Archive for 'FIU College of Law'

Pictured above, from left to right: Natalie Marcell (3L) and Bryan Belenson (3L).

The FIU College of Law Board of Advocates (BOA) hosted the American Bar Association (ABA) Southeast Regional Negotiation Competition this past weekend, where a FIU Law team took first place.

The competition, which had a total of 24 teams from five states, ended in dramatic fashion on Sunday morning, with a three-way tie among teams from FIU Law, the University of Georgia School of Law, and Stetson University College of Law. Following the ABA tie-breaking rules, FIU Law students Natalie Marcell (3L) and Bryan Belenson (3L) emerged as champions.

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Honorees in the Photo (from left to right): Judge Beatrice Butchko, Alexandra Bach Lagos, Esq. and Laura K. Wendell, Esq.

The FIU Women’s Law Society hosted its Networking Event Celebrating Women in Law on Nov. 1, 2012 at Kork Wine & Cheese in downtown Miami.

The Women’s Legal Society, which strives to connect and motivate future women lawyers to excel within the legal field, honored Judge Beatrice Butchko and Alexandra Bach Lagos, Esq. for their outstanding accomplishments in the legal community and constant support of FIU Women’s Law Society.

Judge Butchko presides over civil cases in the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida and Alexandra Bach Lagos, Esq. is the immediate past president of Miami-Dade Florida Association for Women Lawyers.

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On Tuesday, Nov. 6, the FIU College of Law hosted the panel discussion “Gender Issues in the Legal Profession: Global Perspectives.” with distinguished international women judges and scholars.

The panel, moderated by Judge Judith C. Chirlin, (Ret.) Los Angeles Superior Court, focused on gender issues in the legal profession.

Discussing the most pressing issues in their respective countries, were featured panelist Professor Kerri L. Stone (U.S.), Florida International University College of Law; Judge Svetlana Filincova (The Republic of Moldova), Supreme Court of Justice; Judge Sofia Waqar Khattak (Pakistan), District & Sessions Judge, Peshawar High Court; Judge Gift Dorothy Mtendere Makanje (The Republic of Malawi), Senior Resident Magistrate for the Malawi Judiciary; Judge Thokozani Agnes Nyirenda-Patemba (The Republic of Malawi), Assistant Registrar High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal; and Judge Ivana Hrdlickova, Ph.D. (The Czech Republic), Appellate Court in the Czech Republic, Legal Expert of Council of Europe.

“The panel could not have been more timely and important due to the plight and challenges of women worldwide who seek equality in employment and in public life, as well as meaningful protection under the law in their private lives,” said Professor Kerri L. Stone. “To have had the perspective of any one of our guests would have been incredibly interesting and valuable; to be a party to the discourse among all of them was a privilege,” she said.

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In the November 2012 issue of the National Jurist, Florida International University College of Law was recognized as the third most diverse law school in the U.S., with a final score of 8.1 – a score well above the median of 4.83.

To determine the most diverse ABA-accredited law schools, the magazine broke down each school into six categories – percentage of minority faculty; percentage of black students; percentage of Asian and Hawaiian students; percentage of Hispanic students; percentage of American Indian students and other minorities; and percentage of Caucasian students. Each category was then assigned a score from one to 10. A school that matched the U.S. national average for any race received a seven, and a school that was 30 percent or higher than the average received a 10. Editors noted that the final outcome of the study is a listing of schools “that have a breadth of races both in student bodies and faculty.”

Of the law schools ranked in the honor roll for diversity, FIU Law boasts the highest percentage of Hispanic students (39%), as well as the highest faculty diversity score (10.0).

“This diversity does not happen by accident.  We are part of a university that embraces diversity in its many forms.  We understand the positive impact a diverse environment can have not only on minority students, but on the student body as a whole.  We remain committed to this founding principle, and through first-generation scholarships, we will work to ensure that all our students have access to opportunities,” said Dean R. Alexander Acosta.

The FIU Law Center for Professionalism and Ethics and the College of Education recently teamed up with the Miami-Dade County Public Schools Ethics Advisory Committee to lead a one-day summit for students, parents, teachers and employees from Miami-Dade County’s public school system.

The goal of the summit was “to advance a continued dialog that offers a panoply of tools that assist students with developing the necessary skills and high ethical standards for use as they participate in solving problems on a local, statewide, and global scale.”

Providing an overview of cooperative and effective community approaches, the session leaders covered topics ranging from ethics in government to the ethical leadership and decision making in education.

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Third-year FIU Law student Samah Abukhodeir, was featured in a series of public interest videos for AlJazeera English Channel. She was one of six people chosen to discuss immigration issues as they relate to the 2012 U.S. elections.

“I think people forget what this country was founded on, that we’re all immigrants,” said Abukhodeir. For her, the top election issues are “jobs, immigration, and student loans.”

Samah Abukhodeir, a Palestinian-American law student, has been a student attorney in the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic for two semesters, where she has developed a passion for international human rights. She was born in Bartow, Florida to immigrant parents and received her Bachelors of Science in Psychology with a minor in Arabic and Child Development from Florida State University.

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Professor H. T. Smith was recently honored by the M. Athalie Range Cultural Foundation for 40 years of leadership and service to his community.

Among the achievements for which Professor Smith was recognized are the building of a $5 million youth center in Liberty City that provides academic and athletic programming for 500 kids, working to establish OUR KIDS of Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties — which oversees the provision of services to all abused, abandoned, and neglected children, and helping  to create the 11th Judicial Circuit Historical Society which collects and preserves the history of the legal system in Miami-Dade County.

“It is a special honor to receive recognition for service to my community in the name of the ultimate public servant–M. Athalie Range. Mrs. Range did so much, for so many, for so long,” said Smith.  “This award will continue to inspire me to emulate her legacy of service to the least, the last, the lost, the looked over, and the left out.”

Professor H. T. Smith who specializes in civil rights, personal injury and criminal defense, is the Inaugural Director of the Trial Advocacy Program at FIU College of Law.

In a recent article by the Daily Business Review, Deborah C. Espana features FIU Law’s Scholarship Program, which provides an opportunity for first-generation law students.

Fla. Law School Scholarship Program Helps First-Generation Lawyers

Daily Business Review – By Deborah C. Espana

Juan Enjamio is a first-generation lawyer. His parents came to the United States in 1970 without a college education but with the idea that higher education was the key for success.

Enjamio, Miami managing partner of Hunton & Williams, is one of 13 South Florida managing partners whose firms have committed to fund scholarships for first-generation law students to give them a chance at higher education at Florida International University College of Law.

“I’m a first-generation college graduate, and at an individual level I want other young people to have the same opportunity that I had,” Enjamio said. “Part of the reason why we are committed to help fund this scholarship is because many of our attorneys are also first-generation lawyers, and the firm values providing the same opportunity to young people in our community.”

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The following op-ed by first-year FIU Law student Frandley Julien, The high cost of staying out of politics in Haiti, originally appeared in The Miami Herald on November 2, 2012. Frandley Julien was coordinator of the Initiative Citoyenne, a civic group in Cap-Haitien, Haiti in 2001-04.

Haiti has never been a better illustration than now of Edmund Burke’s quote that “All it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” Traditionally, a huge portion of the country’s population has always prided itself in belonging to the “silent majority,” leaving the political scene to vagabonds and the bravest of serious souls. An understandable — albeit, not excusable — reason is the fact that Haiti’s successive dictatorial regimes, particularly the Duvaliers, have raised the killing of political opponents to the level of a national sport. Being in the silent majority was a manifestation of our survival instinct at its best.

However, well-educated citizens of good will should have known that their choice to generally refrain from participating in the political process would lead the country exactly where it is now, with successive incompetent governments and the exponential deterioration of the population’s living conditions. Moreover, the premise that abstention from politics would guarantee longevity could not be farther from the truth today. Quiet, law-abiding citizens are killed, kidnapped, raped on a daily basis in today’s Port-au-Prince; everybody is at the mercy of the all-powerful gangs.

During the past couple of months, there have been more and more protests against President Martelly’s stewardship of the country. Instead of listening to the population’s grievances expressed through numerous street demonstrations, the president, upon returning from the United Nations, countered with a march of his own, leading a crowd of his partisans and state employees through the nine miles separating the international airport from the National Palace.

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By Martin Haro

Eight law clinics are currently operating within the College of Law at FIU. There, law students are not only gaining hands-on experience in many areas of practice but also improving the lives of their fellow community members. In this second part of a two-part story, we tell you about some of the cases handled by the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, the Investor Advocacy Clinic, the Health, Ethics, Law and Policy (H.E.L.P.) Clinic and the Community Development Clinic.

Since 2004, the College of Law at FIU has had a flagship clinical program that provides students with hands-on experience outside the classroom.

“We are very much a law firm focusing on educating the next generation of lawyers through close supervision of law students as they practice for the first time and provide policy advocacy and community education throughout Miami-Dade,” said clinical director Peggy Maisel of the program, which primarily serves underprivileged individuals and nonprofits that must meet a certain threshold to receive services.

In part 1 of this two-part story, we told you about the work that has been done at Consumer Bankruptcy, Environmental Law, the Family and Children’s Advocacy and the Immigrant Children’s Justice clinics. Now, we share the good word on the work of the Carlos A. Costa Immigration and Human Rights Clinic, the Investor Advocacy Clinic, the Health, Ethics, Law and Policy (H.E.L.P.) Clinic and the Community Development Clinic.

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