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UF Law partners with Florida law schools to form new Consortium for Racial Justice

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GULFPORT, Fla. (June 23, 2020) – In light of longstanding and recent acts of racist violence, the Deans of the 12 law schools in Florida have formed the Florida Law Schools’ Consortium for Racial Justice (FLSCRJ). This collective will leverage the strengths and educational roles of every law school in the state to assist community organizations fighting for racial justice and policy reform throughout Florida.

FLSCRJ manifests each of the law schools’ commitment to racial justice. The law schools stand against bigotry and racism and seek to act in concrete ways to make the state of Florida more just for all.

Michèle Alexandre, Dean and Professor at Stetson University College of Law, announced the consortium by stating, “Supreme Court Justice and civil rights legend Thurgood Marshall once said, ‘Where you see wrong or inequality or injustice, speak out, because this is your country. This is your democracy. Make it. Protect it. Pass it on. You are ready. Go to it.’ This advice is timeless. For law schools, lawyers, and law students, it is a moral imperative.”

Each law school will designate at least one student fellow to work with FLSCRJ every year.  The fellows will collaborate with groups in Florida that have long pursued anti-racism initiatives. Examples of possible initiatives include changes to the process by which juveniles are charged as adults; attempts to end disparate criminal sentences on the basis of race; better regulation of public school resource officers; attempts to equalize funding across public school districts; disruption of the school-to-prison pipeline; ensuring Black-owned businesses have access to loans and state contracts; and the passage of local and state ordinances designed to achieve equal pay for equal work, among many other possibilities.

The law schools’ current partners, including community foundations, non-profit groups, law firms, businesses, policy centers, art collectives, advocacy groups, educational entities, and bar associations, are already well placed to be part of this collaboration. The consortium also welcomes other interested organizations.

Law student fellows will assist FLSCRJ’s partners with legal research, policy reform, strategic advocacy, and ways to use language to resolve conflicts and improve society at large. Fellows will also undergo tailored training to model effective dialogue about race within each law school and across the state as a whole.

Anthony E. Varona, Dean and M. Minnette Massey Professor at the University of Miami School of Law, emphasized that FLSCRJ also “will spearhead or partner in the planning of educational gatherings, conferences, and scholarly symposia, convening scholars, students, and leading practitioners to discuss, devise, and propose legal reforms.”

The 12 law schools in Florida understand that law schools’ highest duty is to train intellectually strong and culturally competent lawyers who seek justice. Inherent in legal training is the expressed expectation that lawyers hold a special responsibility to denounce injustice, particularly in the state of Florida. The Preamble to chapter 4 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar states:

“A lawyer, as a member of the legal profession, is a representative of clients, an officer of the legal system, and a public citizen having special responsibility for the quality of justice . . . As a public citizen, a lawyer should seek improvement of the law, access to the legal system, the administration of justice, and the quality of service rendered by the legal profession. As a member of a learned profession, a lawyer should cultivate knowledge of the law beyond its use for clients, employ that knowledge in reform of the law, and work to strengthen legal education.”

Law schools in Florida therefore have an obligation to teach students how to speak up when they see wrongs. FLSCRJ will emphasize lawyers’ roles in advancing social justice and help law students develop the consciousness they need to speak out against inequalities.

“The consortium will be an alliance in support of existing organizations, signaling that law schools are committed to joining the cause,” said Laura A. Rosenbury, Dean and Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor at the University of Florida Levin College of Law. “The initiatives will also make our students stronger, and less myopic, lawyers.”

FLSCRJ will begin by hosting a joint forum on the role of lawyers in crafting policies, advancing racial justice, and correcting social wrongs. With the help of community partners, the consortium will then identify three or four specific projects on which the student fellows will focus over the next year.

Finally, FLSCRJ will partner with scholars interested in researching the legacies of Slavery and Jim Crow in Florida and their lingering vestiges today.

The 12 Florida Law School Deans are:

  1. Kevin Cieply, President & Dean, Ave Maria School of Law
  2. Leticia M. Diaz, Dean & Professor, Barry University Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law
  3. Nicky Boothe Perry, Interim Dean & Professor, Florida A&M University College of Law
  4. Peter Goplerud III, President & Dean, Florida Coastal School of Law
  5. Antony Page, Dean & FIU Foundation Professor, Florida International University College of Law
  6. Erin O’Hara O’Connor, Dean & McKenzie Professor, Florida State U. College of Law
  7. Debra Moss Vollweiler, Interim Dean & Professor, Nova Southeastern University Shepard Broad College of Law
  8. Tamara F. Lawson, Dean & Professor, St. Thomas University School of Law
  9. Michèle Alexandre, Dean & Professor, Stetson University College of Law
  10. Laura Ann Rosenbury, Dean & Levin, Mabie & Levin Professor, University of Florida Levin College of Law
  11. Anthony E. Varona, Dean & M. Minnette Massey Professor, University of Miami School of Law
  12. James McGrath, President & Dean, WMU – Cooley Law School Tampa Bay Campus

Published: June 25th, 2020

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.