Professor Nancy Hogshead-Makar

In April, Olympic gold medalist and Coastal Law Professor Nancy Hogshead-Makar moderated a panel of industry experts who discussed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act — more widely known as Title IX. Now in its 40th year, the legislation generated conversation on several related topics, including the commercialization of intercollegiate athletics and athletes’ publicity rights.

Panelists included Amy Perko, executive director of the Knight Commission; Kristen Galles, civil rights attorney and plaintiff’s counsel in several key Title IX cases; and Robert Wierenga, antitrust defense counsel for the NCAA.

Hogshead-Makar, national advocate for Title IX, said the event drew a crowd of more than 100.

“It’s been a bumpy ride over the years,” she said. “The statute itself was passed 40 years ago and then re-passed in 1988. And since that time there have been several cases go to the Supreme Court.”

For years, Hoghead-Makar has been heavily involved Title IX legal action and education. She has testified in Congress numerous times, written several scholarly and lay articles, and has been a frequent guest on national news programs on the topic, including “60 Minutes,” Fox News, CNN, ESPN, NPR and network morning news programming. In 2007 Sports Illustrated magazine listed her as one of the most influential people in the 35-year history of Title IX and, in 2009, she challenged the Florida High School Athletic Association over its cuts to competitive sports and the discrimination against female athletes that resulted.

The crux of the panel discussion, she said, looked at the more recent Title IX concerns — the “train wreck” of the intercollegiate athletics commercialism and educational athletics.

“This is a runaway train,” she said. “All three panelists talked about what was going to be the breaking point.” Many industry analysts thought this tipping point should have been the Penn State sexual abuse scandal that made headlines nearly a year ago. Surprisingly, it did not create any major waves.

“You’d think it might have been a breaking point when you have an enterprise that was so concerned about having a squeaky clean reputation that it wouldn’t report boys being sexually abused,” Hogshead-Makar said. “But no fundamental changes have been made.”

Professor of Law Christopher J. Roederer

Florida Coastal School of Law Professor of Law Christopher J. Roederer is headed to South Africa on a Fulbright Scholarship, bringing his family — including wife and Coastal Law associate professor Ericka Curran and their children — with him on the fall semester program.

The title of his Fulbright project is Democracy and Delict Reform; Legal Theory That Fits and Brings Value to South Africa’s Legal Tradition. Roederer will teach Delict, the Roman-Dutch law equivalent of torts, and research and write a book comparing the relationship between law reform in this legal area with the consolidation of democracy in South Africa and the United States. While there, he also will collaborate on a second edition of a book on South African legal theory, Jurisprudence, coedited with Darrel Moellendorf, he said.

South Africa is not a foreign territory for Roederer, who taught law in the country for more than five years before coming to Florida Coastal in 2006. Since that time, he has continued to research and write on the relationship between tort reform, constitutional law, and democracy in the U.S. and South Africa. Published articles have appeared in The Drake Law Journal, The Columbia Journal on Human Rights, The West Virginia Law Review, and The South African Journal on Human Rights. He said he wanted to return to South Africa to renew his research and scholarship on South African law and rekindle relationships with South African scholars.

“Going back to South Africa will allow me to get up to speed on developments in tort law/delict, constitutional law and democracy there,” Roederer said. “This has given me insight into American tort law, constitutional law and the limits and possibilities for our own democratic system.”

Roederer added he would like to renew and expand on his previous collaborative research and scholarship on South African legal theory and on ongoing work on the consolidation of South Africa’s democracy.

“This wouldn’t be adequately achieved from an armchair in Jacksonville, Florida,” he said.

In March, Professor Anderson’s article, “The Mythical Right to Obscurity: A Pragmatic Defense of No Privacy in Public” was accepted for publication in the annual Privacy issue of the Journal of Law & Policy for the Information Society, a peer-reviewed journal affiliated with The Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law. The article also was a Top 10 download on the SSRN eJournal for Information Privacy Law.

Professors Kirsten Clement & Karen Millard

On December 3, Professors Kirsten Clement and Karen Millard presented at the LWI one-day workshop hosted by Stetson University College of Law. They presented on two topics: essential syllabus tips, and infusing professionalism in the classroom.

Professor Clement was selected to present at the Second Annual Empire State Legal Writing Conference, which was held on May 13 at the Manhattan campus of St. John’s University.

The title of her presentation was “Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Adapting Mary Beth Beazley’s Rainbow Editing Exercise to Teach Students to Become Editors.”

Professor Ericka Curran 

In December, Professor Curran, Clinical Fellow Carlos Martin and the students of the Immigrant Rights Clinic increased efforts to provide representation to immigrants detained at the Baker County Detention Facility.

The Immigrant Rights Clinic is working to support the work of Coastal grad Karen Winston, who is an equal justice works fellow at Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and has started the Baker Defense Project.

The Baker County Detention facility can hold up to 500 detained immigrants.

Professor Susan Daicoff 

In November, Professor Daicoff gave a talk titled “The Millennial Generation” at the Convocation on Professionalism sponsored by the State Bar of Georgia in Atlanta. Her article, “On Butlers, Architects, and Lawyers: The Professionalism of ‘The Remains of the Day’ and of ‘The Fountainhead’” (examining two fictional characters’ models for the professional role of the attorney) was accepted for publication by the peer-reviewed Journal of Law, Business, and Ethics.

Her textbook on the vectors of the comprehensive law movement,Comprehensive Law Practice, was published in early spring 2011 by Carolina Academic Press.

On March 24, Professor Daicoff gave a talk titled “Perspectives on Leadership Competencies” at the Santa Clara University Leadership Education Roundtable III: Leadership as a Fundamental Lawyering Skill.

Professor Elizabeth DeCoux

On May 20, Professor DeCoux spoke to the Animal Law Conference of the International Research Group in Animal Law (GRIDA), held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada.

Her topic was the connection between the movement to abolish the property status of animals and other social justice movements.

Professor Scott DeVito

In January, Professor DeVito’s proposal for a presentation at the Legal Writing Institute 3rd Applied Legal Storytelling Conference was accepted, and he presented at the conference in July.

The proposal is called “An Empirical Study of the Effect of Student Storytelling and Story Writing on Learning in Doctrinal Courses.”

Professor Gina Donahoo 

On December 3, Professor Donahoo presented at the LWI one-day workshop hosted by St. John’s University College of Law. Professor Donahoo presented on essential syllabus tips and conducted a roundtable lunch discussion on professionalism in and out of the classroom.

Professor Stephen Durden 

In December, Campbell Law Review published Professor Durden’s article, “Textualist Canons: Cabining Rules or Predilective Tools.”

Professor Durden recently published his ninth and tenth law review articles.

Professor Cleveland Ferguson III 

In October, Professor Ferguson was nominated by Mayor Peyton and confirmed by the Jacksonville City Council to serve as a commissioner on the Jacksonville Economic Development Commission (JEDC). The JEDC is a quasi-independent commission that serves as the city’s community redevelopment agency and its industrial development authority. The JEDC aims to develop and execute policies that result in sustainable job growth, rising personal incomes and a broader tax base, including supporting events related to sports, motion picture and television development. His term expires in 2012.

Professor Brian Foley 

In January, Professor Foley was asked by Themis Bar Review to teach Florida Evidence Distinctions in a recorded lecture. The lecture was recorded in February.

Professor Foley was a co-organizer of the 3rd Applied Legal Storytelling Conference, which was held in July at the University of Denver School of Law. Professor Foley and the rest of the organizers finished selecting papers from among the many proposals in January. The conference had more than 60 presentations, including one by Professor Scott DeVito.

On February 10-13, Professor Foley, along with Professor Chris Roederer, coached Coastal’s team in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, South Super-Regionals, at the University of Houston Law Center. Going into the elimination rounds, Coastal’s team was ranked second out of the 21 teams, but unfortunately the team was eliminated in the quarter finals. Coastal’s two oral advocates, Jeff Brown and Michael Flores, were ranked seventh and eighth respectively, out of all
of the oralists.

Professor Susan Harthill 

In September, Professor Harthill was certified by the Florida Supreme Court as a Florida Circuit-Civil Mediator.

In November, Professor Harthill’s article, “The Need for a Revitalized Regulatory Scheme to Address Workplace Bullying in the United
States: Harnessing the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Act,” was printed at 78 U. Cinn. L. Rev. 1250 (2010). In October, another article by Professor Harthill, “A Comparative Analysis of Workplace Bullying as an Occupational Safety and Health Concern,” was accepted for publication by the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review in Spring 2011.

On March 10, Professor Susan Harthill moderated a Brown Bag Lunch & Information Exchange hosted by the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission, entitled “Strategies for Achieving Workplace Diversity.” The panelists included: Lois Cooper, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility & Inclusion at Adeeco; Nancy Moredock, director of Employment/Employee Relations at Mayo Clinic; and Susan Hamilton, vice president of Diversity at CSX Transportation. The panelists talked about the need to have senior leadership support for achieving workplace diversity and the necessity to develop a “business case” for diversity.

Professor Carolyn Herman

On April 27 in Miami Beach, Professor Herman spoke at the 2nd Annual International Symposium on the World of Music, Film, Television and Sports sponsored by the American Bar Association Forum on the Entertainment and Sport Industries.

Her topic was “Internet Music Madness: Guerilla Marketing and Monetization in a Digital World,” where she discussed the new income streams created by intellectual property ownership in the digital age along with the legal issues surrounding their use and acquisition.

Professor Herman also provided a short paper as part of the course materials which summarized her findings.

In May, Professor Herman was re-elected for a two-year term to the Executive Council of the Entertainment, Arts, and Sports Law Section of the Florida Bar.

Professor Thomas Hornsby 

On February 25, Professor Hornsby spoke to the St. Johns County Bar Association on the topic of “Florida Alimony Update.” The St. Johns County Bar President is Undine Pawlowski of the Anastasia Law, PL, and the secretary is Erin Rohan, both Coastal Law graduates.

Professor Hornsby’s article, “The American Bar Association (ABA) 2007 Model Code of Judicial Conduct: What Does it Mean to Juvenile and Family Court Judges?” was published in the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges’ Juvenile & Family Court Journal, Vol. 62, no. 1 Winter 2011 Edition.

On April 3, Professor Hornsby was the plenary session speaker and panelist at the Best Practices in Child Custody session at a conference at Florida State University sponsored by The National Organization for Men Against Sexism (NOMAS) and Men Advocating Responsible Conduct (MARC).

Co-sponsors for the conference were Sexual Violence Task Force of Tampa Bay, Feminist Women’s Health Center, SATF (Oregon Attorney General’s Sexual Assault Task Force), Equality Florida, Equal Rights Alliance, VCS Community Change Project, Florida Coalition Against Sexual Violence and Florida State University. The topic presented was “Domestic Violence Issues and Solutions.”

Professor Rick Karcher 

In March, Professor Karcher participated on a panel at Harvard Law School discussing the merits and potential impact of O’Bannon v. NCAA and Keller v. EA Sports, which attack the NCAA’s licensing practices as violations of antitrust laws and the players’ rights of publicity, and Agnew v. NCAA, which challenges the NCAA’s 37-year-old practice of giving only one-year scholarships.

In April, Professor Karcher participated on a panel at Fordham Law School titled, “Agents, Amateurism and Accountability: Legal Questions Arising from the Relationships between Amateur Athletes and Lawyer/Agents Seeking to Represent Them.”

On May 20, Professor Karcher spoke on a panel at the Sports Lawyers Association 37th Annual Conference discussing legal ethics issues arising from the dual representation of players, coaches and professional team/university management.

Professor John Knechtle 

Professor Knechtle is a co-author of Constitutional Law, Cases, Materials and Problems, 2nd Ed., published in March by Aspen, which is a division of Wolters Kluwer.

In March, Professor Knechtle gave a talk at the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law titled “The Impact of the Internet on Politics.”

Also in March, Professor Knechtle was one of the Charleston Law Review Symposium speakers and delivered a talk titled “Wiki Leaks and National Security.”

In May, Professor Knechtle delivered a paper at Ohio State University Law School titled “Why the UN’s Efforts to Prohibit the Defamation of Religion are Misguided.”

Again in May, Professor Knechtle delivered a paper at the University of St. Louis Law School titled “When Can the U.S. Invade Another Country Under International Law? Does it Matter?”

Professor Darren Latham 

In October, Professor Latham was appointed to the Executive Council of the Florida Bar’s International Law Section and was also asked to co-chair the section’s Faculty Council. At the fall section meetings, Professor Latham and the Faculty Council developed plans to enhance interaction and collaboration AMONG the attorneys of the section practicing various types of international and transnational law and the Florida law schools, including both student and faculty rights and technology transfer in international climate-change governance.

Professor Marc McAllister 

In late March 2011, Professor McAllister’s law review article, “Dicta Redefined,” was published. This article argues that judges deliberately use dicta to influence issues not yet before the court, and further contends that not all dicta should be treated the same. Rather, lawyers should differentiate between three pragmatic categories of dicta: “vibrant dicta,” “dead dicta,” and “divergent dicta.” Using case examples, this article explores the likelihood that a statement made in dicta will be accepted as law, and identifies five factors that help determine the future of a particular dictum. Interested readers can access the article at 47 Willamette L. Rev. 161 (2011).

On March 24, Professor McAllister’s recent article, “The Disguised Witness and Crawford’s Uneasy Tension with Craig: Bringing Uniformity to the Supreme Court’s Confrontation Jurisprudence,” 58 Drake L. Rev. 481 (2010), received a favorable review from Evidence Prof Blog Editor, Professor Colin Miller. You can access Professor Miller’s review at
www.lawprofessors.typepad.com.

Professor Jana McCreary 

On November 13, Professor McCreary presented her work-in-progress, “Cruel and Unusual: How the Bridge between Atkins and McDonald Presents the Need to Proactively Prevent the Crime when Punishment is Unjust” at the 4th Annual Florida Legal Scholarship Forum at Stetson University College of Law in St. Petersburg, Florida. In this work, Professor McCreary weaves criminal law, mental disability law, and gun law, tying the 2002 Supreme Court case holding that execution of persons with mental retardation is a violation of the Eighth Amendment with the recent Supreme Court case applying the Second Amendment to the states.

In May, Professor McCreary’s previous article, “Tell Me No Secrets: Sharing, Discipline, and the Clash of Ecclesiastical Abstention and Psychotherapeutic Confidentiality,” was published and appears in the Quinnipiac Law Review’s May 27, 2011, edition at 29 Quinnipiac L. Rev. 77.

Professor Karen Millard

On February 3, The Family Nurturing Center of Florida presented Professor Karen Millard with The Reverend H. Marshall Lowell Community Service Award for her outstanding contributions through the Florida Coastal School of Law Pro Bono Program.

Professor Alexander Moody

In April, Professor Sander Moody presented on criminal appellate practice at the annual meeting of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Tampa.

In May, Professor Moody presented at the Annual Raymond Ehrlich Trial Advocacy Seminar presented by the Jacksonville Bar Association at EverBank Field. Professor Moody’s presentation discussed recent federal court developments regarding the law of evidence and electronically stored information (ESI).

Professor Gerald Moran 

In September 2010, Professor Moran’s book, John Chipman Gray: The Harvard Brahman of Property Law, Carolina Academic Press,
was published.

Professor Gregory Pingree 

On December 14, Professor Pingree led a workshop on “Sexual Orientation, Transgender Identity, and Gender Expression” for the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission. The JHRC asked him to lead the workshop as part of their ongoing deliberation about how to amend the Jacksonville Human Rights Ordinance to provide appropriate civil rights protection for sexual minorities.

Professor Lucille Ponte

On April 1-2, Professor Ponte presented “Digital Natives in Business Law Courses: How to Incorporate Distance Education Techniques into Traditional Face-to-Face Classes” at the North Atlantic Regional Business Law Association (NARBLA) Annual Conference at Bentley University. She also reviewed scholarly papers as a member of NARBLA’s editorial board for the Business Law Review (peer-review journal). In addition, she participated in the Executive Board meeting at Boston College to set policies for the upcoming year.

On April 7, Professor Ponte gave an educational talk on “The ABCs of Copyright” to members of the First Coast Christian Writers, a local chapter of the Florida Writers Association, at the Wesconnett Library.

Professor Lois Ragsdale 

In December, Professor Ragsdale was appointed to the Board of Jacksonville Area Legal Aid, Inc., effective January 2011.

Professor Benjamin Rajotte 

Professor Rajotte co-authored an article with a researcher from the Centers for Disease Control  and Prevention that was accepted in October for publication. It is “Health in All Policies: Addressing the Legal and Policy Foundations of Health Impact Assessments,” and it was published in the Spring 2011 Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics.

In February, Professor Rajotte was cited on MassLive.com.

Professor Christopher Roederer 

Professor Roederer’s new book, Florida Statutory Interpretation (2010), is in print as of December 2010.

Professor Brad Shannon 

In May, Professor Shannon’s article, “I Have Federal Pleading All Figured Out,” was published at 61 Case Western Reserve L. Rev. 453 (2011).

Professor David Simon 

In April, Professor Simon was an invited guest at the LexisNexis Legal Research and Writing Summit in Phoenix, Arizona. The Summit included sessions on improving legal research skills, critical components of legal writing skills, web-based legal research, the future of legal research and writing, and the role of legal research and writing faculty in the new outcomes-based ABA requirements.

Professor Cynthia Stroud 

In October, Professor Stroud was appointed as an assistant editor for The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute for 2010-12.

Professor Stroud was also appointed in October to the Bar Outreach Committee of The Legal Writing Institute for 2010-12.

Professors Stroud and Leigh Scales gave a presentation on November 12, 2010 at Barry University School of Law in Orlando on learning outcomes and assessments in first-year legal research and writing programs to the recently formed group of Florida law schools legal writing directors, DoLFiN (Directors of Legal Writing Florida Network).

In May, Professor Stroud served as an assistant editor for Volume 17 of The Journal of the Legal Writing Institute. Professor Stroud also served as a reviewer for the annual best brief award for Scribes, The American Society of Legal Writers.

Professor Rod Sullivan 

In November, Professor Sullivan taught a seminar in St. Augustine on Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Act to about 100 public officials from Putnam and St. Johns counties. The seminar was organized by State Attorney R. J. Larizza of Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit.

Also in November, Professor Sullivan served as a moderator for the panel on Environmental Disasters and Litigations at a seminar entitled “Environmental Disaster: Linking Law, Science & Policy,” held at Florida Coastal School of Law.

In April, at the request of Patrick W. Krechowski, general counsel for the City of Neptune Beach, Professor Sullivan made a presentation to the Neptune Beach City Council, city employees and about 50 interested residents of Neptune Beach concerning Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Act, Public Records Act, and the Code of Ethics for Public Officers and Employees.

Professor Sarah Sullivan 

On September 8, Professor Sullivan conducted a seminar for parents of developmentally disabled children at Jacksonville ARC. Professor Sullivan provides these outreach forums several times a semester regarding advance planning and alternatives for the developmentally disabled and their caregivers.

At the Florida Bar Mid-Year Meeting in September, the Family Law Section voted to send proposed legislation regarding establishment of paternity in dependency cases to the Board of Governors as one of five legislative priorities for the 2010 Florida legislative session. This legislation was the culmination of more than a year’s work performed by Professor Sullivan’s Children’s Issues committee.

Professor Sullivan also spoke on March 3 at a continuing legal education seminar sponsored by the Jacksonville Bar Association’s Special Needs of Children Committee. Her talk focused on the needs of developmentally disabled children and the services available to disabled children through Medicaid.

Professor James J. Woodruff II

In September, Professor Woodruff had an op-ed “America’s Vote Fraud Epidemic,” posted on The Hill (TheHill.com).

Professor Woodruff also supervised a group of 47 students as they collected absentee ballot data from election offices across the nation in September. This project was part of the Military Voter Protection Project. The students’ efforts resulted in uncovering violations of voting laws designed to protect the military’s right to vote. The results were turned over to the United States Department of Justice.

In addition, Professor Woodruff lectured on military voting rights at the RNLA Florida Election Law Seminar in Orlando.

In April, Professor Woodruff received an appointment to the rank of First Lieutenant, Judge Advocate, in the Air Force Reserve.

Professor Alan G. Williams

Professor Williams was the featured Grand Rounds speaker at the University of Florida College of Medicine/Shands-Jacksonville Medical Center on January 25. Professor Williams lectured on “The Medical Apology” and the current state of medical apology laws in relation to the prevention of medical malpractice claims. Professor Williams’ lecture was the first in a series of Grand Rounds presentations at UF/Shands regarding medical apology and disclosure of medical errors.