Alejandro Mayagoitia received his law degree from the Escuela Libre de Derecho and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.  He taught Roman law and teaches Mexican legal history and medieval and modern law at the Universidad Panamerica. Alejandro is one of Mexico’s most respected legal historians and genealogists, and he has published over 75 articles, essays, and other academic studies.

He was at FIU to work with the Enrique Hurtado de Mendoza Collection of Cuban Genealogy, a newly acquired collection of books and manuscripts in Special Collections of the Green Library. The collection is made up of over 5,000 volumes and 900 unpublished letters containing genealogy information from Cuba, as well as other Latin American countries and Europe.

“The Facebook IPO provides our students with a great opportunity to discuss issues of growing importance, such as patents over popular new ways of communicating, and whether the government has a role in preserving competition and transparency in markets for communication and information,” said Professor Travis.

Professor Travis, who focuses on intellectual property implications of new technologies and user-generated content, as well as antitrust law as applied to broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access markets, addressed Facebook’s intellectual property and individual privacy issues from a legal standpoint. “You provide Facebook with an irrevocable worldwide license to use the information but you do not perform a copyright assignment necessarily to Facebook. In some cases, it would be impossible for you to do so because the information does not belong to you. You did not take the photograph; maybe you got it from somewhere else or you are re-posting material from elsewhere, which we call user-generated/user-submitted content. Therefore, third parties may have a copyright interest in the material. Also the license that Facebook receives could potentially be challenged.”

Before the anticipated IPO, Facebook is cooperating with the federal government and is also seeking protection. This raises flags for privacy analysts. “It will be interesting to see how litigation proceeds,” said Travis.

View the discussion:

A highlight of the program will surely be Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Charles T. Canady, who is to speak on the state of our criminal justice system.

Professor Fingerhut is Chair-Elect of the Criminal Law Section and also serves as Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee, overseeing the Section’s educational programming.

Read more at floridabar.org

- FIU-

About FIU College of Law:

Florida International University College of Law is South Florida’s publicly supported law school. The Princeton Review ranks FIU as one of the nation’s most welcoming schools for diverse students and Hispanic Business has ranked FIU among the top ten law schools for Hispanics. The National Jurist ranks FIU among the top ten schools in the country for best value in legal education. FIU’s faculty continues to gain national prominence, most recently recognized by the Sisk Report as 3rd in Florida for Faculty Scholarly Impact. Unique among law schools, FIU places particular emphasis on integrating international law into every aspect of its curriculum.

A discussion about the future of the Internet giant — Live on the web

WHAT: Florida International University is hosting a panel discussion for journalists covering Facebook’s upcoming initial public offering (IPO) and its implications. FIU experts from a wide array of fields, including business, law, engineering and communication, will discuss what to expect in the coming months and what reporters should look out for as the world’s largest social media site goes public.

The discussion will be streamed live on Facebook and Ustream, where viewers are encouraged to post questions and comments.

After brief remarks from panelists, The Miami Herald Business Editor Jane Wooldridge will moderate a discussion about the future of a publicly-held Facebook and its impact on Wall Street, user privacy, software development, and social media networking and communications, among others.

The discussion is free and open to all journalists. To RSVP, please click here.

WHEN AND WHERE: The panel will take place Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 10 a.m. at the College of Business Complex room 152 on FIU’s Modesto A. Maidique Campus, 11200 SW 8 Street in Southwest Miami-Dade County. A light breakfast will precede the event.

For those unable to attend in person, please click here on the day of the event to tune in. For those who would rather watch it on Ustream, please click here. Viewers can also use #FIUfb on Twitter to interact live with the panel.

WHO: In more than 25 years as a newspaper journalist, Jane Wooldridge has written about and/or edited coverage of business, news, community, travel and lifestyle. She has worked at The Miami Herald, The New York Times, The (Raleigh) News & Observer and The Virginian Pilot. Wooldridge will moderate a panel that includes:

• Bogdan Carbunar, an assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Computing Science, comes to FIU after six years developing software for Motorola and is an expert on social network security and privacy. Among his topics, he will speak on Facebook’s ability to collect personal information from its users.
• Rosanna Fiske, an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the Immediate Past Chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America. An expert in strategic communications, Fiske can speak on how social media and communications through social networking are a big part of any business’s growth and how companies’ external communications and outreach change once they become publicly-held.
• Raul Reis, dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at FIU, is a veteran journalist and academician, having worked as a newspaper, TV and magazine reporter and editor at several Brazilian and US news organizations. He will speak on the ethical issues surrounding Facebook.
• Helen Simon, director of the State Farm Financial Literacy Lab and senior instructor in the College of Business Administration, is president of Personal Business Management Services, LLC, an investment advisory firm in Fort Lauderdale and has more than 20 years of experience in the financial services industry. She will speak on the next steps for Facebook, and what pitfalls the public should watch for before investing.
• Hannibal Travis, an associate professor in the College of Law, focuses on intellectual property implications of new technologies and user-generated content, as well as antitrust law as applied to broadband and Wi-Fi Internet access markets. He can address intellectual property and individual privacy issues, from a legal standpoint, as Facebook undergoes heightened regulatory scrutiny and challenges from older social media companies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: For questions, please email FIU Office of Media Relations Assistant Director Jean-Paul Renaud at jprenaud@fiu.edu or call 305-348-2716.

-FIU-

About FIU:
Florida International University is recognized as a Carnegie engaged university. Its colleges and schools offer more than 180 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs in fields such as engineering, international relations, architecture, law and medicine. As one of South Florida’s anchor institutions, FIU is worlds ahead in its local and global engagement, finding solutions to the most challenging problems of our time. FIU emphasizes research as a major component of its mission and enrolls nearly 48,000 students in two campuses and three centers including FIU Downtown on Brickell and the Miami Beach Urban Studios. More than 140,000 alumni live and work in South Florida. FIU is a member of the Sun Belt Conference and has 400 student-athletes participating in 17 sports. In 2010 the Panthers won their first bowl game. For more information about FIU, visit http://www.fiu.edu/.

Professor Román is a nationally-acclaimed scholar and an award-winning educator with broad teaching interests and an extensive scholarship portfolio. His principal research interest involves analyzing the construction and interpretation of constitutional law and immigration policy.  His work may be best described as traditional in its structure and use of authority, but critical in its perspective. Román’s research necessarily deals with the intersection of, on the one hand, citizenship law, immigration law, public international law, and constitutional law and, on the other hand, theoretical perspectives based on classic philosophy, neo-liberal theory, critical race theory, post-colonial studies, Diaspora literature, and social theory generally.

Legal fight over deportation warnings heating up in South Florida

The Florida Supreme Court this week will hear argument for defendants who say their lawyers did not warn them of the risk of taking a plea deal.

By DAVID OVALLE

“I feel honored to have received this award that is very meaningful to me on many levels. First, it is a nice recognition of my ongoing contribution being the voice of children who cannot speak and advocate for themselves. I also have the opportunity to give back to a community where I have set my roots for over 50 years. In addition, this award is a lovely recognition for the Legal Studies Institute because of the emphasis our program places on the importance of pro-bono services, and advocacy for the underprivileged. This award acknowledges the value of this instruction that we impart to our students” said Crucet.

- FIU-

About LSI:
For 30 years, the Legal Studies Institute (LSI) at Florida International University has dedicated itself to providing world-class educational opportunities for attorneys and legal professionals within a university setting. An affiliate of the College of Law, LSI offers CLE courses for attorneys, and certificate programs designed to advance the global educational goals of those in the legal field. Through its broad array of educational opportunities offered locally, nationally, internationally, and on-line, LSI has positioned itself as the premiere continuing education provider for legal professionals through specialized, cutting-edge education and networking opportunities. For more information, please contact the Legal Studies Institute at (305) 348-2491 or visit http://lsi.fiu.edu

For the eighth year, Legacy magazine chose an elite group of individuals for the distinction. These honorees were carefully selected by a distinguished and highly professional selection committee comprised of business leaders from South Florida.

“It is an honor to have been selected.  I feel privileged to be in a position where I can encourage and inspire others to pursue their own goals with professionalism and confidence,” said Senior Associate Dean Mason.

Senior Associate Dean Michelle Mason joined FIU Law in 2001. Her responsibilities include the supervision of enrollment management operations, the student development areas as well as oversight for various student outreach programming and pipeline initiatives. Prior to joining the College, she worked as Coordinator at Phillips Exeter Academy, Associate Director at Seton Hall Law School, and Assistant Dean at Vermont Law.  Dean Mason serves on numerous Law School, University, state-wide and national committees including the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Ethics Advisory Committee (Vice-Chair). She was appointed as the Director of the Council on Legal Education Opportunity 2010 Summer Institute and Interim Director of the new FIU Law Center for Ethics and Professionalism. She received her B.A. and Juris Doctorate from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Read more at legacy-mag.com

Professor Joëlle Anne Moreno is the College of Law’s first Associate Dean for Faculty Research & Development, supporting the development of the faculty as scholars and teachers.  She is an experienced teacher of Evidence, Scientific and Forensic Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Criminal Law, Criminal Advocacy, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. Her research and scholarship focuses on evidence and constitutional law issues and includes articles that have appeared in the Boston University, Florida, Ohio State, Arizona, Tulane, Utah, and Akron law reviews.

Stand Your Ground law: Florida review panel to draw wide scrutiny

Led by Florida Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll, a black Republican who is a life-time member of both the NAACP and the NRA, a 19-member panel assembled by Gov. Rick Scott (R) after the Trayvon Martin shooting sat down for the first time Tuesday to examine the future of the state’s landmark self-defense law.

Enacted in 2005, the Stand Your Ground law, which expanded the “no duty to retreat” doctrine to public areas, became a touchstone for those who sought to extend gun rights and self-defense in US society, and the Trayvon Martin case has highlighted how those trends intersect with perceptions of young black men. Critics say the law has become a license for hate-motivated criminals to kill, while proponents credit it with saving lives and reducing the murder rate… Read more at MinnPost.com »

Desmond Meade is the current president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), and a 2nd-year law student at Florida International University College of Law.

Former felons push for voting rights

HARRIS-PERRY: We’ve talked a lot today about the arguments being made on Capitol Hill this week and heard from many of the usual suspects. But right now, I want to turn your attention to one argument and one man you probably didn’t get to hear this week. He, too, spoke on the Hill . And this is what he had to say: “A little over six years ago, after being released from prison, I stood in front of a set of railroad tracks in Miami, Florida, contemplating how much pain I would have to endure before dying when I jump in front of an oncoming train. At the time, I was homeless, unemployed and addicted to drugs and alcohol. I had no self-esteem and saw no hope for my future.”  Thankfully, that man Desmond Meade stepped off the tracks that day, and found his future in service. Today, as the president of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Desmond speaks on behalf of millions of formerly incarcerated people who have been disenfranchised and denied one of their most fundamental rights as American citizens. Desmond’s mission is personal. After years spent battling addiction, his last criminal charge, a firearm possession by a convicted felon, earned him a 15-year sense in state prison. He is released early and today, as a second-year law student at Florida International University, but he’s also one of the approximately 5.3 million people with a felony, and in some cases, a misdemeanor conviction who are denied the right to vote nationwide. And like Desmond, more than 1.4 million of those disenfranchised citizens are African-American men. That amounts to 13 percent of black men who have lost the right to vote, a rate that’s seven times the national average. On Wednesday, Desmond’s testimony on Capitol Hill was in support of the Democracy Restoration Act .

View full transcript and video at msnbc.com »

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“It is clear that you are reaching for the stars,” said  Rosenberg at the annual event held at the Ronald W. Reagan Presidential House. “You have set high goals and nd you have met them. The provost and I want to challenge you to keep it up.”

Former Florida Judge and FIU Associate Professor of law Phyllis Kotey – who was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to teach constitutional law and criminal procedure at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana – said she was proud to be nominated with such world-class scholars. “I think of myself as a practitioner, never as a scholar. It’s wonderful to be welcomed by this prestigious group.”

Honorees are nominated by their respective deans through the Office of the Provost. The following law faculty members were recognized this year.

Phyllis Kotey, a clinical associate professor in the College of Law, received a Fulbright to teach constitutional law and criminal procedure at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

Thomas Baker, a professor in the College of Law, was made Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honorary organization of lawyers, judges, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and to the highest principles of the legal profession.

Ediberto Roman, a professor in the College of Law, was made Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, an honorary organization of lawyers, judges, and legal scholars whose public and private careers have demonstrated outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and to the highest principles of the legal profession.

Read more at news.fiu.edu »