Levin College of Law
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Jennifer Zedalis

Emeritus Senior Legal Skills Professor

Phone:
(352) 273-0814

About

Professor Zedalis served as the Director of Trial Practice at the University of Florida Levin College of Law, and as an Assistant Director of the Criminal Justice Center. She also served as the Co-Chair of the Gerald T. Bennett Public Defender/Prosecutor Trial Program, and on the PPD faculty for 24 years. She taught trial practice, pretrial practice, and intro to lawyering, and has also taught mental health litigation and the criminal defense clinic. She was the faculty advisor for the trial team and served as Chair of the Peter T. Fay Jurist in Residence Program. She has practiced criminal defense for thirty years, and continues to do pro bono trial work as time permits. She was formerly an assistant public defender in the Fifth and Eighth Judicial Circuits, and ran a solo law practice from 1998 to 2003. She has handled all types of criminal cases, including capital cases, appeals, and post-conviction proceedings in addition to trials. She has lectured in the United Kingdom, Poland, and Costa Rica in the areas of American trial procedure, evidence, and criminal practice. She has been called as an expert in Florida criminal law in the Canadian Court of Immigration, and her article on “Justice Worthy Closing Arguments” has been published by the ABA Trial Evidence Committee.

Professor Zedalis has been interviewed on television and radio regarding high profile cases, most recently the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, in five different countries, including the U.S., Russia, Jamaica, Japan, and Canada.

Professor Zedalis also served as an affiliate professor in the UF Department of Psychiatry, and taught forensic psychiatrists in the Landmark Cases Seminar.

She serves on the Executive Council of the Criminal Law Section of The Florida Bar. She is also a member of the ABA Litigation Section, the Florida Bar Trial Lawyers Section, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Eighth Circuit Bar Association.

She has a Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida (1984) and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from Duke (1980).

Education

J.D., University of Florida
B.A., Duke University (magna cum laude)

Teaching and Scholarship

Criminal Law, Trial Practice

Courses

  • Florida Criminal Procedure
  • Trial Practice

Publications

Articles, Books and Publications

  • “Lost in Case: 10 Ways to Bring Justice Into Closing Argument,” ABA Trial Evidence Committee Spring 2014 Journal (June 04, 2014)
  • “Rethinking Your Practice Habits: Seven Ways to be a Better Lawyer in the Criminal Courts,” Florida Criminal Law Journal Volume XXXIII, No.1 Fall 2003
  • “Revisiting the Decision of Death in Hurst v. Florida,” The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Volume 44, No. 4 December 2016
  • “Real and Demonstrative Evidence,” Faculty Manual, Florida Bar/ Gerald T. Bennett Public Defender Prosecutor Training Program, 2004
  • “Portrait of a True Advocate,” Florida Bar Criminal Law Update Volume 2, Issue 1, March 2009
  • Trying Cases: Promise, Prove and Persuade (Vandeplas, 2018)

University of Florida Levin College of Law
309 Village Drive
PO Box 117620
Gainesville, FL 32611
(352) 273-0804
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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.