Center for Ethics and Public Service

Mission

Founded in 1996, the Center for Ethics and Public Service is a law school-housed ethics education, experiential skills training, and community engagement program devoted to the values of ethical judgment, professional responsibility, and public service in law and society. The Center’s mission is to educate law students to serve their communities as citizen lawyers.

History

For 27 years, the Center has served as an incubator and an accelerator for numerous public service initiatives. They include on-campus and off-campus clinics (Children and Youth Law Clinic, Community Economic Development and Design Clinic, Community Lawyering Clinic, Environmental Justice Clinic, Health Law Clinic, and Social Enterprise Clinic), programs (Brown University Institute at Brown for Environment and Society partnership, Dartmouth College Ethics Institute Internship Program, Professional Responsibility and Ethics Program, Street Law Program, and University of Miami Joint College of Arts and Sciences Program on Law, Public Policy, and Ethics), summer colloquia (University of Miami Environmental Justice, Policy, & Science), and oral histories and documentary films (Oral History and Documentary Film Project). 

Programs

The Center operates three programs: the Community Equity Lab, the Black Church Program, and the Legal Profession Program. Program faculty, staff, and students collaborate with schools across the University of Miami as well as the Florida bar and bench; anti-poverty, civil rights, environmental, and public health organizations; and faith-based groups, nonprofit corporations, and civic and neighborhood associations. 

Projects

The Community Equity Lab houses two projects: the Health Equity Project and the Housing and Community Equity Project.

Community Impact

Since 1996, Center faculty and staff have trained more than 1,428 graduate and undergraduate fellows and interns, and collaborated with more than 50,280 civic leaders in anti-poverty, civil rights, environmental justice, and public health campaigns. Center faculty also have been widely cited in law journals and in the media.

Center News

We are happy to announce that The Provost recommended the Center for Ethics and Public Service continue, with its next review during the 2025-2026 review cycle. Every five years, School-Based Centers and Institutes, must disclose their activities and undergo review by the Office of the Provost (OTP) in consultation with the Dean of their host school. The review is rigorous and thorough. In his review, the Provost noted that the Center has made notable contributions to our community. That recommendation was voted on and approved by the faculty senate.

Center Recognized with Award for Support to Caribbean American Community

Miami Law's Center for Ethics and Public Service has been awarded the Caribbean Bar Association's Public Service Award for 2023.
Center Recognized with Award for Support to Caribbean American Community

Carter Cooper, CEPS Program Coordinator, student fellows Brandi Griffin, and Omarley Spence, Kevin Pierre, Esq., Alex Rundlet, CEPS Fredman Family Foundation Practitioner-in-Residence, student fellows Jordan Brooks, Taimaisú Ferrer Sin, Janeal Fordham, and Gabrielle A.C. Thomas.

The gala is the primary fundraiser for CBA's scholarship program, which funds paid judicial and public interest legal internships for law students in South Florida. The theme for this year's gala, "Amplify: Get Up, Stand Up, Speak Up," highlighted the CBA's legal initiatives throughout the past year, recognizing scholarship recipients and celebrating individuals and organizations who partnered within and served communities on local, national, and international levels to support the Caribbean American community.

"I am so pleased to accept CBA's Public Service Award on behalf of my colleagues at CEPS," said Rundlet. "It is our hope these efforts will transform the housing and redevelopment landscape in South Florida, with the ultimate beneficiaries being some of our most vulnerable Black and historically redlined communities."

Founded almost 30 years ago, the Center for Ethics and Public Service is a law school-housed ethics education, experiential skills training, and community engagement program devoted to the values of ethical judgment, professional responsibility, and public service in law and society. Its mission is to educate law students to serve their communities as citizen lawyers.

The center operates three programs: the Community Equity Lab, the Black Church Program, and the Legal Profession Program. As referenced in the event program, "we explored during a program hosted by the CBA earlier this year, our ongoing Community Equity Lab project, in which fellows and interns continued to engage in case-, ordinance-, statutory-, and regulatory-based research, information-gathering, and relationship-building with neighborhood groups on the racially disparate impact and segregative effect of land use and zoning policies in the City of Miami. The work has established the factual and legal foundation for a fair housing investigation and enforcement action by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The objective of the enforcement action is to reshape the City's zoning, future land use, demolition, and eviction practices that have devastated, for example, the Coconut Grove Village West community." 

Partners

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Recognition

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Faculty and Staff

Professor Anthony V. Alfieri

Director, Center for Ethics & Public Service
Founder, Historic Black Church Program
aalfieri@law.miami.edu
305-284-2735

Alexander Rundlet

Fredman Family Foundation Practitioner-in-Residence, Lecturer
axr2779@miami.edu

Dr. Kesha Merritt

Sr. Program Manager
keshamerritt@law.miami.edu
305-284-9185

Carter Deane Cooper

Program Coordinator
cdc206@law.miami.edu
305-284-3934

Contact

Street Address

1311 Miller Drive, Room G287
Coral Gables, FL 33146-8087
Phone 305-284-3934
Fax: 305-284-1588

Mailing Address

University of Miami School of Law
Center for Ethics & Public Service
P.O. Box 248087
Coral Gables, Florida
33124-8087
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