Archive for '2012'

At its annual meeting, the Executive Council of the Criminal Law Section of The Florida Bar selected Professor H. Scott Fingerhut to serve as chair for 2012-2013.

A former chair of The Bar’s Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, Professor Fingerhut will now lead more than 2,000 prosecutors, public and private defenders, judges, and academics as they strive to improve the manner in which criminal justice is dispensed across the state.

Founded in 1976, the Criminal Law Section provides an open forum to all who share a passion for the fair administration of the law and whose mission focuses on advocating to and for lawyer, law-student, and the public alike on ways in which our court system can improve, including support of the recent recommendations made by the Florida Innocence Commission.  Among its many responsibilities, the Criminal Law Section advises the Florida Supreme Court and the Florida Legislature on proposed substantive and procedural changes in the law as well as sponsors numerous continuing legal education programs throughout the state.

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.

In a recent interview with NBC6 Miami, FIU Law Professor Jose Gabilondo discusses the $16 trillion national debt, and explains the difference between our country’s debt and personal debt.

Professor Gabilondo teaches tax and corporate finance at FIU Law and his scholarship focuses on debt markets. He is a nationally recognized commentator in the Spanish-language media on financial and economic matters and has worked in financial market regulation at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the World Bank.

South Florida Professor Explains $16 Trillion Debt

By Gilma Avalos

$16,000,000,000,000. That is the number that would appear on the United State’s theoretical credit card statement.

Although the analogy is often made, our country’s debt is not similar to our personal debt, according to Jose Gabilondo, an associate professor of law at Florida International University.

“I can’t borrow indefinitely, you can’t, but the government can. In a way, it’s not the number that matters,” said Gabilondo. “What matters is can you make your monthly payment? And are your creditors still lending to you? The answer for our country, is yes.”

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FIU Law Professor M. Alexander Pearl will present at the “Heeding Phil Frickey’s Call: The Issues in Indian Country“ Symposium to be held on Sept. 27 and 28 at the UC Berkeley School of Law. The symposium, sponsored by Berkeley Law’s Thelton E. Henderson Center for Social Justice, is focused on Indian Country issues including, crime, environmental justice, and international human rights.

“I graduated from Berkeley in 2007 and had the amazing opportunity to study under one of the most prominent scholars of Indian law ever, Philip Frickey.  He passed away at the age of 57 in July of 2010,” said Pearl.  “He was the single most important mentor to me and countless other lawyers and law professors.  The conference is dedicated to him, and his call to enhance scholarship of Indian issues with empirical or at least ‘on the ground’ perspectives.”

Professor Pearl’s presentation will focus on criminal jurisdiction in certain states subject to a federal law, referred to as Public Law 280.  The tribal-state relations in these  jurisdictions are very different than those in states not subject to Public Law 280, primarily because the state government has jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute crimes occurring on a reservation in the Indian community.  In non-Public Law 280 states, the state government has no jurisdiction.

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The College of Law is delighted to welcome back J. Eloy Anzola.  Anzola joined our College as a Visiting Researcher from May to December 2010 and will be continuing his research with us again beginning August 15 until mid-February, 2013.  He is a Venezuelan trained lawyer (Universidad Católica Andres Bello) who completed his education in the University of Paris (Admissible au Doctorat de l’Université, Droit Civil), Cambridge University (Introduction to English Law) and Yale Law School (LL.M). Anzola worked as an associate in New York (Whitman, Ransom & Coulson) and in Caracas (Travieso, Evans, Ponte & Rosales). He participated in the foundation d’Empaire Reyna Anzola & Bermúdez and later in the foundation of Anzola Raffalli y Rodríguez, both law firms in Caracas, Venezuela.

Anzola is dedicated to national and international arbitration, as an arbitrator. He has been researching the origins and development of arbitration in Spanish America and now wants to focus his research on arbitration during the XIX Century.  He has participated as an arbitrator in proceedings under the Rules of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) of the AAA, the Centro Empresarial de Conciliación y Arbitraje (CEDCA) and the Centro de Arbitraje de la Cámara de Caracas (CACC). In several of those arbitrations he has been sole arbitrator or Chairman of the Arbitral Panel. He is member of the list of arbitrators of the ICDR, CEDCA, CACC and the Corte de Arbitraje de Madrid. He is fluent in Spanish, English and French.

Andrea Franklin, 3L, recently wrote an article published in Law360 along with co-author Luis Perez, a shareholder in Akerman Senterfitt’s Miami office. The article, “Interpreting Section 1782 Post-Intel,” was a two-part series analyzing Section 1782 following the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal decision in Intel Corp. v Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Section 1782 provides the basic requirements and parameters for interested parties seeking information located in the United States for use in foreign proceedings, and has had varied judicial interpretations in the U.S.

It all began when Franklin’s international law professor assigned an annotated summary of an article her roommate’s dad coincidentally wrote. She had never met Luis Perez. All she knew was that Mr. Perez was an international attorney and that he had published an article in FIU’s Law Review. After finally meeting him, she sent him the summary she wrote and offered to help him with research for his next publication.

Eventually, she began sending him memorandums regarding her research findings. After about three weeks, Mr. Perez suggested she start writing a draft for him to review. Upon reviewing a few drafts, Mr. Perez sent her an email to inform her that he would name her as his co-author.

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MIAMI (August 31, 2012) – The Florida International University College of Law ranked second in the nation for Hispanics, according to Hispanic Business magazine. This marks the third consecutive year FIU Law has ranked among the 10 best in the nation, up from No. 4 in 2011.

Each year, Hispanic Business magazine measures and ranks the effectiveness of the nation’s universities in attracting Hispanic students. The rankings are determined based on the percentage of Hispanic student enrollment, percentage of Hispanic faculty members, percentage of degrees conferred upon Hispanics, and progressive programs aimed at increasing enrollment of Hispanic students.

Hispanics accounted for 47.2 percent of the law degrees awarded to the Class of 2011, a mark significantly higher than any other law school in the top 10.

“In less than 10 years, FIU now ranks second in the nation for Hispanics.  Imagine where FIU will be in 20 or 30 years.  Having grown up in Miami, I have seen this university transform from an idea to a city of nearly 50,000 students.  I am excited about our future,” said Dean R. Alexander Acosta.

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Dear members of the FIU community.

FIU is closed as of 7 p.m. tonight through Monday due to Tropical Storm Isaac, which is expected to affect our area starting early on Sunday. All FIU classes are cancelled as of 7 p.m. Saturday and continuing through Monday, August 27. We will open for regular operations on Tuesday, unless you are notified otherwise.

The Wolfsonian-FIU, located on Miami Beach, is closed as of this afternoon, due to a broken water main unrelated to the storm.

Resident students who have family in South Florida are encouraged to go home today, if possible, before travel conditions deteriorate. Essential employees should remain alert and be ready to return to work when conditions allow. This is the time to complete your storm preparations and go to the location where you will stay through the storm.

Stay safe and look for additional updates.

http://dem.fiu.edu/

Saturday, August 25, 2012 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

On the heels of President Obama’s enactment of the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals (DACA) program, FIU’s College of Law in conjunction with PICO, Americans for Immigrant Justice, S.W.E.R. (Students Working for Equal Rights), and the Florida Immigrant Coalition, will host a day long clinic to help young persons to apply for deferred action.

Local attorneys, volunteers, along with students and recent law school graduates will volunteer to help DACA-seeking young adults determine if they qualify for the program and assist them in filling out the DACA applications.

This is the second DACA workshop with two more planned for South Florida in the upcoming weeks- one in Homestead and another in Little Havana.

The event will be held on Saturday, Aug. 25, from 8:30 a.m.- 5 p.m. at the College of Law’s Atrium.

DACA grants temporary two-year residency permits to undocumented young adults less than 30 years of age as of June 15. It is aimed at qualifying immigrants who came to the U.S. on or before June 2007 and who were 16 or younger at the time of their arrival. Among other qualifications for the program, the young adults must be free of serious criminal convictions, be enrolled in or have completed high school, or have served in the U.S. military.

Robert K. Savage, Visiting Clinical Assistant Professor at Florida International University College of Law, will be presenting a Securities Law Update at the 21st Annual PIABA Meeting and Securities Law Seminar on October 24, 2012.

The Public Investors Arbitration Bar Association (PIABA) organizes the seminar, which will be held over four days. PIABA is an international bar association whose members represent investors in disputes with the securities industry.

The PIABA Annual Meeting and Securities Law Seminar bring together all segments of the securities field and provides in-depth presentations related to securities arbitration and law. These meetings aim to develop a greater understanding of claimants’ issues among securities professionals.

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