July 2002

From the moment she stepped foot on a college campus as a freshman, Rebecca Amster seems to have had in her possession an internal compass guiding her to the perfect career. Rebecca is an Associate Attorney at Glantz & Glantz, a mid-sized firm located in the Fort Lauderdale area, where she specializes in family law. She came to UM Law from Cornell University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Development and Family Studies, with concentrations in Human Service Studies and Jewish Studies, including significant coursework in Near Eastern Studies.

Rebecca wasted no time in pursuing her interests at UM Law. Right away she joined the Public Interest Law Group and by her second year she was the chair of the organization. During her first year she also received a grant through the Children and Youth Law Clinic, where she assisted a family with an autistic child gain access to the local public school. The summer between her second and third year, Rebecca was awarded a fellowship from the Florida Bar that allowed her to gain some practical experience in family law at the Legal Aid Society of Miami-Dade County. Through the Clinical Placement program Rebecca continued working at Legal Aid for the first semester of her third year of law school. "It was an amazing experience. I got to work with some of the brightest and most enthusiastic attorneys practicing family law. They treated me with respect and as a peer. I woke up every morning and I really wanted to go to work!" Legal Aid was equally impressed with Rebecca. After graduating and passing the bar exam, Legal Aid offered her a position as a Staff Attorney.

Family law practice is not for the fainthearted. The work is demanding and you're exposed to some heartbreaking cases. As an attorney at Legal Aid, Rebecca handled 30 percent of the domestic violence case load. The way the system is structured for domestic violence cases, two weeks after a restraining order is issued, the case goes to trial. Having just two weeks to prepare for a trial can be a stressful experience. However, Rebecca was never intimidated and she gives credit to the Litigation Skills program at UM. "In UM's Litigation Skills program, you're constantly being put in situations where you have a trial the next morning and you need to look over the facts the night before and prepare for a cross examination. The program gives you the confidence to prepare for a trial under severe time constraints and then be able to stand up in front of a judge and successfully present your client's case. I really got a lot out of the Litigation Skills program at UM and I would like to see it become a required course in the curriculum."

After a year at Legal Aid Rebecca accepted her current position with Glantz & Glantz where she recently completed the biggest case of her blossoming career. A young couple from out of state had sent their son to Florida to stay with his grandparents while they worked out some marital difficulties. The grandparents filed a Petition to have the child adjudicated Dependent and placed into their custody, alleging that the parents had abused their child. The couple turned to Rebecca to defend their parental rights. It was an intense two-day trial full of emotion, and in the end, Rebecca won the case and the couple returned home with their son. "After my clients thanked me, I said to myself, 'it's because of cases like this one that I practice law!'"

Despite the long hours and the hard work that came with law school, Rebecca looks back at her experience at UM Law and recollects the friendships she made. "Three of my friends from law school were bridesmaids in my wedding. One is out in California and another is in New Jersey, but the distance hasn't ended our friendships, we still keep in touch on a regular basis." Rebecca will also be in close contact with the law school for the next three years. In the fall, Rebecca's husband will begin to work on his JD at UM Law.