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Gary S. Lawson Joins Florida Law

The University of Florida Levin College of Law is pleased to announce that Professor Gary S. Lawson, currently the William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor at Boston University School of Law, will join the Florida Law faculty during the summer of 2024.

Professor Lawson is one of the most highly cited and influential constitutional and administrative law scholars in the country. He has authored or co-authored nine editions of a textbook on administrative law, a textbook on constitutional law, five university press books, and more than 100 scholarly articles on topics ranging from constitutional theory to the proof of legal propositions. With more than 1,200 citations in the last five years, and more than 3,400 lifetime citations according to Westlaw, Professor Lawson is one of the most highly cited legal scholars in any field. According to a 2021 survey, Professor Lawson is the second-most highly cited administrative law scholar in the country. His works have been cited in twenty-one opinions of Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Professor Lawson twice clerked for Justice Antonin Scalia, first at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and then at the Supreme Court of the United States. He is a founding member, and serves on the Board of Directors, of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies and is on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Heritage Guide to the Constitution. Professor Lawson is a graduate of Yale Law School, and he received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Claremont Men’s College.

Professor Lawson began his career at Northwestern University School of Law, where he earned tenure in 1994 before moving to Boston University in 2000. Professor Lawson has been recognized with numerous awards during his academic career, including most notably the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching, which is designated as Boston University’s highest honor for teaching. He has also served two terms as BU Law’s Associate Dean for Intellectual Life.

“Professor Lawson is a transformational hire for Florida Law,” said Merritt McAlister, Interim Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor of Law at Florida Law. “He embodies the best of what we aspire to as legal academics. Professor Lawson is an intellectual leader whose work has shaped the development of law. He is a dedicated and talented teacher, and he’s committed to the intellectual life of the law school community. We can’t wait for him to join us.”

Professor Lawson’s arrival in 2024 will follow a remarkably productive three-year span of lateral hiring at the Levin College of Law. In the last two years, Florida Law has added eight tenured faculty members: Derek Bambauer, Jane Bambauer, Julian Cook, Elizabeth Katz, Zachary Kaufman, Lyrissa Lidsky, Lynn LoPucki, and Tracey Maclin. Three of those lateral moves received national attention, with recognition as “take notice” lateral moves. These new professors join more than 20 other faculty new to Florida Law since 2022.

Published: January 10th, 2024

Category: News

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The Florida Constitutional Law Endowment in memory of Justice Ben F. Overton was created by Judge Karen Miller in 2013. This fund supports lectures and presentations by Justices of the Florida Supreme Court at the Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

HISTORY

Justice Overton, who earned his B.S. in 1951 and his Juris Doctor in 1952 from the University of Florida, was the first merit appointment to the Florida Supreme Court. Throughout his career he was active in legal education and served as an Adjunct Professor at the Levin College of Law through December 2012, the month of his death. Although he resided at Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, a continuing care retirement community developed in cooperation with UF, he also considered the Florida Supreme Court “home.” Among the high points of his later years was hosting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court in Gainesville and taking his class to Tallahassee to hear oral arguments at the Florida Supreme Court.
Judge Miller, who earned her B.S. cum laude from New York University in 1974 and her Juris Doctor from New York Law School in 1977, served as Chief Administrative Law Judge of the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, New York City’s business regulatory agency, before she retired to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida. Having accompanied Justice Overton on his excursions to Tallahassee and joined him in welcoming guests to Oak Hammock at the University of Florida, she created the endowment in memory of Justice Overton to ensure that the Levin College of Law continues to have the funding necessary to continue and enhance the interaction between its students and the Florida Supreme Court.

 

Judge Miller remembered the event that motivated the endowment.

 

Prior to a dinner at the home of Dean Robert Jerry and Lisa Jerry shortly after Justice Overton’s death, Justice Barbara Pariente and I were discussing a suitable memorial. Justice Pariente, who had been Justice Overton’s colleague on the Florida Supreme Court and who understood the importance to him of the interaction between his students and the Court, suggested the outline of what has become the Overton lectures. Dean Jerry, who has since retired, as has Dean Emeritus Jon Mills, who assumed responsibility for implementing the Overton lectures, were very supportive from the beginning. Since Dean Mills’ retirement, Professor Timothy McClendon, who assisted both Justice Overton and Dean Mills teaching Florida Constitutional Law and who co-authored the recent Florida Constitutional Law casebook, has continued the Overton lectures with the support of Interim Dean Merritt McAlister and CGR director, Professor Danaya Wright.

Justice Overton was a devoted jurist, educator, and ethical leader of the Florida legal profession. The Overton Lecture Series brings Florida Supreme Court Justices to the University of Florida, Levin College of Law, and serves to introduce students to the inner workings of the Court. CGR and the students of the College of Law extend our deepest gratitude to Judge Karen Miller for making the Overton Lectures possible in perpetuity.

You can watch an interview for the Florida Historical Society by Mary Adkins, professor emeritus of the UF Levin College of Law, with Justice Overton here.

Justice Overton was also interviewed for the Samuel Proctor Oral History Project and a transcript of his interview is available at the Smathers Library, and here.
Justice Overton sat on the Constitution Revision Commission of 1977-78 that proposed a right to privacy in the Florida Constitution. Although it failed as part of the Constitution Revision Commission recommendations, it passed in 1980 when proposed by the legislature. The bill was co-sponsored by our very own Jon Mills. The privacy provision prevailed by greater than 60%. Justice Overton then wrote a concurrence in a critical reproductive rights case in 1989 affirming that the privacy provision of the Florida Constitution included the right to obtain an abortion. That decision was overruled in Planned Parenthood of SW and Central Florida v. Florida. You can read about the role of Justice Overton, Jon Mills – director emeritus of CGR, and the history of the 1989 case here.