2021 Inductees

To permanently honor outstanding and notable alumni of the University of Florida Levin College of Law and their contributions to the state and University, the Law Center Association Board of Trustees established the Heritage of Leadership Recognition Society. The Selection Committee determined the initial classes of inductees, barring exceptional circumstances, would be honored posthumously.

Class of 2021

The Hon. Peter T. Fay (1929-2021)

Class of 1956. After serving as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force, Peter Fay enrolled in law school where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Florida Law Review and graduated first in his class. He began his legal career as a trial lawyer in Miami and was soon regarded as one of the best in Florida.

In 1970, President Nixon appointed him to serve as a U.S. District Court Judge followed by a seat on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals six years later. He was often believed to be a potential candidate for the United States Supreme Court. In 2008, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society designated Fay a “Legal Legend.”

He received numerous recognitions, including the Peter T. Fay American Inn of Court, the Chief Justice Earl Warren Lifetime Achievement Award, The Florida Bar Foundation’s Medal of Honor, and Outstanding Federal Appellate Judge by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. He established the Peter T. Fay Jurist-in-Residence Program at UF Law.

Fredric G. Levin (1937-2021)

Class of 1961. Fredric G. Levin was a pioneer in establishing American personal injury law and became one of the most successful trial attorneys in the nation, winning more than 25 verdicts in excess of $1 million. The National Law Journal named Levin the top civil litigator in Florida and one of the top ten litigators in the nation in 1999.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Trial Lawyers Hall of Fame by the American Trial Lawyers Association. The pinnacle of his legal career was a $13 billion settlement with the tobacco industry that continues to save more than 100,000 lives every year.

In 1999, the law school’s name was officially changed to the University of Florida Fredric G. Levin College of Law after he made what was, at the time, the second largest cash donation ever given to a public law school. Levin’s unparalleled generosity to UF has created numerous student scholarships, supported faculty recruitment, and expanded and improved the law school’s buildings and grounds.

The Hon. Stephan P. Mickle (1944-2021)

Class of 1970. Stephan P. Mickle became the first African American awarded a UF undergraduate degree in 1965 and the second to earn a UF Law degree in 1970. In 1973, he established a law practice in Gainesville, becoming the first African American to do so in the history of Alachua County.

In 1979, he became Alachua County’s first African American County Court Judge. In 1984, he was appointed Circuit Court Judge in the Eighth Judicial Circuit and nine years later to the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee. In 1998, Mickle was nominated by President Clinton to become the first African American U.S. District Court Judge in the Northern District of Florida, later serving as Chief Judge.

He received the Conference of County Court Judges’ Distinguished Leadership Award and was the first African American to receive the Distinguished Alumnus Award from UF. He was a founding member of the UF Association of Black Alumni and served as its first president.

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.