Archive for 'Faculty News'

Lawyers of Color (LOC) recently selected the 50 most influential minority law professors, who are 50 years old or younger. The Florida International University College of Law is very pleased to announce that José Gabilondo has been named to this exceptional group.

LOC published the 1^st annual edition of “The 50 Under 50 List” on May 15, 2013. The publication is available online and features profiles of these brilliant law professors. The publication also includes the names and racial and ethnic heritage of all minority law professors at 200 law schools and a comprehensive list of scholarships, fellowships and interns available to minority prospective and current law students.

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In 17 years of litigating death penalty cases, Stephen Harper has never had a client sentenced to death.

Celebrating his vital career, the Greater Miami Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union recently honored Harper, clinical professor at Florida International University College of Law, with the 2013 C. Clyde Atkins Civil Liberties Award. The award acknowledges an individual who has made exceptional contributions to the advancement of civil liberties.

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Professor Manuel A. Gómez recently served as a panel expert at the Constitutional Innovation, Human Rights, and Public Interest Litigation in the Global South Symposium, held at Stanford Law School on May 7, 2013.

Professor Gomez’s presentation, A Sour Battle in Lago Agrio: The Judicial Protection of the Environment and Indigenous Rights in Ecuador, addressed the implications of the Chevron-Ecuador saga in the debate on the protection of diffuse rights in Latin America and the development of structural litigation in the region.

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Professor Thomas E. Baker has published a review of retired Supreme Court Justice Stevens’ recent book — John Paul Stevens, Five Chiefs: A Supreme Court Memoir. New York: Little, Brown and Co., 2011 — in the May issue of the Journal of Legal Education.

Professor Baker writes: “As a student of the Supreme Court, I found these memoirs overall to be a reassuring account of the man and the institution he served so long and so faithfully.”  Between 1985 and 1987, Baker worked at the Supreme Court, first as a Judicial Fellow to Chief Justice Burger and then as acting Administrative Assistant to Chief Justice Rehnquist.

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At the 2013 Association of American Law Schools Annual Meeting, Professor Eloisa C. Rodriguez-Dod was nominated chair-elect of the Executive Committee of the Section on Minority Groups – by a unanimous vote.

According to the AALS website, sections are established by action of the committee and appointed by the president. The 94 sections, composed of members of the faculty and administration of member schools, provide reports and policy advice to the Association.

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Pictured (l to r) are Cindy McKenzie, CEPS Program Manager; Jan Jacobowitz, Lecturer in Law; Laverne Pinkney; Anthony Alfieri, CEPS Director; and Ebonie Carter, CEPS Administrative Assistant.

The University of Miami School of Law’s Center for Ethics and Public Service recently honored Professor Laverne Pinkney with the 2013 Friend of the Center Award, in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the Historic Black Church Program’s Community Education Project.

The Historic Black Church Program is part of the Center’s ongoing effort to help Miami’s distressed Coconut Grove Village West community by providing multidisciplinary resources in education, law, and social services to underserved residents.

During the award presentation, Pinkney was praised as a wonderful role model and motivating teacher. The value of the collaboration she created between the Florida International University College of Law and the University of Miami School of Law, was also praised.

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In the following op-ed that appeared in the April 19, 2013, edition of the La Plaza, FIU Law Professor Ediberto Roman, and second-year law student Bobby Joe Bracy, make the case that the term “illegal” should describe only an action and is inappropriately used in the immigration debate.

Guest Blogger: Professor Ediberto Román and Bobby Joe Bracy “Words Do Matter in the Immigration Debate”

After decades of inaction, this week’s unveiling of the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” immigration proposal suggests that Congress may finally be prepared to reform our immigration system. It is of no surprise that this renewed vigor comes on the heels of a presidential election where an overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters rejected the Republican solution was self-deportation. Yet, despite this crucial and potentially transformative moment, Republican leaders, such as Senator John McCain, one of the Group of Eight, has continued to use of ‘illegal immigrant’ when addressing the subjects of reform. He and many other Republicans who oppose immigration reform continue to use the more provocative yet inaccurate term–“illegal alien”(a term still used by the federal immigration agency, ICE). Conservative Senator Jeff Sessions for his part derided the Gang of Eight’s efforts as “making nearly impossible for ICE officials to distinguish between ‘illegal immigrants’ eligible for legal status and those simply asserting they are amnesty eligible.”

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SBA Secretary Samah Abukhodeir and Professor Christine Rickard

In a night where the FIU Law community dressed in their finest attire, and enjoyed a masquerade ball, Professor Christine Rickard was selected as “Professor of the Year” for 2012-13.

She was selected in recognition of her “excellence in teaching” and her “devoted commitment to the students of the Florida International University College of Law.”

“I am very honored and humbled to be the Professor of the Year,” said Rickard. “I love being a professor and this job means so much to me because I get to teach students how to make a difference every day through the law.”

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FIU Law Professor Cyra Akila Choudhury, recently served as a panelists at the Stoneman Conference on Gender and Human Rights at the invitation of the Albany Law School’s Dean, Penelope Andrews.

The conference, part of Albany Law’s Spring 2013 Kate Stoneman Series of Events, brought together national and international legal scholars of gender rights and international law to discuss the current state of women’s rights.

Professor Choudhury, part of the panel that discussed the issue of culture, spoke on the role of culture in legal reform.

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Manuel Gómez, Associate Professor at the Florida International University College of Law, recently discussed his research on the Burning Man festival for the Stanford Program in Law and Society called Order in the Desert: Law abiding Behavior at Burning Man. The presentation was held April 10 at Stanford Law School.

The Burning Man is a massive weeklong event that takes place in the Nevada Desert, which, when compared to similar events, shows one of the lowest crime rates, and high-level law abiding behavior.

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