoting the sound administration of justice and the integrity, quality, and independence of our judiciary on behalf of the public they serve.

Professor Pastor has taught Trial Advocacy at FIU Law since 2007 and recently received a five (5)-year teaching award. A graduate of Temple University School of Law, Professor Pastor is a former judicial clerk, federal prosecutor, and associate at Holland & Knight and White & Case. He currently serves as an Assistant County Attorney for the Miami-Dade County Attorney’s Office.

“I am truly honored to have the opportunity to serve as the president of the FBA’s South Florida Chapter, and feel especially privileged to carry on the tremendous work of our outgoing president, Brett Barfield, who has worked tirelessly for our organization over the past two years, leading us to incredible growth,” said Pastor.

FIU Law Professor Charles R.P. Pouncy believes the question of corporate criminal liability is a question of corporate power. Pouncy tackles this issue in his latest article, Reevaluating Corporate Criminal Responsibility: It’s All About Corporate Power (Stetson Law Review, 2012), which was recently featured on the Corporate Crime Reporter.

Professor Pouncy teaches in the areas of business associations, corporate finance, commercial law, banking law and professional responsibility. He has written in a wide range of areas, including corporate law, stock markets in developing countries, law and economics, and critical race and gender theory.

Corporate Crime and Corporate Power

By Editor

The question of corporate criminal liability is a question of corporate power.

That’s according to Charles R.P. Pouncy, a professor of law at Florida International School of Law in Miami.

Pouncy is author of, most recently, Reevaluating Corporate Criminal Responsibility: It’s All About Corporate Power (Stetson Law Review, 2012).

Pouncy tackles head on the increasingly popular idea that we should eliminate corporate criminal liability.

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