Archive for 'Spotlight'

Professor Thomas E. Baker was selected as “Professor of the Year” for 2011-12 in recognition of his “excellence in teaching” and his “devoted commitment to the students of the FIU College of Law.” This is the second consecutive year Baker has won the award that is announced at the annual Barristers’ Ball.

After the awards ceremony, Professor Baker said “ I am humbled and grateful to receive this award. It means a great deal to me, coming from my students.”

Baker is a popular and respected teacher who also has been elected as the graduation Hooding Professor four times. This year, he was recognized with two additional university-wide awards: “FIU Book Author” and “FIU Top Scholar.” He is the author of 14 books and more than 200 articles.

Cammy Clark, of the Miami Herald, profiles FIU Law School Professor Elizabeth Price Foley’s third book, The Tea Party: Three Principles.

FIU law professor publishes third book on the constitution

Despite graduating with a history degree from Emory University, Elizabeth Price Foley knew little about the U.S. Constitution when she worked on healthcare legislation for two Democratic congressmen.

It was not until the early 1990s — when she left Capitol Hill to attend law school in Tennessee — that she discovered just how little she knew or had cared about the country’s founding legal document.

“I realized all the work I was doing on the Hill was kind of ludicrous,” she said. “I was operating under a knowledge vacuum, with no cognizance of whether the bills I were writing and promoting were constitutional. … The attitude was do what we want to do and let the courts stop us.”

Today, Foley, 46, of Key Largo, calls herself a “constitutional geek.” She can speak passionately for hours about the 224-year-old evolving document.

“She is one of constitutional law’s rising stars,” said Glenn Harlan Reynolds, a professor at the University of Tennessee College of Law.

Read More →

Newcastle Law School will be hosting a symposium on the work by Professor Stanley Fish on May 1^st 2012.

Professor Fish, of Florida International University, is a leading public intellectual and has authored over 200 scholarly publications and books. In addition to being Dean Emeritus of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago, he has held positions at Cardozo Law School, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Duke University, and The John Marshall Law School.

The Symposium will focus in particular on Professor Fish’s work on formalism, law and literature and pragmatism.

Keynote Speaker: Professor Stanley Fish

Respondents: Richard Mullender, Ian Ward and Ole W Pedersen

Please visit webpage for full details and program

MIAMI – Phyllis Diane Kotey, Clinical Associate Professor of Law at FIU Law, has been selected as a Fulbright Scholar by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board (FSB). The FSB is the Presidentially appointed 12-member Board that is responsible for establishing worldwide policies for the Fulbright Program and for selection of Fulbright recipients.

Judge Kotey has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to teach at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology during the 2012-2013 academic year. Judge Kotey will teach Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure and will examine the utility of ADR as an evolving and effective tool in the High Courts, the Regional Tribunals, the circuit courts, the circuit tribunals, the district courts and the community tribunals in Ghana.

Judge Kotey is one of approximately 1,100 U.S. faculty and professionals who will travel abroad through the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program in 2012-2013.

Read More →

Pictured above, from left to right: Faculty Coach Phyllis Diane Kotey, Kelly Torres (2L), Sherman Davis (2L), and Faculty Coach Michele Anglade.

MIAMI (March 19, 2012) — Congratulations to Sherman Davis (2L) and Kelly Torres (2L) – the two competed in the 6th Annual National Black Law Students Association (NBLSA) International Negotiations Competition and finished as Quarter-Finalists – in a year where they had the highest number of teams register and participate in the history of the competition. Notably, Sherman Davis was also named “Best Oral Advocate” of the competition.

The team was assisted by their two faculty coaches, Phyllis Diane Kotey and Michele Anglade.

Read More →

MIAMI (March 13, 2012) – Florida International University’s College of Law jumped 19 spots in U.S. News and World Report’s 2013 edition of Best Graduate Schools, from 132 to 113.

“These rankings recognize what we already know, that the FIU College of Law is on the right track,” said College of Law Dean R. Alexander Acosta. “As we celebrate our 10^th anniversary, I am proud of what this law school, its faculty and students have achieved in such a short time. As South Florida’s only public law school, our students receive a superb legal education without the crushing debt burden too often faced by law students at other schools. This community should be proud of FIU College of Law’s accomplishments, the standards we have set and the graduates we produce.”

The rankings place FIU College of Law in fourth place among Florida’s 11 law schools as the 3rd most diverse law school in the nation.

Read More →

MIAMI (March 12, 2012) – Fresh off their semi-final finishes in all-state competitions, FIU’s Trial Team took second place in the National regional rounds of the 2012 American Association for Justice (“AAJ”) Student Trial Advocacy Competition.

Trial Team veterans Ari Goldberg (3L), Amy Ruiz (3L), and Victoria Cueto (3L), along with talented newcomer Matthew Pierce (3L), went undefeated in three preliminary rounds and entered the semi-finals as the top-ranked and lone undefeated squad among the 15 teams competing in the Miami Region, including Tulane, Louisiana State, Miami, and Stetson.

Read More →

WHAT: The FIU College of Law Center for Professionalism and Ethics, in addition to The Florida Bar Henry Latimer Center for Professionalism presented Evaluating Florida Legal Practice: Bench and Bar Perspectives on Professionalism on March 1st.

Read More →

Pictured from left to right are: seated, VICTORIA CUETO (3L), JULIAN STROLENY (3L), and AMY RUIZ (3L); standing, MARC SCHMULIAN (3L), PROFESSOR H. SCOTT FINGERHUT (Assistant Director, Trial Advocacy Program), MIKE RYAN (Coach and December 2009 alum), and CARLOS (“CHARLIE”) GARCIA (3L).

The FIU Law Trial Team recently finished in the top 4 at the Chester E. Bedell Memorial Mock Trial Competition, sponsored by the Trial Lawyers Section of The Florida Bar.

Bedell is the premier state mock trial tournament, which this year hosted 22 teams – two squads from all 11 Florida law schools.  This year’s case file involved the cocaine trafficking trial of Sheila Stone, and FIU advanced to the semi-final round, only to fall to the ultimate tournament champion.

“Our Passionate Principled Advocates trained for almost three months – including over winter break –and continue to make us proud,” said Professor H.T. Smith, Director of the Trial Advocacy Program.

Bedell team members also included ARI GOLDBERG (3L), ALYSSA SUAREZ (3L), DAVID GOUDREAU (3L), and KENIA CODECIDO (2L).

This past week the College of Law hosted the First Annual Dannette’s Voice Symposium. The First Annual Symposium theme was Perspectives: The Complexities of Domestic Violence and the Response of Various Professions and Agencies. Through the symposium, FIU Law endeavored to further the domestic violence discussion, increase awareness, advance community efforts to combat this epidemical problem and express our sincerest thanks to the Willory family for the gift that was Dannette.

In addition to the Symposium, the College also held a dedication ceremony in memory of Dannette Willory.

Pictured with Dean Acosta at the ceremony are Dannette’s friends and colleagues, and her mother Avril Willory.