The UM International Graduate Law Program continues its International Law Lecture Series with a presentation by renowned international arbitration expert Guillermo Aguilar-Alvarez, who will discuss “Tales of Negotiating NAFTA” on Tuesday, March 23 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. at the Law Library Reading Room, D201. The event is free and open to the public.

Aguilar-Alvarez is a visiting lecturer in law at Yale Law School. He is a partner at Weil Gotshal and Manges in New York City, where he specializes in international commercial and investment arbitration. He has handled a wide variety of disputes (such as energy, engineering and construction, joint ventures, product distribution and franchising, purchase, and manufacturing) in many venues, under diverse legal systems, and involving parties of more than 30 nationalities.

Aguilar-Alvarez also served as counsel and general counsel of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and was subsequently principal legal counsel for the government of Mexico for the negotiation and implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

For more information, call 305-284-5402 or e-mail intl-llm@law.miami.edu.

Professor Claus Offe from the Hertie School of Governance in Germany will present a lecture entitled “Administering Justice:  Vetting and Lustration in Post-Dictatorships,” on March 12, sponsored by the University of Miami’s School of Law and College of Arts and Sciences.  The lecture will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the second floor Reading Room in the Law Library.

Professor Offe was Professor of Political Science at Humboldt University, Berlin, where he held a chair in Political Sociology and Social Policy, until his retirement in 2005. Since 2006 he has taught on a part-time basis at the Hertie School of Governance, a private professional school of public policy, where he holds a chair in Political Sociology. Previous positions include professorships at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, where he served as director of the Center of Social Policy Research.

His fields of research include democratic theory, transition studies, EU integration, and welfare state and labor market studies. He has published numerous articles and book chapters in these fields. Book publications in English include Varieties of Transition (1996), Modernity and the State: East and West (1996), Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies (1998, with J. Elster and U. K. Preuss) and Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States (2006).

To attend, RSVP to Events@law.miami.edu.

UM Law’s Charles C. Papy, Jr. Moot Court Board team has advanced to the finals of the ABA Law Student Division National Appellate Advocacy Competition (NAAC). Only 24 teams out of 187 that entered the competition made it to the final round, which will be held in Chicago in April.

UM Law was represented by students Annabelle Nahra, who won the Best Oralist Award; Douglas Stamm; and Betsy Havens. Adjunct Professor Harvey Sepler served as coach. 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.

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The Legal Theory Workshop continues with Professor Claus Offe from the Hertie School of Governance in Germany. He will present a lecture entitled “The Meaning of ‘Progress’ Today” on Thursday, March 11 in the School of Law’s faculty meeting room.  The workshop begins at 12:30 p.m., with lunch served at noon.

Professor Offe was a professor of political science at Humboldt University, Berlin, where he held a chair in political sociology and social policy until his retirement in 2005. Since 2006 he has taught on a part-time basis at the Hertie School of Governance, a private professional school of public policy, where he holds a chair in political sociology. Previous positions include professorships at the Universities of Bielefeld and Bremen, where he served as director of the Center of Social Policy Research.

His fields of research, in which he has published numerous articles and book chapters, include democratic theory, transition studies, EU integration, and welfare state and labor market studies. Book publications in English include Varieties of Transition (1996), Modernity and the State: East and West (1996), Institutional Design in Post-Communist Societies (1998, with J. Elster and U. K. Preuss), and Reflections on America: Tocqueville, Weber and Adorno in the United States (2006).

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

The Military Law Society and Student Organization for the Study of Human Rights will host UM Law alumnus Colonel Manuel Supervielle on Tuesday, March 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. in Room F209 of the Law School. Supervielle, who was instrumental in setting up the legal parameters at Guantanamo in 2002, will speak on the topic of “Guantanamo Beginning: Civil-Military Tensions.”  This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to Donald Wagner at donaldwagner@gmail.com

Irwin P. Stotzky, professor of law and director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at the School of Law, will sign copies of his new book, Law as Justice: The Moral Imperative of Owen Fiss’s Scholarship, on Thursday, April 8 from 12:30 to 2 p.m. at the University of Miami Bookstore. The book signing had originally been scheduled for March 11.

For the past 31 years, Stotzky has represented Haitians and other refugees on constitutional and human rights issues, including several cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. Since 2000, he has chaired an international presidential commission to help Haiti confront its drug problems.

Stotsky has published numerous articles and books on democracy and human rights, criminal law and procedure, and the role of the judiciary in the transition to democracy. He teaches in the areas of constitutional law and theory, criminal procedure, and philosophy.

From left, Dean Patricia D. White, Joanne Harvest Koren, and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson.

Established 16 years ago by Koren, the AAP has become one of the model academic support programs in the country.  The AAP involves law school students, faculty, and administration in a collaborative effort to promote and enhance the academic environment for the law school. The program’s focus is improving student learning and performance with the goals of developing analytical and examination skills and integrating 1L students early into the law curriculum.

The Dean’s Fellows are some of the “best and brightest students” who are trained to use interactive learning exercises geared toward different learning styles.  The Dean’s Fellows work with professors, attend all classes, and facilitate two separate weekly study group sessions. Through these efforts, the Fellows become acclimated to the study of law much more quickly.

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The University of Miami School of Law’s Faculty Speaker Series continues with visiting professor David Kairys, who will present the lecture “Jury Representativeness” on Wednesday, March 3 in the law school’s faculty meeting room. The lecture begins at 12:35 p.m., following a lunch at 12 p.m. in the same room. A question-and-answer session will follow after the lecture.

Kairys is professor of law and the James E. Beasley Chair at Temple University Beasley School of Law. One of the nation’s leading civil rights lawyers, he won a leading race discrimination case against the FBI, won challenges to unrepresentative juries around the country, stopped police sweeps of minority neighborhoods in Philadelphia, and represented Benjamin Spock in a free-speech case before the U.S. Supreme Court. He authored With Liberty and Justice for Some, and coauthored The Politics of Law, a bestselling progressive critique of the legal system. His recent articles focus on the history of civil rights–particularly the Supreme Court’s decisions on racial issues, the role of courts, and the meaning of the rule of law–as well as a range of issues related to handgun violence.

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

Maria C. Garcia, an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years of experience in the newspaper industry, has been named executive director for communications at the University of Miami’s School of Law. She will join the University on March 3.

Garcia will help develop and implement a comprehensive, unified communication strategy for the law school. She will also play a key role in media relations and on focusing the message of the law school in print, electronic, and video communications as the school continues to expand its faculty, clinics, joint degree offerings, and LL.M. programs.

“Maria comes to us with an extensive range of leadership skills and abilities, as well as a wealth of knowledge about South Florida,” said Patricia D. White, dean of the School of Law. “She will be a terrific leader for our communications team.”

Garcia has been a reporter and editor during her extensive career. In her most recent position, she served for six years as deputy metro editor for the Palm Beach Post. For most of her career, Garcia worked at The Miami Herald in various capacities, from lifestyles editor to managing editor of El Nuevo Herald to features writer. She was part of the Herald staff that won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service for its coverage of Hurricane Andrew and its aftermath. Garcia received her B.A. degree in communications from the University of South Florida.

On February 18, Governor Charlie Crist announced the appointment of Lourdes Simon, a School of Law Litigation Skills Program adjunct professor, to the Miami-Dade County Court.

“For more than 15 years, Lourdes has been a devoted public servant, humbly serving the people with honesty and integrity,” said Governor Crist. “I am confident her extensive experience has prepared her to be an excellent judge.”

Simon has served as an assistant public defender for the 11th Judicial Circuit since 1994. Simon will fill the vacancy created by the appointment of Judge Antonio Arzola to the 11th Judicial Circuit.  Professor Simon teaches criminal pretrial litigation skills on Thursday nights for the first time this spring.

The Legal Theory Workshop continues with Chicago Law Professor Brian Leiter, the John P. Wilson Professor of Law and director of the Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values. He will present a lecture titled, “In Praise of Realism (and Against ‘Nonsense’ Jurisprudence)” on Friday, February 26 in the School of Law faculty meeting room. The workshop begins at 12:30 p.m., with lunch served at 12 p.m.

Leiter joined the faculty at the University of Chicago Law School in 2008, where he founded the law school’s Center for Law, Philosophy, and Human Values. Prior to that, he taught for more than a dozen years at the University of Texas at Austin, where he was the youngest chair holder in the history of the law school, and also served as professor of philosophy and founder and director of the University of Texas Law and Philosophy Program.

Leiter’s teaching and research interests are in general jurisprudence (including its intersection with issues in metaphysics and epistemology), moral and political philosophy (in both Anglophone and Continental traditions), and the law of evidence. His books include Objectivity in Law and Morals, Nietzsche on Morality, The Future for Philosophy, Naturalizing Jurisprudence: Essays on American Legal Realism and Naturalism in Legal Philosophy, and The Oxford Handbook of Continental Philosophy. He is presently writing a book titled Why Tolerate Religion? There is limited seating for this event. To attend, RSVP to Detra Davis at ddavis@law.miami.edu. Priority will be given to those who reply first.

The International Graduate Law Programs continues its International Law Lecture Series with a presentation by University of Miami professor of law Jan Paulsson. The lecture, “Can International Arbitration Co-Exist with Public Policy,” will be held on Tuesday, February 23 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. in the Law Library Reading Room, D201. Lunch will be provided.

Paulsson holds the Michael Klein Distinguished Scholar Chair and is the faculty chair of the Specialization in International Arbitration. Additionally, he practices with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Paris, where he is the head of the Public International Law Group and the joint head of the International Arbitration Group. He is also the president of the London Court of Arbitration, the Administrative Tribunals of the World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Paulsson has participated as counsel or arbitrator in more 500 arbitrations in Europe, Asia, the United States, and Africa. He has also acted before a great variety of international tribunals, including the International Court of Justice and the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes.

His many publications include the standard reference work ICC Arbitration (third edition 2000), which he co-authored with W.L. Craig and W.W. Park; Denial of Justice in International Law, published by the Cambridge University Press; and The Idea of Arbitration, a forthcoming book to be published by Oxford University Press. He is also the general editor of the International Handbook on Commercial Arbitration, a publication of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration.

This semester-long series is held every other Tuesday. For more information, call 305-284-5402 or e-mail intl-llm@law.miami.edu.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson will visit the University of Miami’s School of Law on Friday, February 26 to speak and answer questions about many of the environmental problems facing the county. The event, which is being sponsored by the Environmental Law Society at UM, will be held at the School of Law in Room F200 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

Join lawyers, law students, and judges to renovate a center serving impoverished youth in Little Haiti on Saturday, February 27 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event takes place at 7230 N.W. Miami Ct., Studio #5, purple door. The Art Studio Miami (ASM), located in Little Haiti, is the site of this Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division (LSD) “Raising the Bar” community service event.  Throughout Florida, these individuals will give back to their communities through service.  Volunteers are encouraged to register at 10 a.m. to assist in renovation projects including furniture assembly, gardening, and painting.

The Florida Bar Young Lawyers Division, Law Student Division, Lexis Nexis, and the Dade County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section are the primary sponsors of this event and have partnered with the University of Miami School of Law in the planning effort.  The LSD’s capital improvements will provide a new bathroom and kitchen facilities so that ASM can better serve students living in poverty. ASM works to prevent at-risk youth from entering the juvenile justice system through creative, holistic project-based learning and career development.

The event is designed to engage law students in their local communities, instill a community service ethic in Florida’s future lawyers, and strengthen citizens’ faith in the pursuits of lawyers within their communities. For more information and to register as a volunteer, e-mail mqm1023@gmail.com or call 954-303-9866.

The University of Miami School of Law will present the Inter-American Law Review symposium, “Cracking the Door: The Future of U.S. Property, Trade, and Investment in Cuba,” on Saturday, February 20 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Storer Auditorium on the Coral Gables campus. Panels will include “How to Have the Most Significant Presence in Trade and Tourism While Maintaining a Trade and Tourism Boycott,” “Cuba Under Raul Castro,” and “The Claims Debate: The Future of U.S. Property in Cuba.” The symposium is open to the public. RSVP to IALR@students.law.miami.edu.

The School of Law’s Faculty Speaker Series continues with UM Law Professor Kunal Parker, who will present his paper “Law, Time and the Republic: The Common Law, History, and Democracy in American Thought, 1790-1900” on Wednesday, February 17 in the law school’s faculty meeting room. The lecture begins at 12:35 p.m., following a lunch at 12 p.m. in the same room. A question-and-answer session will follow the lecture. There is limited seating for this event. To attend, R.S.V.P. to Detra Davis at ddavis@law.miami.edu. Priority will be given to those first to reply.

Before joining the UM law faculty, Parker taught at the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he was the James A. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Law. He has also held fellowships at New York University Law School, Cornell Law School, Queens University in Belfast, Ireland, and the American Bar Foundation in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to teaching, Parker worked as an associate at the New York law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, where he practiced in the area of bankruptcy law relating to complex financial transactions.

Parker has written extensively in the areas of colonial Indian legal history, the history and theory of U.S. immigration and nationality law, the history of American legal thought, and the philosophy of history. He has served on the editorial boards of various scholarly journals. He is currently completing a book entitled Custom and History: Common Law Thought and the Historical Imagination in Nineteenth Century America (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming). His teaching areas and interests include American legal history, estates and trusts, immigration and nationality law, and property.

UM School of Law’s Health and Elder Law Clinic has answered the clarion call precipitated by the tragic earthquake in Haiti and law students’ desire to help in an effort to file Temporary Protected Status (TPS) applications for hundreds of Haitians.  TPS allows Haitians residing in the U.S. prior to the earthquake to work and remain in the country legally.  Advocates anticipate much of the funds earned from their legal employment will be sent back to their families in Haiti to aid in the recovery from the earthquake.

During the entire month of March, the Health and Elder Law Clinic will be hosting law student groups from around the country that will assist with the TPS efforts that began several weeks ago when the clinic conducted a day-long TPS application drive at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

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In a time of tight budgets, high incarceration rates, and steady crime rates, can we imagine new ways of improving outcomes for people coming out of prison and jails? “Rethinking Prisoner Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration,” a Psychology, Public Policy and Law journal symposium, will examine this issue. The speakers will discuss the type and extent of change that may be possible, given the state of research evidence, our public discourse on crime, and the capacity of poor communities.

Jeremy Travis, president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, will be the keynote speaker. Panelists will include Bruce J. Winick, director of the University of Miami School of Law Therapeutic Jurisprudence Center; Steven Leifman, Miami-Dade County Judge; Vicki Lopez Lukis, reentry advocate; and Ahsaki Guilbeaux, reentry coordinator, Federal Detention Center in Miami. The symposium takes place on Friday, February 26 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the UM School of Law, Room 352. It is free and open to the public.

The cutting-edge intellectual property issues surrounding the video games “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” will be the focus of the first annual Intellectual Property Law Symposium (IPLS).  Speakers will include patent speaker Jeffrey H. Kamenetsky, Christopher & Weisberg, who will discuss patients;  Jaime Rich Vining, Lott & Friedland, who will discuss trademarks;and Leslie Jose Zigel, Ziglaw, who will discuss copyrights.

Join students, faculty, and local IP attorneys at the symposium on Friday, February 19 at 4 p.m. at the School of Law, Room E352.  A reception will follow on the fourth-floor faculty lounge in the Law Library. The event will be eligible for three CLE credits, pending approval.

The University of Miami School of Law and the Frost School of Music have launched a new joint degree program in law and music business—the first of its kind in the country—that will enable students to earn a J.D. and a Master of Music in Music Business and Entertainment Industries. The degree will give future entertainment attorneys a thorough understanding of the music industry.

In this specialization, students not only learn the essentials of law but also the common practices of the music business. Students can complete both degrees in less time while studying at a top law school and one of the best music schools in the country. And, as one of the four top music cities in the United States and the center for the Latin American divisions of all major music companies, Miami offers exceptional internship and work opportunities.

“We are very excited to offer this unique opportunity to aspiring entertainment attorneys,” says Frost School assistant professor Serona Elton. “Our joint program enables a student to integrate a strong legal foundation with an in-depth understanding of the business practices of the music industry. Our graduates will be well prepared to enter this rapidly changing field, where a working knowledge of both legal and business aspects will serve them well.”

All of the J.D. and M.M. program requirements must be fulfilled. The program allows for nine law credits to count toward the M.M. degree and six music business credits to count toward the J.D. degree, saving the student as many as 15 credits between the two programs. With intensive study, a student has the opportunity to complete both degrees in three years, including two summers of coursework.

The application deadline for the program is April 1. Questions about the J.D. program should be directed to the UM Law’s Dean of Students Office at 305-284-4551, while questions about the M.M. program should be directed to Serona Elton in the Frost School of Music at 305-284-9856 or selton@miami.edu.

Francisco González de Cossío, a well-known arbitration practitioner, professor in Mexico, and prolific author on sports arbitration, will lecture on the topic on Thursday, February 11 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. in the Learning Center, Room 170. The event is free and open to the public.

The University of Miami School of Law has launched two new clinics—the Federal Appellate Clinic and the Tenants’ Rights Clinic—that will give students practical, hands-on legal experience while helping needy and underrepresented individuals in Miami.

Headed by Professor of Law Ricardo J. Bascuas, a former assistant federal public defender, the Federal Appellate Clinic is a one-semester, three-credit course that provides upper-level students with the opportunity to plan, research, and draft pending federal appeals for indigent criminal defendants referred by the Federal Public Defender for the Southern District of Florida.

“The Federal Appellate Clinic affords students an intensive opportunity to advance their written advocacy and client communication skills,” said Bascuas. “UM alumna Kathleen Williams, the federal public defender for this district, was instrumental in the clinic’s launch. She has continued to work closely with the group to ensure that the students have an experience that closely mirrors the work of the appellate attorneys in her office.”

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International Graduate Law Programs’ International Law Lecture Series will feature a presentation by Professor James Nickel on “Human Rights: Who are the Duty Bearers? States? Individuals? Corporations? International Organizations?” The event will be held on Tuesday, February 9 from 12:30 to 1:50 p.m. in the Law Library Reading Room, D201. Lunch will be provided. Nickel holds a joint appointment in the Department of Philosophy and the School of Law. He teaches and writes in human rights law and theory, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and constitutional law. He is the author of Making Sense of Human Rights and more than 60 articles in philosophy and law journals. In 2004 his essay “Poverty and Rights” received the annual Essay Prize from Philosophical Quarterly. His human rights entry in the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy receives almost 7,000 hits per year.

The semester-long International Law Lecture Series is held every other Tuesday. For more information, call 305-284-5402 or e-mail intl-llm@law.miami.edu.

Each spring the University of Miami School of Law’s Entertainment and Sports Law Society (ESLS) hosts an annual symposium that convenes attorneys, business executives, agents, and UM faculty to discuss cutting-edge legal issues in sports and entertainment. Now in its 13th year, the symposium has grown to become one of the largest student-run events on campus and features some of the nation’s most well respected speakers. The event will take place on Friday, February 5 from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Whitten Learning Center on the University of Miami Coral Gables Campus. Visit www.law.miami.edu/ESLS or contact UM.ESLS@gmail.com for questions.

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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The University of Miami School of Law will remember and honor John Hart Ely, a member of its faculty from 1996 to 2003 and the first holder of the Richard Hausler Distinguished Faculty Chair, by presenting the first Ely Lecture on Friday, January 22 at 2 p.m., in the Law Library, Second Floor Reading Room.

This inaugural lecture will take the form of a conversation between Alan Dershowitz and Henry Monaghan. Professors Dershowitz and Monaghan are distinguished lawyers and law professors in their own right and longtime friends of Professor Ely. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, widely known for his advocacy and commentary on a wide range of issues. Monaghan is the Harlan Fiske Stone Professor of Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School, generally recognized as one of the most incisive constitutional scholars of our time.

The lecture series was named in honor of the late Ely, a renowned constitutional scholar and academic whose work continues to have a tremendous impact on legal scholarship across the globe. Over the course of a long career at Yale, Harvard, Stanford, and Miami, Ely created a remarkable body of writing. He is the fourth most-often cited American legal scholar. His book, Democracy and Distrust, is regarded as one of the most important books about American constitutional law published in the 20th century, with influences worldwide.

After the lecture, a reception will be held in the fourth floor faculty meeting room. To RSVP, contact Carolina Morris at 305-284-3978 or e-mail cmorris@law.miami.edu.

Attend a reception and concert by Grammy-nominated jazz/blues artist Marcia Ball on Saturday, January 9 at Gusman Concert Hall. The cocktail reception begins at 6:30 p.m. The concert takes place at 8:15 p.m. All proceeds benefit the Steven E. Chaykin Endowed Fellowship at the University of Miami School of Law to support students involved with the Center for Ethics and Public Service. Purchase tickets by visiting www.chaykinfellowship.com or by e-mailing susan@mandel-law.com. For more information, call 305-374-7771.

In a complicated case that spanned two years and was a tremendous victory for an impoverished immigrant client and three law students, the University of Miami School of Law’s Health and Elder Law Clinic recently won asylum for a Venezuelan client before an immigration judge.

Asylum was sought by the client in the United States based on sexual orientation and HIV status because he feared returning to Venezuela. After witnessing a near-death experience of his partner due to the prejudice against HIV, the client left Venezuela and fled to the U.S.  The case came to the Health and Elder Law Clinic through its referral partnership with the Miller School of Medicine Adult HIV Services and the South Florida AIDS Network.

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More than 70 energetic fourth-graders from Flamingo Elementary School gathered last month at the School of Law with their UM law student buddies and Sebastian the Ibis to read, make crafts, and play games together. Law students Annery Pulgar, Lindsey Lazopoulos, and Marisol Vilasuso organized the event to celebrate the culmination of the HOPE Public Interest Resource Center’s Books and Buddies Program.

This semester, the fourth-graders exchanged a story they created with their law school buddies every two weeks. The buddies met each other for the first time at the end of the semester celebration. The Books and Buddies Program helps the students apply what they are learning in school in a fun and unique way. They are able to learn from their interactions with law students. Miami Law students enjoy the program as well. “Seeing how excited the students at Flamingo Elementary got every time I dropped off the folders made the experience all the more enjoyable,” said project leader Pulgar. “No matter how many deadlines I had in mind, that moment always reminded me why this program is so important: the students.”

The School of Law’s Information Technology Department hosted its second annual charity luncheon at the law school courtyard on Tuesday, November 17, raising more than $900 for Malaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit that seeks to end deaths caused by malaria in Africa, and a special fund to help buy school supplies for students at Miami’s Northwestern High School.

Super Lawyers magazine has ranked the University of Miami School of Law No. 20 in its new law school rankings. While other law school rankings look at GPAs, LSAT scores, and the number of books in a library, Super Lawyers looks at the end product — the quality of lawyers produced by the schools. Schools were ranked according to the total number of graduates named to the state and regional Super Lawyers lists in 2009. In the event of a tie between schools, the cumulative peer evaluation and research scores of graduates were used as tiebreakers.

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The University of Miami School of Law faculty and administration will hold a reception to honor the life, achievements, and contributions of Professor Alan C. Swan, who served as a pillar at the law school for many decades. The reception takes place on Friday, November 20 at 4 p.m. in the Law Library Reading Room, D201. A reception immediately follows in the Faculty Meeting Room, fourth floor of the Law Library. At the reception, the first issue of volume 64 of the University of Miami Law Review will be on display to honor Professor Swan. The issue includes the article he was working on at the time of his passing, as well as many moving tributes from his friends and colleagues. RSVP to Carolina Morris at cmorris@law.miami.edu or 305-284-3978.

Looking for gifts this holiday season for your loved ones? The University of Miami School of Law’s HOPE Public Interest Resource Center is conducting its Winter 2009 Holiday Auction. Start bidding online at www.hopeauction.cmarket.com to win dining, spa, and vacation packages; cultural and athletic tickets; artwork; and other items to benefit public interest and pro bono opportunities at the School of Law.

The HOPE Public Interest Resource Center is dedicated to instilling a pro bono ethic by engaging law students in public interest initiatives, facilitating advocacy and pro bono opportunities for attorneys, and providing access to justice to underserved populations locally, nationally, and across the globe. Proceeds from the auction will support student public interest fellowships and opportunities.

The HOPE Winter 2009 Holiday Auction, which began on Sunday, November 15, closes on Sunday, December 13 at 9 p.m.

For more information, contact the HOPE office at umhope@law.miami.edu or 305-284-2599. To learn more about HOPE, visit www.law.miami.edu/hope.

The School of Law’s Information Technology Department will host its second annual charity luncheon at the law school courtyard on Tuesday, November 17 from 12 to 2 p.m. Proceeds from last year’s luncheon were donated to Smile Train, an international charity that provides free surgery to children with cleft lips and palates. Participants at this year’s luncheon can earmark their donations for one of two causes: Malaria No More, a New York-based nonprofit that seeks to end deaths caused by Malaria in Africa, or a special fund to help buy school supplies for students at Miami’s Northwestern High School.

The luncheon features food from the diverse ethnic heritages represented throughout the University. Each plate costs $5. For more information on the event, contact Damian Silvera at dsilvera@law.miami.edu.