Gregory Koger, associate professor in the Department of Political Science in UM’s College of Arts and Sciences, will present “A Primer on Filibustering and Reforming the Senate” on Monday, September 13 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. at the School of Law, Room A110A, as part of the school’s Law and Policy Workshop.

Koger specializes in the study of Congress, political parties, interest groups, elections, political history, and political institutions. He has published research on filibustering, legislative parties, Congressional rules, and bill co-sponsorship in the U.S. House of Representatives.

To attend the lecture, RSVP to Sandra Hernandez at shernandez1@law.miami.edu by Wednesday, September 8.

Nicolò Trocker

The School of Law’s Faculty Lecture Series continues on Wednesday, September 8 with Visiting Professor Nicolò Trocker, who will present the lecture “Party Autonomy and Judicial Discretion in Transnational Litigation: The Problem of Jurisdictional Allocation in Comparative Perspective” in the law school’s fourth-floor faculty meeting room. The lecture begins at 12:35 p.m., following a lunch at noon in the same location. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture.

Trocker teaches Comparative Law, Civil Procedure, and Conflict of Laws at the University of Florence and has published various books and numerous articles on these subjects. He received his legal education at the Universities of Munich (Germany) and Florence (Italy), where he earned his law degree (summa cum laude) and at the European University Institute, where he received a Jean Monet fellowship. He is teaching Transnational Litigation this semester.

There is limited seating for this event. To attend, RSVP to Detra Davis Fleming at ddavis@law.miami.edu. Priority will be given to those first to reply.

UM School of Law Professor Bruce J. Winick co-founded the field of law known as therapeutic jurisprudence, which studies the effects of law and the legal system on the behavior, emotions, and mental health of people.

It was the early 1990s, and an emerging area of law known as therapeutic jurisprudence was gaining momentum. Legal scholars around the country began using the term with regularity, applying it to criminal, family, juvenile, and other areas of law. But few attorneys were as knowledgeable about or adept at applying the term as Bruce J. Winick. And for good reason.

A University of Miami law professor with a passion for righting wrongs, Winick co-founded therapeutic jurisprudence, which studies the effects of law and the legal system on the behavior, emotions, and mental health of people. He grew passionate about the subject, writing about it in books and journal articles and attending numerous conferences where, in his trademark voice that often made even the most difficult legal terms understandable, he spoke on the field.

Winick, a New York University School of Law graduate and fervent advocate of social justice during a spectacular legal career that spanned the courtrooms of New York and the editorial boards of some of the legal profession’s most prestigious publications, died early Thursday from complications of cancer. He was 65.

“A giant in the legal community” is how UM President Donna E. Shalala described Winick. (Read her public statement).

“Bruce Winick’s scholarly and advocacy work in therapeutic jurisprudence was central to the development of the field—a field that focuses on human dignity and worth,” said UM School of Law Dean Patricia D. White. “This will remain a permanent part of his legacy. Beyond his work he will be remembered as having served as a model for dealing with life’s difficulties with remarkable courage, grace, and optimism.”

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The School of Law’s 2010-2011 Faculty Lecture Series begins on Wednesday, September 1 with UM Law Professor Stephen Urice, who will present “Unveiling the Executive Branch’s Extralegal Cultural Property Policy.” The lecture, which will take place in the law school’s fourth-floor faculty meeting room, will begin at 12:35 p.m., following a lunch at noon in the same room. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture.

An expert on art law, museum law, and cultural heritage law, Urice lectures nationally and internationally and has served on the faculty and planning committee of the ALI-ABA course of study Legal Issues in Museum Administration for many years. He has published numerous scholarly articles and co-authored the fifth edition of the standard art law casebook, Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts (Kluwer, 2007).

Prior to coming to Miami Law in 2006, Urice taught for three years at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law in a grant-funded position. Previously, in addition to practicing law, Urice served as a foundation officer at the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, and as director of Philadelphia’s Rosenbach Museum and Library. He earned a Ph.D. in archeology and his J.D. at Harvard University.

Seating for the event is limited. To attend, RSVP to Detra Davis Fleming at ddavis@law.miami.edu. Priority will be given to those first to reply.

Law students remove mulch at Montgomery Botanical Center, one of more than a dozen sites at which students volunteered as part of the Hope Day of Service.

From a small patch of weed-covered land at a historic Virginia Key beach to a dining hall where the homeless gather daily for hot meals, University of Miami law students picked up pitchforks and serving spoons last Saturday at more than a dozen sites across Miami-Dade County, performing good deeds as part of a day of service designed to teach them the responsibility of giving back to the community.

The annual Hope Day of Service saw more than 200 students volunteer their time and efforts in an event that has come to herald the start of a new academic year at UM’s School of Law.

Volunteer sites ranged from a homeless assistance center in Homestead, where students prepared and served meals, to Ronald McDonald House in Miami, where they cleaned and sorted donations.

“Hope Day is critical because lawyering is about advocacy,” said Marni Lennon, assistant dean for public interest and pro bono and director of the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center, which spearheads the event. “Law students and lawyers have a responsibility to give back to the community. If lawyers do not understand the communities in which they serve as lawyers, opportunities for problem-solving are missed, and marginalized communities and populations continue to be silenced.”

In Homestead, Hope volunteers began arriving at the Community Partnership for the Homeless before many of the center’s residents had even stirred, preparing hamburgers, baked beans, and pastries before serving the food to about 300 people.

“It means a lot to the men, women, and children living at our center to know that others in the community care about them and that other people take time from their busy lives to help,” said Sharon Haxton, volunteer and community liaison at the center.

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The School of Law's new LComm team of faculty members.

This fall marks the beginning of the School of Law’s new Legal Communication and Research Skills program. Staffed with 13 full-time professors, LComm is dedicated to teaching first-year law students hands-on practical skills, such as reasoning, writing, research, and oral arguments, with a modern twist.

“This is a learning-by-doing class,” said Professor Rosario Lozada Schrier, director of the Legal Communication and Research Skills program. Schrier earned her J.D. from the University of Notre Dame, and served as Assistant General Counsel to the University of Miami before joining the Miami Law faculty in 2007.

On the first day of class, 1L students will be asked to assume the role of attorneys and are expected to act accordingly as they develop oral and written communication skills. The curriculum emphasizes the fundamentals of legal writing by exercising how to write polished and convincing legal documents and how to engage and frame an argument.

The expectation is that students will learn how to be effective communicators by the end of the two-semester course.

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Patricia A. Brown

Patricia A. Brown, an internationally recognized expert in the field of international taxation, has been appointed director of the School of Law’s Graduate Tax Program, which is currently ranked fifth in the nation by U.S.News & World Report and has a 50-year tradition of excellence.

“Patricia Brown’s appointment as director should add tremendous strength to our already highly regarded tax program and give us unrivaled strength in international tax law,” said Dean Patricia D. White.

Brown is best known for overseeing and coordinating the U.S. tax treaty program as the Treasury Department’s deputy international tax counsel with responsibility for treaty affairs. In addition to ensuring consistency in terms of negotiations and interpretation, she was personally involved in the negotiation of all U.S. tax treaties and protocols that were enacted between 1999 and 2008. As a result, she has worked closely with government officials from every continent.

For much of 2005, she was acting international tax counsel, a role in which she was directly responsible for all international tax matters within the Office of Tax Policy. Since 2007 she has served as a full-time consultant to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, creating guidelines and procedures for the cross-border taxation of portfolio investors. Brown has also lectured on a variety of topics relating to tax treaties and cross-border financial transactions.

Bernard Oxman

University of Miami School of Law Professor Bernard H. Oxman, a globally renowned expert on the law of the sea, delivered the inaugural lecture of the course in public international law at The Hague Academy of International Law on July 26.

More than 300 students from over 80 countries attended Oxman’s lecture, “Idealism and the Study of International Law,” which was held at the academy’s facilities at the Peace Palace in The Hague. The lecture will be published in the next volume of the academy’s widely distributed Collected Courses.

Professor Oxman has served as judge ad hoc of both the International Court of  Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and is the only American to have been appointed to both courts.

At the University of Miami, he regularly teaches courses on conflict of laws, international law, law of the sea, and torts. Before joining UM’s School of Law in 1977, he was assistant legal adviser for oceans, environment, and scientific affairs at the U.S. Department of State. He also served as U.S. representative to the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea.

UM law student Eva Merian Spahn.

University of Miami Law student Eva Merian Spahn is one of 20 female law students recently selected for a Ms. JD Fellowship, an award that recognizes rising third-year law students nationwide.

Fellows were selected based on their academic performance, leadership, and dedication to advancing the status of women in the profession. Spahn was chosen from among 300 applicants representing 75 law schools. “I’m very honored to be one of only 20 women chosen to participate in the Ms. JD fellowship,” Spahn said. “This is a wonderful opportunity to represent the University of Miami in a national setting.”

A Harvard graduate, Spahn is the articles and comments editor for the University of Miami Law Review and a member of the Charles C. Papy Moot Court Board. She has served as a Dean’s Fellow for the Academic Achievement Program and has been involved with the Miami Law Women student organization. She is currently serving as a summer associate with the Miami law firm Greenberg Traurig.

Ms. JD, an online community serving women in law school and the legal profession, created the Ms. JD Fellowship in partnership with the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession to promote mentoring and professional development for future female attorneys. In addition to receiving financial support and invitation to ABA and Ms. JD events, each fellowship winner is paired with a mentor chosen from among the ABA’s Margaret Brent Award winners. Among the participating mentors are two UM Law alumni:  Hilarie Bass, JD ’81, and Carolyn Lamm, JD ’73.

“The opportunity to work with other successful women at different points in their legal careers is extremely exciting,” said Spahn. “I’ve been lucky enough to have some phenomenal female mentors throughout my career thus far, and I look forward to being able to give back the same kind of advice to future generations in the profession.”

UM Law’s International Moot Court team has competed in competitions such as the Pace Law School International Criminal Court Moot Competition and the Jessup Competition.

The University of Miami School of Law’s Moot Court teams have been ranked 14th in the nation this year by the Blakely Advocacy Institute at the University of Houston Law Center. As one of the top moot court programs in the country, UM Law has been invited to Houston to compete for the national championship in January 2011.

“Placing 14th among more than 200 law schools in the country is a testament to the hard work and talent of our members, adjunct faculty, coaches and judges, and the continued support of the administration,” said Lauren Tuckey, incoming president of the Charles Papy, Jr. Moot Court Board. “The Moot Court Board is eager to build upon its reputation as one of the top moot court boards in the country and a prominent training ground for future litigators.”

The moot court teams—the Charles Papy, Jr.  Moot Court Board and the International Moot Court—have achieved success at both the national and international levels this year.

The Charles Papy, Jr. Moot Court team advanced to the finals of the ABA Law Student Division National Appellate Advocacy Competition. Only 24 teams out of the 187 that entered the competition made it to the final round. In addition to advancing to the finals, the team was recognized with a third place Best Brief Award and a sixth place Best Oralist Award in the regional competition.

The team also competed in the National Environmental Law Moot Court Competition (the premier environmental law competition in the country), making it past the quarterfinal round, where they were the only law school in Florida and one of nine teams remaining. During the competition, third-year law student Daniel Poterek was named Best Oral Advocate.

The Charles Papy, Jr. Moot Court team was one only 24 teams to advance to the finals of the ABA Law Student Division National Appellate Advocacy Competition.

UM Law’s International Moot Court team placed second in the Pace Law School International Criminal Court Moot Competition held in The Hague. The team, consisting of second-year law students Jordan Greenberg, Erin Boatman, and Thomas Moskal, argued before a distinguished bench of judges. Greenberg won the award for Best Prosecutor and was the second best oralist; Moskal was the third best oralist.

In addition, the International Moot Court team competed in the 51st Southeastern Super Regional Round of the Jessup Competition, advancing to the second round and placing among the top seven teams out of the 24 teams present.

For the first time in its history, the team also advanced to the elimination round in the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot Court Competition in Vienna.  At the Madrid Moot competition, the team made it to the quarterfinals, where Mariana Cardenas received an honorable mention for Best Orator and Joan Martinez-Evora was the third best oralist.

“We are extremely proud of the success the board has had this past school year, and it is an honor for the school to be recognized with this ranking,” said Kevin Huber, president of the International Moot Court Board. “The tireless dedication of our students and coaches in each competition enabled us to consistently succeed on the international circuit. We are looking forward to building on last year’s success during this coming school year and into the future.”

Michael Froomkin

The University of Miami School of Law has announced that Professor A. Michael Froomkin, an Internet and administrative law expert, will be awarded the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship for the 2010-2011 academic year.

Professor Froomkin is the second recipient of the award. Last year, Professor Bruce Winick, a co-founder of the therapeutic jurisprudence field, became the first recipient.

“I am very honored to be awarded the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship,” said Froomkin. “I hope I can live up to the achievements of the previous holder, Bruce Winick.”

Professor Froomkin, who joined UM Law in 1992, writes primarily about Internet governance, electronic democracy, and privacy. Other subjects include e-commerce, electronic cash, the regulation of cryptography, and U.S. constitutional law. He is a founder-editor of ICANNWatch, and serves on the editorial board of Information, Communication & Society and of I/S: A Journal of Law and Policy for the Information Society. He is on the advisory boards of several organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and is a member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London.

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Jessica Carvalho Morris

Jessica Carvalho Morris, director of the School of Law’s International Graduate Law Programs, has been elected vice chair of Amnesty International USA, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization.

Amnesty International has more than 2.8 million supporters in more than 150 countries, campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied. Carvalho Morris is the first Latina to serve as vice chair and is currently the only Latina on the board.

“I am honored to have been given this opportunity,” says Carvalho Morris, JD ’03. “This is a time when the world needs human rights more than ever before, and I hope that I can contribute to expanding our work, especially in the global south, particularly as we approach our 50th anniversary.”

Carvalho Morris’s father was tortured while serving as a U.S. missionary in Brazil during the military dictatorship. He was kidnapped by the Brazilian military and subjected to electric shocks, beatings, and food and sleep deprivation. After 17 days, he was expelled from Brazil even though official charges were never brought against him. As a result of her father’s experience, Carvalho Morris has dedicated her life to ending torture and other kinds of human rights violations in the world.

“I was born in exile in Costa Rica and raised in an environment where the promotion of human rights was a priority,” she says. “I want to stop torture. In Brazil I have represented women victims of domestic violence, and I have written and spoken about human rights violations. In the U.S. I have represented victims of human rights abuses and have also lectured about human rights.”

Amnesty International USA’s Board of Directors consists of 18 members. The vice chair serves as the chair of the Executive Director Oversight Committee and conducts the evaluation of the executive director; chairs the Governance Committee; and serves on the Executive Committee of the Board.

In addition to her role as vice chair, Carvalho Morris will also serve as the liaison to the Americas, partly due to her language skills, which include English, Spanish, Portuguese, and a knowledge of French.

Prior to joining UM Law, Carvalho Morris worked for the National Labor Relations Board as a field attorney and for Greenberg Traurig as an associate where she worked in a variety of civil and complex commercial litigation disputes relating to tax, contract, and employment issues.

She was the coordinator for the Miami Chapter of Amnesty International for five years, from 2004 to 2009. In that position, she led the organization of the largest Florida state conference in 2006 and the Southern Regional Conference in 2007, both at the University of Miami School of Law, and significantly expanded the fundraising and membership of the Miami chapter. She also co-chaired the Civil Rights Committee of the Florida Bar and was a member of the board for the Florida International University Women’s Center Advisory Council. Carvalho Morris has published and lectured on international human rights and aspects of Brazilian and American constitutional law.

Prime Minister of Belize and University of Miami alumnus Dean Barrow visited his alma mater last Friday, touring UM’s Coral Gables campus and meeting with University officials. Barrow received two degrees from UM: an LL.M. degree in Common Law and an M.A. in International Relations. His visit coincided with a weekend series of events that included an investment trade show in Miami Beach, a dinner gala, and public forum. Above, from left, School of Law Dean Patricia D. White, Provost Thomas J. LeBlanc, Prime Minister Barrow, and First Lady Kim Simplis-Barrow.

From the Public Defenders Office in Miami to the World Service Authority in Washington, D.C., UM Law’s HOPE Fellows are working at public interest agencies throughout the country this summer, helping to promote access to justice by enhancing the delivery of legal services to communities near and far.

Erika Kane

Erika Kane, a second-year law student, is working for the Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society, which provides legal services to those who are economically disadvantaged. At the Legal Aid Society, she works on foreclosure actions, guardianships, landlord-tenant disputes, and domestic violence cases. Her primary duties include research, conducting intake appointments, and assisting pro se clients by helping them draft complaints, file answers, and prepare for discovery.

“I recognize that there is no better place to leave an imprint in society than in my hometown,” said Kane, who grew up in Longwood, Florida in Seminole County. “Interning at the Seminole County Bar Association Legal Aid Society will give me an opportunity to support my neighbors and assist them in attaining and enforcing their rights.”

The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center provides stipends to law students who work in uncompensated public interest jobs in exchange for a year-long commitment to actively serve on the Public Interest Leadership Board and design and implement a program related to their field work. HOPE Fellows are charged with identifying opportunities for other law students to engage in direct advocacy work and perpetuate the ethic of service through educational programs on public interest law issues.

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Ruth Heckerling

The University of Miami School of Law mourns the passing of Ruth Heckerling, who died June 10 at the age of 90.

Mrs. Heckerling was the widow of the late Professor Philip E. Heckerling, LL.M. ’63, a long-time UM Law faculty member and founder of the School of Law’s Estate Planning Institute, which was later renamed in his honor. Designed for sophisticated attorneys, trust officers, accountants, insurance professionals and financial planners, the Heckerling Institute is the nation’s leading conference for estate planning professionals. It complements the school’s LL.M. program in Estate Planning, also founded by Professor Heckerling in 1974.

Mr. and Mrs. Heckerling became Founders of the University of Miami in 1982 because of their philanthropic support to the University.

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Two legal interns at the School of Law’s Children and Youth Law Clinic recently won a lawsuit against the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration, which had terminated specialized therapeutic care for a cognitively impaired, severely emotionally disturbed foster child. The news came after several months of intense preparation and a half-day evidentiary hearing in early March at which UM law students Marissa Gray and Renee Darville appealed for Specialized Therapeutic Foster Care Services.

The clinic’s lawsuit claimed the Agency for Health Care Administration had terminated these services without any notice to the child or his foster parent in violation of Florida and federal law. On May 11, the clinic received a final order from a state hearing officer affirming that the client was in need of therapeutic foster care and was entitled to remain in the program.

“Our interns worked countless hours preparing for this hearing and submitted a first-rate post-hearing memorandum,” said Bernard Perlmutter, professor and director of the Children and Youth Law Clinic. “Their dedication to enforcing their client’s legal rights was vindicated by a final order that adopted all of the proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law in their hearing memo. Most importantly, they helped a child receive important therapeutic services that the state was cutting off in violation of his due process rights.”

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Law student Nichole Geiger, left, and law school alumna Shirley St. Louis, a Haitian-American who speaks fluent Creole, assist one of the many Haitian nationals who showed up at Jackson Towers to file for Temporary Protected Status.

Clutching a large manila folder bulging with legal documents, Jimmy Fleurissaint sat in one of the chairs lining the wall of a small medical clinic and looked straight ahead, his face clouded with concern.

Fleurissaint, who arrived in Miami two years ago on a rickety boat from Haiti, said he couldn’t stop thinking about the wife and five children he left behind in Port-au-Prince. While his family survived the 7.0-magnitude earthquake that destroyed much of the capital city, “they have no place to live and not enough food to eat,” he said.

Securing a steady job would allow the 40-year-old Fleurissaint to earn enough money to help his loved ones back in Haiti.

The recent efforts of a group of University of Miami School of Law students may help him achieve his goal.

More than 60 of the students volunteered last Friday to help Haitian nationals apply for Temporary Protected Status, a government program that protects qualified immigrants from deportation and allows them to stay and work in the United States for 18 months.

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