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UF Law Receives $1.3 Million Gift to Strengthen AI and Law Focus

The University of Florida Levin College of Law has announced a $1.3 million gift from alumnus Gerald A. Rosenthal (JD 73) that will bolster UF Law’s positioning at the intersection of technology and law. Building on the existing strengths of the University’s institution-wide Artificial Intelligence Initiative, this gift will help fund two faculty positions beginning in 2025, furthering UF Law’s teaching and influence in this critical area.

In recent years, UF Law has assembled research and clinical expertise that elevates UF Law as one of the premier law schools incorporating artificial intelligence and technology into its teaching and learning.

“The University of Florida is one of the best law schools in the country,” said Rosenthal. “By continuing to invest in our exceptionally talented faculty and programs, our law school can expand its influence and prepare the next generation of lawyers for the future of legal practice.”

Over the past several years, UF Law has strengthened its faculty with the addition of Professor Barbara Evans, a nationally recognized expert in the areas of data privacy and ethics, in 2020. Last year, UF Law recruited Professor Derek Bambauer, an expert in internet law, cybersecurity, and intellectual property, and Professor Jane Bambauer, whose research expertise includes First Amendment rights specifically related to internet law. Professor Thinh Nguyen joined the faculty this year, bringing over two decades’ worth of experience representing technology entrepreneurs and start-ups, including working at Wilson, Sonsini and in-house with SAP, GE Digital, and Nuance Communications. Professor Nguyen will serve as the director of the law school’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Clinic, which will launch in January, 2025.

Gerald A. Rosenthal (JD 73)

“Gerry’s gift allows UF Law to strengthen our existing expertise in understanding how artificial intelligence and other technological innovations will impact society and the law,” said Levin College of Law Dean Merritt McAlister. “His gift will help ensure that UF Law graduates are thoroughly prepared to leverage the rapid change occurring throughout the practice of law. We are profoundly grateful to Gerry for his generosity and support.”

Rosenthal’s gift will establish the Gerald A. Rosenthal Director’s Endowment for the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Clinic, aiding in the launch of this new program. His gift will also provide support for an additional faculty award, supporting faculty who work in the field of technology and the law.

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Clinic, led by Professor Nguyen and one of the first of its kind in the nation, will allow law students the opportunity to gain practical experience across law, technology, and business. This hands-on program focuses on providing legal support to startups, entrepreneurs, and innovators while integrating advanced technological tools and methodologies into legal practice. Students in the clinic will work directly with early-stage companies, offering guidance on legal issues such as intellectual property, business formation, and regulatory compliance. Partnering with faculty across UF’s campus, including those in the College of Engineering and College of Medicine, the clinical curriculum will emphasize the use of technology, including AI, to streamline legal research, enhance contract analysis, and improve client interactions.

“The college’s graduates will enter a practice radically transformed by artificial intelligence and other advances. Our job is to prepare them for this new professional terrain,” said Professor Nguyen.

After graduating from UF Law, Rosenthal moved to South Florida and began working in labor law. After building his practice and his professional reputation, he founded the firm Rosenthal, Levy, Simon & Sosa in 1985. Under Rosenthal’s leadership, the firm established a strong foundation and is still in operation today, working to ensure fairness and quality of life for its clients. He believes passionately in giving back to support the next generation and has previously established the Gerald A. Rosenthal Chair in Labor and Employment at UF Law.

Published: November 8th, 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.