Fall 2009 Alumni Magazine
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FALL 2009 Volume LXI ALUMNI MAGAZINE BARRISTERBARRISTER UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI SCHOOL OF LAW A New Era Dean Patricia D. White BARRISTER FALL ALUMNI MAGAZINE Patricia D. White Dean and Professor of Law Patrick O. Gudridge Associate Dean and Professor of Law Raquel M. Matas Associate Dean for Administration COVER22 10 Georgina A. Angones Assistant Dean for Alumni Relations and Development CONTENTS Jeannette F. Hausler ON THE COVER INSERT HONOR ROLL OF DONORS Dean of Students Emerita 1 Dean Patricia White - The Right Leader for Our Time NOTEWORTHY 25 Miami Scholars Program Michelle Valencia FEATURES Director of Publications 5 Alumna Carolyn Lamm Becomes Students from the Children & President of ABA Youth Law Clinic Fight for Patricia Moya Disabled Youths Graphic Designer A Conversation with Professor Bernard Oxman ALUMNI 28 Message from the President of Contributors Riding for Charity the Alumni Association Angelica Boutwell Nancy Funkhouser FACULTY BRIEFS New York Alumni Reception Mary Howard 12 New Faculty Law School Alumni Honored Tai Palacio Visiting Faculty Faculty Notes Mindy Rosenthal Florida Bar Reception Patty Shillington STUDENT HIGHLIGHTS Class of 1959 Angela Sturrup 18 UM Law Student Elected President of the Florida Bar’s Law Alex Laster Bowling Extravaganza Photographers Student Division Jenny Abreu Young Alumni Committee UM Law Wins Dubersein Richard Patterson Bankruptcy Moot Court Joshua Prezante Soia Mentschikioff’s Vision of Competition Legal Education Steve Schlackman Bob Soto UM Law Hosts the HNBA Class Notes BLSA Team Ranks Among In Memoriam The Barrister is published by the Nation’s Top Eight Office of Law Alumni Relations and Questionnaire Development, University of Miami NASALSA School of Law. Hosts 11th Annual Conference Inter-American Law Review Address correspondence to Bar- Symposium rister, UM School of Law, P.O. Box 248087, Coral Gables, Florida Student Animal Legal Defense 33124-8087. Fund Symposium Entertainment & Sports Law Telephone: 305-284-3470. E-mail: Society Symposium [email protected]. Website: www.law.miami.edu/alumni Law Review Symposium on Election Law 23 If we have made any errors, please PPP&L Symposium - Overcoming accept our sincere apologies until the Stigma of Disability a correction can be published. 36 Commencement 2009 Copyright 2009 UM School of Law International Graduate Law All Rights Reserved. Students Making a Difference THE RIGHT LEADER “ “ for our time Dean Patricia D. White Takes the Helm at UM Law Patricia D. White’s experiences in life and law are diverse, color- President Shalala said in announcing White’s appointment. “Her ful and unpredictable – like the South Florida community she is vast experience, energy and innovative spirit will greatly enhance poised to serve. So it is fitting that she finds herself taking the the Law School’s national profile.” helm as the eleventh dean of the University of Miami School of Law, lured by its tradition and trajectory. White is renowned for bringing people together, for stimulating thought while inspiring action. “She’s the exact right leader for “Geographically, Miami is a great city with a great legal commu- our time,” said Law Professor and Dean Emerita Mary Doyle, nity,” White said. “This Law School has a well-respected intellec- who served as dean from 1986 to 1994. “We need to have more tual tradition that I’ve known of for years. That whole combina- pep and vigor and verve and adventure in our faculty life and our tion was very appealing.” student life. We needed a boost and she is it.” Still, Miami isn’t where she thought she’d be right now. She Law Professor and Dean Emeritus Dennis Lynch, UM Law dean “fully expected” to return to the classroom at the Sandra Day from 1999 to 2008, has served with White on the Law School Ad- O’Connor School of Law at Arizona State University, where missions Council Board of Trustees. “As a nationally recognized she had served for almost a decade as the longest-tenured dean academic leader, and a nationally recognized scholar in tax law, before spending last year as a visiting professor at Georgetown she brings visibility to the University of Miami,” Lynch said. University Law Center and Special Counsel at Steptoe & John- son LLP in Washington, D.C. Behind the scenes, White “is very devoted to students and to increasing diversity in legal education… Two things high on her But, true to her open-minded world view and inquisitive nature, list will be raising the necessary funds for a new building and she shifted course to embrace a new challenge: leading a Law improving our faculty-student ratio,” Lynch said. School on the verge of change and growth itself. Two things in particular beckoned White when Miami came calling: A sun- Her legacy is celebrated in the Phoenix legal community, as drenched coastal metropolis and UM President Donna Shalala. well as at Arizona State, where she achieved diversity among the faculty and students; hired dynamic faculty known for their “It all happened very quickly, deciding to come here,” White said. contributions to academic literature; developed interdisciplinary “Donna Shalala was the very first person I met. It was clear that and joint programs in medicine, philosophy, psychology, interna- under her leadership, the University of Miami is an exciting tional law and real estate; established an acclaimed legal writing place to be.” program; and engaged both students and faculty in the spirit and practice of public service. Add Miami to the mix – its complexities as an international gate- way, its beautiful bay for sailing – and the pull became irresist- “For a dean to get all the constituents together and then move ible to White, a tax lawyer, philosopher, scholar and trailblazing the school, which she did, shows she’s a very talented academic institution-builder with a lifelong passion for sports and the leader,” Doyle said. “She thinks outside the traditional category.” outdoors. ASU President Michael Crow said White set new standards for “There are opportunities to take advantage of this wonder- the university. “As we go forward, we’re doing so on the basis of fully vibrant part of the world and to build on the Law School’s what Trish has in her inner core: intellectual engagement, intel- strengths and the momentum that President Shalala’s presiden- lectual grounding and public service,” he said. cy has engendered here,” White said. Under White’s leadership, in 2006 the ASU Law School was President Shalala is confident that White is the right person to named after retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day advance the Law School to new heights, including the design and O’Connor. “The University of Miami has made a wonderful construction of a new physical complex. “The University of Mi- choice for the dean of its Law School,” said Justice O’Connor, ami has gained a visionary leader in the legal education arena,” whose friendship with White has blossomed since she agreed to the naming. “Trish White was a superb dean at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, and she will come to Miami with expe- rience, wisdom and enthusiasm.” 2 “ The University of Miami has made a wonderful choice for the dean of its Law School,” said Justice O’Connor, whose friendship with Dean White has blossomed since she agreed to the naming. “Trish White was a superb dean at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, and she will come to Miami with experience, wisdom and enthusiasm. David Bodney, a partner in the Phoenix office of Steptoe & The Miami law community’s first impressions of White have Johnson LLP,“ called White “a dynamo.” White began her asso- inspired confidence and high expectations. U.S. District Judge ciation with Steptoe & Johnson in 1975 as a first-year associ- Federico Moreno, JD ’78, hosted a breakfast in his chambers ate. for White and fellow judges. “She is intellectual, yet approach- able. She’s pragmatic, yet scholarly. Usually you don’t have “Her commitment to diversity and equal opportunity made that combination, and that is what law students need,” Judge a real difference at the ASU College of Law,” said Bodney, Moreno said. who was instrumental in White’s nomination for the Judge Learned Hand Award for distinguished public service, which Wayne Chaplin, JD ’82, Vice Chair of the UM Board of Trust- she recently received from the Arizona chapter of the American ees and incoming chair of the Law School’s Visiting Committee, Jewish Committee. “She worked with all aspects of the legal said building the Law School’s national reputation requires a community in the Phoenix area – from former Supreme Court dean “who can make things happen. She has the long-term vi- Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the managing partners of sion we need. She knows how to lead people and can get things the city’s largest law firms to the newest first-year students done. It’s an important time for us and I think we have the and participants in the school’s many legal clinics – to knit the right person in Dean White.” College of Law into the fabric of this community.” Expect White to employ that same inclusive style at UM. “The Law School will become deeply embedded in the legal commu- The academic and athletic life, with its intellectual and physi- nity in all types of ways,” she said. “We’ll have a lot of things cal rigors, was in Patricia White’s blood. Both her parents had going on simultaneously. It will be vastly more interdisciplin- active bodies and minds. ary and yes, there will be more clinics.” She grew up in DeWitt, N.Y., near Syracuse University, where First, though, White will take the time to absorb the environ- her father, Theodore Denise, was a professor of philosophy ment and atmosphere and get to know the people who can and longtime chair of the department.