Miami Law Magazine: Fall 2016 by University of Miami School of Law

MIAMILAW FALL 2016

UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW

magazine

A HEMISPHERIC LAW SCHOOL L AW & JUSTICE NEAR AND FAR

Online LL.M. Programs § The best minds in real estate and tax law § Full-time or part-time § Fall or spring start dates

Robert Traurig— Greenberg Traurig LL.M. in Real Property Development FOR U.S. OR FOREIGN ATTORNEYS LOOKING TO: § Stay in step or upgrade knowledge in this everchanging, complex industry § Go beyond your current career trajectory and redirect your practice

Taxation of Cross-Border Investment LL.M. FOR FOREIGN ATTORNEYS LOOKING TO: § Cultivate the niche market of structuring investments in and by Latin America § Delve into a more sophisticated tax practice § Study with U.S. and non-U.S. tax experts to develop a structure that satisfies multiple jurisdictions

§ Earn an accredited degree from the best program in the U.S.

www.law.miami.edu/rpd

www.law.miami.edu/tax

VOL. 5

PATRICIA D. WHITE Dean and Professor of Law STEPHANIE COX Assistant Dean for External Affairs LAUREN BEILEY Director of Online Communications and Marketing ELIZABETH ESTEFAN Senior Graphic Designer and Project Manager PATRICIA MOYA Senior Graphic Designer and Magazine Designer CATHARINE SKIPP Director of Media Relations and Public Affairs MICHELLE VALENCIA Director of Publications Photographers JENNY ABREU ANGELA BONILLA JOSHUA PREZANT KAREN SALAMANCA ZAVE SMITH Miami Law Magazine is published by the University of Miami School of Law. Copyright © 2016 University of Miami School of Law. Address correspondence to Miami Law Magazine University of Miami School of Law 1311 Miller Drive Coral Gables, Florida 33146 www.law.miami.edu

2. NEWS BRIEFS See what’s happening in and around Miami Law.

8. STUDENTS We shine a spotlight on some of Miami Law’s most remarkable students.

17. FACULTY Read about Miami Law’s faculty and their scholarship.

43. FEATURE Miami Law alumni lead at the intersection of business and law.

50. ALUMNI

We highlight some of our outstanding alumni and their impact on the community and beyond.

64. PHILANTHROPY Recognizing the generosity of our alumni and friends

71. THE LAST WORD Q & A with University of Miami President Julio Frenk

NEWSBRIEFS

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iami Law’s Investor Rights Clinic received a $107,282 Cy Pres distribution in August stemming from the class action settlement in Laura Yelitza Cifuentes, et al. v. Regions Bank. The genesis of the Cifuentes v. Regions Bank class action was a 2007 regulatory case that the Securities and Exchange Commission filed against U.S. Pension Trust Corp. and U.S. College Trust Corp. The SEC accused USPT of soliciting Latin American investors to invest in U.S. mutual funds through a trust structure, failing to provide adequate disclosures to investors, and failing to register as a securities dealer. The SEC ultimately prevailed in a bench trial against USPT. Plaintiffs’ counsel then filed a class action lawsuit against Regions Bank on behalf of more than 5,000 Latin American investors who purchased the USPT investment plans. Regions had served as the trustee for the investment plans. The class alleged that the plans were sold in violation of Florida’s investor-protection statute and that Regions involvement rendered it liable under the statute. Regions denied all liability. Ultimately, plaintiffs’ counsel secured a $13 million settlement of the class action lawsuit. After distributing the majority of the settlement to the class members, $107,282 remained of the settlement fund, which was insufficient to cover the cost of another round of distributions to investors such that it was not economically feasible to make further distributions. The plaintiffs’ counsel then sought and obtained an order from the Court permitting the Cy Pres award to the Investor Rights Clinic.

Courts have long recognized the concept of Cy Pres distributions. It allows for distributions of remaining funds in settlement class actions only when direct distributions to class members are not feasible—either because class members cannot be reasonably identified or because distribution would involve such small amounts that, because of the administrative costs involved, such distribution would not be economically viable. “One of the reasons we recommended the Investor Rights Clinic for a Cy Pres award is because the clinic reasonably approximates the interests of the class in the underlying case,” said David Rothstein, J.D. ’95 and partner at Dimond Kaplan & Rothstein, P.A. “The clinic includes financial outreach and helping small claim investors recover losses due to fraud and broker misconduct.” Rothstein’s partner and co-counsel in the case, Jeffrey Kaplan, J.D. ’94, said that “the clinic has earned a welldeserved reputation for excellence and for producing skilled advocates committed to protecting the rights of small investors. We are delighted that the Judge saw fit to approve a Cy Pres distribution that will help the clinic continue its good work.” “We are honored to receive the Cy Pres award in this significant case,” said Teresa J. Verges, the clinic’s director. “This award will assist the law school in providing continued funding to the clinic, which was launched in 2012 after receiving a limited grant from the FINRA Foundation.”

SCOTT EICHHORN, DAVID ROTHSTEIN, TERESA VERGES, SCOTT SILVER, JIM SALLAH, JEFF KAPLAN

Investor Rights Clinic Receives $107,000 Cy Pres Award

PROFESSOR STEPHEN URICE AND CHRISTINE VINCENT

directors of the Roy Lichtenstein Foundation, the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The forum’s agenda explored a variety of topics ranging from new technologies in art authentication to leadership challenges navigating the life cycle of a foundation. The day also featured a memorable keynote conversation between renowned American contemporary artist and MacArthur Fellow Mark Bradford and Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. The forum underscored the importance of these foundations realizing their charitable potential. Vincent pointed out that “the artist-endowed foundation field is of significant interest to the arts and funding communities, given its role as a new force in cultural philanthropy, and in the stewardship of the country’s post-war and contemporary artistic heritage. This is a young field whose potential influence substantially outweighs its still modest scale.”

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iami Law, in conjunction with the Aspen Institute’s Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative, held an Artist-Endowed Foundation Leadership event last fall, hosted by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The event was sponsored by The Hoffman Forum, which was created through the generosity of Larry J. Hoffman, J.D. ’54, and Debi Hoffman, J.D. ’83. Professor Stephen Urice, who is also the director of the arts track for the school’s LL.M. in Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law, co-directed the forum with Christine Vincent, AEFI Project Director. The forum brought together senior leaders of artistendowed foundations to exchange ideas and learn about issues and innovations in policy and practice influencing their organizations individually and the field as a whole. Seventy-eight leaders of foundations in the United States and the European Union attended the meeting, including the

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Miami Law and Aspen Institute Host Art Law Forum at MoMA

LAW STUDENT RAFAEL MAS WITH CLIENTS AT THE PEDIATRIC MOBILE CLINIC

Photo by Joshua Prezant

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2,000 Clients and $4 Million in Benefits: Ten Years of the Health Rights Clinic

n 2005 when Miami Law’s Health & Elder Law Clinic opened its doors, its first client was a frail and elderly AfricanAmerican woman stricken with AIDS. She was already receiving all the entitled public benefits but was troubled by an AIDS exclusion in an insurance policy that she had bought post-diagnosis to cover her funeral and burial expenses. Hers was not a case of disability, permanency planning, or health care surrogates—the kind of cases the students had prepared for—but Clinic Founder and Director Professor JoNel Newman knew the woman would have little chance of finding other representation. The Clinic took her case. In the decade since—and 200 students, 2,000 grateful clients, and $4 million in recovered benefits later—the now-named Health Rights Clinic continues to fight on behalf of the underserved and disenfranchised: young and old, veterans and undocumented immigrants.

In just the past months, the clinic’s interns and supervising attorneys have sued the Social Security Administration for having the longest waits for benefits in the country and interceded successfully on behalf of a 20-year-old brain cancer patient denied government disability status. “The clinic’s approach to legal services and education is to recreate the conditions of real-world practice,” said Newman, who has been there from the start. “We challenge students with difficult, high volume case and policy work. We regularly create a lifeline and move people from homelessness to being able to both support themselves and get medical care.” From humble beginnings and grand intentions, the Health Rights Clinic has influenced the lives of thousands of marginalized residents in the Miami-Dade community and far beyond. And each case matters, not just for the person on whose behalf the clinic speaks, but to the students who pass through their doors. “We push the student attorneys to fight to get their individual client’s case approved in an expedited manner,” said Melissa Swain, associate director of the Clinic. “We then encourage the students to look at the patterns of injustice causing harm to this community and develop policy advocacy projects to institute change on a larger scale.”

MIAMI LAW MOOT COURT TEAM

Miami Law Defeats 31 Teams to Win Prestigious Kaufman Securities Moot

iami Law’s team of Joshua Williams and Jhanile “Trudy” Smith, along with brief writer Amanda Kapur, won the 44th Annual Irving R. Kaufman Memorial Securities Law Moot Court Competition held at the Fordham University School of Law. They were first of 32 teams from around the country, and were coached by attorney Justin Prociv, J.D. ’03, of the law firm Lapin & Leichtling. Miami Law’s team was named winner over the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in the championship round, which was argued in front of Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., of the Supreme Court of the United States; Judge Paul J. Kelly, Jr., of the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit; Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz, of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; and Judge Jane R. Roth, of the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. “Arguing in front of Supreme Court Justice Alito was

an incredible opportunity,” said Williams, who served as the executive vice president of the Charles C. Papy Moot Court Board. “It was an honor to represent the University of Miami at this year’s Kaufman Securities Competition, and we’re thrilled that we could bring home a win,” said Williams. We could not have done this without all of the hard work and dedication of our coach, and the many local practitioners who volunteered their time. It feels great that we were able to make them proud.”

Despite the strength of the client’s case, the immigration judge ruled that the immigration regulation prevented her from granting asylum.The Clinic appealed the case to the Board of Immigration Appeals and then to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, arguing that the immigration regulation was in conflict with the asylum statute. After a briefing to the Eleventh Circuit, the federal government agreed to settle the case and give the client an opportunity to apply for asylum. Students Stephanie Almirola, Natalie Atkinson, and Masha Ciampittiello, worked on the briefs to the Board and the Eleventh Circuit. “The client’s story was an amazing one,” said Atkinson. “I was deeply invested in the outcome of this case. I am delighted that fairness and justice prevailed.”

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fter a court battle that lasted over five years, students in Miami Law’s Immigration Clinic won asylum for a Honduran man who fought against illegal logging by powerful companies with ties to the Honduran government.The case involved a controversial immigration regulation that bars from asylum anyone who had previously been deported from the United States. The Clinic’s client was deported from the U.S. to Honduras in 1996.Years later, he became an environmental activist. Corrupt police officers with ties to the illegal logging industry shot at and threatened him. He fled to the U.S. with his youngest son. After being released from months of detention in Pennsylvania, the client relocated to Miami, and the Immigration Clinic took on his case in 2012.

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Immigration Clinic Wins Asylum for Honduran Environmentalist Fighting Illegal Logging

Client Secures $1 million in Angel Funding Through New Startup Practicum

client of Miami Law’s new Larry Hoffman/ Greenberg Traurig Startup Practicum has raised $1 million in angel financing. The client, Taxfyle, is an on-demand tax preparation service that instantly connects customers with an army of licensed CPAs that work around the clock to deliver certified tax filings, supported by a live, encrypted chat, unlike expensive do-ityourself software like TurboTax. Through the practicum, which launched in January, students help clients like Taxfyle with organizing, financing, talent, intellectual property, risk, regulation, and other legal issues that arise for entrepreneurs as they launch their new businesses and organizations. “It is wonderful that Miami Law has created a program through which its law students can help area startups like Taxfyle with their legal needs,” said Taxfyle co-founder and COO Michael Mouriz, J.D. ’12. “Even though Taxfyle just raised a substantial amount of angel financing, we still must limit how much we spend on lawyers, and Miami Law’s help is the only way we have been able to get certain legal needs addressed.”

Professor Daniel B. Ravicher directs the practicum program. He has represented both startup companies and investors since the 1990s dot-com boom. He is also a registered patent attorney who has prosecuted, licensed, and litigated patents and other intellectual property, including software copyrights. Ravicher has also been an entrepreneur himself, founding businesses in various industries.

WILL SAHATDJIAN, MIKE MOURIZ, TODD GREEN AND RICHARD LAVINA

Environmental Justice Clinic Launched

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iami Law’s Center for Ethics & Public Service recently launched a new clinic—the Environmental Justice Clinic. The Center’s Historic Black Church Program Civil Rights & Poverty Project, Environmental Justice Project, and Social Enterprise & Nonprofit Project have merged under the umbrella of the Environmental Justice Clinic, which launched in January. The Environmental Justice Clinic has been deeply involved in Coconut Grove, first, helping residents of West Grove block the opening of a large trolley garage in the single-family residential neighborhood. As a result of due diligence research of the garage, the clinic students discovered that tons of ash rife with carcinogens from a nearby incinerator had been dumped throughout MiamiDade decades earlier. The clinic has also been instrumental

in persuading city zoning boards to reject applications for “upzoning,” the process to turn low income residential neighborhoods into mixed commercial and residential use, driving out longtime residents. “The Environmental Justice Clinic is an innercity civil rights project designed to redress problems afflicting both issues like housing and transportation, and environmental impacts, such as industrial pollution, in impoverished communities of color,” said Center Director and Professor Anthony Alfieri. “Working in close collaboration with community stakeholders, EJC students provide rights education, interdisciplinary research, public policy resources, and advocacy and transactional assistance to individuals, groups, civic associations, and nonprofit organizations across a broad range of civil rights, environmental safety, and public health issues.”

n partnership with the University of Miami Center for Latin American Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, Miami Law recently launched a new joint degree—a J.D./M.A. in Latin American Studies and the Law. “This joint degree program provides a unique opportunity for students to use their legal knowledge and skills in combination with a solid theoretical framework and grounding in Latin American and Caribbean policy analysis and administration,” said Sandy Abraham, executive liaison for Miami Law’s Interdisciplinary Programs and Initiatives. “It will prepare students for international careers and for dealing with Latin American and Caribbean businesses, clients, and international agencies in the United States.” The joint degree program allows students the opportunity to obtain both the J.D. and the M.A. degrees in less time than obtaining the degrees separately. The first year is spent in the law school and the next two to three years are spent taking both law and graduate school courses.

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Miami Law Establishes New Joint Degree in Latin American Studies

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iami Law’s team of 3Ls, Jhanile “Trudy” Smith and Andrew Schindler, won the 9th Annual Emory University School of Law Civil Rights and Liberties Moot Court Competition. They beat the University of Texas in the finals, Stetson in the semifinals, and Baylor in the quarter-finals. Over 30 teams participated in this year’s event. “Some of the most highly ranked and well-known schools competed in this competition; that my partner and I were able to secure a win on behalf of the University and the Charles C. Papy, Jr. Moot Court Board was an honor,” said Schindler. Judges in the rounds leading up to the final round were actual judges, attorneys, and law professors. In the final round, the Miami Law team argued before two Federal Circuit Court of Appeals judges and a Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. “Winning brought an indescribable feeling,” said Smith. “Going through the toughness of each round was not unfamiliar to us because we had challenging rounds when we prepared with our coach, fellow board members, and practitioners who volunteered their time. We worked hard, and it paid off.”

3Ls ANDREW SCHINDLER AND JHANILE “TRUDY” SMITH

Miami Law Team Wins Civil Rights and Liberties Moot Court Competition

STUDENTS

Photo by Patricia Moya

Sarah Hanners, 3L

arah Hanners is of a tender heart. But don’t mistake her gentleness for lack of tenacity. Whether leading antipoaching patrols at night in Bolivia’s wildlands or combating deforestation in the Amazon rainforest or representing children and teens with foster care and immigration challenges at Miami Law, the 33-year-old has a fire inside her. After graduating from the University of Miami with a Bachelor of Science in communication and history in 2004, Hanners spent a year in Korea teaching English to elementary school students, before spending time backpacking around Mongolia. While traveling in the Gobi, she met a woman

who raved about the lemon meringue pies in Bolivia. The following year, she tackled South America. On a trek from Argentina to Peru, she decided to take the road less traveled through Bolivia, rather than the usual route through Chile. In a last-minute and serendipitous decision, she decided to volunteer at Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi, Parque Ambue Ari, on the Beni River in eastern Bolivia, seven hours from Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The wildlife rescue center saves animals from traffickers, circuses, private owners who are mistreating them, and anywhere else harm is being inflicted on wild creatures. The group has three centers housing over 400 big cats, primates, monkeys, birds, and snakes. Since many of the animals cannot be released

back into the wild because of the mistreatment they have suffered, they live out their lives in large enclosures, but spend their days walking with volunteers in the surrounding forests, for eight hours a day. “I had planned to spend two weeks there,” says Hanners. “Eight weeks later, I was back in the States, doing everything in my power to get back to Bolivia to finish the work I had started there. I bought a one-way ticket back and spent the next five years doing the kind of work that I had dreamed of doing since I was a child, but didn’t think possible.” Hanners spent the bulk of her time at the refuge working with an orphaned ocelot named Vanesso. “He was a oneyear-old when I arrived, and recently rescued from a miserable life in a tiny cage in a Chinese restaurant in the city

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By Catharine Skipp

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Finds Her Life’s Calling But Forgets to Try the Pie

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3L SARAH HANNERS FINDS HER LIFE’S CALLING BUT FORGETS TO TRY THE PIE

of Potosi where he was confiscated by the police,” she says. “Like the majority of the big cats at the refuge, his mother had been killed for her skin, and he became fodder for the thriving trade in trafficked wildlife. I was, quite literally, wandering around the globe aimlessly before I met him, but he gave me purpose and a reason to stay. The more time I spent at Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi, the more I realized how much work there is to be done to combat animal trafficking and deforestation.” At the outset, Hanners worked only with the animals, but worked her way up to volunteer coordinator and eventually to refuge administrator. She eventually became more involved in advocating for both the animals and the land. When a property dispute arose between the wildlife center and a neighboring Mennonite soy farm, Hanners witnessed firsthand how the legal system worked. In collaboration with an in-country attorney and the President of the organization, she petitioned the Bolivian government’s land reform agency to review the refuge’s boundaries and succeeded in the recovery. “That is when I realized that I couldn’t walk cats forever, because there were bigger picture injustices that needed addressing, and I knew I needed a law degree to do so,” she says. Since coming to Miami Law, the Miami Scholar recipient has joined the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, the Society of Bar and Gavel, the Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Children and Youth Law Clinic. “One of the most satisfying/ significant things I’ve done since coming to law school is founding the

Bolivian Amazon Land Trust Alliance. I started this nonprofit in partnership with Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi and two of my peers from Bolivia, to combat deforestation through ecotourism and engaging in local outreach aimed at converting growers and ranchers to sustainable wild cacao farming,” she says. “I believe wholeheartedly in its mission and having seen the devastating effects of deforestation while living in Bolivia, I cannot turn a blind eye.” Professors quickly took notice when Hanners arrived at Miami Law. “Sarah was very interested in the human rights aspects of the foster children’s cases she handled in the clinic, and she was very engaged in our public policy work, especially on behalf of LGBTQ children,” says Professor Bernard Perlmutter, codirector of the CYLC. “We’re proud and not surprised to hear about her current environmental advocacy work in Bolivia.” Hanners spent the summer of 2015 working in Texas at Wildlife Rescue & Rehabilitation, Inc., where she had the opportunity to work with attorneys from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Animal Defense Fund, coordinating with other agencies for the rehoming of animals and renewing permits with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department. The Miami native spent the summer of 2014 at the Miami-Dade County Public Defender’s Office as an intern in the felony division and externed at the Everglades Law Center doing research on the effects of marine zoning on endangered species in the Florida Keys. This past summer she worked at

Cet Law, Inc., a nonprofit founded by a Miami Law alumna, Natalie Barefoot, J.D. ’05. The group works in partnerships translating sound science into practical legal solutions that protect whales, dolphins and porpoises as well as the oceans in which they live. Hanners’ work focused on researching the legal issues involved in the correlation between the decline in marine mammal health and port dredging. “My experiences at these placements have reinforced my dedication to advocate for the voiceless among us—whether they are an indigent client, an ocelot, or even an ancient tree—because the injustices they are facing are too big to fight alone,” she says. “I had Sarah both in environmental law and, as a bright-eyed 1L, in contracts,” says Professor Felix Mormann. “She did well in both classes but I could tell that she was especially passionate about environmental themes—and remote locations. So I guess it’s only fitting that she should be working in Bolivia.” Hanners will be graduating in December 2016, always keeping a true hand on the tiller of her nonprofit, while she studies and takes the Bar. After that, the possibilities are limitless. She sees herself committed to a lifetime in the nonprofit environment, with forages into the forest with a wild animal or two by her side. Hanners has had many, many adventures since the trip to Mongolia and the first mention of the Bolivian lemon meringue pie. Ironically, she completely forgot to try a slice when in-country.

A n n i e B r e t t , J . D. / P h . D.

Sets Her Sails for a Marine Policy Future By Catharine Skipp

Photo by Joshua Prezant

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nne “Annie” Brett dreams of sailing in fathomless seas of crystalline saltwater, pushing through dizzying schools of colorful fish and thriving forests of giant corals. The J.D./Ph.D. student loved growing up in Maine and spent time sailing off the New England coast, but a trip to Exuma—a collection of over 365 islands in The Bahamas—opened her eyes to the wonders under temperate waters. “The water was warm; you could just jump in; you didn’t have to brace yourself. It was crazy,” Brett says. “After college, I knew I had to go somewhere warm again. That was high on the priority list in terms of figuring out my next move.” Brett, and her younger brother, actually didn’t take to sailing as teenagers. “My dad would want to go sailing offshore for a week,” she says, “but we just wanted to stay home with our friends. It wasn’t until college that we both came to enjoy sailing ourselves.” The 28-year-old keeps a 30-foot S2 sailboat named Wanderer at the Coconut Grove Sailing Club. She escapes into Biscayne Bay every chance she gets. Over the summer she sailed in Maine and The Bahamas, working as a captain and carrying out research for her Ph.D. dissertation.

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ANNIE BRETT, J.D./Ph.D. SETS HER SAILS FOR A MARINE POLICY FUTURE

Brett completed her undergraduate degree at Harvard, where winter temperatures were not vastly different from coastal Maine, but where she was also drawn for water-related reasons: she was a member of the acclaimed women’s rowing team. At Harvard, she studied Environmental Science and Public Policy, an interdisciplinary melding of science and policy that has shaped her research interests to this day. After graduation in 2009, Brett was awarded a John Gardner Fellowship to study climate change and traditional boat building in the Marshall Islands. During this time, she co-founded Infinity Expeditions, a non-governmental agency committed to climate change research. She captained the 120-foot research vessel, Infinity, with a large crew throughout far-flung regions of the Pacific Ocean collecting scientific data and presenting their findings to heads of state and officials from the United Nations. She was the youngest ship’s captain in the Pacific. “It was a heady experience for me, at 22, to be leading a crew of 18 through engine failure, through squalls, through bureaucratic chaos, to some of the most remote regions on the planet,” she says. “For many of the places we went to, the only charts available were made in the 1800s with sextants, so we had to use Google satellite images to navigate. It blew my mind that even in uninhabited places that you could literally only reach with weeks of sailing, the beaches were still littered with plastic and the human impacts were so dramatic.” Infinity Expeditions aligned her with David Rockefeller, Jr.’s work and the Pew Oceans Commission, which

issues reports of the health of the oceans. Rockefeller was instrumental in the formation of Sailors for the Sea, the international marine educational non-profit that partners with sailors to spread the word about conservation. Brett served as program director, heading the group’s ocean policy campaigns internationally. She teamed up with the 34th America’s Cup international sailboat racing series to foster groundbreaking sustainability adaptation projects. Along the way, the United States Coast Guard licensed Brett as a Master of Sail for ships up to 200 tons; she received her advanced SCUBA certification and scientific dive training and is commissioned in Emergency Medical Training and Disaster Services. Brett’s adventures on the high seas led her to the University of Miami’s Jayne and Leonard Abess Center for Ecosystem Science & Policy to pursue a doctoral degree in marine exploration on a University of Miami Fellowship. She was drawn to the interdisciplinary program as an opportunity to explore novel ways to protect the open oceans she sailed over, such as recruiting non-scientists to gather data about critical areas. From there, by sheer proximity, and a maybe a minuscule shove from Director of the Abess Center Kenny Broad, she found herself applying to Miami Law. “It is rare to find someone who is able to combine impressive exploration skills with quality scholarship, but Annie just does that,” Broad says. “Her scholastic aptitude alone is remarkable. Combined with her world-class maritime background and practical leadership skills, she is a

modern day renaissance woman. From designing studies to troubleshooting marine diesel engines, Annie’s diverse interests, and abilities make her an inherently interdisciplinary scholar. As her Ph.D. advisor, it was a no-brainer to encourage her to consider the joint J.D. program—not only does it allow her to further her research, but also to build on her impressive skill set, from exploration to litigation.” Brett is one of the first two Doyle Fellows, a joint fellowship between the School of Law and Abess Center. Extraordinary students admitted into the University’s joint Juris Doctor/Abess Center Environmental Science and Policy Ph.D. program are considered for the honor. The fellowship is named for Mary Doyle, dean emerita at Miami Law and a founding co-director of the Abess Center. Brett plans to graduate from Miami Law in May 2017, then deliver her thesis on marine exploration science the following spring. “I may not have come to UM specifically for law school, but I can’t speak highly enough about my experience at Miami Law,” she says. “Being able to undertake the joint J.D./Ph.D. program has provided invaluable depth and context to my research. The law faculty has been an amazing resource as I try to craft a unique career that combines law and science, and I can’t wait to use the skills I have gained in advancing ocean exploration and conservation.”

Photo by Joshua Prezant

D a n i e l l e G a u e r, J . D. / L L . M . i n M a r i t i m e L a w

hen Danielle Tamara Gauer left high school, her passion was for the performing arts. She had grown up performing and dreamed of being an actress. She started auditioning for gigs in the theater and soon signed on to cruises as a dancer. In between contracts, Gauer lived in Marseille, France, for a bit. And as she traveled the world across oceans, making her way around the Americas, Europe, and Asia—she fell in love with the sea. Talking to the licensed Canadian attorney now, it’s apparent that her career as a full-time cruise ship performer seems to her like a lifetime

ago. “My interests have just continued to grow from the different courses I’ve taken, my summer experiences, the places I’ve worked,” says Gauer, who has developed a real passion for the maritime law industry. “All these things have expanded my interests dramatically.” The 32-year-old Toronto-native earned both a J. D. and an LL.M. in Maritime Law (formerly known as Ocean and Coastal Law), magna cum laude in May. She is stirring up waves and positioning herself to charter some new territory. Once the Bar exam is out of the way, she will be a first-year associate in the Maritime Law Group at Hamilton Miller Birthisel LLP in the Tampa office, and is the new regional development vice chair for the

American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section’s Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee. At Miami Law, Gauer was president of the Maritime Law Society, a member of the International and Comparative Law Review, an intern for the Professional Responsibility & Ethics Program and the Miami STREET Law Program, and a Dean’s Fellow. Gauer was also a member of the 23rd Annual Judge John R. Brown Admiralty Moot Court Competition team, taking home the award for third Best Oral Advocate out of 86 competitors. Gauer continued to explore the many facets of maritime law while in law school. She presented a CLE Ethics Training to admiralty attorneys at the Southeastern Admiralty Law

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By Catharine Skipp and Princess Manasseh

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Joint Degree Student Cruises into Maritime Career

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DANIELLE GAUER CRUISES INTO MARITIME CAREER

Institute’s Fall Meeting during her 3L year, and presented “A Maritime State of Disformity” at the Florida Bar Admiralty Law Committee. She was a legal extern with the United States Coast Guard District 7 Legal, which was a process covered in red tape for her as a Canadian citizen. “Mine was the first of its kind, for a Canadian to do an externship with the Coast Guard,” says Gauer, who explained she had to undergo heightened screening to land the position. “It was unbelievable; I was working on marine oil pollution cases and through that, I got connected with people who work in the Miami port, those who do all the vessel inspections.” Gauer had the opportunity to go with the Coast Guard onto several cruise ships to ensure they were complying with U.S. regulations. When asked if during her days as a performer she ever thought she’d one day pursue being an attorney in two countries, she confesses she had no idea. It was after three years on ships that Gauer knew she wanted to pursue a career in law and that it was time to go back to school. She returned to Canada and attended Ryerson University in Toronto. She graduated with honors and the Gold Medal, the school’s highest honor, with a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice, which, in turn, piqued her interest in law school. “Maybe I’ll do some criminal law work, I thought,” says Gauer, who had no idea the depth of the legal world into which she was stepping. Her next goal was to finish law school at the University of Ottawa, and that’s when private international law began to interest her.“Arbitration clauses, forum

selection clauses, I just found it all to be so elegant,” she says. While in law school in Canada, Gauer interned at a law firm in Seattle that did a lot of maritime law work, including cruise injury law. “Cruise lines were familiar to me,” says Gauer. But the Seattle firm opened her eyes to the vast world of maritime law. “I found the experience so fascinating as it brought together so many different facets of the law.” Next Gauer interned at a firm in Miami that handled cruise ship litigation, including plaintiff work. Gauer was able to understand the lawsuits from the perspective of the crewmembers—a role she had once filled. After completing her Canadian law degree, licensing, and articling at a litigation firm in Toronto, Gauer thought about coming to the U. S. to expand her opportunities to practice. Gauer looked at a number of LL.M. programs before deciding on Miami Law with its offering in Maritime Law. Already a licensed Canadian attorney Gauer needed to decide where to go to pursue an American J.D. and a career in maritime law, and she did her research before deciding on Miami Law. “Florida was the obvious choice,” says Gauer. “Litigation that has to do with cruise lines has to be filed in Florida.” Gauer was looking for LL.M. and J.D. programs that she could complete together in a condensed period. Discovering that renowned maritime attorney and former judge ad hoc of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea Professor Bernard Oxman was part of the faculty sealed her decision on Miami Law. “Danielle came to Miami Law

almost entirely formed,” says Oxman, Richard A. Hausler Professor of Law. “She already had a good deal of experience and a handle on the path she wanted to pursue. In class, she was inquisitive, well prepared, and willing to work hard. The industry will benefit from the likes of Danielle joining their ranks.” “My experience at Miami Law has only been positive and rewarding,” she says. “I can attribute the contacts I have made in the maritime law field to the guidance and support I have received from Miami Law’s faculty, and of course, being situated in Miami.” Gauer’s article “Interpleader as an Appropriate Remedial Mechanism to Effectively Navigate the OW Bunker Saga: The Influence of Judge Caproni’s Ruling of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York” is going to be published in the Loyola Maritime Law Journal Winter 2016 publication. Another of her articles has been published in the American Bar Association’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, Admiralty and Maritime Law Committee Newsletter. “Danielle thrived at Miami Law not only because of her intellect, energy, and maturity but also because she embraced the extraordinary opportunities that the South Florida legal community provides to intrepid and entrepreneurial young people striving to live greatly here,” says Professor Anthony Alfieri, who had Gauer as a Dean’s Fellow. As a young attorney just starting out, Gauer feels like she still has a lot to learn but each day brings new experiences and knowledge. She is excited and can’t wait to see what the world has in store for her.

Anabel Fer nandez, LL.M. in Inter national Arbitration

nabel Fernandez is extremely hard headed, goal-driven, and highly suggestive. As a small girl, her obstinance was seen as spine, her bellicosity as pluck, and her contentiousness as determination. At the advanced age of three, her father declared she “had a lawyer in her.” This past summer, Fernandez, who is pursuing her J.D./LL.M. Joint Degree in the White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. Program, worked at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris, one of the leading international arbitration institutions in the world. She assisted the Secretariat

of the ICC’s International Court of Arbitration drafting Agendas for different cases (documents created by each team to summarize the case, as well as provide the Court with the Secretariat’s Recommendations as to the suggested decision to be taken). She also reviewed Termas of Reference submitted by Arbitral Tribunals, both in Spanish or English and even in Portuguese. During her term at the ICC, she attended the weekly Court Sessions and monthly Penaries, where awards were scrutinized and arbitrator’s challenges and nominations were assessed as part of the numerous decisions taken by the International Arbitration Case Management Institution. It proved

to be challenging, as she likes it, plus Paris is a city that she had dreamed of visiting since she was a child. The 33-year-old also took on a second internship at White & Case’s Paris office, one of the leading international dispute resolution firms in the world. There, she was assigned to do research on issues involving international arbitration, as well as to draft memos relating to different filings and submissions of the arbitration department. In addition, she was asked to work on projects for partners in the firm’s oil and gas practice section. Moreover, she attended conferences and presentations involving the latest developments in international

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By Catharine Skipp

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Spends Externship in the City of Lights

CUBAN LAWYER & LL.M. STUDENT ANABEL FERNANDEZ SPENDS EXTERNSHIP IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS arbitration, which has exposed Fernandez to the professional standard of practice at one of the law firms with the greatest stature in the legal world.

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KEEPING FOCUSED

Starting as a young girl, Fernandez tracked through elementary, secondary, and precollege in Havana, never wavering from her terminus. One buckle in the hot road happened when Fernandez was 19 years old. Her mother and sister immigrated to the United States, but Anabel’s father would not sign the papers for the then teenager to go. So she stayed in Cuba, going straight through to the Universidad de la Habana, Facultad de Derecho, graduating with her law degree in the summer of 2006 and being admitted to the Cuban Juris Union. After a short stint in the legal department at the Chamber of Commerce of Cuba, Fernandez put the island at her back and left alone. Fernandez spent a year in the Turks and Caicos Islands, learning to speak English and how to live on her own. She didn’t know a single person on Providenciales but managed to eek out an existence working as a notary assistant, preparing and drafting declarations and affidavits, while waiting to emigrate to the U.S. and join her mother and sister. When she finally arrived in South Florida, she gave birth to her daughter, Amelie, and worked to adjust to an entirely new life—a new mom in a new country. She got a job, with her sister, working for an import/export operations agent, but was always pushing to find a way back to the world of law.

After becoming a U.S. citizen, Fernandez began researching how to regain her law career in the U.S. and applied, and was accepted, to Florida International University. However, a serendipitous visit to a Miami Law LL.M. open house turned her head. “I fell in love with the law school,” she says. Fernandez made an early impression on Paula Arias, director of the International Moot Court Program and lecturer in law. “I met Anabel during the first week of orientation. She approached me after a talk I gave to the new LL.M. class in August 2014. She was curious about the International Moot Court Program, and she wanted to get the chance to learn through a challenging, new experience for her,” says Arias. “She knew little about international law, arbitration and sales of goods, or even mooting but she wanted to take advantage of everything Miami Law had to offer,” says Arias. “Thus, I had the good fortune to recruit her for my program and to teach her. Anabel immersed herself into the topic of the moot, allowing me to guide her and teach her. She grew tremendously during her year in the International Moot Court Program; I witnessed her transformation which was a very rewarding process for me, and for Anabel as well. “Anabel developed curiosity about arbitration after the moot, and she looked for different opportunities to learn more about it; this is how she applied to the ICC,” says Arias. “The internship in Paris has been a unique opportunity for her not only professionally but also personally. She had to overcome a lot of obstacles

to get there but as Anabel told me when she came from Paris to Madrid to support this year’s team in May [at Moot Madrid competition] it was worth it and a dream come true.” Arias was not the only one to notice Fernandez’s passion and skills. “Anabel is a highly-motivated student committed to the study and practice of international arbitration,” says Sandra Friedrich, the director of the White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. Graduate Program. “Last year, she excelled as a writer and oralist in the Moot Madrid, a Spanish-language international commercial arbitration competition, where the Miami Law team—the only American school to participate—placed second overall among over two dozen teams from Latin America, Spain, France, Poland, and Russia,” says Friedrich. “We are thrilled that Anabel has had the opportunity to work with the ICC and White & Case in Paris and look forward to her sharing her experiences with our other students.” It is not only the Miami Law student who benefitted from Fernandez’s time abroad. Amelie, her seven-year-old daughter, was also with her in Paris. “She loved it there,” says Fernandez. “She made new friends, learned a lot of French, and was able to explore all of Paris— from the museums and cathedrals to the cafes and shops. We both had a life-changing experience.”

FACULTY

FACULTYBRIEFS

TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN

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Professor Scott Sundby Awarded Fulbright to Teach in Ireland

iami Law’s Scott Sundby was named a Fulbright Scholar and the Arthur Cox Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin. The professor of criminal law and a Dean’s Distinguished Scholar is teaching an LL.M. class on the death penalty in Ireland this fall. As part of his Fulbright activities, Sundby will participate in Trinity’s Innocence Programme, a project that helps overturn wrongful convictions. He will also help establish a research group that will use a comparative empirical approach to identifying the factors with different legal systems that exacerbate or guard against the danger of wrongful convictions. Sundby, who testified before the state legislature

after the United States Supreme Court struck down Florida’s death penalty conviction procedure, is a nationally recognized scholar and expert on the issues surrounding capital punishment. “I always have found that I understand our system’s strengths and weaknesses better by looking at how other criminal justice systems operate,” said Sundby. “I am especially excited about studying the wrongful conviction problem in Ireland because we have a common legal heritage but also major differences in areas such as the use of juries and the way lawyers and prosecutors operate. I am hopeful that we can learn from each other’s experiences in a way that will minimize the danger of an innocent person going to jail in both countries.”

Respondents reported significant bias against survivors on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, poverty, youth, sexual orientation, and sexual identity. “The report demonstrates the importance of advocates for victims of domestic and sexual violence working together with organizations that are fighting police racial bias,” said Professor Donna Coker. She co-authored the report with Sandra Park, senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union Women’s Rights Project; Julie Goldscheid, professor of law at CUNY School of Law; Tara Neal, former Miami Law Human Rights Fellow; and Valerie Halstead, University of Miami School of Nursing Ph.D. student. “These results illustrate that if the government wants to assist victims, there must be changes in policies that impact immigration, child welfare, economic security, and criminal justice more broadly,” said Coker. The findings were presented to the White House at a White House Roundtable.

oNel Newman, professor of clinical education and director of the Health Rights Clinic, was recently elected to serve as the 2nd vice president for the University of Miami’s Faculty Senate. Newman has held numerous leadership positions including the Chair of the Curriculum Committee in the law school and Chair of the Faculty Senate’s Student Affairs Committee in the University. She also has a history of service in professional leadership positions with the American Bar Association in its Section of Litigation and as a Commissioner on Immigration. Newman is an American Bar Foundation Fellow as well as a Florida Bar Foundation Fellow. She presently serves on the Executive Board of Directors for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and chairs its Legal Panel.

Photo by Jenny Abreu

Professor JoNel Newman Elected to Leadership Position in the University of Miami Faculty Senate

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new report published online by the ACLU, found that survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault face widespread and serious police discrimination when they seek protection from the criminal justice system. The report, “Responses from the Field: Sexual Assault, Domestic Violence, and Policing,” is based on a nationwide survey of 900 advocates, attorneys, service providers, and nonprofit workers who support or represent domestic violence and sexual assault victims. As a topline finding, 88% of advocates reported that police sometimes or often do not believe victims or blame victims for the violence, leading advocates to identify police inaction, hostility, and bias against survivors as a key barrier to seeking intervention from the criminal justice system.

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Report, Co-Authored by Professor Donna Coker, Examines Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, and Policing

FACULTYBRIEFS Professor Michele DeStefano Launches “Compliance Elliance” eJournal

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University’s Faculty Senate Taps Professor Richard Williamson with Top Honor

he University of Miami’s Faculty Senate honored Professor Richard Williamson with the James W. McLamore Outstanding Service Award. Williamson, who is known for his gift for mentoring and his devotion to pro bono and community service, was recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty to the University and community, a hallmark of his life. For more than 20 years, Williamson, a former associate dean of Miami Law, interim chair of the Department of International Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, and chair of the Faculty Senate from 2009-2014, has been faculty advisor to the School of Law’s Honor Council.

A former foreign service officer and division chief of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Williamson has used his extensive international experience to establish international liaisons between Miami Law and numerous international universities. Intended to be short-term, the initial exchange seminar he organized between the University of Leipzig and the law school is in its 15th year. In 2013, he received an honorary Doctorate of Laws from the University of Leipzig. A treasured mentor to students here and abroad, Williamson also has employed his legal skills to advance the environment and international understanding. He drafted the founding documents and policy statements for UM’s Jayne and Leonard Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy and has hosted foreign high school students through Rotary International.

Photo by Jenny Abreu

ften Professor Michele DeStefano’s thinking accessible to practitioners, leads to international collaborations concerning academics, and students the intersection of law, business, and alike. technology. The idea of connecting students Together with with professionals to work on actual projects resulted in the Schneider, DeStefano cocreation of LawWithoutWalls, an innovative approach to curates the content. problem-solving by harnessing the varied talents of people “CEJ enables all across the world. compliance professionals After having directed LWOW for over four years from all over the world DeStefano has conceived of another fresh idea that is serving to share their stories and to facilitate a global dialogue on compliance and ethics. their learnings so that The “Compliance Elliance Journal,” or CEJ for short, best practices can be cowas co-created by DeStefano and Dr. Hendrik Schneider, developed,” said DeStefano. professor, and director at the University of Leipzig. Both DeStefano and Schneider share a mutual interest and scholarship in the area of compliance and ethics. With that in mind, the two set out with the goal of making a crosscultural discussion on the subject available and readily To learn more about CEJ, go to: www.cej-online.com

SELECTED

FACULTYPUBLICATIONS

FROOMKIN, MICHAEL ROBOT LAW (Edward Elgar Publishing, Ryan Calo, A. Michael Froomkin & Ian Kerr, eds., 2016). GRAHAM, MICHAEL EVIDENCE LAW MASTERY: HANDS ON LEARNING (West Academic, 2016). HAACK, SUSAN PERSPECTIVAS PRAGMATISTAS DA FILOSOFIA DO DIREITO (Editora Unisinos, 2015) [Brazil]. JONES, DONALD DANGEROUS SPACES: BEYOND THE RACIAL PROFILE (Praeger, 2016). PARKER, KUNAL MAKING FOREIGNERS: IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP LAW IN AMERICA, 1600-2000 (Cambridge University Press, 2015). PAULSSON, MARIKE THE 1958 NEW YORK CONVENTION IN ACTION (Kluwer, 2016). ARTICLES, CHAPTERS AND OTHER WORKS: ABRAHAM, DAVID “Ich spüre sehr viel Angst hier,” 151 WZB Mitteilungen 22 (March 2016).

DAWSON, ANDREW Pensioners, Bondholders, and Unfair Discrimination in Municipal Bankruptcy, 17 U. PA. J. BUS. L.1 (2015).

BARTON, JILL Turning Student Opinions into Compelling Narratives: An Assignment for Upper-Level Legal Writing Electives, 28 SECOND DRAFT 42 (Fall 2015).

DESTEFANO, MICHELE The Chief Compliance Officer: Should There be a New “C” in the C-Suite?, 2 PRACTICE (July 2016).

BLATT, WILLIAM Teaching Emotional Intelligence to Law Students: Three Keys to Mastery, 15 NEV. L.J. 464 (2015). BRADLEY, CAROLINE Changing Perceptions of Systemic Risk in Financial Regulation in AFTER THE FINANCIAL CRISIS: SHIFTING LEGAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL PARADIGMS (Palgrave, Pablo Iglesias-Rodriguez, Anna Triandafyllidou & Ruby Gropas, eds., 2016 ). CAMPOS, SERGIO Deterrence Effects Under Twombly: On the Costs of Increasing Pleading Standards in Litigation, 44 INT’L REV. L. & ECON. 61 (2015) (with Christopher Cotton & Cheng Li). COKER, DONNA Why Opposing Hyper-Incarceration Should Be Central to the Work of the Anti-Domestic Violence Movement, 5 U. MIAMI RACE & SOC. JUST. L. REV. 585 (2015) (Converge! symposium) (with Ahjané Macquoid). CORBIN, CAROLINE MALA Deference to Claims of Substantial Religious Burden, 2016 U. ILL. L. REV. ONLINE 10 (2016) (symposium).

FENTON, ZANITA Disability Does Not Discriminate: Toward a Theory of Multiple Identity Through Coalition in DISCRIT: DISABILITY STUDIES AND CRITICAL RACE THEORY IN EDUCATION (Teachers College Press, David Connor, Beth Ferri & Subini Annamma, eds., 2016). FRANKS, MARY ANNE Men, Women, and Optimal Violence, 2016 U. ILL. L. REV. 929 (2016). FRIEDRICH, SANDRA Investment Arbitration in East Asia & Pacific—A Statistical Analysis of Bilateral Investment Treaties, Other International Investment Agreements and Investment Arbitrations in the Region, 16 J. WORLD INV. & TRADE 793 (2015) (with Claudia T. Salomon). HILL, FRANCES Dark Money in Motion: Mapping Issues along the Money Trails, 49 VAL. U. L. REV. 505 (2015)(symposium issue on campaign finance). JACOBOWITZ, JAN Cultural Evolution or Revolution? The Millennial’s Growing Impact on Professionalism and the Practice of Law, 23 (4) PROFESSIONAL LAWYER 20 (2016) (with Katie M. Lachter & Gabriella Morello). continued on page 70

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FROHOCK, CHRISTINA SMALL-TOWN GTMO: THE LAYERS OF ESTATE, SOVEREIGNTY, AND SOIL IN U.S. NAVAL STATION GUANTÁNAMO BAY (Carolina Academic Press, October 2016).

ALFIERI, ANTHONY Resistance Songs: Mobilizing the Law and Politics of Community, 93 TEXAS L. REV. 1459 (2015).

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Professor Osamudia James

Photo by Joshua Prezant

Examining Identity and the Law LAW, IDENTITY, AND EDUCATION James considers both the good and the bad sides of identity in her scholarship. Concerned about the impact of diversity programs in U.S. higher education, she has argued that even when affirmative action policies enable increasing numbers of black students to attend U.S. colleges and universities, the policies can also perpetuate racial subordination when improperly deployed. In her 2014 article, “White Like Me: The Diversity Rationale’s Negative Impact on White Identity Formation,” published in the NewYork University Law Review, James noted that diversity policies are justified as beneficial to white students who can grow through encounters with minority students. “This thinking can reaffirm notions of racial superiority and service, perpetuating an old story about using black and brown bodies for white purposes on white terms,” she wrote. Instead, James believes colleges and universities need to go beyond affirmative action and create a culture of belonging—a theme also emphasized by University of Miami President Julio Frenk, Jr., who cited her work in “Why We Need a ‘Scholarship of Belonging’ in the May issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Emphasizing the importance of embracing diversity in all its dimensions, Frenk asserted

that the representation of minorities means little if they do not have a sense of being at the right place, where who they are and what they do matters. The importance of affirming “who people are” informs her more current work. Engaging with the more rewarding aspects of identity, James argues in her current scholarly project that celebrating and recognizing identity can have a positive impact on society.

BECOMING A LAW PROFESSOR A native of Long Island, New York, James had an international upbringing as her mother was from Haiti and her father from Nigeria. “I feel a strong connection to Nigerian and Haitian culture, and I speak both French and Haitian Kreyòl,” she said. “Growing up, my racial and cultural background informed my sense of self and my identity is a source of strength even today. Perhaps that’s where my fascination with identity and the law comes from.” While earning her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania, James volunteered as a tutor for West Philadelphia’s public school students. “I didn’t think much of my public school education until I entered some of the schools and realized that many of the students lacked even basic reading skills,” she said. “I also couldn’t help but notice that these were in schools primarily serving black students; that started me thinking seriously about racial disparities in American public education. I also started asking about

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rofessor Osamudia James, recently named as vice dean, has a deep understanding of the evolving relationship between the law and individual and group identity. “Identity includes our internal sense of ourselves, the groups to which we belong, and the categories imposed on us through many mechanisms, including the law,” she said. “Through their decisions, courts tell stories about the law and our individual and society identities. Trying to understand these narratives is important academic work.” James believes U.S. courts have been very good about advancing formal equality under the law, but increasingly produce legal doctrine that ignores identity. “The courts present color-blindness as the goal to which society should aspire, while insisting, for example, that race has increasingly little to do with contemporary legal or social problems,” she said. However, James says that the continuing marginalization of people by race, gender, class, or sexual orientation defies that thinking. “Study after study shows that societal disparities having little to do with individual merit, and a lot to do with structural inequality, still exist in our country,” she said. At the same time, James also explores the value of identity, even when it is not the basis for disparities. She asks, “If all material inequalities by identity were eliminated, would

it still be important to think of ourselves as belonging to various identity groups?”

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PROFESSOR OSAMUDIA JAMES: EXAMINING IDENTITY AND THE LAW

how, despite cases like Brown v. Board of Education, these disparities could still exist.” James enrolled at Georgetown University Law Center, where her classes on the impact of the law on educational inequality answered some of her questions. “I realized by the end of my time at Georgetown that I wanted to be a law professor,” she said. “It was clear to me that good legal scholarship and teaching can help students, academics, judges, and government leaders to think more clearly about the law and its impact on individuals and groups, including areas like public education.” After earning her law degree, James entered private practice as an associate with King & Spalding in Washington, D.C., before returning to school in 2008 at the University of Wisconsin as a William H. Hastie Fellow and earning her LL.M. James joined the University of Miami faculty in 2009 and five years later received tenure at the School of Law. In 2014, she was named a co-recipient of the Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award. Awarded annually by the American Association of Law Schools Minority Groups Section, the Derrick A. Bell, Jr. Award recognizes a junior faculty member who, through activism, mentoring, colleagueship, teaching, and scholarship, has made an extraordinary contribution to legal education, the legal system, or social justice. “Professor James is an extraordinarily talented person of great integrity and moral courage,” said Dean Patricia D. White at the time. “She is a fitting person to be recognized by an award named after Derrick Bell.”

On the personal side, James and her husband Kamal, a teacher at Gulliver Academy, have a daughter Kisaye, 7, and a son Kamal, 4. She has served on the advisory board of her son’s preschool, encouraged diversity in the curriculum at her daughter’s public school, and facilitated anti-bias curriculum training sessions for local institutions. An avid reader, she notes that the “best” stories are those with characters who must grapple with their own identities. One of her recent favorites is “Everything You Never Told Me,” a novel about a Chinese-American girl’s death that also explores her family’s racial and ethnic identity.

TEACHING, WRITING AND LEADING At Miami Law, James is a dynamic teacher who enjoys engaging her students in education law, race and the law, administrative law, and torts. “I teach first-year students about the responsibility and power they have when they become lawyers,” she said. “They can just apply the law the way it’s always been done. But if they believe something is unjust, they can reexamine, challenge, and come up with different interpretations or applications of the law that facilitate justice.” In her classes, James also prompts students to consider how state and federal laws impact different groups in society. She notes that tort cases can affect men differently from women, or the rich differently from the poor, such that individual identity can significantly impact one’s experience with the law. In commentaries published by The NewYork Times,The Washington Post and other national publications, James has written about various aspects of

identity and the law, including the impact of “school choice” policies on white and non-white students. “The values underlining school choice rhetoric like privacy, competition, independence, and liberty are inherently incompatible with the public school system,” James said in “Opt-Out Education: School Choice as Racial Subordination,” published in the Iowa Law Review in 2014. Elaborating, she explains that, unchecked, these values can perpetuate and aggravate racial inequalities in American education. Last year, James chaired a strategic planning process that considered new opportunities for Miami Law and its programs. “Our university and our law school are .poised to do important work at the crossroads of the Americas,” she said. “Our faculty’s work in areas like governance, compliance, immigration, and identity is a natural fit for hemispheric legal studies and hemispheric justice issues that are in play in North and South America. All of this is in keeping with the direction of our university under President Frenk’s leadership.” In her new role as vice dean of the school, which she took over for Professor Patrick Gudridge, James will focus on faculty development, implementation of strategic initiatives, facilitating internal and external communications, and day-to-day management of Miami Law. “This is a very exciting time for our school and our university,” she said. “I look forward to contributing as an administrator, teacher, and scholar. I have the best job in the world.”

Professor Stephen Urice

Photo by Joshua Prezant

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A Passion for Art, Law, and Archeology

Professor Stephen Urice By Richard Westland

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rofessor Stephen K. Urice understands the power of art. “Experiencing a work of fine art adds meaning to my life,” said Urice, a recognized leader in the evolving field of art, museum, and cultural property law. One example of Urice’s passion for classical art is the famous Euphronios Krater, an ancient Greek terracotta bowl that was illegally removed from an Etruscan grave in 1971 and placed on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. “I loved seeing that bowl whenever I visited the Met,” Urice said, noting that the piece was repatriated to Italy in 2008 and is now displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Cerveteri. “I’m making a trip to Rome in the fall to see it again,” he added. “It has that strong a pull on me.” With his deep interest in classical art and architecture as well as the law, Urice is a noted legal scholar and teacher who lectures nationally and internationally on cultural heritage law and policy. He has served on the faculty and planning committee of the American Law Institute’s course of study on Legal Issues in Museum Administration for many years. Since joining the faculty of the University of Miami School of Law in 2006, Urice has taught classes on trusts and estates and elements of the law, as well as courses related to the arts. He is also the arts track director for the school’s LL.M. in Entertainment, Arts and Sports Law program, and serves on the Collections Committee for the Lowe

Art Museum. He is a former member of the UM Research Council and multiple law school committees. “There is a wide range of legal issues in the world of art,” Urice said. “To take just one example, when a collector purchases a work of art, does the new owner obtain good title and is the work authentic? The same issues apply when museums or collectors acquire antiquities, but the title issues are far more complex, as they may involve foreign patrimony laws.”

STUDYING CLASSICAL CIVILIZATIONS Born in New York City, Urice grew up in Delaware and upstate New York with his mother Babette, a teacher, and his brother John, who later become a professor of theater history. He graduated from a small Quaker high school in Delaware and earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Tufts University in 1972. Deciding on an academic career, Urice enrolled at Harvard University, where he earned a master of theological studies (M.T.S.—Old Testament) and a doctorate in fine arts. During his doctoral program, based at Harvard’s Fogg Art Museum, Urice worked extensively as a field archaeologist in the Mediterranean region. “I was doing archeological work on a major Bronze Age site in Cyprus, when the Turks invaded in 1974,” he said. “The research venture fell apart, and I was evacuated to Beirut, and started traveling in the Mideast.” Urice then directed excavations on an early-Islamic site in Jordan in cooperation with the Jordanian

Department of Antiquities and with funding from the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture. Urice published the results of that archaeological expedition in his doctoral dissertation and later in a book, “Qasr Kharana in the Transjordan” (American Schools of Oriental Research, 1987). Reflecting on the recent destruction of historic Mideast cultural sites by leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Urice said those actions constituted war crimes. “The question is, were we to achieve a post-ISIS world, what are the legal options for prosecuting individuals involved in intentional cultural heritage destruction?” he asked. “Could we convene an international tribunal to try individuals for their actions as the Allies did after World War II? What other options exist?” Urice discussed those questions at an international conference in Geneva this summer.

BECOMING AN ATTORNEY After obtaining his fine arts doctorate at Harvard in 1981, Urice left field archaeology to earn his juris doctor degree and begin a career in law. Several years earlier, he met Dr. Mark Beers, a physician who was his partner for 32 years. They married in 2008 a year before Beers passed away. “Mark had embarked on a career in academic medicine, and it seemed unlikely that two out gay men in the early 1980s would be hired by the same academic institution,” Urice said. “As a lawyer, I could practice anywhere in the country, and that’s what I did.” Following law school, Urice in

TEACHING AND WRITING At Miami Law, Urice encourages students to delve into the legal complexities of the art world. “Many people don’t realize how

many laws affect artists, galleries, collectors, and museums,” he said. “For example, there are zoning laws that permit studios in living spaces and regulations addressing hazardous substances used in painting and sculpting.” Attorneys may also be involved in the often complex financial and tax issues involved in multi-party transactions, as well as protecting the ownership of a work and its likenesses. “In addition to typical intellectual property rights, an artist is also granted statutory moral rights that aim to protect artists’ reputations by guarding against misrepresentation or intentional destruction of their work,” Urice added. In the Spring 2017 semester, Urice will be teaching the school’s first class on museum law, a course he regularly offered at Penn. “Museum law is primarily a U.S. phenomenon since most collecting institutions here are privately funded and operated rather than governmental agencies as they typically are elsewhere,” he said. On the writing side, Urice is now working on a revision of Law, Ethics and the Visual Arts, the standard art law casebook, and is preparing the first edition of Wills, Trusts, & Estates:The Essentials. He is a co-author of both books. He is also writing articles relating to the doctrine of cy pres and single-donor museums and U.S. policy regarding illegally exported antiquities. “Like most faculty members, I try to balance teaching, writing, and service,” said Urice, who enjoys both the visual and performing arts activities in Miami.

Combining scholarship and service to the field, Urice has been deeply involved with the Aspen Institute’s Artist-Endowed Foundations Initiative since the project began in 2007. AEFI published a 1,000-page two-volume report in 2010. Since then Urice has participated in publishing supplements to the report and has presented AEFI’s findings at leading institutions around the country. More recently, Urice co-directed an intensive 2016 summer seminar in New York for new directors and board members of artist-endowed foundations. Now, Urice is planning the next Hoffman Forum, an annual event for leaders from the arts, sciences, law, politics, entertainment, sports, and business that is supported by gifts from Larry J. Hoffman, J.D. ’54, and Deborah Hoffman, J.D. ’83. As in 2015, The Hoffman Forum will again be a collaboration between AEFI and the law school. This year it will be hosted by The Morgan Library in New York. The forum convenes invited leaders of AEFs (such as the Warhol, Lichtenstein, and Frankenthaler foundations) to discuss recent developments and challenges in the field. “I’m looking forward to contributing to the discussion,” said Urice. “It’s an important event focusing on pressing legal and policy issues. It also raises our law school’s national visibility in the arts and foundation worlds.”

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1984 joined the Trusts and Estates department at Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy in New York. Several years later, he moved to Los Angeles with Beers, and joined Irell & Manella, focusing on estate planning, the law of private foundations, and museum and art law. While practicing at Irell & Manella, Urice joined the adjunct faculty of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law where he taught classes in art law. “This is still a relatively new field of law,” Urice said, adding that the first text to address law and visual arts was published only in 1959. In the 1990s, Urice left the law firm to serve as counsel and acting director of the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles. He later moved to Philadelphia and served as director of the Rosenbach Museum & Library. That was followed by an appointment to The Pew Charitable Trust to plan and implement the trust’s national cultural policy program, a $50 million, five-year effort to assist nonprofit cultural organizations to participate more fully in the development of cultural policies at local, state, and federal levels. Urice became director of the Project for Cultural Heritage Law & Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2003. He served as director and lecturer in law for three years before moving to Miami.

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A Passion for Art, Law, and Archeology

Professor Bettinger-Lรณpez

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Using the Power of Law to Fight for Social Justice

Photo by Zave Smith

RESPECT FOR DIVERSE CULTURES Bettinger-López was born in Miami to American-Jewish parents. She met her future husband Sean, who is of Irish-Puerto Rican background, while they were both students at Miami Palmetto High School. “Growing up in Miami, I loved being exposed to other cultures,” said Bettinger-López, who enrolled at the University of Michigan, and earned a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology. “For my senior thesis, I studied the migration of the Jews of Cuba to Miami following the Cuban revolution and the way in which

the law shaped their new American identities.” The power of the law to bring about social change made an impact on Bettinger-López as she began to brainstorm her professional future. After college, BettingerLópez returned to Miami and joined the AmeriCorps Vista program. She engaged in social services advocacy and youth education at Legal Services of Greater Miami, Inc., working to identify children in public schools who were victims of violence in their homes. Two years later, Bettinger-López went to Haiti with her husband to teach in a school for academically gifted children in the impoverished Caribbean nation. In 2000, the Bettinger-Lópezes moved to New York City and enrolled at Columbia Law School. After both earned their juris doctor degrees, Bettinger-López worked as a law clerk for Judge Sterling Johnson, Jr. in the Eastern District of New York, and then as a Skadden Fellow and staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, Women’s Rights Project, where she focused on employment and housing rights of domestic violence survivors. She then went to teach at Columbia Law School, where she became deputy director of the Human Rights Institute and acting director of the Human Rights Clinic, helping to coordinate the Human Rights in the U.S. Project and the Bringing Human Rights Home Lawyers’ Network, now with more than 800 members actively involved in domestic human rights strategies.

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rofessor Caroline “Carrie” Bettinger-López is a strong advocate for social justice, using the power of the law to advance human rights in the United States and around the world. A leading advocate for gender-based equality, she is currently serving as the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women. “Throughout her career, Carrie has made clear that the most basic of human rights is freedom from violence,” said Vice President Joe Biden in announcing her appointment in March 2015. “I know she will be a strong voice for women everywhere who continue to suffer from sexual assault and domestic violence in the worst prison on earth—the four walls of their own home.” Now on leave from her role as professor of clinical legal education and director of the Human Rights Clinic at Miami Law, Bettinger-López says serving the White House as a high-profile advisor has been “an eyeopening experience,” and added, “I’ve learned so much that I’ll be bringing back to the classroom in Miami.” Bettinger-López says government leaders can have a very significant impact on the problem of violence against women and girls at a local state and national level. “Government leaders can approve policies that advance social justice, and they can provide funding to support important programs,” she said. “Our leaders can also influence public priorities, and we know that the White House can play an important role in shaping the national and international conversation about social and economic justice issues.”

In June, Bettinger-López helped organize the United State of Women Summit, the first White House-sponsored meeting of its kind in history. With more than 5,000 attendees, the summit was an “amazing success,” BettingerLópez said. “All four White House principals—the President, Vice President, First Lady, and Dr. Jill Biden—gave impassioned remarks about how far we’ve come and the progress that remain, in ensuring justice and equality for women and girls here at home and abroad. The Vice President’s remarks, in particular, underscored our nation’s collective responsibility to stop violence toward women.” With her national appointment expiring in January, Bettinger-López is looking forward to returning to the School of Law in her hometown with her husband Sean Bettinger-López, their 3-year-old daughter Maya, and a new baby boy, who is due in December.

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By Richard Westland

PROFESSOR BETTINGER-LÓPEZ: USING THE POWER OF LAW TO FIGHT FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

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RETURNING TO MIAMI

In 2009, Bettinger-López decided to go on the law teaching market. “I never thought we would move back to Miami as we had become very New York-centric,” she said. “But when Dean Patricia White invited me to establish a new Human Rights Clinic at the law school, it was an offer I couldn’t refuse—so we returned home.” In 2010, both Carrie and Sean Bettinger-López joined the law school community, and Sean is now finishing a book project on therapeutic jurisprudence, completing a work started by the late Miami Law Professor Bruce J. Winick, co-founder of the therapeutic jurisprudence model. Meanwhile, Bettinger-López was able to launch the new Human Rights Clinic in early 2011. “Unlike the traditional law clinic model where students advocate for local clients in court, we have an international orientation, and we often focus on policy issues,” she said. For instance, Bettinger-López and her students assisted indigenous women’s advocates in Canada on the growing problem of missing and murdered indigenous women in that country. “We developed briefs to articulate the problem in a way that the international community could understand, and then briefed the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on the issue, alongside our local Canadian partners,” she said. Bettinger-López was lead counsel in a landmark case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on behalf of Jessica Lenahan (formerly Gonzales). Her

daughters were abducted by her estranged husband and killed in 1999 after the Castle Rock, Colorado police repeatedly refused to enforce her domestic violence restraining order against him. In 2005, in Town of Castle Rock v. Jessica Gonzales, the Supreme Court found that the police had no constitutional duty to enforce her restraining order, thereby leaving her without a remedy. Represented by Bettinger-López (and eventually by the Miami Law Human Rights Clinic), as well as the Human Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, and the American Civil Liberties Union, Lenahan filed a complaint before the Inter-American Commission—Jessica Lenahan (Gonzales) v. United States of America—and won her claim alleging human rights violations by the local police for failing to protect her and her children, and human rights violations by the U.S. courts, which failed to provide her with a remedy. As a teacher and scholar, Bettinger-López says these types of human rights cases help students develop traditional skills, like brief writing and media advocacy, and also provide opportunities to explore challenging policy issues. As Dean Patricia D. White said when Biden asked Bettinger-López to join the White House team, “Her pathbreaking advocacy work makes her uniquely qualified to carry out her charge.”

BECOMING A NATIONAL ADVISOR In her role as White House advisor, Bettinger-López serves as liaison with a wide range of advocacy groups and advocates

for new initiatives and policies to combat domestic violence and sexual assault with key public and private stakeholders. She notes that the ObamaBiden administration has led efforts to combat campus sexual assault, worked to prevent domestic violence homicides, and fought to extend protections to women of color, Native Americans, and LGBT Americans who have been victims of violence. Reflecting on her experience in navigating the corridors of power in the federal government, BettingerLópez says it’s essential for human rights and social justice advocates to become “cartographers” who can map the relationships between the key departments and people involved in the issue. “Look for a change agent in the government, who can become a champion for your cause,” she added. “Try to connect your priority with a current government program. Building a broad coalition can help to advance your specific initiative, and who can speak up for your cause.” Finally, Bettinger-López says many human rights advocates feel so impassioned about an injustice that they focus all their energy on the problem. “But focusing on the problem alone is a mistake,” she said. “Instead, you have to find a solution and show other people in leadership positions how they can use that solution to fix the problem.”

Innovative Short Courses Bring

Renowned Experts and Scholars to Miami Law

for example, provides a hands-on overview of the varied facets of the legal department’s function, from corporate, governance and fundraising matters to trademark, consumer protection, contracts, and employment law—in just six days. And the visitors and visiting professors leading the courses include a who’s who from premier universities and firms from around the globe. Martin Hunter, a barrister at Essex Court Chambers practicing in the field of international arbitration, professor of international dispute resolution at Nottingham Trent University, and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Dubai International

“Presentation of Evidence in International Arbitration.”

The developing specialization of investment arbitration has been the subject of repeated short courses taught by Nassib G. Ziadé. The director of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre, Ziadé has also served as deputy secretary-general of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and as executive secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal. His courses at Miami Law have examined evolving concepts in an area of law that has grown increasingly reliant on international arbitration provisions and instruments including the Energy Charter Treaty, the Washington Convention, and North American Free Trade Agreement. Dr. Guillermo Cabanellas and Professor Eli Salzberger have explored different aspects of international intellectual property law. Cabanellas, managing partner of Cabanellas Etchebarne Kelly Abogados in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has been an advisor to that country’s government and has authored over thirty books and more than a hundred law review articles. He also is the director of the master of business law at the University of San Andrés and professor in the postgraduate programs of the National University of Buenos Aires.

Salzberger has been the director of the Haifa Center for German and European Studies since April 2012, a member and former dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Haifa, as well as director of the school’s Minerva Center for the Rule of Law Under Extreme Conditions. At Miami Law, Cabanellas has examined the structure of the international intellectual property system and the reasons for international rules. Salzberger has probed the increasing significance of intellectual property laws and the growing interest in the economic analysis of intellectual property in the course “Law and Economics of

Intellectual Property Innovation.”

The changing expectations of law firms around the world and the knowledge new attorneys need to succeed has been the interest of Kevin Doolan, a partner for 20 years in the international law firm Eversheds and managing partner in the Moller Group at the University of Cambridge since 2014. At Eversheds, Doolan trained lawyers around the world in all aspects of business development and client care. He brought that knowledge to his Miami Law short course, “Corporate Skills for New Lawyers.”

Its underlying concept was that legal skills are no longer enough. Lawyers today, no matter where they practice, need to understand the world of business and develop skills that make

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In-house Counsel at a Nonprofit,”

Arbitration Centre, has twice taught

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orld Class” barely begins to describe the offerings—and the faculty—in Miami Law’s slate of innovative short courses. The intensive, week-long programs cover everything from music copyright and representing the professional athlete to World Trade Organization dispute settlement and financial accounting for lawyers. Students can earn one to two credits in as few as seven hours of concentrated class time. Meeting over the span of three or more days in highly focused multi-hour sessions, the classes are compressed, yet comprehensive. A course on “The Role of the

INNOVATIVE SHORT COURSES BRING

them more relevant to their clients. Other courses with an international flavor have had more specific regional focuses.

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“Latin American Law & Institutions” has been the subject

of short courses taught by Helena Alviar, dean and professor of law at Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá. Alviar has taught at universities in Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Italy, and the United States, and written extensively on the subject. Her short courses sought to increase understanding of major political, social and economic topics in the region and explore the issue of resource and power distribution. Miami Law has drawn on one of the pre-eminent authorities on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, to provide an in-depth introduction to the law, its concepts, and its impact on Latin America. Andrés Jana is the partner in charge of the International Arbitration Group at Bofill Mir & Alvarez in Santiago, Chile, and that country’s delegate before the U.N. Commission on the Trade Law. He also is a member of the Working Group on Arbitration Involving States or State Entities of the International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration Committee. He has taught the course “UNCITRAL Model Law” at Miami Law. The 2009 Legal Who’s Who recognized him as one of five experts in international arbitration in Chile, where he was called upon to provide advice to the government during negotiations of the Free Trade Agreement between Chile and the United States, as well as in the

RENOWNED EXPERTS AND SCHOLARS TO MIAMI LAW

negotiations of the financial services and investment chapters of the FTA within the European Union. The European Union is the focus of the short course José M. de Areilza, secretary general of the Aspen Institute España, a partner institution of The Aspen Institute in the U.S., will be teaching in November. Areilza, professor of law at ESADE, Ramón Llull University, Barcelona, holds the Jean Monnet Chair there, granted by the European Commission for teaching, research, and social debate on European Union law and European integration. He has served as advisor to the Spanish prime minister on European and North American affairs, advisor to the Spanish government representative in the convention that drafted the European Constitution, and as a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. The course he’ll be teaching shares the name of his 2014 book, “Law and Power in the European Union.” It will examine the current

state of EU decision-making and the balance of power between its political institutions and their interaction with member states at a time when its very foundations are being tested. Miami Law has a tradition of being at the forefront of changing legal frontiers. In the fall of 2014, it offered the short course, “Cuban Civil Law— Myth or Reality?” Examining the fascinating and complex world of civil law in the island nation, it was a first for the school, and came more than three months before U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro stunned the world by announcing a thaw in relations

between the two countries. Taught in Spanish by visiting Professor Maria Elena Cobas Cobiella, the course focused on current issues in the legislative field, with special reference to property rights in Cuba, the Cuban hereditary system and family law, as well as matters related to the private sector and foreign investment. Born in Havana, Cuba, Cobas Cobiella holds a law degree from the University of Havana and a doctorate of civil law from the University of Valencia, Spain. “There is an urban legend that claims that there is no law in Cuba,” Cobas Cobiella said. One of the course’s aims was “to demystify that idea,” she said and drew upon her experience as a practicing civil law notary in Havana and director of the Department of Civil and Family Law there before moving to Spain. “There is a surrealism that often accompanies the application and interpretation of law and the rules in Cuba,” she said. “Is civil law a myth or reality? The answer is not easy to solve.” One thing that’s certainly no myth is that Miami Law’s short courses continually offer in-depth analysis, examination, and insight into the changing legal environments around the world.

Mary Doyle, Dean Emerita, Shapes a Generation By Professor Patrick Gudridge

rebuilt a big chunk of the law school, construction began before Andrew and triumphantly concluded after. The school as it looks right now is about half hers. It’s not actually. Mary, and the architects she cheered, rewrapped and inward-openedup a lot of what was already there, making parts of the past (as it were) now integrally present. She (and they) demonstrated too, inside the compound especially, that the path of the law isn’t all dead ends but might well look to be (as every law student learns). Mary Doyle refused to recognize that the law school and the world were worlds apart. She placed a photograph in the

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lines. Nothing in the way of usual educational work was possible. Students were everywhere and nowhere, in short order dispersed across the city, state, and country. Would they come back? Mary Doyle, working with the Student Bar Association president, somehow spoke to just about every incoming firstyear student, checked to see how they were doing, told them the law school would reopen soon enough, and asked them to sit tight. She moved on to the second—and third-year students. Just about all came back when the school opened. They didn’t have to, we should remember. She also built or reimagined and

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ary Doyle is extraordinary in many ways. She is intense, smart, committed, devoted, ambitious, funny, sharp, encompassing, ever active—in all sorts of settings. Her biographer will risk death from exhaustion. I write oppositely here, deliberately narrowly. Mary seized hold of this law school’s deanship, made it thoroughly hers and changed the school much in the process. It was important to her to do this—and important for all the rest of us that this was so. Mary became dean in 1986 and held office full force through 1994. What did she do? I should probably note first that she saved the law school. Hurricane Andrew—the storm so intense it provoked the creation of the “category five” characterization— arrived in late August 1992, just as we were conducting orientation at the beginning of the fall semester. Within a day or so, a big chunk of Miami blew apart. The University of Miami looked to have disappeared in a mass of downed trees and power

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dean’s office, right where all who met with her could see. The picture showed a clump of happy children climbing all over a happy older man, with a large image of a younger man in the immediate background. It was easy to figure out that one in the clump was Mary herself. Most of us suddenly realized that the happy man was Adlai Stevenson, and we knew who he was. And we knew that the photo in the picture was the 1960 Kennedy for President campaign poster. It was, we were supposed to see, all the same to her—great figures and their magnificent politics, her family, Mary herself, all one joyous jumble, all one world—hers. It was no surprise, then, that Mary convened the entire first-year class one day to introduce the thenState’s Attorney, Janet Reno so that Ms. Reno could put on a day-long panel discussion about juvenile crime. It was also no surprise, some time later, that Mary, walking into the dean’s office, announced (legend has it) that she’d “figured out how to make Janet Attorney General.” Reno was nominated shortly after that. Another day, a year or two later, University of Miami President Edward Foote looked out across the long slope of his backyard and noticed just-retired President Alfonsin of Argentina, soon-to-be President Aristide of Haiti, and Supreme Court Justice Brennan walking on campus. With them was a pack of other judges, lawyers, and notables, and academic luminaries like Owen Fiss, Carlos Nino, Irwin Stotzky, and William Twining. Foote exclaimed: “This is the way it’s supposed to be!” Mary Doyle didn’t bring together this great group, just as she didn’t

appoint Janet Reno to be Attorney General. She positioned possibility, noticed conjunctions, realized that seemingly unlikely events were readily manageable, and so somehow it happened. Again: Dean Doyle didn’t know Justice Brennan all that well until, shortly after he retired, she concluded that it would be a good thing for him if he taught a course at the law school in January and February for a few years. Justice and Mrs. Brennan agreed. I was the associate dean at that point. Mary said to me, “You’re in charge of the course part. Figure it out. Make it work.” (Working for Mary was sometimes like jumping off cliffs.) I followed instructions. I remember asking students whether they wanted in. None of them believed that things like this happened. Again and again and again: I saw Mary once start to crawl across a table, seemingly intent on strangling (or maybe devouring) a distinguished member of the law school’s visiting committee who had said something derogatory about the school. On another occasion, at some dinner, I

watched a faculty colleague burst into tears when he was presented with a copy of his new book that Mary had in some way or another prompted Justice Brennan and a host of other hugely accomplished diners to sign. Quintessentially: Mary, at a meeting of administrators after Derrick Bell, Jr. had begun his sit-in in his office at Harvard protesting the paucity of black faculty there, declared, “We should send him a basket of fruit from ‘his friends at Miami.’ He will need fruit.” Mary brought Professor Bell to Miami to reinforce the then still-organizing Black Law Students Association. The point: Mary Doyle as dean seized and flung out, whenever she had the chance, a forceful energy she tapped and focused in her process of trying to think and act within the law school and within larger worlds both at once, pushing each within the other. This energy was her physics and her politics, as it were—the way she led, or rather propelled the law school. It was a history-changing accomplishment.

lliott Manning is a man in the right place at the right time or sometimes in an interesting place at an interesting time. The professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar for the Profession could have been an accountant, like his father, but a college aptitude test at Columbia University indicated he had a head for business, so he went on to Harvard to study business law. The Atlanta-born Manning met his Brooklyn-born wife, Gail, on a blind date in New York; she instantly knew he was the one, though it took him until the second date. Seven months later, they honeymooned in Cuba just as Fidel Castro and his milicianos descended from the mountains to celebrate the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista. The newlyminted Mrs. Manning wanted to stay on to watch the welcoming rally on July 26, 1959, but rumors of antiAmerican violence caused them to make a change in plans. Instead, the young marrieds headed for Port-auPrince, Haiti, where Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier had recently replaced the ousted President Paul Eugène Magloire. Years later, Manning would take a sabbatical from New York law firm life to teach for a semester at Stanford University. “I found that I liked teaching, and when the University of Miami needed someone to run the

Graduate Program in Taxation, my wife and I came here,” he says. “Elliot was an icon among New York corporate tax lawyers when he left practice to come to join the Miami faculty. As a young DC tax lawyer long before I had anything to do with Miami, I knew who Elliott Manning was!” “Elliott Manning drew on his experience practicing law in New York City in his commitment to enriching the education of his students,” says Francis Hill, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar for the Profession. “He encouraged and supported the work of his colleagues in tax and business, for which all of us are grateful. Although none of us shared his commitment to brightly colored sports shirts in indescribable patterns, we do share his commitment to students and his conviction that there is no point in being a tax lawyer unless one does it well,” Hill says. Looking back, Manning relishes the life he has led. He is most proud of teaching; in his 36 years at Miami Law, Manning taught more than 1,000

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By Catharine Skipp

lawyers-to-be, directed the topranked tax program for ten years, and was at the helm of the Real Property Development Program for six years when its founder Ralph Boyer retired. He is also not shy about his pre-Miami life as a partner at the historic Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and serving on the prestigious Commerce Clearing House Tax Advisory Board, headed by the internationally renowned tax expert Martin Ginsburg, husband of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. While there, Manning wrote two of the tax and business books in a series. “I was honored to be asked to speak on his behalf at his retirement ceremony,” says Hogan Lovells’ Parker D. Thomson, a former classmate, and longtime Manning colleague. “Elliott agreed to join our firm here in Miami on a consultant basis. I don’t think he ever saw a legal problem he couldn’t solve and do so in a lucid manner understandable by those without his specialized knowledge and incredible memory for tax regulations, tax cases, and tax commentary. He is a friend, a colleague, and an absolutely brilliant person.” Manning was astonished when he realized how many students he had taught. “Just in my first four years, I taught Stuart Miller (president and CEO of the Lennar Corporation and former chair of the University of Miami Board of Trustees) and Stephen Bittel (chair and founder of Terranova Corporation),” says Manning. Manning is not ready to give up being an educator just yet. He and Gail spent the summer traveling: first they took a three-week cruise from Barcelona to La Havre then a brief stop near Les Andelys. But after a little time off, he is looking for his next adventure.

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Photo by Jenny Abreu

Professor Elliott Manning’s Taxing Career

Photo by Jenny Abreu

Legal Rock Star, Professor Keith Rosenn Much of the following article is taken from remarks by Dean Emeritus Dennis Lynch during Professor Rosenn’s retirement party. Dean Lynch shared his thoughts with Miami Law magazine.

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irst, you have to understand that Keith is well known in the United States as the preeminent legal scholar who has devoted his career to studying Latin American Constitutions and legal institutions, but in Brazil, he is “a legal rock star!” Keith got started with his academic focus on Brazil in 1966 when he was a new assistant professor at Ohio State. He was involved in the early days of the law and development movement, working with the Ford Foundation on a legal education project in Brazil. The next ten years are what we could label as the first phase of Keith’s legal scholarship. He published the first casebook on a Law & Development in Latin America, with Ken Karst of University of California, Los Angeles, as a co-author in 1975. It became the most used book by U.S. scholars teaching comparative law with a primary focus on Latin America. He wrote articles on the reform of legal education in Brazil, legal issues related to inflation, judicial review in Latin America, regulation of foreign investment, and legal culture. One of his most fun pieces (and the one I enjoyed the most) was one you might label as Keith’s contribution to the “law in action” literature. It was on the Jeito (the Brazilian way of bypassing the formal legal system). It

is embedded in Brazilian legal culture as a way of making legal institutions and the Brazilian bureaucracy work by using intermediaries who know how to achieve results when dealing with state regulatory structures and legal institutions. Keith turned his early work in this area into a book he wrote in Portuguese and published in 1998. Interestingly, by the mid-70s when many U.S. scholars focusing on Latin American were drifting in the direction of applying social theory to understand the place of law in society under the influence of Roberto Ungar, Keith turned his attention to real law. He engaged in serious study of Latin American Constitutional law and doctrine with most of his focus on Brazil. He translated and annotated the Brazilian Constitution working with a Brazilian scholar. He published articles in Portuguese, Spanish, and English on the protection of individual rights in Latin American Constitutions and compared constitutional developments in Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. At the beginning of the third phase, Keith focused on corruption and political reform in Brazil,

including articles and a co-authored a book published in both Portuguese and English on the impact of the impeachment of Fernando Collar, Brazil’s first elected president after the military’s governance of Brazil ended. During this period Keith focused less on the analysis of individual rights under the Brazilian Constitution and more on federalism, separation of powers, judicial review under Brazil’s constitutional amendments and the treatment of res judicata under the Brazilian Constitution. Throughout all of this period, he kept translating the Brazilian Constitutional amendments and provided annotated commentaries on the changes. His current projects include preparing a second edition of the Law & Development casebook and the second edition in Portuguese of the book on the Brazilian Jeito. In total, Keith has published seven books, four monographs, 16 book chapters, over 40 articles, and 11 book reviews. He has consistently published in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. When you review his body of scholarship, you can understand why he is a “legal rock star” in Brazil and Latin America in general. Rosenn joined the faculty of Miami Law in 1979, after spending 14 years teaching law at Ohio State University. At Miami Law, Rosenn taught “Latin American Law, Doing Business in Latin America,” and “Constitutional and Comparative Law.” He was chair of the LL.M. programs in Comparative Law and Inter-American Law.

Normative Frameworks

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for Human Rights during Major Emergencies

SMARTTAKES Photo by Joshua Prezant

BY JAMES NICKEL

Professor of Philosophy & Law

SMARTTAKES

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he European Convention of Human Rights (1950) offers a framework for emergencies. It says that a few especially important rights may never be infringed even in the worst emergencies but allows that most rights may be restricted if the emergency is extremely severe and if the limitations are necessary and proportional to the demands of managing it. Very similar frameworks are found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) and the American Convention on Human Rights (1969). This essay is critical of these frameworks and suggests that they could be improved by attending to the different sorts of problems posed by different types of emergencies. Examples of major emergencies include the influenza pandemic of 1918 that killed more people than World War I, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, and the war and refugee crisis in Syria that began in 2011. Major emergencies require people to do things that are ethically and legally problematic. For example, people not injured or killed by the emergency may be required to leave their homes and jobs and stay away for long periods. A physician may be required to stay in the emergency zone rather than evacuate with his or her family and neglect regular patients to attend to people injured in the emergency. Morticians, drivers, and heavy equipment operators may be conscripted and required to provide their own equipment. Schools and religious buildings may be taken over for use as food kitchens or shelters. Services normally available to needy people may be shifted away from them and put to use in the emergency. Public officials may assume extraordinary powers. And the use of deadly force may be necessary to deal with rioters, looters, terrorists, or enemy soldiers. In developing a human rights framework for emergencies a key question is whether (1) to say the same things about all types of major emergencies (I’ll call this the undifferentiated approach), (2) to say different things about different types of emergencies (I’ll call this the type-oriented approach), or (3) to use a mixture of the two approaches. The main thesis of this essay is that human rights frameworks for emergencies would do well to make greater use of type-orientation. The existence of different types of emergencies is widely recognized, and distinctive international agencies are keyed to them. For example, epidemics are dealt with by the World Health Organization; refugee emergencies are dealt with by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees; and wars are dealt with by the Geneva Conventions, the U.N. Security Council, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (1998).

BY JAMES NICKEL Professor of Philosophy & Law

SOME TYPES OF MAJOR EMERGENCIES Major disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and floods Severe and extended economic depressions Large and extended epidemics and pandemics Major refugee emergencies Large and extended riots, insurrections, and rebellions Major climate emergencies including severe droughts, famines, and floods Major terrorist attacks Major massacres and genocides Major wars both civil and international Nuclear wars The presupposition of type-oriented approaches, whether pure or mixed, is that different types of emergencies raise somewhat different issues, generate different sorts of threats of abuse and mismanagement, and should have somewhat distinctive norms. Modern medicine uses an analogous taxonomy of diseases and treatments. The centerpiece of the emergency framework in the European Convention is article 15. Article 15 Derogation in Time of Emergency (1) In time of war or other public emergency threatening the life of the nation any High Contracting Party may take measures derogating from its obligations under this Convention to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, provided that such measures are not inconsistent with its other obligations under international law. (2) No derogation from Article 2 [right to life], except in respect of deaths resulting from lawful acts of war, or from Articles 3 [right against torture and degrading treatment], 4 (paragraph 1) [right against slavery and servitude] and 7 [right against ex post facto laws] shall be made under this provision. The first sentence of Article 15 identifies one type of emergency, war, but mostly concentrates on severity. Three other articles of the European Convention, however, are typeoriented, with exceptions for particular types of emergencies. Article 2, the right to life, has three exceptions to the duty to refrain from intentionally killing people—and one of them pertains to riots and insurrections. Article 4, the right against slavery and forced labor, also contains a type-oriented exception clause that permits the conscription of labor during emergencies and calamities. And Article 5, the right against

This sketch makes clear that developing a fully or partially type-oriented approach to major epidemics is not a project that even highly qualified human rights lawyers, activists, and scholars can carry out on their own. Needed are the skills of medical historians, public health experts, and the WHO. Approaches that are fully or partially type-oriented have a number of advantages. The biggest is that they offer more specific guidance because at least some of their rules and principles are calibrated to different types of emergencies and their distinctive problems or threats. A second advantage of type-oriented approaches is that they provide a useful taxonomy for organizing relevant case law from national and international courts. A third advantage of these approaches is that they provide better tools for educating emergency managers and responders since public officials often have to manage emergencies of kinds they have never before confronted. Type-oriented approaches have the disadvantage that drafting them is difficult and requires extensive knowledge of the history of emergencies and their management. A second disadvantage of these approaches is that knowing that an emergency falls within a certain type (say, an insurrection) is a poor predictor of its severity. This matters greatly because prescriptions for an emergency depend substantially on its severity. If greater type-orientation is desirable in the emergency clauses of human rights treaties, how might it be developed? Formal amendments to the human rights treaties with emergency clauses are one possibility. Such amendments are unlikely to be written and approved, however, and they would risk providing poor or even disastrous guidance if they were put in place without extensive testing. A better alternative is evolution—instead of thinking of a more developed and determinate emergencies framework as a new construction that starts from scratch, we might instead think of it as resulting from ongoing experience, adjudication, reconstruction, and expansion. The emergencies frameworks in contemporary human rights treaties are early efforts with serious shortcomings. Better frameworks would add much more material that is oriented to particular types of emergencies. James W. Nickel holds a joint appointment in the Philosophy Department and the Law School. He teaches and writes in human rights law and theory, political philosophy, philosophy of law, and constitutional law. Nickel is the author of Making Sense of Human Rights and of more than sixty articles in philosophy and law journals.

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arbitrary arrest or detention, has a type-oriented exception clause that gives governments permission to detain people to prevent the spread of infectious diseases. The emergencies framework in the European Convention has serious shortcomings. It gives little guidance, and positive governmental responsibilities to protect life and health during emergencies are not mentioned. Neither are important goals of emergency management. Further, it is seriously incomplete in that it only deals with suspending and limiting civil and political rights. It does not take account of the severe impact that emergencies can have on the implementation of economic and social rights such as rights to education or health care or provide any guidance in dealing with those impacts. Worst of all, it seems to be based on a simplistic view of the threats severe emergencies present to human rights. It suggests that the main dangers posed by emergencies are that governments will overreact to them and exaggerate their severity and duration for political purposes. Unpreparedness, inadequate responses, hiding and minimizing emergencies, and delayed and corrupt efforts to recover are not addressed. Epidemics are significantly different from insurrections in the kinds of governmental abuses they provoke, the measures needed to deal with them, and in the types of preparedness they require. A fully or partially type-oriented approach might attempt to address these differences by dealing separately with the two kinds of emergencies. The materials dealing with epidemics might: • Define “epidemic” and “pandemic” and their known major subtypes. Subtypes of epidemics and pandemics are particularly important because diseases spread in different ways. Travel restrictions may be appropriate for those infected with Ebola but not for those infected with malaria. • Identify the types of abuses and failures that typically occur in attempting to manage epidemics of various types. Historical investigations here might discover, for example, that failures to recognize and declare epidemics promptly (false negatives) are a much more serious problem than exaggerating them to achieve political ends (false positives) • Decide which typical measures for management and recovery have negative impacts on human rights. When such impacts are present, decide whether particular measures are so indispensable or useful that they should sometimes be permissible.

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Excerpted from an essay in Evan J. Criddle, ed., Human Rights in Emergencies (Cambridge 2016).

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SMARTTAKES

Photo by Joshua Prezant

Simplexity: Plain Language and the Tax Law BY LEIGH OSOFSKY

1 Treas. Reg. § 1.263(a)-3(d). 2 IRS, Publication 535 (Business Expenses), 3, 2014.

be Statement 2. The $6,000 you spent was double your normal plumbing expense, and therefore Statement 2 may help you determine that the $6,000 expense was a nondeductible “improvement.” However, this conclusion may not actually be correct. The “major expenditure” standard from Statement 2 does not appear anywhere in the governing Treasury regulations, and the Treasury regulations actually contain examples that suggest that your expense in this case may be deductible. In other words, even though the IRS publication may help you make a decision about how to fill out your tax return, this decision may not be in accordance with the actual tax law. In an article forthcoming in Emory Law Journal, Joshua Blank (professor of tax practice and faculty director of the Graduate Tax Program, New York University School of Law) and I explore how, in its taxpayer publications, the IRS often attempts to explain complex and ambiguous tax law in terms that are clear and simple to most taxpayers. In so doing, the IRS is fulfilling an important, but underappreciated, duty: to serve taxpayers by explaining the tax law to them in a way they can understand. The IRS is not alone in having to explain complex, ambiguous law to the public. The Plain Writing Act of 2010, spearheaded by Cass Sunstein when he was administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, requires all federal agencies to use plain writing in their official communications with the public. Sunstein and others have celebrated the Plain Writing Act as increasing simplicity, equal access to government programs, and government transparency.

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magine that it is April 15th and you are rushing to complete your annual tax return.You own a local pizza shop, and this past year a flood in the pizza shop damaged the shop’s plumbing.You paid $6,000 to fix it and you are trying to determine whether you can take a deduction.Your annual plumbing expenses are usually around $3,000.You heard from a neighboring business owner that you cannot deduct expenses paid for “improvements.” Now imagine that, in trying to decide whether the $6,000 expense you paid constitutes an “improvement,” you consult the following two statements, the first of which is from the Treasury regulations and the second of which is from an Internal Revenue Service publication: Statement 1: “Requirement to capitalize amounts paid for improvements. Except as provided in paragraph (h) or paragraph (n) of this section or under § 1.263(a)-1(f), a taxpayer generally must capitalize the related amounts (as defined in paragraph (g)(3) of this section) paid to improve a unit of property owned by the taxpayer.”1 Statement 2: “Improvements. Improvements are generally major expenditures. Some examples are new electric wiring, a new roof, a new floor, new plumbing, bricking up windows to strengthen a wall, and lighting improvements.”2 Which of these two statements is going to be most helpful to you in determining how to fill out your tax return? If you are like most taxpayers, the answer will

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Professor of Law

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SMARTTAKES

In this article, we look at a different side to the plain writing story. We explore how, rather than increasing simplicity, which would involve the elimination of complexity in the underlying law, plain language communications (such as IRS publications) often yield “simplexity.” Simplexity exists when the government presents the law as being clear and simple, without actually eliminating any of the underlying complexity or ambiguity. In particular, we show that, in its IRS publications, the IRS often transforms complex, ambiguous law into seemingly simple statements (“IRS simplifications”) that (1) present contested tax law as clear tax rules, (2) add administrative gloss to the tax law, and (3) fail to fully explain the tax law, including possible exceptions. Following an extensive review of IRS publications, we detail many examples of each category of IRS simplification. Moreover, our research shows how these IRS simplifications get absorbed and adopted, not only by taxpayers filling out their own tax returns through the use of IRS publications, but also by many secondary sources, training tools for enrolled agents, accountants, and other tax professionals, and even by widely-used tax preparation software. Sometimes these IRS simplifications benefit the government, while other times they benefit taxpayers. Either way, they offer the IRS a powerful tool to shape the public’s perception of the tax law. After setting forth many examples of IRS simplifications, we explore how simplexity offers a number of potential tax administration benefits, but can also threaten vital values of democratic governance and fairness. In terms of benefits, IRS simplifications allow the IRS to explain the tax law so that it will be comprehensible to large swaths of the public. They also reveal the IRS’s own views of the tax law, thereby allowing taxpayers to avoid controversy, or at least prepare for

BY LEIGH OSOFSKY Professor of Law

it. And, to the extent that taxpayers follow government favorable IRS simplifications, they can help the government raise revenue. However, IRS simplifications can also have the unintended effect of obscuring taxpayers’ knowledge of the underlying tax law. Moreover, since they are created in an opaque fashion, IRS simplifications threaten government transparency. They are also likely to impose unequal benefits and burdens on different types of taxpayers. While sophisticated taxpayers will be in a good position to reject government favorable IRS simplifications, unsophisticated taxpayers are more likely to just follow them, resulting in inequitable treatment. Finally, administrative law does not present adequate solutions to the problem posed. Since simplexity offers both important benefits and some significant threats, we offer a number of strategies for maximizing the benefits of simplexity while minimizing the drawbacks. First, we explore the possibility of having the IRS “red-flag” its own simplifications, which will preserve the IRS’s ability to speak in plain language to taxpayers, while minimizing some of the opacity and inequity. Second, we explore how having institutions outside the IRS (such as the Government Accountability Office) review the IRS’s red flagging can help make it meaningful. Finally, we discuss potential structural reform of certain of the IRS’s functions. The article both shines a light on previously unnoticed IRS simplifications in IRS publications and more generally critically examines what plain language looks like in practice. Across the government, federal agencies must use simplexity in order to communicate complex or ambiguous law in a way the public can understand. The article highlights important values to consider in this translation process.

Professor Leigh Osofsky teaches courses addressing various aspects of taxation and policy. Prior to entering academia, Osofsky clerked for the Honorable Pierre Leval on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and worked as a tax attorney at Fenwick & West, LLP, specializing in tax transactional planning and also serving as counsel in complex tax litigation matters. She has published articles in NewYork University School of Law Tax Law Review, University of Virginia School of Law Tax Review, and The University of Florida College of Law Tax Review.

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FEATURE

AUGUSTO ARAGONE, IN FRONT OF ST. BASIL’S CATHEDRAL, MOSCOW, RUSSIA

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MIAMILAW By Carlos Harrison

iami Law is a gateway and a launchpad. It attracts students from around the world and propels them on new trajectories. Some graduate to pursue careers amid the courtroom drama. Others, the detailed intensity of transactional work. And others, to take their place at the intersection of business and law, lending legal guidance and support through a complicated multinational maze of laws and regulations, in an international arena. “If you thrive on uncertainty and navigating ambiguous waters, then it’s for you,” says Augusto Aragone, LL.M., ’06. Aragone came to Miami Law with a specific goal in mind: “To be able to grow professionally in the legal market in the United States.” A decade later, he’s the vice president and associate general counsel at Ingram Micro Inc., the world’s largest global information technology distributor. He is responsible, among a host of other duties, for providing legal support around the world to the $43 billion corporation’s mergers and acquisitions team. In 2015 alone, he was lead counsel or team member in the acquisition of São Paulo, Brazil-based Grupo Acao, one of Latin America’s leading IT providers, with operations in Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and Ecuador; Odin Service Automation, involving over 500 employees scattered across the Russian Federation, North America, Europe, and Asia; a mobility insurance brokerage operation in Ireland, Singapore, Indonesia, and Thailand; and the largest value-added technology

and I ended up signing up for the latter. And when I got back home, my mom said, ‘You know what? Go back.You’re going to drop international relations and you’re going into law.’” He did. Then, love happened. Twice. Or, actually, three times. He met his wife (whom he calls “my support system”), got married at 19, and had his first child a year later. Work took priority, but school never stopped. “I was studying law at night,” he says. “I had to put food on the table, so I had to work. And then after work I would go to law school.” That’s how he found his second and third loves. His day job was at a major Swiss logistics company, as a salesman. “I worked my way through the ranks, as time went by, while I was studying law. So I was working at the company and also discovering a passion for logistics.” He was also discovering a passion for the law. So much so, that he decided to put the two together. As soon as he graduated from law school in Uruguay, the family moved to Italy, so he could get his first master’s, in transportation law. “I tried to combine both my work experience with the knowledge of law.” It worked. DHL Global Forwarding, the international logistics and freight forwarding company, hired him to “set up an in-house law department for Latin America in Miami. And that’s how I came to this country.” That’s also how he came to Miami Law. “Sort of the next step in my career was taking the LL.M.,” he says, “That’s allowed me to compete in the legal profession in the U.S.” It did, leading to the job at

Ingram Micro. He started as director and associate general counsel for the Fortune 100 company’s Latin America division, handling mergers and acquisitions, litigation, commercial contracts, employment and tax matters, and corporate governance, as well as advising on anti-bribery, export, and anti-trust compliance. In January of 2015, the company promoted him to handle mergers and acquisitions worldwide. For others considering a similar career, he says, “Keep an open mind, travel. Languages are essential. If you are not able to communicate in one or two languages in addition to your mother tongue then you’re probably going to limit yourself a little bit. Have an experience living abroad.You need that kind of full immersion to then be able to start connecting dots. Learn to learn.” The result, he says, is “never boring. It’s also very challenging. But it’s a function of the fact that you’re breaking new ground all the time.” Betsy McCoy, LL.M. ’07, found her way to an in-house practice with international responsibilities through a Miami Law LL.M. as well— by way of a housing collapse unlike any the world had ever seen. In 2005, she could see storm clouds brewing. “I knew at some point the real estate bubble was going to burst, so it wasn’t so much an if, but a when,” McCoy says. McCoy had built a Tampa practice representing lenders and developers, and she knew that real estate was cyclical. On a visit to Miami, she noticed its skyline filled with cranes. Returning to Tampa, she noticed the same thing. To her, it meant a downturn was inescapable.

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distributor in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. “We acquired companies in Russia or Brazil or Saudi Arabia— countries with very different systems, and different laws, and different requirements, and different cultures you’re going into,” he says. “You have to make it work using the U.S. framework, but also leveraging our multicultural perspective.” There have also been acquisitions of companies with operations in the Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Romania, Chile, Peru, and Turkey. Just to mention a few. Just in 2015. “It’s an exercise in balance and pragmatism,” he says. “When you’re in-house, as opposed to working for a law firm, the role involves what you can think of as an interpreter, of legal needs and business needs. So you’re kind of a bridge that allows the business to accomplish their goals by enabling them with the law.” For Aragone, it brings together two passions, which he discovered, he says, “by happenstance.” Growing up in Uruguay, he didn’t aim to be a lawyer. He played drums in bossa nova and jazz bands as a teenager, and dreamt of coming to the U.S. “One of my goals back then was to come to the U.S. to study music,” he says. “I never thought I would be a lawyer, let alone end up in the U.S. as a lawyer. I ended up, apparently, in the right place but in a different way.” By the time he started college, though, he moved to the beat of a different calling. Or two. “I was sort of forced into the law, wisely as it turns out, by my mother,” he says. “I was thinking about signing up for law or for international relations,

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ALUMNI LEAD AT THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND LAW

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ALUMNI LEAD AT THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND LAW

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BETSY MCCOY

Photo by Angela Bonilla

“Miami looked like a postapocalyptic re-development scene,” she says. “There were cranes everywhere and towers going up at a fantastic rate. I knew Miami attracted national and international buyers, but I was skeptical as to whether there were enough buyers to support the pace of building. And, I knew Tampa did not have a market to support the volume in development there. I cut my teeth as a lawyer by representing lenders through a prior real estate market downturn and I wanted to position myself to be of value to lenders or developers when the inevitable happened.” Born in Iowa, McCoy aimed for a career in law for nearly as long as she can remember. “My dad had been elected in the Iowa House of Representatives when he was just 25 years old, and when I was growing up he was a national political lobbyist for labor unions,”

she says. “I got to tag along with him once in a while when he would meet governors, senators, and congressmen. They were all lawyers. On one trip when I was about six years old, I joined my dad and took along my Barbie and Midge dolls. I sat dressing my dolls with suits my grandmother had knit. Then-Nebraska Governor (Frank) Morrison asked me if my dolls were fashion models and I recall my father, who was very quick on his feet, respond as if it were a mandate, ‘No. Betsy’s dolls are federal judges.’ “So, in my six-year-old mind, being a lawyer was a goal that would please my dad and I adored my dad,” McCoy says. She studied philosophy and communications at Creighton University in nearby Omaha with that vision in mind. “Philosophy because it was the one degree that required me to develop critical thinking skills, and communication because what is the

point of good thinking if you are not able to share it effectively?” At the time, she says, trial work appealed to her. When her family moved to Tampa after she graduated, so did she, launching a practice of her own. She soon found herself handling litigation for the Barnett Bank Holding Company, then one of the largest networks of lenders in the state. Then came the trip to Miami, and the unmistakable tea leaves of the coming real estate crisis she saw dotting the skyline. She knew that loan structures had evolved. The loan documents of the early 2000s were different from those litigated in the early 1990s and before, she says. Many newer ones involved multiple layers of stakeholders, with hundreds of millions of dollars riding on the projects. “Those changes in the lending practices were the catalyst for my election to pursue the LL.M. in Real

McCoy’s team litigated over 1,500 lawsuits and favorably negotiated, closed or settled another 1,500 or so. Her grand plan worked: TRG only suffered 12 or fewer judgments on the merits in court, and eight of those were due to a bad ruling in a federal court that has since been corrected by the Florida Supreme Court in an appellate case McCoy helped to strategize. Not one TRG project went bankrupt. McCoy’s days have not calmed down as the market rebounded. TRG keeps her on her toes as the company expands internationally with luxury projects in India, Mexico, Panama, Brazil, Argentina, and The Bahamas. And, as always, she is also polishing contingency plans that cover possible scenarios for the threats the real estate cycle may bring. Planning and preparation is crucial, says John McManus, J.D., ’93, executive vice president, general counsel and secretary for

MGM Resorts International. So is a clear understanding of the in-house counsel’s function. “You need to basically stay focused, understand that the role of the in-house attorney is to help advance the objectives of the business, and to be a partner with the business decisionmakers, ” he says. “I like to work in a way where I present the risks, and as long as it’s nothing illegal, you’re framing the legal issues so that business decision-makers can understand them. “I think where a lot of lawyers get in trouble is where they blur that line and they think they are the business decision-maker. So I try to stay in my lane in that respect.” At MGM, he does that, providing legal advice to senior management and the board of directors. In addition to the legal department, he is also responsible for oversight of the company’s compliance, corporate security, risk management and governmental affairs departments.

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JOHN MCMANUS

Property Development. I knew there was going to be a demand for enforcing or restructuring construction loans and I wanted to really dig into the study of current loan documents and packages,” she says. “The Miami Law LL.M. offered a curriculum that was completely on point for what I was looking for, and it was the only one of its kind in the country.” At the same time that she was at Miami Law preparing for the bust cycle in real estate, The Related Group’s founder and its COO were too. She got her degree in 2007, and they asked her to come aboard for “a year, a yearand-a-half at the most” to help TRG transition through the hiccup. By early 2008, McCoy was ahead of the rest of the pack with a strategy to defend the company against significant losses and possible ruin. “Of course, no one could have predicted how hard the market and greater economy would fall,” says McCoy. “It was nearly unprecedented.”

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ALUMNI LEAD AT THE INTERSECTION OF BUSINESS AND LAW

That last means you’re likely to see him testifying before officials all the way up to the United States Congress. Getting to that position, he says, wasn’t planned. “I didn’t think I wanted to be a lawyer,” he says, “and I certainly didn’t think I was going to be a lawyer for a casino in Las Vegas.” Originally from Maryland, McManus went to Vanderbilt University for undergraduate school. “I decided on law school when I was a junior in college,” he says. “I took the LSAT just to see how I did. I did well on it, and that set me in the direction of law. I thought, ‘This is something I should pursue.’” Miami Law offered him a scholarship and, well, Miami. “I said, ‘I can think of worse things than getting a scholarship, plus living at the beach in Miami.’” His aim then, he says, “criminal law. That’s what was the most interesting to me in law school. I took a lot of criminal procedure and criminal classes and figured I’d be a trial lawyer, a prosecutor or something.” When he got his J.D. in 1993, though, the nation was going through a recession. “Law firms were laying people off,” he says. “There wasn’t a whole lot of opportunity, though I had done well in law school.” Then, what happened in Vegas made him stay in Vegas. “I had gotten into the habit of when I was traveling in my years at law school that if I visited someplace I liked that I would look up law firms and send resumes,” he says. “And I happened to be in Las Vegas and I got an interview with a law firm and got offered a job.”

It may be fitting for a Vegas story, but he attributes much of the rest of his career to taking chances, and playing his cards right. “I never did any criminal law. I started more in employment and labor law. And then went into corporate and transactional,” he says. “I was at a relatively small firm but we had some big casino clients.” Three years out of law school, he got his first in-house job, at the Sahara Hotel. “They advertised they were looking for an assistant general counsel, but the position was actually general counsel,” he says. Five years later, he moved to MGM. “I was the assistant general counsel for MGM Grand Hotel,” he says, “which is just one of the properties. Then I kind of moved my way through the company’s various operating subsidiaries—and then I made it into corporate as assistant general counsel in 2008.” Two years later, he became general counsel. That makes him the chief legal officer for most of the MGM’s far-flung interests. That’s not just gaming, either. The company’s properties include condos, an entertainment company, retail outlets, most of the Cirque du Soleil shows, and, until recently when they sold it, a retail mall. “One thing I tell law students and younger lawyers is that there is nothing in my career path I predicted. Everything I kind of thought I would do, I didn’t do,” he says. “If you’re open to new opportunities and kind of seize them and do well, then that opens doors you’re not expecting. The one thing that never seems to change is that there’s always something new and unexpected.” Unexpected might describe how

Guillermo Levy, J.D. ’00, got

into the law. But it was an important work/life decision that led him to where he is today. Born in Colombia, Levy’s family fled the country’s violence for Orlando when he was 14. He went to University of Florida thinking he wanted to become an architect, “but the classes that interested me more were things with a social studies flavor.” He left UF after two years. His parents had gone back to Colombia. Levy headed to South Florida, and Florida International University, where his brother was studying. When he finished, he considered graduate school, but didn’t know if wanted to end up teaching. His future wife had a much clearer focus. She wanted to be a lawyer. Levy followed her lead, even though he wasn’t sure he wanted to be an attorney. “I wish I could tell you for me that it was clear from the outset, but it wasn’t,” he says. “My thinking going in was that the worst possible outcome was I would graduate with a law degree that I could use and leverage probably better than any degree I would’ve gotten in political science, math, or something along those lines.” Miami Law hooked him. “What happened was, I liked it,” he says. “I liked the pressure of always being on, that you were going to be called upon and not want to look like an idiot. … For me that whole experience was wonderful.” He got a summer internship at Steel Hector & Davis that turned into a full-time position as an associate when he graduated in 2000. A few years in, he says, “I started thinking about, ‘What kind of life do I want to have? Do I want to become a senior

GUILLERMO LEVY

products. We also make locomotives now.” His experience at Miami Law, he says, made what he does now possible. “My class,” he says, “was a combination of people from many different backgrounds—locals, international folks, folks from different parts of the U.S. Culturally as well. And that’s basically what the world out there looks like. So if I can say anything it’s that, to me at least, UM law and the people that I met there, from the professors that taught to the students are similar to the world we live in today. And to be able to relate, to learn from, and to learn with those people is part of the skills that you need in order to succeed.”

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independent distributors throughout Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Another promotion to senior corporate counsel brought him back to Miami last year, to work with the company’s cutting-edge digital initiative—what its CEO calls “Smart Iron.” Partly, that involves autonomous driving. “But that’s just sort of one aspect,” he says. “Another relates to using the data coming off of the machine to predict failure… We want to get to a point where by analyzing the data across multiple machines, multiple territories, we can pretty much predict when something is going to happen, so we could alert the owner of the machine.’” It’s a goal of global proportions. “You would be hard-pressed these days to go anywhere there is construction, mining, or power generation and not see one of our

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Photo by Jenny Abreu

partner, which usually entails working nights and weekends and not seeing your family generally for a big chunk of your life?’” The answer was no. He wanted “an in-house job with a more international practice.” It took a stopover at another firm before he got it, but six months after leaving Steel Hector, he wound up at Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest manufacturer of earthmoving machinery. He started in 2005, as counsel for its Latin American and Caribbean division, providing legal support for complex commercial transactions in the large power generation field, including equipment sales and engineering, procurement, and construction projects throughout the region. In 2011, the company sent him to Geneva to do that, and more, with the team dealing with its network of

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ALUMNI

Victor Mendelson, J.D. ’92: Building a Successful Global Business

rawing on his family ties, entrepreneurial spirit, and legal education, Victor H. Mendelson, J.D. ’92, has played a key leadership role in one of South Florida’s most remarkable business turnaround stories. In the past 20 years, Mendelson and his brother Eric, guided by their father Laurans, have transformed HEICO Corporation from a moneylosing venture to a highly profitable global aerospace and electronics conglomerate with more than $1 billion in annual sales. Along the way, Mendelson has helped fight off a $100 million lawsuit by United Technologies Corp. that would have closed the company’s doors and has negotiated more than 60 acquisitions.

Today, HEICO (NYSE: HEI and HEI.A) has a $4 billion market cap, and analysts project sales of $1.3 to $1.4 billion this year. “Our compound annual return over the past 25 years has been about 23 percent—better than Warren Buffet’s investment in Berkshire Hathaway,” Mendelson said. Based in Hollywood, Florida, HEICO has multiple locations around the world for design, manufacturing, repair, overhaul, distribution, sales, and support capabilities. Over the past decade, Forbes magazine has ranked HEICO as one of the 100 “World’s Most Innovative Growth Companies,” 100 “Best Small Companies,” 200 “Hot Shot Stocks,” and 100 “Most Trustworthy Companies in America.” Mendelson has served as HEICO’s co-president since 2009 and is also president of the company’s Electronic

Technologies Group, whose net sales increased 46 percent to a record $132.6 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2016. “Our products are found on large commercial aircraft, regional, business and military aircraft, as well as on a large variety of industrial turbines, targeting systems, missiles, and electrooptical devices,” he said.

SHARING A DREAM Born in New York, Mendelson was 15 months old when his parents, Laurans, and Arlene, moved to Miami. He graduated from Gulliver School and then returned to New York City as a freshman at Columbia College, earning his bachelor’s degree in political science in 1989. His older brother Eric was already a student at Columbia, on his way to a bachelor’s degree in economics and an M.B.A. The brothers

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Photo by Joshua Prezant

Victor Mendelson, J.D. ’92: Building a Successful Global Business had already formed an investment company, and Mendelson was considering a law degree in preparation for a career in finance. “With our father, we shared a dream of taking over a troubled public company and making it a success,” Mendelson said. “Since Eric and I were in New York, we were able to talk with several Wall Street securities analysts. One of them suggested we look at HEICO, which was a small Florida company that was losing money.” The three Mendelsons acquired enough shares to become the largest shareholders but had to initiate a proxy fight for control of the company. “During my senior year at Columbia, we sued the directors for proxy solicitation violations, and the case came to trial during my first semester at UM law school,” Mendelson said. “By the end of the trial, it was apparent that we would win, so the company turned over management to us on January 1, 1990.”

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A NEW CHAPTER

At that time, HEICO had about $26 million in annual sales with a market cap of about $25 million. One of the first things the Mendelsons did was to allocate about 12 percent of the company stock—priced at less than $1 share—to the employees’ 401(k) defined contribution plan. Since then the value of those shares has grown exponentially. As Mendelson said, “We are proud to have rewarded our company’s loyal employees turning many of them into millionaires.” In the early 1990s, Mendelson was living at home, juggling his law school assignments with the responsibilities of building a business. “We have a close family, and the company is intertwined in our lives,” he said. But Mendelson also paid close attention to his classes, particularly the corporate and security law courses

taught by Professor Stephen Halpert. After he graduated, he returned to the law school several times as a guest lecturer on his experience at HEICO. For Mendelson, one of the primary benefits of a law school education was being able to serve as the general counsel, as well as an operational executive, on HEICO’s lean management team. “Every contract over a minimal size and every important negotiation came across my desk,” he said. “I was responsible for closing most of the 62 acquisitions we’ve made since 1996, working with the entrepreneurs who were selling their companies. My legal background helped me navigate those deals, and I was able to overlay my business judgment on top of that.”

SECRETS OF A TURNAROUND Turning around HEICO was a long-term process—not like waving a magic wand. “We were able to do so by running a good business, taking care of our people, and developing products our customers needed,” Mendelson said. One of the first and most serious challenges the Mendelsons faced was a lawsuit from UTC dating back to the 1980s. “They filed an injunction to prevent us from making a jet engine replacement part—our only product at the time—and sued for $100 million in damages,” he said. “Fortunately, our insurance company covered the legal fees, and our attorneys were successful in defending our company. After ten years in the courts, the UTC lawsuit was dismissed.” Meanwhile, the Mendelsons began broadening HEICO’s product line, beginning with aircraft replacement parts and moving into electronic components. “I founded our Electronic

Technologies Group in 1996 as we began acquiring aerospace and defense electronics firms,” he said. “We now develop mission-critical, highreliability components for a variety of applications. Our latest products include chips for laser range finders that help determine the distance from a target, as well as infrared testing and calibration equipment for aircraft cameras and detection systems,” Mendelson said. “These are all critical components in advanced technology products.”

BUILDING ON SUCCESS Through the years, HEICO has allowed most of its acquisitions to run as stand-alone businesses within the corporate framework. “We are buying successful niche businesses where the founders and owners have knowledge and expertise,” Mendelson said. “We are not looking to squeeze more juice from the same orange. Instead, we want to encourage their creativity and ability to respond to the market so they can continue their success. As a result, about 90 percent of those entrepreneurs are still with us.” On the personal side, Mendelson and his wife Lisa have three children, including two daughters at Columbia University, where he now serves as chairman of the Columbia College Board of Visitors. Active in a number of community organizations, including serving as treasurer of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Miami-Dade, trustee of St. Thomas University, and board member of Florida Grand Opera, Mendelson said, “Lisa and I love the South Florida lifestyle. We couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.”

A Matter of Degrees

Rudy Moise, J.D. ’97 Learns to Succeed By Carlos Harrison

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ou might call Rudy Moise an overachiever. By the time he retired from the Air Force Reserve, he was a full colonel and the highest-ranking Haitian-American to serve in that branch of the service. He’s also been an actor, a doctor, and an entrepreneur. Plus a film producer, a two-time candidate for the United States Congress, and an ambassador-at-large. He’s got a D.O., M.B.A., and a J.D. Not bad for someone whose high school advisor told him he should drop his plans of becoming a doctor because he couldn’t speak English well enough. “I had to take an English written test, and I failed miserably,” he says. “The advisor said, ‘You want to go to medical school? You can’t pass a simple English test. Why not become a French major?’” The counselor might have been right about the English at the moment. But not about Rudy Moise. “I push, and I push, and I push,” he says. “When you have a dream, you have to be persistent. Don’t let anybody influence you not to pursue it...Nothing good comes easy. The harder it is, the sweeter it’s going to be, later.” And, he had wanted to be a doctor since he was a kid in Port-auPrince, Haiti. He would dissect lizards in his backyard. His parents left Haiti with his sisters and joined his aunt in Chicago while Moise finished high school on the island. He joined them after he graduated, but had to re-take his senior year to get a diploma here. English was a challenge. But Moise kept working at it. He got admitted to the University of Illinois. And he kept his focus on his dream. “It took me five years in college,” he says. “The library closed at 11, and I was the last one there, every single night. What would take a normal American student one or two hours to do would take me seven or eight hours.” Then came medical school. He decided to become an osteopathic physician, he says, because of a personal experience. While he was studying French and chemistry at the University of Illinois, he went in for a procedure at Chicago Osteopathic Hospital. “The care was outstanding,” he says. “So, I said, ‘Oh, wow! I think I would like to be an osteopath.” That’s what led him to Miami.

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A Matter of Degrees Rudy Moise, J.D. ’97 Learns to Succeed

He got a scholarship from the National Health Service Corps. One of the requirements was that, after graduation, “I had to work for them in a shortage area.” He chose a clinic in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. After four exhausting years seeing 30 to 35— even, once, more than 80—patients in a single day, he left the corps. But he stayed in Little Haiti. “I decided to buy a small practice,” he says. He also decided to continue his government service. “This country has been so good to me,” he says, “I thought, what’s the best way to give back?” He went into the Air Force Reserve. Thanks to the credit he got for his National Health Service years, he began as a major. Sitting in the home office in his elegant Davie mansion, it’s easy to see why he picked that branch of service: Beautifully carved and polished models of aircraft stand out prominently on the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves behind his desk. He points to them as he says, “I like airplanes.” He became a flight surgeon. That gave him a chance to fly, but “it’s not your primary job,” he says. The primary job is “you take care of pilots.” He stayed until 2013, rising steadily through the ranks. Along the way, too, he says, a friend got an MBA. It struck Moise as a good idea. “In medical school, they taught us how to treat patients, how to take care of people,” he says, “but they never taught us the management part of practicing.” His final project in the University of Miami Executive MBA program,

“was to come out with my idea of my dream medical center,” he says. He put together a business plan. It led to a bank loan that let him open his first medical center. “My business is a result of my M.B.A.,” he says. The M.B.A. also sparked yet another achievement. One of the classes covered business law. He liked it. So, again, Moise headed back to school. “By day, I was a physician, and at night, law school,” he says. “My weekends were shot because I had to prepare all my cases then.” He graduated from Miami Law with the class of ’97. And, although he says, “I never actually practiced law,” he has found the education he got working toward his J.D. invaluable as a businessman and physician. “I review my contracts,” he says. “I also do a lot of expert witness testimony. When I get deposed, I understand. I don’t get upset or confused.” In 2010, Moise says he got the urge to give back to his adopted country in another way. He ran for U.S. Congress. “I’ve always had a desire to serve,” he says. Plus, “I thought it would be nice to have a Haitian-American in Congress.” He faced a crowded Democratic field but managed to come in second against veteran politician Federica Wilson. He wound up spending more than $1 million of his money on the race. “I put my money where my mouth is,” he says. Undaunted, he tried again two years later. This time, his longtime

friend and patient, Haitian President Michel Martelly, endorsed him on a Miami Creole-language radio station. President Barack Obama endorsed his opponent. Moise lost again. In 2014, Martelly named Moise an ambassador-at-large, focused on investment opportunities. Other endeavors have included launching a Creole-language radio station and, he says proudly, acting. He’s been in five productions, and was executive producer on three, including, “Dolls of Voodoo,” and “If I Tell You I Have to Kill You.” “I get more recognition as an actor,” he says, “than as a doctor.” It’s something he dreamed about since he was young, watching Elvis Presley movies. “That’s something I really love,” he says. “I used to sing in front of the mirror.” Unfortunately, he says, it’s too time-consuming. He now owns two health centers, in Miami and Orlando, and regularly travels between them. He’s also in the process of expanding. And, he hasn’t stopped giving back. When a devastating earthquake struck his homeland in 2010, Moise joined a team of aid workers to render medical care. It was emotionally, and psychologically challenging. On one occasion, he had to crawl deep into a mound of rubble to help a man whose legs were pinned under a wall. “I have claustrophobia,” he says. In all, he says, he helped save “maybe 15 people.” That, of course, was its own reward. But it also fit with what Moise says is a personal philosophy. “Community to me is very important,” he says. “Success is nothing unless you reach back and help those less fortunate.”

Photo by: Karen Salamanca

Francisco Reyes Villamizar, LL.M. ’93:

rancisco Reyes Villamizar, LL.M. ’93, has helped change the legal landscape in his native Colombia, smoothing the way for increased trade, investment and business activity. Internationally recognized for his dedication to public service, teaching, and legal scholarship, Reyes helped reform the Colombian Commercial Code and create a “streamlined” corporate entity, while teaching corporate and comparative law in Latin America, Europe, and the United States. “The University of Miami School of Law played a critical part in my career,” said Reyes. “The great input I received at UM was instrumental

in fostering my understanding of the intricacies of law.” Reyes believes that a legal education provides a solid foundation for a career in public service. “It is critical for public servants to know the laws, regulations, and constitutional provisions affecting their positions,” he said. “There are many decisions that have legal consequences. If you’re not a lawyer, you have to rely on someone else’s expert opinion. But with legal training, you can foresee the consequences of your decisions.” One of the recent highlights of Reyes’ career in public service was serving as chairman of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, which strives to modernize laws, reduce transaction costs and facilitate global

trade. “UNCITRAL has been very successful in harmonizing laws related to electronic commerce, cross-border insolvency, arbitration and commercial transactions,” said Reyes, who presented a series of trade seminars in Korea this spring before his term as chairman ended in July. “UNCITRAL has a great program for helping developing countries improve their trade capacity and legal infrastructure.”

AN EARLY INTEREST IN LAW A native of Colombia, Reyes earned his law degree (LL.B.) from Javeriana University in Bogotá. “My father was a lawyer, diplomat, and a writer, and that certainly influenced my choice of career. In Colombia, law is an undergraduate program, so I

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Changing Colombia’s Legal Landscape

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Francisco Reyes Villamizar, LL.M. ’93: Changing Colombia’s Legal Landscape

started my legal education fresh out of high school. Reyes then traveled to Portugal, earning a diploma in Portuguese culture from the University of Lisbon. He also began thinking about a legal degree from the University of Miami. “I had been to UM before in a fourday law school program for Latin American practicing lawyers,” he said. “I had begun teaching law in Bogotá and wanted to continue my education. Fortunately, I received a scholarship to study at UM, thanks to an exchange program with my school.” Reyes came to the UM in the Fall 1992 semester just a few weeks after Hurricane Andrew had devastated the region, delaying the start of classes. Originally, Reyes had enrolled in the master’s degree in public administration program but quickly decided to transfer to Miami Law’s Comparative LL.M. program, where he focused on the courses in comparative law and corporate law. “Even though I joined the program late, I was able to catch up,” said Reyes, who cited the lasting influence of Professor Keith Rosenn, chair of the LL.M. program and a noted scholar in comparative law. That experience at Miami Law set the foundation for Reyes’ career in academia and the public sector. “When I came back home from UM, I felt there were many things in the Colombian legislation that could be improved by transplanting some U.S. Corporate Law principles,” he said. Soon after his return, Reyes was appointed as the Ministry of Justice’s coordinator for the reform of the Colombian Commercial Code. In December 1995, Colombia’s Congress passed a new law of corporations, providing more

flexibility in creating business associations with unrestricted life span and limited liability. “Many of those ideas were transplants from U.S. law that I was familiar with thanks to my classes with Professor Rosenn and Dr. Nicholas Trucker, an Italian scholar who was a guest lecturer at UM.”

CREATING A NEW CORPORATE STRUCTURE More than a decade after his ground-breaking work on Colombia’s Commercial Code, Reyes returned to the legislative arena as an advocate for a new type of corporate structure. In 2008, the Colombian Congress approved the creation of the Simplified Corporation, a flexible legal entity that is similar to a U.S. limited liability company. “Ever since the law was approved, business people understood that SAS was a state-of-the-art structure,” Reyes said. “Today, about 96 percent of all new businesses are incorporated as simplified corporations, and there are now about 350,000 in the corporate landscape.” During the past 20 years, Reyes has served two terms as Superintendent of Companies. “This is a government institution that supervises corporations,” said Reyes, who is now in the midst of a four-year term. “We have extensive powers on corporate law and bankruptcy. We also manage a court of arbitration for commercial disputes.”

A LEADING LEGAL SCHOLAR In tandem with his career in public service, Reyes has been a noted legal scholar, earning a Ph.D. in law from Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Reyes has written more

than a dozen books and articles on business associations and bankruptcy, including publications in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. He has also been an editorialist for several Colombian newspapers and served as the chairman of the board of directors of the Latin American publishing company Legis S.A. In addition to his work with the UN commission, Reyes is a member of the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law, the Academy of Comparative Law, and the Colombian Academy of Jurisprudence, and has been a speaker at international forums, including those at the Supreme Courts of Brazil and Mexico, as well as Columbia and Fordham Universities in New York. He also delivered the 39th LSU Tucker Lecture on Comparative Law in 2016 and was awarded the Javeriana University Golden Medal for his distinguished academic contribution in Colombia. Reyes has been a visiting professor at universities in Europe, Africa, and North and South America, including Stetson College of Law in Gulfport, Florida. While Reyes is a global thinker who believes in harmonizing international law, his focus continues to improve his native Colombia. “We have made great progress in the past 25 years, and our legal reforms have changed the corporate landscape,” he said. “Today, Colombia is a sophisticated corporate law jurisdiction that can adjudicate very complex cases while providing our business people with a clear and consistent legal framework. We will continue to move forward to enhance Colombia’s domestic and international commercial relationships.”

Miami Law Alumna to Lead ABA in 2017

color, their gender, their religion, or their income.” Bass, who is co-president of Greenberg Traurig, has previously served as chair of the ABA Litigation Section. From her position as vice chair of the University of Miami Board of Trustees and a member of Miami Law’s Visiting Committee, she has seen current legal education firsthand. She said that hardly a day passes that there is not a story reporting on the challenges facing the nation’s legal education system, casting blame on one entity or another. “The American Bar Association is the only group in this country capable of bringing all of those disparate groups into the same room talking to each other about whether and how

this system of legal education should be redesigned,” Bass said. Bass, who in 2014 made a $1 million commitment in support of Miami Law, which honored her by naming the courtyard the “Hilarie Bass Bricks,” strongly encouraged the members of the ABA to undertake a modernization of their industry. “Most importantly, the ABA can provide leadership to the practitioners of this country who, for the most part, are practicing law the same way they always have, despite the technical innovations that have enhanced and made more efficient every other professional services profession,” she said. “The American Bar Association can, and must, provide unique leadership to the practitioners in

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ilarie Bass has always been a top shelf kind of person, excelling with a sui generis brand of curiosity, talent, and creativity with a big dollop of good humor. The Miami-native has shown brightly, even back in high school as a Silver Knight Award winner—in drama—before rising to co-president of one of the largest law firms in the country. Bass, J.D. ’81, will take the helm in August, 2017 as president of the American Bar Association, the 410,000-member top legal organization. Her goal: to improve the profession. In her speech at the annual conference in August where she took over as president-elect, Bass urged her fellow members to take up with gusto the ABA’s goals of serving the underserved, taking responsibility for strengthening legal education, and more aggressively embracing advances in technology and innovation. She promised that the ABA would continue to ensure that its “greatest mission—defending liberty and pursuing justice for all citizens– remains at the forefront of all of our efforts.” “Despite the great freedoms and opportunity that exist in our country, we all understand that, as Americans, we have much to do to perfect our union,” she said. “The American Bar Association must not only be part of that effort but we, as lawyers, are duty bound to lead it.” Bass said that they could not achieve that objective until “all of our citizens believe that the justice system treats them fairly, irrespective of their

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HILARIE BASS

By Catharine Skipp

Miami Law Alumna to Lead ABA in 2017 this country and assist them in the adoption and implementation of innovation approaches to the practice of law.”

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’CANES STEER INTO THE FUTURE

Bass is not the first alumna in an influential position at the ABA. Carolyn Lamm, J.D. ’73 and a partner at White & Case, was president in 2009-2010. Miami alumna Deborah Enix-Ross is the incoming chair of the House of Delegates. “I applaud Hilarie Bass—another extraordinary ’Cane. She will make Miami Law proud,” Lamm says. “Her vision and superb leadership skills will enrich the ABA and our profession. I am confident she will be one our best ABA presidents ever!” Lamm has continued her connection to Miami Law; she teaches International Investment Arbitration in the White & Case International Arbitration LL.M. Program. A thought leader in the field of international arbitration, Lamm was appointed U.S. Panel of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes by President Bill Clinton. Prior to joining White & Case, she was at the U.S. Department of Justice, serving as a trial attorney in the Fraud Section of the Civil Division. Miami Law’s alumnae continue a great tradition of leadership in the community, and in the state and national conversation about the practice of law. “My experience at Miami Law played a crucial role in my development and shaping the person I am today,” says Bass. “Law school taught me to solve people’s

problems and the importance of equal access to justice. In my new role as ABA president-elect, I look forward to making a difference in the profession and continuing the ABA’s commitment to eradicating bias, enhancing diversity and advancing the rule of law.”

MIAMI LAW ALUMNAE ASSUME LEADERSHIP POSITIONS ACROSS THE LEGAL ASSOCIATIONS FIELD In addition to Hilarie Bass taking the helm next year at the American Bar Association, Deborah Enix-Ross, J.D. `81, is the incoming chair of the House of Delegates, and Edith Osman, J.D. ’83 and past president of the Florida Bar Association, is in the ABA House of Delegates as the Florida representative. Enix-Ross, the senior advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group and a member of the Debevoise & Plimpton’s Diversity Committee, has served as the chair of the Business and Human Rights Project of the ABA Center for Human Rights. She is a former chair of the ABA Section of International Law, where she was the Goal IX Officer and co-founded the Women’s Interest Network. She is a visiting professor at Miami Law in the Spring 2017 semester. Anna Marie Hernandez, J.D. ’01, is the president of the Cuban American Bar Association; Nikki Lewis Simon, J.D. ’99, is the president-elect of the Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association; and Rebecca A. Ocariz, J.D. ’98, is the president of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. The Honorable

Lisa S. Walsh, J.D. ’92, is the most recent president of the National Association of Women Judges. Hernandez, the CABA president and a partner at Holland & Knight, is a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation and Real Estate Litigation practice groups. She has extensive experience in handling matters involving commercial lease disputes, title insurance litigation, collection actions, commercial foreclosures, general business disputes, and protection of creditors rights. Simon, who will take the reins of the GSCBWLA in July 2017, is a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig. She serves as the director of the firm’s Client Development and Corporate Social Responsibility, aligning diversity and inclusion practices with client needs. Ocariz, president of the FAWL, is a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP, focusing her practice on product liability and commercial litigation. She has served as the Miami-Dade Chapter of FAWL’s Secretary, Treasurer, as a Director and as a Committee Chair. She is also a recipient of the FAWL Leader in the Law Award. Currently serving as the Florida representative in the ABA House of Delegates, Osman is the past president of the Florida Bar. A shareholder at Carlton Fields, her practice focuses on business litigation, matrimonial law, and mediation. Judge Walsh, the outgoing president of NAWJ, sits on the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida in the Criminal Division. Before her present position, she was a County Court Judge, a Circuit Court Judge, and a Public Defender.

CLASSnotes Supreme Court Justice, State of New York, is now serving as a mediator/arbitrator for members of the New York State Bar.

1959

The Honorable A. Jay Cristol, Chief

Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, was honored by the Law Alumni Association with the Alumnus of Distinction Award. E. Leonard Rubin announced the opening of his law firm, LRubin Law in Chicago. Rubin will concentrate his practice in copyright, trademark, and entertainment law.

1962

Herbert Odell, a tax attorney in the Philadelphia office of Chamberlain Hrdlicka, has been ranked among the top federal tax controversy attorneys nationwide in Chambers USA 2016 Guide.

1965

Richard N. Friedman, popularly known

as the “Singing Attorney,” had his third music album, Red Carpet, released.

1967

Barry Richard, an attorney with Greenberg

Traurig, LLP in Tallahassee, was recently recognized in the 2016 Chambers USA Guide as a “Senior Statesman.”

1969

Robert “Bob” Butterworth, Jr., a former

Florida Attorney General, has been appointed by the Florida Supreme Court to the board of The Florida Bar Foundation.

1972

Justice R. Fred Lewis of the Florida

Supreme Court has been named to the U.S. Army ROTC National Hall of Fame.

1973

The Honorable Stanford Blake has

been awarded by the Florida Supreme Court for judicial excellence and was recognized as “the best of the best” among all Circuit Court Judges in Florida. Patricia Lebow, managing partner of Broad and Cassel’s West Palm Beach office, was honored as 2016 Florida Legal Elite and was inducted into the 2016 Legal Elite Hall of Fame.

1974

The Honorable Barry M. Cohen, Judge in the 15th Circuit Criminal Division of Palm Beach County has retired after 25 years on the bench.

Laurence (Larry) S. Litlow of Burr &

Amy N. Dean was elected chair of the

Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s Board of Directors. Bruce P. McMoran, a managing partner of McMoran, O’Connor & Bramley, has been selected as one of the three finalists for the New Jersey 2016 Attorney of the Year Award.

Forman LLP, has been named as the firm’s Fort Lauderdale office managing partner. Barry A. Nelson has been named as a leading estate planning attorney in Florida and as a notable practitioner in Florida tax by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business.

1977

1982

The Honorable Gill S. Freeman, Retired Judge of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, received the Henry Latimer Professionalism Award by the Law Alumni Association. Harley S. Tropin, president of Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, was honored by the American Jewish Committee of Miami and Broward with the 2016 Judge Learned Hand Award in April.

1978

Joseph H. Serota, founding member

Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, will be honored as a Legal Legend this fall by HistoryMiami.

1979

Susan H. Aprill, a Shareholder in Fowler

White Burnett’s Commercial Litigation practice group, has been appointed by Florida Governor Rick Scott to the Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission. Stephen H. Bittel, a Florida real estate developer, was appointed as co-chairman of the Democratic National Committee’s national finance committee. Dorian S. Denburg, Executive Director— Senior Legal Counsel with AT&T in Atlanta, was awarded Diversity Champion by the Atlanta Business Chronicle and Association of Corporate Counsel-Georgia Chapter. The Honorable Laurel M. Isicoff, J.D. ’82, has been selected by the District

foster care abuse attorney and life-long advocate for children’s rights, was honored with the Alumni Achievement Award by the Law Alumni Association. William MacLeod was elected to Chair of the American Bar Association Antitrust Section. MacLeod is a partner with the law firm Kelley Drye in Washington, D.C. and Chicago.

Court to succeed Judge Paul G. Hyman, Jr., J.D. ’77, as Chief Bankruptcy Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida. Lee F. Lasris has been elevated to shareholder and co-chair of Greenspoon Marder Health Care Law Practice Group Fort Lauderdale office. Daniel Zabludowski has joined the Miami law firm of Genovese Joblove & Battista as Of Counsel.

1980

1983

Howard M. Talenfeld, a leading Florida

Ronald L. Kammer was selected as one

of 2017 Best Lawyers in America. Kammer is co-chair of law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson’s National Insurance Services Practice Group, and co-partner-in-charge of the firm’s Miami office.

1981

Thomas Dye has joined Cozen O’Connor’s Miami, Florida office as a partner in their intellectual property department. Deborah Enix-Ross, Senior Advisor to the International Dispute Resolution Group at Debevoise & Plimpton New York’s office, has assumed the position of Chair of the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association. Hilarie A. Bass, co-president of Greenberg Traurig, assumed the role of President-Elect of the American Bar Association for a one-year term.

The Honorable Lauren L. Brodie, Circuit Judge of the 20th Judicial Circuit Court, was honored by the Lee County Association for Women Lawyers at its Judicial Appreciation Reception. Donna A. Bucella, a former U.S. Attorney, has joined Guidepost Solutions LLC as president of its compliance business in the company’s Washington, D.C. office. James Ferraro, a shareholder of the Ferraro Law Firm in Miami, Florida, was named the 2015 Plaintiff’s Attorney of the Year by CVN Florida. Brian K. Gart has joined the firm Akerman LLP as a partner in the Bankruptcy & Reorganization Practice Group based in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida office. Lawrence Gordon has joined Cozen O’Connor San Francisco office as a partner in their intellectual property department.

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1976

The Honorable Marvin E. Segal, retired

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

1952

Deborah (Debi) Hoffman was honored

with the 2016 Community Champion Award by Philanthropy Miami. Masha G. Mardorsky has joined Duane Morris’ Miami office as a partner in the firm’s Wealth Planning Practice Group. Edith G. Osman, Past President of the Florida Bar, was elected as Florida State Delegate of the American Bar Association. Osman is a shareholder at Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, P.A.

1984

Roy S. Kobert, a shareholder at GrayRobinson, was recognized in Chambers USA 2016 statewide in the Bankruptcy/ Restructuring category. Diana Santa Maria was honored with the Compassionate Gladiatrix Award by the Florida Justice Association in Orlando, Florida. Diane Wagner Katzen has joined the Miami-based litigation firm Klugler, Kaplan, Silverman, Katzen & Levine as Of Counsel.

1985

Ervin A. Gonzalez, a partner at Colson

Hicks Eidson, has been named to America’s Most Honored Professionals 2016 Top One Percent listing by American Registry. Michael Higer, a partner at Berger Singerman’s Miami office, is the Florida Bar’s president-elect and will lead the organization starting in mid-2017.

1986

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Alice R. Best has created and published two

coloring books for grownups. Her series is titled Imagery From Beyond, Messages From Beyond Coloring Book. Kimberly D. Kolback of the Law Offices of Kimberly Kolback in Miami moderated the “Business of Sports Law” panel during the ABA’s 27th Annual North American Entertainment, Sports and Intellectual Property Law Summit. Roberto R. Pardo has been reappointed by the Florida Supreme Court to serve on the board of The Florida Bar Foundation.

1987

Laird A. Lile, a wills, trusts and estates

attorney in Naples, has been named a Top 100 Florida Super Lawyer. Additionally, Lile was re-elected to a sixth consecutive term on the Board of Governors for The Florida Bar. Howard Srebnick, a Miami criminal defense attorney, and partner at Black, Srebnick, Kornspan & Stumpf, argued and won in a 5-3 decision the case Luis v. United States in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1988

1994

partner with the law firm of Weiss Serota Helfman Cole & Bierman, has been re-elected as Treasurer of the International Law Section of the Federal Bar Association and will once again serve on the organization’s Executive Board.

was listed among the 2016 Super Lawyers in the Employee Benefits category by Super Lawyers Magazine. Detra Shaw-Wilder, a managing partner at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton, received the Thomas Davison III Memorial Award by the Law Alumni Association.

Roger Kobert, a commercial litigation

1989

Christine D. Hanley, a partner in the West Palm Beach office of FordHarrison, LLP, was selected in the 2017 Best Lawyers in America.

1990

The Honorable Martin J. Bidwill, Administrative Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, was honored with the Law Alumni Association’s Alumni Achievement Award. Jodi B. Laurence has been elevated to shareholder and co-chair of Greenspoon Marder Health Care Law Practice Group Fort Lauderdale office. Brenda Shapiro received an honorary law degree from Pine Manor College in Newton Center, Massachusetts. Cathy M. Stutin, a Partner at Fisher Phillips’ Fort Lauderdale office, was selected as one of 2016 Florida Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine.

1991

Carlos B. Castillo was appointed General Counsel of Florida International University in Miami, Florida. Daniel S. Newman, a partner at Broad and Cassel’s Miami office, was honored as a 2016 Florida Legal Elite. Edward H. Zebersky, founding Partner of Zebersky Payne, LLP, was recognized as a 2016 Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine.

1992

Charles D. Michel has been promoted from Coast Guard Vice Commandant to the rank of Admiral by the Coast Guard. Michel is the first career judge advocate in any military service to wear four stars.

1993

Julie Braman Kane has been elected president of the American Association for Justice. A partner at Colson Hicks Eidson in their Coral Gables, Florida office, she is the 71st president and seventh woman to lead the association. Donna J. Turetsky, a partner at Grudger and Turetsky, has been named to the Top 10 Legal Eagles List for 2016 by Long Island Pulse Magazine.

Daniel Alter, Shareholder at GrayRobinson,

1995

Kristin Ahr, Of Counsel in the West Palm Beach office of Broad and Cassel, was honored as a 2016 Florida Legal Elite. Thomas W. Arnst, was appointed as Chief Administrative Officer of Millennium Health, a leading health solutions company. Roy Weinfeld has been named Senior Associate of Coldwell Banker Commercial Alliance Miami, a commercial real estate services company. Leslie José Zigel, Shareholder & Chair of the Entertainment Law Group at Greenspoon’s Marder Miami office, was named one of the Music Industry’s Top Lawyers in 2016 by Billboard.

1996

Joyce Ackerbaum Cox, an employment litigator, and partner at BakerHostetler’s Orlando office has been designated as a 2016 Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. Leyza F. Blanco, a shareholder at GrayRobinson, was selected to serve as covice-chair of the Legislation Committee of the Business Law Section of the Florida Bar. Elizabeth DeConti, a shareholder at GrayRobinson, was recognized in Chambers USA 2016 nationally in the Food & Beverages: Alcohol category. Marlene Quintana, a shareholder in GrayRobinson’s Miami office, was elected president of the board of directors of Miami Bridge Youth + Family Services, Inc. Stephanie A. Segalini has joined the firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP as a partner in its Tampa office where she focuses her practice on employee benefits litigation and class actions.

1997

Kenneth A. Gordon, a partner with the law firm of Brinkley Morgan in Palm Beach County, Florida, has been named a 2016 Florida Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. Mark. A Levy, a litigation attorney with the firm Brinkley Morgan, was recently named a 2016 Florida Super Lawyer and was also recognized by the 2016 Legal Elite by Florida Trend Magazine.

Carlos I. Cardelle was elected PresidentElect of the Association of Corporate Counsel—South Florida Chapter. Horacio Gutierrez, General Counsel of Spotify, was named one of the Music Industry’s Top Lawyers in 2016 by Billboard. Gutierrez joined Spotify in April of 2016. Ty Harrisan, an attorney who focuses on land use issues, has joined GrayRobinson’s Boca Raton office. Rebecca A. Ocariz, a partner at Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Miami office, was installed as the 2016 President of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Miami-Dade Chapter.

1999

Otto Eduardo Fonseca Lobo, a senior partner with the Brazilian law firm Motta, Fernandez Rocha, was named to the Council of Appeals of the National Financial System of Brazil. Evan Goldman, CEO of HANDY, was recently awarded “Organization of the Year” at the 6th Annual South Florida Community Care Network Non-Profit Academy Awards hosted by the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Jaret L. Davis, a co-managing shareholder at the Miami office of Greenberg Traurig, P.A, was honored by the Dade County Bar Association’s 2016 Legal Luminaries Award for practice in the Merger and Acquisitions category. Nikki Lewis Simon, a shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, P.A., was installed as President-Elect for Gwen S. Cherry Black Women Lawyers Association.

2000

Ivette Arango O’Doski has joined the law

firm Buchanan Ingersoll Rooney as a senior advisor of government relations. Ardith Bronson, Of Counsel with the firm DLA Piper, was appointed 2016 Newsletter Editor of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Miami-Dade Chapter. Sabrina R. Gallo, a co-hiring shareholder at the Miami office of Greenberg Traurig, P.A., was honored by the Dade County Bar Association’s 2016 Legal Luminaries Award for Practice in the Health Care category. Katie S. Phang, a partner in Berger Singerman’s Miami office, was installed as the 2016 President-Elect of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers Miami-Dade Chapter.

Anna Marie Hernandez, a partner

at Holland & Knight, was installed as the 2016 president of the Cuban American Bar Association and was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review. Michele R. Korver, Assistant United States Attorney, has been appointed Digital Currency Crimes Coordinator by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado. Patrick Montoya, a partner at the law firm Colson Hicks Eidson, has been recently elected to the Board of Directors for the Dade County Bar Association.

2002

Rilyn Carnahan, an associate with Greenspoon Marder, P.A., was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida. Cindy Duque Bonilla, partner of Counsel at the Orlando offices of Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial, was awarded the “HNBA Top Lawyers under 40 Award” by the Hispanic National Bar Association. Jason P. Kairalla, a Shareholder in the Miami office of Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, received the 2015 Lawyers for Children America, Inc. John Edward Smith Child Advocacy Award.

2003

Claudine A. Chen-Young has been

elected Partner of the global law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius, LLP. Chen-Young focuses her practice on structured finance and securitization transactions and is based out of the Washington, D.C. office. Marissel Descalzo, a shareholder with Carlton Fields Jorden Burt, was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review. Descalzo is a trial attorney who focuses her practice on complex criminal and civil litigation in the firm’s Miami office. Fara T. Gold has been promoted to Special Litigation Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section. Gold will take the lead in prosecuting, investigating and handling the Section’s most important cases. Violeta Longino, Deputy General Counsel at AccorHotels, was named Chambers USA Gender Diversity Lawyer of the Year 2016. Dorothy “Doris” Negrin has joined the Fort Lauderdale office of McGlinchey Stafford PLLC as Of Counsel in the Commercial Litigation practice group.

2004

Sabina Babel was named Partner in the law

firm of Hall Prangle & Schoonveld’s Chicago office. Babel focuses her practice in Healthcare Litigation and Birth Trauma Defense. Daniel P. Faust, a partner in Akerman, LLP, was selected as a 2016 Rising Start by the Daily Business Review. Faust practices commercial real estate law in the firm’s Miami office. Craig C. Glorioso, shareholder of Greenberg Traurig, LLP will be recognized as a “Pink Tie Guy” at the 10th Annual Susan G. Komen Orange County Pink Tie Ball in Irvine, California. Samuel A. Grundwerg, a Florida native, has been named as Israel’s new consul general in Los Angeles, California.

2005

Dariel Abrahamy, a shareholder with Greenspoon Marder, was selected by the Daily Business Review as a 2016 Rising Star. He focuses on commercial and civil litigation in the firm’s Boca Raton, Florida office. Brianna Adams of New Hampshire has joined Piscataqua Bank as a Trust Officer in their Trust & Investment Department. Gina Beovides has been appointed to the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida by Florida Governor Rick Scott. Kimberly Kanoff Berman, a Senior Associate with McIntosh Sawran & Cartaya, and husband Jarett Berman welcomed the birth of their first child, Leonard Reese Berman on September 20, 2015. Marko Cerenko has been named partner at the Miami litigation firm Klugler, Kaplan, Silverman, Katzen & Levine. Cerenko focuses his practice on complex commercial litigation and real estate litigation. Anastasios G. Kastrinakis has joined Duane Morris’ Miami office as a partner in the firm’s Tax Practice within the Corporate Practice Group. Scott Knap, a partner in the Fort Lauderdale offices of law firm Broad & Cassel, was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review. Knapp is a member of his firm’s Commercial and Bankruptcy and Creditor’s Rights Practice Groups. Brendan Sweeney has launched his firm, Sweeney Law P.A. in Fort Lauderdale. Sweeney Law will focus on business, consumer, and real estate law. Sarah Warden has joined Florida Health Law Center as an associate in their Davie, Florida office. Sara Yousuf, a Miami-Dade Assistant Public Defender, was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review.

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1998

2001

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Zach Shelomith, a partner with Leiderman Shelomith Alexander + Somodevilla, was elected First Vice President of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida.

2006

Chauncey D. Cole, an attorney in Kozyak

Tropin & Throckmorton’s complex litigation department, was recognized for his pro-bono accomplishments by TotalBank and Legal Services of Greater Miami. Kimberly Longford has joined the Maryland law firm Pessin Katz Law as a member of their Medical Malpractice Defense Group. Hunter G. Norton, a partner at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, has earned his Florida Bar board certification in business litigation. Tara Pellegrino, an associate in Broad and Cassel’s West Palm Beach office, has been certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a circuit civil mediator. Jamie B. Schwinghamer, a litigation attorney with Hahn Loeser & Parks LLP, has been reappointed to the board of directors for the Collier County Women’s Bar Association. Nathaniel D. Tobin has been promoted to partner at Kelley Kronenberg’s Miami office. Tobin focuses his practice on Insurance Defense, Property and Casualty, Complex Commercial and Construction Disputes. Anthony P. Vernace, a shareholder with Greenberg Traurig, was honored by the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach Country in recognition for his outstanding work with the YMCA of the Palm Beaches. Jaime R. Vining, a partner of Friedland Vining, was recognized for her pro-bono accomplishments by TotalBank and Legal Services of Greater Miami. Mihai Vrasmasu, a partner in Shook, Hardy & Bacon’s Miami office, was selected as a 2016 Rising Start by the Daily Business Review. Douglas A. Wolfe has opened his law firm, Douglas Wolfe Law in Miami, Florida. The firm handles healthcare matters, disputes, and insurance coverage cases.

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2007

Ido J. Alexander, a partner with

Leiderman Shelomith Alexander + Somodevilla, was elected President of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida. Francisco Armada has rejoined Florida law firm Broad and Cassel as a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group in Miami, Florida. Joseph J. Mamounas, a partner in Holland & Knight’s litigation and dispute resolution practice, was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review. Betsy L. McCoy received the Hall of Fame Alumni Award presented by the Lewis Central

Education Foundation. McCoy is Chief Legal Officer of The Related Group and a Miami Law adjunct professor. Javier Sobrado has joined Cozen O’Connor’s Miami, Florida office as an associate in their intellectual property department. Charlie E. Whorton, a partner in Rivero Mestre’s Miami office, was selected as a 2016 Rising Star by the Daily Business Review.

2008

Vance Aloupis, newly appointed CEO of The Children’s Movement of Florida, received the 2016 Ruth Shack Leadership Award awarded by Philanthropy Miami and the Miami Foundation. Stephanie M. Chaissan has been elevated to Shareholder in Fowler White Burnett’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group. Stella Chu, an associate in the Miami office of Rumberger, Kirk and Caldwell, has been elected to the Dade County Bar Association Board of Directors. Richard DeNapoli, a practicing attorney in South Florida, has signed on to work on Donald Trump’s Presidential campaign as the Fort Lauderdale area Director and as part of Mr. Trump’s statewide leadership team. John S. Leinicke, a senior associate at Roig Lawyers, has been re-elected as President of the Dade County Defense Bar Association.. David T. Poiden has been promoted to Partner in the Miami law firm of Haber Slade, P.A. David concentrates his practice in the areas of construction, community association law, commercial leasing and real estate transactions. Eric J. Silver, Shareholder in Stearns Weaver et al. Miami office, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida.

2009

Robert N. Diznoff is the Democratic Staff

Director of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and serves as Senior Counsel for Ranking Member Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Jesse D. Drawas has been named as Shareholder in Fowler White Burnett’s Insurance Practice Group. Freddy Funes has been named partner in the law firm of Gelber Schachter & Greenberg in Miami, Florida. Funes practices in complex commercial litigation and international investigations. Michael D. Lesser, a senior associate in the Fort Lauderdale office of GrayRobinson, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the

Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida.. Michael Pieciak has been appointed Commissioner of the Department of Financial Regulation by Vermont’s governor. Pieciak will be in charge of regulating Vermont’s securities, insurance, banking and captive insurance industries. Shannon M. Popuolo, a business attorney with Henderson, Franklin, Starners & Holt, P.A., was recognized as a 2016 Florida Rising Star by Super Lawyers magazine.

2010

Daniela Gordon has accepted a position as

Manager of Legal and Business Administration with Symplast, a medical software technology company based in Coral Springs, Florida. Bryan J. Harrison has joined the International Law Firm Bryan Cave LLP as an associate in the Commercial Litigation and Antitrust & Competition Groups in its Washington, D.C. office. Adriana Kostencki has joined Berger Singerman’s Miami office as a partner in the Government and Regulatory Team to lead their new business immigration law practice. Kostencki has also been appointed as President of the Venezuelan-American National Bar Association. Isis Pacheco Velasco has been named Vice President of Interamerican Bank, where she heads the Bank’s Corporate Governance Department. Kelly Roberts of the Bankruptcy Law Office of James Schwitalla was elected Second Vice President of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida. Abbigail E. Webb has joined the Miami office of Arnstein & Lehr LLP as an associate in their Litigation Practice Group.

2011

Thomas G. Coleman has joined Roetzel & Andress, as an associate in its Fort Myers office and focuses his practice on business litigation. Alan R. Rosenberg has joined the law firm of Markowitz Ringel Trusty + Hartog as an Associate. Robert Weaver has joined Cozen O’Connor’s Miami, Florida office as an associate in their intellectual property department. Thomas P. White has joined the Law Firm of Adams and Reese as an Associate in the Litigation Practice Group in their Jacksonville, Florida office.

2012

Matthew Horowitz has joined Cozen

O’Connor’s Miami, Florida office as an associate in their intellectual property department. Robert (Dale) Noll, a trusts and estates lawyer at Akerman LLP in Miami, has been named president-elect of the National LGBT Bar Association. Eric S. Olson joined the firm Cohen & Grisby as an Associate in its Naples, Florida office. Olson focuses his practice on all aspects of civil litigation. U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Spencer Roach

has retired after 20 years of service where he served as a senior attorney in the Office of Member Advocacy in Washington, D.C. Jordan Rubinstein, an influential commercial real estate professional, has joined Kennedy Wilson, a global real estate investment company in Los Angeles, California.

2013

Tamara Barnes, Mary DelCamp, Luis Ramos and Leslie Watt, have joined

the legal team of Jazwares, LLC, a toy and consumer electronics company headquartered in Sunrise, Florida. Alejandro Miyar and Alexis Christie Miyar welcomed their first child, daughter Rafaella Elizabeth, in July 2016.

Felipe Plechac-Diaz, an associate with Leiderman Shelomith Alexander + Somodevilla, was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Bankruptcy Bar Association of the Southern District of Florida. Frank Sardinha, III, received the M. Minette Massey Moot Court Award by the Law Alumni Association. Gregory Seigel has recently opened Seigel Advisory Services, a boutique healthcare investment bank in St. Petersburg, Florida. P. Taylor Yawney has joined GrayRobinson as an associate in the real estate practice group at their Miami office.

Capuano as an associate, focusing her practice on divorce and family law matters. Antonio P. Romano, an associate at Chepenik Trushin LLP, has been selected by his legal peers as a Fellow of the Florida Bar Leadership Academy. Jordan A. Shaw, partner at Zebersky Payne, LLP, was recognized as a 2016 “Super Lawyer Rising Star.”

2015

Laura E. Scala has joined the law firm

2014

Lesser Lesser Landy & Smith as an Associate in their West Palm Beach office. Scala will focus her practice on personal injury, motor vehicle, and wrongful death cases.

Galvin Legal, PLLC in Vero Beach, Florida.

2016

James P. Galvin has launched his firm,

Aaron Lifter has joined the Miami office of

Broad and Cassel as a member of the firm’s Commercial Litigation Practice Group. Freddi R. Mack, an associate with the firm K & L Gates, was appointed to the 2016 Board of Directors of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers MiamiDade Chapter. Amanda Roesch has joined the Fort Lauderdale boutique law firm of Levinson &

Matthew Deblinger, former SBA President, received the 2015 Joseph H. Bogosian Student Leadership Award in recognition of outstanding leadership.

Share your news! Send your class note to: notes@law.miami.edu

Marvin B. Guberman, J.D. ’54 Hon. Arthur V. Guerrera, J.D. ’62, BBA ’59 Hon. Fredric M. Hitt, J.D. ’67 Joseph A. Hubert, J.D. ’56 James D. Huie, BBA ’73, MPRA ’74, J.D. ’82, LLME ’83 Don A. Hyman, AB ’71, J.D. ’77 Ronald N. Johnson, Sr., J.D. ’58 Kay P. Jones, J.D. ’70 Marlyne M. Kaplan, BED ’58, J.D. ’81 Hon. Robert P. Kaye, J.D. ’57 David Kayton, J.D. ’74 Koorosh Khashayar, LLMP ’08 Charles J. King, J.D. ’55 Craig S. Kirsch, J.D. ’06 William A. Lane, Jr., J.D. ’49 James A. Lanier, II, J.D. ’62 Hon. Richard Leben, J.D. ’50 James E. Lefkowitz, J.D. ’73 Matthew L. Leibowitz, J.D. ’75 Christina A. Lindemann, LLMCL ’03 Paul M. Low, Sr., J.D. ’56 Adrienne Maidenbaum, J.D. ’77 John J. Malloy, BBA ’79, J.D. ’90 Paul R. Marcus, J.D. ’68 Robert G. Maxwell, J.D. ’52 Margaret R. McLoughlin, J.D. ’93 Matthew N. McManus, AB ’95, J.D. ’98 Joseph T. Meyer, BBA ’57, J.D. ’63 Richard R. Mulholland, J.D. ’60 Hon. Robert H. Newman, BBA ’50, J.D. ’52 Aladar E. Paczier, J.D. ’54

Hon. Peter R. Palermo, J.D. ’50 Oliver A. Parker, AB ’73, J.D. ’76 Gerald Piken, AB ’59, J.D. ’62 Hon. Mark E. Polen, J.D. ’69 William H. Pruitt, J.D. ’55 Col. Julian M. Quarles, Jr., BS ’39, J.D. ’51 Robert W. Rivenbark, J.D. ’60 Lawrence B. Rodgers, BED ’64, J.D. ’67 Donald S. Rose, BBA ’54, J.D. ’57 E. D. Rosen, J.D. ’49 David A. Russell, J.D. ’60 Jack C. Sales, J.D. ’80 Theodore L. Schempp, J.D. ’53 Sheldon J. Schlesinger, AB ’52, J.D. ’54 Richard E. Schwartz, J.D. ’78 Arthur H. Seltzer, J.D. ’53 Thomas H. Shilson, J.D. ’56 Stanley A. Spring, J.D. ’51 Richard H. Sterzinger, MCL ’77 Sambamurthy Subramanian, J.D. ’98, MBA ’02 Harold S. Tager, J.D. ’48 George P. Telepas, J.D. ’65 David Tilden, J.D. ’07 David M. Waksman, J.D. ’74 Morris J. Watsky, J.D. ’56 James W. Whatley, BBA ’69, J.D. ’72 Kendell W. Wherry, J.D. ’57 Irving J. Whitman, J.D. ’57 Bryan J. Wiedmeier, J.D. ’89 Hon. Thomas S. Wilson, Jr., J.D. ’71

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

Richard W. Aschenbrenner, BBA ’67, J.D. ’70 Stephen J. Avrach, BBA ’57, J.D. ’65 Richard S. Banick, J.D. ’56 Harold Barr, J.D. ’75, LLM ’76 Ralph Barreira, J.D. ’83 William J. Beintema, BBA ’67, J.D. ’70 Steven A. Berger, J.D. ’76 Sam Bloom, BBA ’56, J.D. ’56 Robert I. Bobrow, J.D. ’60 Blanche D. Brass, MED ’70, J.D. ’79 Ivan L. Brownstein, J.D. ’70 James C. Burke, J.D. ’73 Richard S. Burow, J.D. ’74 Bruce T. Carolan, J.D. ’81 Ramon C. Calafell, Jr., J.D. ’77 William M. Clark, J.D. ’68 Richard R. Cochran, Jr., J.D. ’96 Peter M. Cogen, AB ’67, J.D. ’70 Ephraim Collins, J.D. ’57 Katherine L. Corlett, J.D. ’15 Paul P. Creech, LLME ’78 Fred D. Dahlmeyer, J.D. ’65 Robert C. Dawson, J.D. ’54 Jo Dolan, J.D. ’57, LLMG ’65 Joseph A. Ferrara, J.D. ’54 Terry E. Fixel, AB ’76, J.D. ’79 Charles E. Fry, J.D. ’53 Mitchell S. Fuerst, J.D. ’78 Arthur M. Garel, J.D. ’73 John R. Gillespie, Jr., J.D. ’76 George S. Giourgas, J.D. ’59 Richard K. Goethel, BBA ’62, J.D. ’65

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IN MEMORIAM

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PHILANTHROPY

MI A MI LAW magaz i ne

Message From the Immediate Past President, Law Alumni Association Ed Shohat, A.B. ’69, J.D. ’72, Special Counsel, Jones Walker LL.P.

Ed Shohat, A.B. ’69, J.D. ’72 Immediate Past President, Law Alumni Association

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

Sincerely,

| PHIL A NTHR OPY

t has been a privilege and an honor to serve the Law Alumni Association and the School of Law this past year. We have learned first-hand in working closely with the Dean and the Administration of the School of Law how vitally important it is for alumni to participate by giving to the school’s Annual Fund at ANY LEVEL. We made it a priority this year to increase the number and percentage of alumni giving to the school and we succeeded on both counts. This will continue to be a goal. I wish to thank those who have contributed to the Annual Fund this past year and those who worked hard to increase participation. I hope those who have not had the opportunity to give will do so in the current academic year. This has been a year of challenges and accomplishments for the School of Law. As our Dean reported at a recent Law Alumni Association board meeting, these are challenging times for all law schools across the United States. Dean Patricia D. White continues to express the importance of providing a vibrant legal education to our students while at the same time assisting them in reducing the burden of student debt through scholarships. Gifts to the Annual Fund greatly assist Dean White in providing scholarships which help reduce student debt. Over the past few years the School of Law has implemented a deliberate downsizing and rightsizing plan which has aimed to balance class size without diminishing the quality of the student body. The five-year plan was easily accomplished in the first year. Last year, the entering 1L class consisted of 307 students, which is an optimal size for both students and faculty. As you may have heard, a number of significant senior faculty retired during 2015-2016. These include former Dean Emeritus Dennis Lynch, Professor Keith Rosenn, Professor Elliott Manning, Professor David Abraham, Professor Stephen Diamond just to name a few. And you will hear in other parts of this publication and on the web of new LL.M. programs and clinics being established. You, as loyal alumni and friends of the School of Law, can make all the difference with your participation and support. We also receive many benefits when we give back to the school. Upon graduation each of us becomes a member of the LAA and we benefit from the use and access of the law library, CLE programs, and events exclusively open to law alumni. Without membership dues, it is only possible to provide these benefits through the active participation and contribution in the Annual Fund. The School was most fortunate to receive transformative gifts from alumni which will have a tremendous impact on the law school’s ability to attract, educate, and train its students. I wish to recognize the Hon. A. Jay Cristol, and the firms of Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton, Podhurst Orseck, and Harke, Clasby, & Bushmann LLP for their exemplary philanthropy demonstrated this year. Please join me in wishing Joshua Spector, J.D. ’02, president, and Detra Shaw-Wilder, J.D. ’94, vice chair, the best of success as they assume the leadership of our Law Alumni Association this year. Thank you for your support of me as President over this past year and for all that you do for the University of Miami’s School of Law.

his past year the Young Alumni Committee helped raise over $20,000 for the law school through the following fundraising efforts.

MADNESS IN MARCH Harout Samra, J.D. ’09,Young Alumni 20152016 Chair, spearheaded the charge to win the fundraising alumni giving challenge between the schools and colleges at the University of Miami. All donations made to the law school during the month of March were counted toward this challenge. Miami Law consistently ranked highest for participation through the four-week competition and finished well ahead of all other schools in alumni participation.

THE BRICK CAMPAIGN The Young Alumni Committee took on yet another fundraising challenge, selling personalized bricks to be installed at the School of Law’s courtyard, The Hilarie Bass Bricks. The campaign went into high gear this past Spring and 58 bricks were sold for a total of $8,700. Proceeds from these sales benefit the Young Alumni Scholarship Fund.

Dean’s Council

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The Dean’s Council is a distinguished group of individuals who share a passion for excellence in legal education and a commitment to take an active role in the future of legal education at the University of Miami. Dean’s Council members provide resources and guidance vital to the future of Miami Law and will be integral in the implementation of progressive and forward thinking programs. Membership is by invitation only and reserved for individuals who contribute $10,000 annually to the School of Law.

Dean’s Council membership includes: Annual members-only advisory forums with the Dean to discuss and debate future strategies; members-only events with the Dean, faculty and special guest speakers, as well as invitations to other exclusive events throughout the year. If you would like to learn more about joining this prestigious group of leaders, please send your inquiry to: gangones@law.miami.edu.

DEAN’S COUNCIL MEMBERS Frank R. Angones, J.D. ’76

Tod Aronovitz, J.D. ’74 Hilarie Bass, J.D. ’81 Steven J. Brodie, J.D. ’81 Wayne E. Chaplin, J.D. ’82 Richard P. Cole, Esq. Hon. A Jay Cristol, J.D. ’59 Juan C. Enjamio, J.D. ’86 Jeffrey M. Fine, J.D. ’67

James L. Ferraro, J.D. ’83 John Genovese, Esq. Stuart Z. Grossman, J.D. ’73 Lance A. Harke, J.D. ’90 Lydia Harrison Larry J. Hoffman, J.D. ’54 David C. Humphreys, J.D. ’83 Mr. Soneet Kapila Dr. Prabodh Kapila

Abbey Kaplan, J.D. ’75 Charles C. Kline, J.D. ’71 Alan Kluger, J.D. ’75 Andrew M. Leinoff, J.D. ’74 Steven M. Mariano Jerry Markowitz, J.D. ’74 Steven C. Marks, J.D. ’85 Adam M. Moskowitz, J.D. ’93 Aaron Podhurst, Esq.

Edward J. Pozzuoli, J.D. ’87 Peter Prieto, J.D. ’85 Patricia Redmond, J.D. ’79 Joseph H. Serota, J.D. ’78 Detra Shaw-Wilder, J.D. ’94 Laurie S. Silvers, J.D. ’77 Harley Tropin, J.D. ’77 Robert Zarco, J.D. ’85

LINDSEY LAZOPOULOS FRIEDMAN, J.D. ’11, TROY ODOM, DEAN PATRICIA D. WHITE AND JOSHUA SPECTOR, J.D. ’02

Young Alumni Raise Funds for the Future

Photo by Catharine Skipp

Judge A. Jay Cristol Donates $2 Million to Endow Chair in Bankruptcy

after 30 years on the bench still finds bankruptcy law fascinating. Between court hearings, he teaches as an adjunct faculty member at Miami Law, serves on the school’s Steering Committee for its annual Bankruptcy Skills Workshop, and keeps an active schedule of charity events. Judge Cristol also takes to the air behind the controls of a private aircraft whenever he gets the chance to fly angel flights that provide free transportation to and from regional medical centers for indigent adults and children. Judge Cristol came to Miami Beach in the 1930s, his family fleeing the disastrous impact of the Depression on rural Pennsylvania.The Korean War interrupted his education at the University of Miami. He joined the U.S. Navy and, after completing flight school, was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Princeton in the Sea of Japan. After the war, he returned to UM. He completed his undergraduate degree in philosophy in 1958 and his J.D. in 1959, although his service in the Navy would continue until his retirement with the rank of captain in 1989.

Judge Cristol served as Special Assistant Attorney General of Florida, and after 25 years of civil law practice stepped down as senior partner in a firm he founded to accept an appointment to the federal bench. He earned a Ph.D. in 1997 from the University of Miami Graduate School of International Studies. Judge Cristol was president of the Law Alumni Association in 1985 and received the Thomas Davidson III Memorial Service Award. He also received the Henry Latimer Professionalism Award in 2008 and the William M. Hoeveler Award for Ethics in Public Service in 2014. On May 10, 2016, Judge Cristol was awarded the Law Alumni Association’s Alumnus of Distinction Award before a sold out audience of admirers, friends, and colleagues. “I love the University of Miami,” said Judge Cristol. “I am grateful for my law education that has enabled me to succeed in my profession and allows me to give back in a way that may help future law students to graduate, and do the right thing and help people.”

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

udge A. Jay Cristol, J.D. ’59, Chief Judge Emeritus of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida, recently made a $2 million commitment to create the Judge A. Jay Cristol Endowed Chair in Bankruptcy at the School of Law. This is Judge Cristol’s second generous gift to Miami Law—in 2012, he named the Bankruptcy Clinic in memory of his wife Eleanor. “Judge Cristol’s extraordinary generosity ensures that the law school will continue to excel in the field of bankruptcy law and public service and provide an outstanding education for future generations,” said Patricia D. White, dean of the School of Law. “Judge Cristol has devoted his professional and judicial career to the education and mentoring of students,” said Patricia Redmond, director of the Cristol Bankruptcy Assistance Clinic. “This generous gift reflects his commitment to ensuring that the University of Miami School of Law maintains a leadership role in bankruptcy legal education and scholarship.” At 87, Judge Cristol continues to maintain a full calendar in his downtown Miami courtroom, and

| PHIL A NTHR OPY

By Catharine Skipp and Michelle Valencia

School of Law Receives $1M Gift from Leading Trial and Appellate Law Firms By Catharine Skipp

hree leading Miami law firms, Kozyak Tropin Throckmorton LLP, Podhurst Orseck, and Harke Clasby & Bushman LLP, have together committed $1 million to the University of Miami School of Law to support merit-based scholarships, an endowed fellowship, and a fund that establishes an annual forum. “It is a real honor for Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton to be able to help so many upcoming law students at our alma mater, and advance and improve the study of class action litigation,” said Adam Moskowitz, J.D. ’93, chairman of the class action practice at Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton. Moskowitz has served as an adjunct professor in Class Action Litigation at Miami Law for 20 years. “The University of Miami School of Law will now be at the nations’ epicenter for advancing the study of class action litigation, and the annual University of Miami Class Action & Complex Litigation Forum will bring together legal, political, and academic leaders from across the country to help the public better utilize and understand class actions.” The scholarships will provide critical funding for the recruitment and retention of exemplary students who have demonstrated a significant role in public service.

Leading scholars, practitioners, and judges from across the country will be brought together each year in a forum to discuss current research and cutting-edge topics in class action and complex litigation. The first annual forum will be held in December of 2016. The Class Action & Complex Litigation Endowed Fellowship, also funded by the donation, will support a student each year who has shown a commitment to the study and practice of the field. “This scholarship will provide today’s law students with novel resources to apply real world thinking to tomorrow’s most complex legal challenges, while also helping to attract and retain the brightest minds in our community,” said Podhurst Orseck managing partner Steven C. Marks, J.D. ’85 “The University of Miami School of Law holds a special place in many of our hearts, and the entire firm is committed to its continued success.” “Every lawyer at HCB is a proud graduate of the University of Miami School of Law,” said Lance Harke, J.D. ’90, managing partner of the AV-Preeminent rated complex commercial litigation boutique, Harke Clasby & Bushman. “We are forever grateful and overjoyed to be able to give back to an institution that has meant so much to us personally as well as this community and our region as a whole.”

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lumni, faculty, staff and students gathered at Miami Law last November to dedicate the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Hall. The E building, which houses some of the law school’s award-winning clinics, moot court rooms, and Einstein Bagels, was renamed in a special ceremony in recognition of the couple’s generosity to Miami Law. Their latest gift supports the Miami Scholars Public Interest Program, which provides full-tuition scholarships to exceptional law students with a commitment and passion for public service. “We are here to give the building this name to honor and to thank two people whose contributions of time, counsel, and energy to the University and the law school have been enormously important,” said Dean Patricia D. White during the ceremony. “Laurie Silvers and her husband, Mitchell Rubenstein, are people who have made a difference in our life at the

Both Silvers and Rubenstein practiced law for ten years before founding the SyFy Channel, a cable TV network that was acquired by USA Network and is now owned by NBCUniversal. Both are advisors of Advancit Capital, a VC Fund, which invests in early-stage businesses at the intersection of media and technology. Rubenstein co-founded the website MovieTickets.com and is co-chair of its Board of Directors. They have three children, all of whom are ‘Canes: David Silvers, J.D./M.B.A. ’04, Kimberly Rubenstein-Everman, J.D. ’12, and Carolyn Rubenstein-Spoont, who is a Ph.D. candidate in counseling psychology. “I absolutely had goose bumps witnessing the naming of the hall on this beautiful law school campus,” said Silvers. “I began a wonderful journey right here that helped shape me and my career and provided me with the skills I needed to have the courage to dream big. That is why I am here today—it is all about the student. I have always believed that it was the education I received here that honed my abilities as a lawyer and ultimately as an entrepreneur.”

| PHIL A NTHR OPY

By Michelle Valencia

law school and who have made a huge difference in the life of the university.” Silvers and Rubenstein are generous supporters of the law school, having earlier established the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Distinguished Professorship, currently held by Professor A. Michael Froomkin, and two named scholarships—the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein Endowed Scholarship, and the Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein nonEndowed Scholarship. Silvers is also a UM Trustee and a member of the School of Law Visiting Committee. Third-year law student Caroline McGee spoke on behalf of the Miami Scholars Public Interest Program. “I am here to thank Laurie Silvers and Mitchell Rubenstein for their generous contribution,” said McGee. “The goal of the Miami Scholars Public Interest Program is to cultivate a pro bono ethic in students by promoting public interest engagement at Miami Law. The scholarships that Miami Scholars receive are instrumental in allowing us to pursue public interest opportunities both during and after law school.”

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

Law School Building Named in Honor of Laurie Silvers, J.D. ’77, and Husband Mitchell Rubenstein

SELECTED

FACULTYPUBLICATIONS KAIMAN, CATHERINE Environmental Justice and Community-Based Reparations, 39 SEATTLE U. L. REV. 1327 (2016).

OSOFSKY, LEIGH The Case for Categorical Nonenforcement, 69 TAX L. REV. 73 (2015).

LAVE, TAMARA Campus Sexual Assault Adjudication: Why Universities Should Reject the Dear Colleague Letter. 64 U. KANSAS L. REV. 915 (2016).

PAULSSON, JAN The Alabama Claims Arbitration: Statecraft and Stagecraft (United States of America v. Great Britain (1872)), in ARBITRATING FOR PEACE: HOW ARBITRATION MADE A DIFFERENCE (Kluwer, Ulf Franke, Annette Magnusson & Joel Dahlquist, eds., 2016).

LEVI, LILI A “Faustian Pact?” Native Advertising and the Future of the Press, 57 ARIZONA L. REV. 647 (2015). MCCHESNEY, FRED One Piece at a Time: Successive Monopoly and Tying in Antitrust, 11 J. COMPETITION L. & ECON. 1013 (2015). MORMANN, FELIX A Tale of Three Markets: Comparing the Renewable Energy Experiences of California, Texas, and Germany, 35 STAN. ENVTL. L.J. 55 (2016) (with Dan Reicher & Victor Hanna).

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NEMEROVSKI, PETER Practice Makes Proficient: Writing Classes for Struggling Students, 24 PERSPECTIVES: TEACHING LEGAL RES. & WRITING 55 (2016).

NEWMAN, JONEL Identity and Narrative: Turning Oppression into Client Empowerment in Social Security Disability Cases, 79 ALBANY L. REV. 373 (2016). NICKEL, JAMES Griffin on Human Rights to Liberty in GRIFFIN ON HUMAN RIGHTS (Oxford University Press, Roger Crisp, ed. 2015).

PERLMUTTER, BERNARD Representing Children, Parents, and State Agencies in Abuse, Neglect, and Dependency Cases in CHILD WELFARE LAW AND PRACTICE, 3rd Edition (National Assoc. of Counsel for Children, 2016). PORRAS, ILEANA Binge Development in the Age of Fear: Scarcity, Consumption, Inequality and the Environmental Crisis, in INTERNATIONAL LAW AND ITS DISCONTENTS: CONFRONTING CRISES, (Cambridge University Press, Barbara Stark ed., 2015). ROGERS, SCOTT Mindfulness, Law and Reciprocal Practice, 19 RICH. J. L. & PUB. INT. 331 (2016). ROSE, LAURENCE PROBLEMS AND CASEFILE: Fitzgerald v. NITA & Western Railroad Co., 5th ed. (NITA Publications, 2015).

ROSEN, ROBERT The Sociological Imagination and Legal Ethics, 19 LEGAL ETHICS 97 (2016). SAWICKI, ANDRES Buying Teams, 38 SEATTLE U.L. REV. 651 (2015). SCHIMKAT, RENEE Is There Rhyme or Reason to the Scope of Permissible Reinsurance-Related Discovery?, REINSURANCE & ARBITRATION (August 24, 2015). SHARPLESS, REBECCA “Immigrants Are Not Criminals”: Respectability, Immigration Reform, and Hyperincarceration, 53 HOUS. L. REV. 691 (2016). STEWART, KELE Relative Care within a Public Health Paradigm, 1 IMPACT: COLLECTED ESSAYS ON THE THREAT OF ECONOMIC EQUALITY 89 (2015). TROCINO, CRAIG You Can’t Handle the Truth: A Primer on False Confessions, 6 U. MIAMI RACE & SOC. JUST. L. REV. 85 (2016). WISE, SALLY Hitting the Mark? AALL Legal Research Competencies: From Classroom to Practice, AALL SPECTRUM, March/April 2016, at 12 (with Gail A. Partin).

e are a global university, and we engage with the whole world. But we also have a distinct hemispheric advantage, and this is precisely the concept of the Hemispheric Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; using our geographic advantage at the crossroads of the Americas and in one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world to encompass all of the globe. Many top universities in the United States pride themselves on being global, and so does the University of Miami, but no other university is poised to promote a focus that is so inclusive of the interactions of the hemisphere with the rest of the world. Our hemispheric strategy has five pillars which are 1) the study of the hemisphere; 2) educational exchange; 3) research; 4) technological innovation; and 5) health care. To facilitate the development of these five pillars, we are launching a Roadmap initiative called the Hemispheric University Consortium with a limited number of partner

universities. The consortium will provide an especially strong and structured framework so that, for example, students from different consortium member universities can take courses from other partner universities and receive credit. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s taking the idea of study abroad to a higher level of integration. Similarly, faculty exchanges in both directions would enhance teaching and learning opportunities, some of which would be conducted in person but also using online platforms. Miami Law already has a very strong tradition in hemispheric and international engagement. When I first arrived to UM, Dean Patricia White shared with me the innovative Law Without Walls program, which I found very intriguing and is an example of precisely the kind of collaboration that can energize the Hemispheric University Consortium. Miami Law will be an integral part of supporting the strategic pillars I just mentioned. Q. What are your goals for providing students with more active and participatory learning experiences?

| THE LA S T WOR D

Q. Tell us about the Roadmap to Our New Century aspiration to become the Hemispheric University.

with President Julio Frenk

A HEM ISP HERI C L AW SC HO O L

THE LAST WORD Q & A

THE LAST WORD Q & A We are at the threshold of an educational revolution, and part of that is being fueled by new discoveries from the learning sciences. We have discovered that the old paradigm where you first learn the theory and then you apply it in practice is not valid. Actually, one of the most powerful ways to learn is by practice itself that then builds into an understanding of the theory behind the practice. There is a strong current of thinking that learning outcomes are better if you start with an immersive experience and then use that experience to elaborate the concepts that allow you to structure that same practical experience. Miami Law’s extensive system of clinics is exactly an exemplar of that pedagogical approach. Through these clinics, students get hands-on, immersive experience that then feeds into their understanding of the fundamental concepts and theories of the law. Miami Law serves as a great example for other areas of the University which are now seeking more experiential and immersive models of learning. Another important benefit of these types of learning opportunities is that in addition to helping our students learn better, these clinics provide a fundamental and valuable service to underserved communities. Q. Miami Law has a diverse faculty representing various countries, top tier law firms, government agencies, and visiting

Dr. Julio Frenk

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Dr. Julio Frenk, a noted leader in global health and a renowned scholar, became the sixth president of the University of Miami on August 16, 2015. He also holds an academic appointment there as Professor of Public Health Sciences at the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Frenk was Dean of the Faculty at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health since January 2009.While at Harvard, he was also the T & G Angelopoulos Professor of Public Health and International Development, a joint appointment with the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He served as the Minister of Health of Mexico from 2000 to 2006.There he pursued an ambitious agenda to reform the nation’s health system and introduced a program of comprehensive universal coverage, known as Seguro Popular, which expanded access to health care for more than 55 million uninsured Mexicans. Dr. Frenk was the founding director-general of the National Institute

with President Julio Frenk

faculty, including global practitioners and industry leaders. How does the Roadmap provide opportunities for bringing diverse faculty to UM? The Roadmap initiative known as 100 Talents will endow 100 faculty positions with the overriding concept that UM should serve as a magnet to retain and attract talent. Of these new positions, a portion will include flexible modalities, which again Miami Law has pioneered with its extensive cohort of visiting international scholars. These new flexible arrangements can be recurring, with a visiting professor who comes for a half-term or a full term to teach a course over a multiyear engagement, and when they are here, they are part of the intellectual fabric of the University. They can come not only from academic backgrounds but also from the world of practice. This is a great way to utilize our geographic endowment because in many parts of the country and the world, Miami is very attractive, especially in the winter months. And when we don’t require faculty to move here full time, especially faculty from other countries in the hemisphere, we don’t contribute to the brain drain of their communities. There is a lot of merit to this kind of model, which again Miami Law has been at the forefront of with some of their existing programs.

BIO of Public Health in Mexico, one of the leading institutions of its kind in the developing world. In 1998, he joined theWorld Health Organization (WHO) as executive director in charge of Evidence and Information for Policy,WHO’s first-ever unit explicitly charged with developing a scientific foundation for health policy to achieve better outcomes. He also served as a senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and as president of the Carso Health Institute in Mexico City. He is the founding chair of the board of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University ofWashington. Dr. Frenk also co-chaired the Commission on the Education of Health Professionals for the 21st Century, which published its influential report in the leading journal The Lancet in 2010, triggering a large number of follow-up initiatives throughout the world. Dr. Frenk holds a medical degree from the National University of Mexico, as well as a master of public health and a joint Ph.D. in Medical Care Organization and in Sociology from the University of Michigan.

GIFT of an EDUCATION and leave a Legacy LASTING Give the

Looking for a gift that gives back? When you establish a gift annuity through Miami Law, it can provide you with a fixed, secure income for the rest of your life while providing the School with crucial funding for scholarships for the next generation of law students. We gratefully acknowledge the following individuals who have included the University of Miami School of Law in their estate planning: Anonymous Georgina and Francisco R. Angones, J.D.’76 Emerson L. Allsworth, J.D. ’52 Sarah Nesbitt Artecona Hilarie Bass, J.D. ’81 Eugene G. Beckham, J.D. ’82 Raymond F. Benkoczy, J.D. ’89 Joan A. Berk, J.D. ’69 Honorable Miette K. Burnstein, J.D. ’61 Renee and Francis Citera, J.D. ’83 Robert B. Cole* Nicholas A. Crane, J.D. ’53* Honorable A. Jay Cristol, J.D. ’59 Reba Engler Daner* Thomas B. DeWolf, J.D. ’53 Marcia and Aaron* Foosaner, J.D. ’52* Donn C. Fullenweider Charles K. George, J.D. ’54 Barton S. Goldberg, J.D. ’57 Edward I. Golden, J.D. ’77

Gary Gomoll, J.D. ’81* Cynthia Beamish, Esq. and Michael F. Guilford, J.D. ’85 Marie B. Harms* Lydia and Burton Harrison, J.D. ’52* Rolf Hastings, J.D. ’50 Ralph Hauser, J.D. ’51* Honorable Murray Z. Klein, J.D. ’52 * Eleanora and Burton Landy, J.D. ’52 Diana and George N. Leader, J.D. ’51 Sondra R. Linden, J.D. ’62 John Franklin Lisk, J.D. ’77 Ray E. Marchman, Jr., J.D. ’61 M. Minnette Massey, J.D. ’51 H. Jack Miller, J.D. ’51 Milton Miller, J.D. ’55 Patrick H. Neale, J.D. ’78 David Noble, J.D. ’01 Valerie Odell, Esq. Kathleen O’Donnell, J.D. ’77 Claude M. Olds*

Kyle Paige, J.D. ’89 Honorable Peter Palermo, J.D. ’50* Sheldon Bruce Palley, J.D.’57 Linda and Patrick A. Podsaid, J.D. ’63 Lawrence B. Rodgers, J.D. ’67* Charles L. Ruffner, J.D. ’64 Irving Rutkin, DDS* Bertley Sager, J.D. ’49* Barbara and Herbert E. Saks, J.D. ’56 Richard M. Sepler, J.D. ’56 Marilyn and Ronald Shapo, J.D. ’66 Lawrence M. Shoot, J.D. ’68 H. Allan Shore, J.D. ’71 Jeannine and Honorable Paul Siegel, J.D. ’62 Sheryl and Bernard Siegel, J.D. ’75 Laurie S. Silvers, J.D. ’77 and Mitchell Rubinstein H.T. Smith, J.D. ’73

Matthew Joseph Soltysiak, J.D. ’54* Bernard Dane Stein, J.D. ’71 Edward J. Waldron, Sr., J.D. ’69 Adele T. Weaver, J.D. ’60* Marvin I. Wiener, J.D. ’57 Edward A. Willinger, J.D. ’53* Honorable Thomas S. Wilson, Jr., J.D. ’71* Richard A. Wolfe, J.D. ’92 Robert E. Ziegler, J.D. ’53 *Deceased

With a gift annuity, you transfer cash or securities to Miami Law and in return you receive:

To find out more information about how you can earn secure income for your future and leave a legacy at UM’s School of Law, please contact:

§ Fixed, guaranteed, partially tax-free income for life

Cynthia L. Beamish

from the University of Miami, a reliable source § A charitable tax deduction § Potential capital gain tax savings if appreciated securities are used § Reduced estate taxes § The satisfaction that comes from giving important support to Miami Law

Executive Director, Office of Estate and Gift Planning, University of Miami School of Law 305.284.2914 cbeamish@miami.edu or miami.edu/plannedgiving

Georgina A. Angones

Assistant Dean, Advancement, University of Miami School of Law 305.284.3470 gangones@law.miami.edu

University of Miami School of Law 1311 Miller Drive Coral Gables, Florida 33146

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