Archive for 'The Florida Bar'

In a recent article by The Florida Bar News, Megan E. Davis features FIU’s LawBridge Program, which combines elements from a medical school residency and a business school entrepreneurial incubator into a two-year program for recent graduates who have passed the Florida Bar Examination.

FIU’s LawBridge gives graduates a hand up

By Megan E. Davis

In January, half a dozen new law school graduates hung their own shingles and opened practices in an office suite on Brickell Avenue in the heart of Miami’s financial district.

Less than a year later, all six firms are operating in the black, but that’s not all, said Alex Acosta, dean of Florida International University’s College of Law.

Thanks to the school’s LawBridge program, the young practitioners are also becoming well-versed in ethical and professional standards central to practicing law and in their responsibilities to the public as members of the profession, he said.

Traditionally, new law school graduates take jobs with established law firms or clerkships with judges to learn those skills not taught in law schools — how to actually practice law and run a firm, said Tony Santos, the director of the LawBridge program.

But many of those opportunities for new lawyers have dried up in the past two decades, and the economic downturn has accelerated that trend in recent years, he said.

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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.

The President of The Florida Bar has appointed Professor H. Scott Fingerhut to the Criminal Procedure Rules Committee for a three-year term.  Crim Pro Rules, a standing committee of The Bar, reports to the Florida Supreme Court concerning the proposal of new rules of criminal procedure as well as changes to existing rules.  This is Professor Fingerhut’s second appointment the Committee.  His previous six years of service includes three terms as Vice Chair and as Chair of the Committee in 2007.

On Thursday, May 17, 2012, Professor H. Scott Fingerhut will serve as Program Chair of the 2012 Criminal Law Update.  Sponsored by the Criminal Law Section of The Florida Bar, this annual continuing legal education seminar will be held in Tampa and feature experts in immigration, the death penalty, DUI, appeals, mental health, drug and sex crimes, and ethics and lawyer regulation.

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

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