Miami Law News Headlines: March 2012

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New SBA President: Cultivating a Culture of Leadership and Service

(Posted: 03-30-12) When Christine Job first walked onto the Bricks as in 2010, she never imagined that she would one day serve as the first female African-American president of Miami Law's Student Bar Association. But after winning the most votes in a three-way race earlier this week, Job is ready to make history.

Antidote to Stress: Taking Care of the Self

(Posted: 03-29-12) Yoga on the rooftop, with a view of palm trees swaying in the breeze. Massages and aromatherapy in a candle-lit room. An afternoon walk around a beautiful lake. It sounds like a day at the spa, but it was all part of Tuesday's Mental Health Day at Miami Law. The school's Mindfulness in Law Program partnered with the Dean of Students office and the AskUs team to create a packed schedule of events that helped relax and reinvigorate dozens of students.

For the Defense: Eliminating Jurors Who Favor the Prosecution

(Posted: 03-28-12) Mark Eiglarsh wants to win his cases in voir dire. In the course of one entertaining hour, the former Miami-Dade prosecutor told a gathering of attorneys at Miami Law how he goes about picking a jury capable of delivering the five-minute "not guilty."

Judicial Receptions Honor Alumni

(Posted: 03-26-12) Five Miami Law alumni were honored recently at the annual Broward Judicial Reception in Fort Lauderdale. The Law Alumni Association presented the Alumni Achievement Award to the Hon. Stanton S. Kaplan, JD '62, and recognized Jordana L. Goldstein, JD '94, with the Alumni Leadership Award. The late Donald C. McClosky, JD '60, was honored posthumously with the Alumni Achievement Award.

All Eyes on Health Care Law; Student Notes Benefits

(Posted: 03-26-12) Lying in an ambulance as it raced toward a hospital in Hampton, Va., Ashley Matthews was not thinking about the injuries she had just suffered in a car accident. She was more concerned about the bill she was about to rack up in the emergency room.

How To Boost Your Transnational Practice

(Posted: 03-23-12) The International Graduate Law Programs' Worldwide Alumni Reunion got under way Friday with panels on the transnational practice of law, from litigation and arbitration to corporate practice. All the participating panelists are graduates of the International Graduate Law Programs.

First Victory for University of Miami's Federal Appellate Clinic

(Posted: 03-23-12) Two students from the University of Miami School of Law helped draft a winning appellate argument before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. The third-year students, Olga Izmaylova and Justin Wales, are studying under Professor Ricardo J. Bascuas in the laws school's Federal Appellate Clinic.

Haiti's Dysfunction and Disarray to be Discussed

(Posted: 03-23-12) Haiti, long buffeted by social and economic mayhem – and, two years ago, a devastating earthquake – will be the subject of a roundtable discussion organized by Miami Law's Inter-American Law Review on March 30.

New Joint Medical/Law Degree: A Confluence of Exacting Disciplines

(Posted: 03-22-12) The University of Miami's School of Law and Miller School of Medicine are among the institutions offering a joint M.D./J.D. degree program that can be completed in six years – one year less than if the degrees were pursued separately. Medical students who apply to the program in the fall of their second year of medical school, and are accepted, will begin taking law school courses their third year.

Professor Bernard H. Oxman Helps Settle Claims to Bay of Bengal

(Posted: 03-21-12) With University of Miami law Professor Bernard H. Oxman sitting on the bench, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea has established a maritime boundary between Bangladesh and Myanmar. The new boundary extends more than 200 nautical miles seaward of the terminus of their land frontier in the Bay of Bengal.

Watergate Figure Elizabeth Holtzman, Known For Questioning Presidents' Acts, To Speak At Miami Law

(Posted: 03-21-12) Elizabeth Holtzman, the former Congresswoman who gained renown for her role in the Watergate hearings and who more recently called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush, will address a constitutional law class next week at the University of Miami School of Law.

Trends in Transnational Law Featured in IGLP Alumni Reunion

(Posted: 03-20-12) Miami Law's International Graduate Law Programs will host its Worldwide Alumni Reunion on Friday, featuring several panels on the transnational practice of law, from litigation and arbitration to corporate practice. All the participating panelists are graduates of the International Graduate Law Programs.

Judge Cristol's Gift Supports Bankruptcy Clinic

(Posted: 03-19-12) Never mind that he's an octogenarian – Judge A. Jay Cristol has not remotely begun to slow down. At 82, he maintains a full calendar in his downtown Miami courtroom, and after 25 years on the bench, still finds bankruptcy law fascinating. When Judge Cristol – who graduated from Miami Law in 1959 and is Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida – dons his robes, his pencil-thin mustache fashioned like a film star's of yesteryear, it is a labor of love.

Colleagues To Honor Judge Jordan Tuesday at Miami Law

(Posted: 03-19-12) U.S. District Judge Adalberto José Jordan, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate last month to serve on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, will be honored Tuesday by Miami Law, from which he graduated summa cum laude in 1987.

Student Spotlight: Catherine Kaiman Exemplifies Dedication

(Posted: 03-16-12) As a second-year law student and an intern in Miami Law's Children and Youth Law Clinic, Catherine Kaiman has already begun to make her mark in the community service and public interest sectors.

Making Child Advocacy More Effective

(Posted: 03-15-12) The fates of abused, abandoned and neglected children were at the center of a discussion organized recently by Miami Law's Children and Youth Law Clinic. The panel, titled "The Future of Child Advocacy and Representation: The Next 5, 10, and 20 Years for Florida's Children," was held as part of Miami Law's Philanthropy Week, a celebration of pro bono and volunteer service to underserved communities.

Teens Get Their Day In Court

(Posted: 03-15-12) For 16 high-school students, camp this week at Miami Law was a crash course in litigation and a challenging, rewarding entrée into the legal world. The students came from Coral Gables High, Hialeah High, Miami Central, Miami Senior and Palmer Trinity for the three-day program.

Students Run Ethics Training for Women Lawyers Association

(Posted: 03-15-12) Miami Law students Daniel Casamayor, Nykeah Cohen and Candice Lazar, from the Professional Responsibility and Ethics Program, recently presented a CLE ethics training for the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association in Coral Gables. The students led attendees through three timely hypothetical situations, with topics that included the ethical issues involved in website advertising, legal outsourcing, blogging and vetting attorney fees.

Multi-Million-Dollar Cases Propel Ervin Gonzalez, JD '85, to Litigator of the Year

(Posted: 03-14-12) Ervin A. Gonzalez, a Miami Law alumnus and an adjunct in the school's Litigations Skills program, has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation as Florida's "Litigator of the Year."

Miami Law's Perlmutter Joins Baseball's Joe Torre For Child Violence Hearings

(Posted: 03-12-12) During hearings next week at the University of Miami, the Department of Justice's National Task Force on Children Exposed to Violence will gather testimony from national experts and Miami residents on the impact of violence on children in urban neighborhoods.

Miami Law Is Nucleus of International Arbitration

(Posted: 03-12-12) There is no international court for business disputes, whether routine business-to-business controversies or investor-state cases, such as the many billion-dollar claims pending against Venezuela, Argentina and Ecuador. The only accessible forum is that of international arbitration, which in the last quarter-century has become a vast and borderless forensic industry.

First-Year Law Students Helped Through Trial by Fire

(Posted: 03-08-12) It's no secret that law school can get tough. From managing time to surviving the Socratic method, new law students must learn to navigate the world of casebooks, hornbooks, study groups, and outlines – all without succumbing to the pressures of functioning every day in a highly competitive environment.

First-Year Law Students Helped Through Trial by Fire

(Posted: 03-08-12) It's no secret that law school can get tough. From managing time to surviving the Socratic method, new law students must learn to navigate the world of casebooks, hornbooks, study groups, and outlines – all without succumbing to the pressures of functioning every day in a highly competitive environment.

Miami Law Teams With Dade County Public Defenders Office For Two-Day Pro Bono Training

(Posted: 03-08-12) The University of Miami School of Law, in partnership with the Miami Dade Public Defender, will present a two-day "college" on March 16 and 17 to train volunteer attorneys to represent indigent South Floridians charged in misdemeanor cases. Co-hosted by UM's School of Law Litigation Skills Program, the curriculum will feature training, lectures and discussions at the Coral Gables campus of UM.

Chief Judge of U.S. Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit to Speak at Miami Law

(Posted: 03-08-12) Miami Law's Robert B. Cole Lecture Series will feature Alex Kozinski, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, on April 10. An essayist and judicial commentator, Judge Kozinski was appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 and was the youngest federal appeals court judge at the time. Prior to his appointment on the appellate bench, Judge Kozinski served as Chief Judge of the United States Claims Court. He also served as law clerk to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and to Circuit Judge Anthony M. Kennedy. He holds an A.B. degree (1973) and a J.D. degree (1976) from UCLA.

Technological Wizardry Spurs Evolution In Communications Law

(Posted: 03-07-12) The law is constantly changing, adapting to the needs of an evolving world. Perhaps no niche in legal practice better illustrates this point than communications law, where technological advancements and the creation of new sectors of the economy have drastically altered the dynamics of the industry over the past century.

Faith and Birth Control To Be Debated At Miami Law

(Posted: 03-07-12) Election years tend to prompt profound discussions about morality, conscience and belief, even if politicians tend to reduce them to bumper-sticker trivialities. No such shallowness pervades the discourse at Miami Law, where a stimulating subject will dominate the Secular Law Society's first event since its founding earlier this semester.

Child Soldiers and the Law: A Discussion

(Posted: 03-06-12) An audience that attended the inaugural symposium of the National Security and Armed Conflict Law Review last week learned that the profile of a child soldier is far more complicated than what is often imagined or portrayed. For instance, 40 percent of child soldiers are girls. Two-thirds of child soldiers enlist voluntarily. A very small percentage are implicated in acts of atrocity, and most are not combatants but cooks, cleaners, sex slaves and forced conjugal partners.

Miami Law's Dean White To Receive Equal Justice Leadership Award

(Posted: 03-05-12) Miami Law Dean Patricia D. White has been selected to receive the 2012 Equal Justice Leadership Award by Legal Services of Greater Miami. The award, which will be presented to Dean White on May 17, recognizes excellence in protecting the rights of South Florida's most vulnerable individuals and families.

Ethics Film Series Finale on March 7 with "Margin Call"

(Posted: 03-05-12) In the seventh Ethics Film Series, Adrienne Arsht and UM Ethics Programs, the School of Communication, and the University of Miami Alumni Association present a variety of provocative films, followed by a lively debate moderated by faculty experts. Screenings take place at 6:15 p.m. at the Bill Cosford Cinema on the Coral Gables campus; snacks will be provided at 6 p.m.

Television's Judge Alex Pushes Power of Perseverance

(Posted: 03-02-12) The son of Cuban immigrants, Judge Alex E. Ferrer understands a thing or two about sacrifice and dedication. His parents, who immigrated to Miami when he was an infant, left behind everything they knew and loved in Cuba to move to the United States and remake their lives outside the repressive shadow of the Fidel Castro regime.

Center for Ethics and Public Service Joins in Applause for Noted Educator

(Posted: 03-01-12) Students from Miami Law's Center for Ethics and Public Service recently joined members of the Carver Alumni Association to honor Mona Bethel Jackson, a pioneering educator who has devoted her long career to the wellbeing and progress of thousands of South Florida students.

Miami Law Mourns Passing of Judge Maxine Cohen Lando, JD '74

(Posted: 03-01-12) Miami Law alumna Judge Maxine Cohen Lando, Circuit Judge in the 11th Judicial Circuit of Miami-Dade County, passed away on February 29 at the age of 61 after a heroic battle with cancer.