FLORIDA STATE LAW Inside Our First Seminole Chief Justice Annual Report Alumni Recognitions ALUMNI MAGAZINE FALL 2012 Message from the Dean Jobs, Alumni, Students and Admissions Players in the Jobs Market Admissions and Rankings This summer, the Wall Street The national press has highlighted the related phenomena Journal reported that we are the of the tight legal job market and rising student indebtedness. nation’s 25th best law school when it More prospective applicants are asking if a law degree is worth comes to placing our new graduates the cost, and law school applications are down significantly. in jobs that require law degrees. Just Ours have fallen by approximately 30% over the past two years. this month, Law School Transparency Moreover, our “yield” rate has gone down, meaning that fewer ranked us the nation’s 26th best law students are accepting our offers of admission. Our research school in terms of overall placement makes clear: prime competitor schools can offer far more score, and Florida’s best. Our web generous scholarship packages. To attract the top students, page includes more detailed information on our placement we must limit our enrollment and increase scholarship awards. outcomes. In short, we rank very high nationally in terms We are working with our university administration to limit of the number of students successfully placed. Although our our enrollment, which of course has financial implications average starting salary of $58,650 is less than those at the na- both for the law school and for the central university. It is tion’s most elite private law schools, so is our average student also imperative to increase our endowment in a way that will indebtedness, which is $73,113. yield us more scholarships for prospective students. Increased Alumni efforts have been critical to our success. A special scholarships are our top financial priority. Without these, thank you goes to every alum who has helped steer his or we will lose the battle at the admissions desk. The resulting her firm or organization to recruit from Florida State. We decline in the credentials of our entering class is likely to have at the school are very proud of our extraordinarily talented an adverse impact on some of the most visible national rank- and personable students. But it takes you in the “real world” ings. If you are interested in learning more about creating a to interview them. Assistant Dean for Placement, Rosanna scholarship, either endowed or non-endowed, please contact Catalano, her number two, Nicole Scialabba, or I will be glad me or Mark Pankey, [email protected]. to help you meet with students, either in person or by video- conference technology. Please let any of us know if you would More Outstanding Student Accomplishments like to meet with one or more of our students, whether you Through it all, we are charging ahead to sustain and have a permanent opening or not. Please know that many of advance an extraordinary program. Our students remain our students, especially the 1Ls, would be delighted to have extremely successful, not just in the job market but also in an unpaid internship to gain the professional work experience. national competitions. In August, the American Bar Asso- If you would like to become listed as a Placement Mentor, ciation Law Student Division once again named our Student please let me, [email protected], or Rosanna Catalano, Bar Association the “SBA of the Year.” Just last month, our [email protected], know. Placement Mentors agree to catch Mock Trial Team won first place in the National Criminal the occasional call or email from a student interested in the Trial Advocacy Competition held in San Francisco, Cali- same geographic or substantive area. You might like to join fornia. And the year in advocacy competitions is still young. in the work of our Alumni Association Board of Directors, Our Moot Court Team is gearing up for what we hope will be which has a Placement Committee. Among other things, another great year. And, apart from our co-curricular activi- the Placement Committee has started hosting networking ties, students throughout the school are succeeding in ways events in individual cities to help orient our students who that bring credit to themselves and to all of us. are committed to those communities. This past year, we had Thank you for all your support. these receptions with, roughly, a dozen alums and twenty students, in both Orlando and Tampa. The receptions were Sincerely, very well received by both students and alumni. If you would like to participate in such a reception, please let me or Becky Shepherd, [email protected], know. Don Weidner Dean and Alumni Centennial Professor Table of Contents Contents DEAN AND ALUMNI CENTENNIAL PROFESSOR Features Donald J. Weidner ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR Cover Story ACADEMIC AFFAIRS Curtis Bridgeman 2 Ricky Polston: ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR STUDENT AFFAIRS Our First Seminole Chief Justice Nancy L. Benavides ASSISTANT DEAN FOR Alumni Focus STUDENT AFFAIRS Janeia Daniels Ingram 4 Amy Voigt Xenofos: Taking Off at NASA ASSISTANT DEAN FOR ADMINISTRATION Catherine J. Miller 6 Joseph W. Lawrence, II: Working for Justice ASSISTANT DEAN FOR PLACEMENT 8 J. Wiley Horton: Rosanna Catalano Helping Inventors Take Flight ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR DEVELOPMENT Mark Pankey 10 Tanya L. Bower: DIRECTOR OF ALUMNI Building Businesses and Bettering AFFAIRS & ANNUAL FUND Becky B. Shepherd Broward County DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS AND 12 Railroad Lawyer Tammy Butler EDITOR Christi N. Morgan Faculty Focus PHOTOGRAPHY Bill Lax 14 Professor Hannah Wiseman Brings WRITERS Christi N. Morgan and Cutting-Edge Energy Law to Florida State Andrea Wolf GRAPHIC DESIGN 16 Former Dean and Professor Emeritus Perry Albrigo, Pomegranate Studio Joshua Morse Passes Away Please send editorial contributions, including Class Action submissions DEPARTMENTS and changes of name and address to Office of Devel- 18 Noteworthy opment and Alumni Affairs, Alumni Profiles, Philanthropy, Events College of Law, Florida State 22 Class Action University, Tallahassee, FL Alumni Notes 32306-1601, e-mail: [email protected]. 34 For the Record Faculty News and Notes Cover photography by Bill Lax 44 Around the Law School Florida State Law News FALL 2012 1 Cover Story Ricky Polston: Our First Seminole Chief Justice By Christi N. Morgan ell into his first year as commander of the Florida WSupreme Court, Chief Justice Ricky Polston is enjoying the job and his new administrative duties. The De- cember 1986 College of Law graduate credits colleagues with helping prepare him to lead the court. “Being chief justice means more administrative responsibilities, so there are a lot of day-to-day things that you have to take care of. Prior to becoming chief justice I served as the administra- tive justice, so in a way that is a stepping stone preparation for becoming chief justice,” said Polston. “The other thing that assisted the transition is Chief Justice Canady did an excellent job involving me in certain things so that I was aware of what was going on when I took office. Lisa Goodner, our state courts administrator, does excellent chief justice school. She puts whoever is going into that office through very thorough classes on the responsibili- ties that the court and the branch have generally and the role the chief plays in connection to that. When Chief Justice Canady went through that process a couple of years ago, he included myself and Justice Labarga in his classes, so this year I went through it again and I also included Justice Labarga in those same classes as well.” Among the most pressing of Chief Justice Polston’s many administrative responsibilities is the judicial branch’s 2 FLORIDA STATE LAW Cover Story “Polston,” continued from page 2 budget. His background in account- budget and in technology transition. taught at night and what that showed ing – he was a practicing CPA prior to Those technology issues are nothing me is I couldn’t do that. Because of my law school – is especially beneficial in new, those have been around for years, extensive family commitments, that was this area. it is just that we are implementing not going to work.” “Even though the projections now them now. Anybody who has ever gone With five adopted sons living under their roof, the chief justice and his wife, “I am proud to be the first chief justice from the FSU law Deborah, also have an extremely busy school. I grew up as a Seminole, and am fortunate to home life. School, athletic practices and have both my undergraduate and law degrees from FSU. ball games have the Polstons shuttling It is a great university.” their children around Tallahassee on an almost daily basis. In addition to grow- ing their family through adoption, the are that in this current fiscal year we through a computer conversion knows Polstons have four grandchildren and should have a surplus, on the horizon we that it is challenging.” another on the way. have Eurozone problems and the fiscal Chief Justice Polston’s love for appel- “People that see him in the legal cliff,” said Chief Justice Polston about late law means that he still enjoys the realm see him in judge world, I’ve had the world’s current economic situation. other primary part of his job – decid- the chance to see him in judge world “Those are very looming storms out ing cases. The characteristics that have and hanging out as a dad,” said Judge there that we all hope go away. As long made him a good judge benefit him as Roberts. “He enjoyed being a judge as those issues don’t negatively impact a chief justice.