Law School Full-Time Faculty
Benton Becker
Visiting Professor of Law
BA., University of Maryland, 1960
J.D., Washington College of Law, American University, 1965
Benton Becker began his legal career as a trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Fraud Section (1965-1967) where he handled white-collar crimes including the government’s criminal action against former Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and the obstruction of justice action against Jimmy Hoffa. From 1967-1969, Professor Becker served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C, and then entered private practice as a partner in the law firm of Cramer, Haber and Becker. While in private practice, Prof. Becker served as Counsel for then Congressman Gerald Ford before the Senate Rules Committee and the House Judiciary Committee on the occasion of Congressman Ford’s congressional confirmation for the Office of the Vice President of the United States. In 1974, he served as Counsel to President Ford on problems in Mr. Ford’s elevation to the Presidency. Later, he served as Counsel to the President, conducting, among other things, the negotiations for all pardon and disposition of Nixon Administration records and tapes with former President Nixon on behalf of the Ford White House. Currently, Professor Becker is in private practice—the Law Office of Benton L. Becker—and serves as a trustee for the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. Prof. Becker is a visiting professor of law at St. Thomas University School of Law teaching Constitutional Law.
Gordon T. Butler
Professor of Law
B.E.E., Georgia Institute of Technology
M.B.A., University of Dayton
J.D., University of Texas, with honors
LL.M., New York University
Gordon Butler is a tenured law professor with ten years of sophisticated corporate, business, and securities law experience with Fortune 500 corporations. In the late 1980s, he was a partner in an AV-rated general corporate and business law practice in Ohio, which provided legal services including acquisition and disposition of manufacturing facilities, litigation supervision, development of a legal structure to license the manufacture and distribution of optical products in the U.S. and Europe, and environmental compliance. From 1977 to 1987, he was a senior attorney with responsibility for the functions associated with the office of corporate secretary of a publicly-held corporation including dealings with stockholders, directors, corporate officers, financial institutions, the Securities and Exchange Commission, stock exchanges, stock transfer agents, and independent public accountants; preparation of proxy statements and other SEC reporting documents; and preparation and negotiation of financing and security agreements. He was in private law practice for five years in Atlanta, Georgia, concentrating in the acquisition and disposition of small businesses, corporate and business law, tax, securities law, contracts, bankruptcy, and civil litigation. His publications include articles in the Journal of Legal Education, the Hastings Law Journal, the Seton Hall Law Review, and the Texas Law Review. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Butler currently serves as the Chairperson of the Bar Passage Committee, and he teaches Corporations, Family Law, Wills & Trusts, Federal Income Tax, and the Tax Policy Seminar.
Anna M. Chan
Associate Professor and Director of the Legal Research and Writing Program
B.A., University of California at Berkeley, cum laude
J.D., University of Pennsylvania Law School
Anna M. Chan is Associate Professor and Director of the Legal Writing Program. During her previous co-directorship, the Program was expanded to include small writing workshops taught by pracititioner-instructors in conjunction with full-time faculty. Recently, she assisted in implementing the Dean’s Teaching Assistantships and the Writing Enhancement Sessions, both innovative legal writing programs. She has published law review and academic journal articles. She received her B.A. with honors from the University of California at Berkeley, where she co-edited the Asian-American Review, an academic journal, assisted in the Asian Studies Program, and served as a member both of the Faculty Committee on Educational Policy and the University Chancellor’s Committee on Continuing Education. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School and serves with the University of Pennsylvania Mentors program as a resource for law students, particularly minority students. She is the current faculty sponsor of the Asian Law Students Association at St. Thomas. As a member of the law faculty for over a decade, she has also taught Federal Courts, Property I and II, and Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiation.
Cecile Dykas
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Director of Clinical Programs, and Visiting Assistant Professor
B.A., Catholic University, 1983
J.D., Catholic University, 1990
Cece Dykas came to the School of Law with fourteen years of legal practice experience, having served as a Judicial Clerk, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney, Assistant Attorney General, and Assistant Deputy Attorney General of Florida for the Southern Region. As Director of Clinical Programs, she fills the role of supervisor of all law school clinics, internships, and externships. At St. Thomas University School of Law, she is the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, Director of Clinical Programs, and a Visiting Assistant Professor, and she teaches the Florida Supreme Court Internship.
Larry C. Fedro
Executive Director of the Tax Clinic and Visiting Professor of Law
B.S.B.A., University of Florida, 1960
J.D., University of Florida, 1963
Larry C. Fedro was an attorney with the Internal Revenue Service for 37 years before moving into private practice in 2001. While serving at the IRS, Mr. Fedro worked in the following capacities: Estate Tax Attorney (1963-1975), Estate Tax Attorney Manager (1975-1976), Appeals Officer (1976-1983), Appeals Manager (1983-1985, 1988-2000), and Tax Shelter Program Coordinator at the National Office (1985-1988). At St. Thomas University School of Law, Mr. Fedro serves as the Executive Director of the Tax Clinic and an Adjunct Professor of Law in the Graduate Tax Program (LL.M.), and he teaches Civil Tax Procedure.
The Rev. Raúl Fernández-Calienes
Executive Assistant to the Dean and Visiting Associate Professor of Legal Writing Skills
B.A., University of Miami
M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary
M.A.R., Iliff School of Theology
Ph.D., University of Sydney, Australia
Grad.Cert.Ecum., University of Geneva, Switzerland
Grad.Cert.Publ.Mgt., St. Thomas University
C.P.E., Jackson-Memorial University of Miami Medical Center
C.P.E., Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
The Rev. Raúl Fernández-Calienes, Ph.D., has been active in ministry, education, and service with indigenous and minority peoples for most of his life. He served on the staff of the Aboriginal & Islander Commission of the National Council of Churches in Australia for almost a decade. He also was on the staff of the St. Thomas University Human Rights Institute and has been a consultant with grassroots, church, and educational organizations in the Northern Territory of Australia, southern India, and the South Pacific. He has won many research and practicum awards, from such organizations as the Lilly Foundation, the Consortium on Rights Development, and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation. His many publications include monographs and several kinds of shorter works in national and international journals. A sought-after researcher and editor, he has done editorial and production work on many books by other people. At St. Thomas, he was the adjunct faculty member with the Graduate Writing Program, as well as the technical editor for the University’s Self-Study Report 2003 for 10-year accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, and for the law school’s Self Study Report 2005 for the American Bar Association and the American Association of Law Schools. At the St. Thomas University School of Law, he teaches writing skills to law students in the J.D. program. He also is an Assistant Editor of the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute.
Jessica Fonseca-Nader
Legal Research and Writing
B.S., Nova Southeastern University, 1994, cum laude
J.D., St. Thomas University School of Law, 1997, cum laude
As a law student, this graduate of St. Thomas University School of Law distinguished herself, achieving book awards in Contracts and in Constitutional Law, becoming Law Review editor-in-chief, serving as a research assistant to two professors of law, working as a Certified Legal Intern in the Appellate Litigation Clinic, and publishing an article: Florida’s Comprehensive Medical Malpractice Reform Act: Is it Time for a Change? 8 ST. THOMAS L. REV. 551 (1996). Upon her graduation, Ms. Fonseca-Nader joined Bunnell, Woulfe, Kirschbaum, Keller, McIntyre as an associate working directly under the firm’s Appellate Division partner. In June 1998, Ms. Fonseca-Nader moved to the Third District Court of Appeal to become a career clerk to The Honorable David L. Levy, and most recently, to The Honorable Barbara Lagoa. Ms. Fonseca-Nader taught Legal Writing as an instructor at St. Thomas University prior to joining the Legal Writing faculty full-time. She currently teaches Legal Research and Writing, and Advanced Legal Writing.
Alfredo García
Dean and Professor of Law
B.A., Jacksonville University, 1973
M.A., University of Florida, 1974
J.D., University of Florida, Frederic G. Levin College of Law, 1981
Professor Alfredo Garcia was appointed Dean of St. Thomas University School of Law in January 2007. He brings to the position a wealth of experience as an administrator, faculty member, and legal practitioner. Dean Garcia previously served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs from 2003-2006 and as Interim Associate Dean from 1993-1994. In these positions, he was a liaison between the School of Law faculty and administration assuming responsibility for faculty teaching assignments, class schedules, classroom assignments, application of academic policies, the academic calendar, and faculty support services. He also had general oversight of the clinical programs, the LL.M. programs, the joint degree programs, the Legal Research & Writing programs, and the Law Review.
In addition to his vast administrative experience, Dean Garcia also brings to the position more than 17 years of law faculty teaching experience and more than two decades of higher education teaching experience. As a member of the St. Thomas University School of Law faculty, he has taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Torts, Sixth Amendment Seminar, and Clinics. Dean Garcia has been a visiting professor at American University College of Law, College of William and Mary Marshall-Wythe School of Law, and Nova Southeastern Shepard Broad Law Center, among others.
Dean Garcia’s publications include three books, Criminal Law: Concepts and Practice, with Podgor, Henning, and Taslitz (Carolina Press, 2005); The Fifth Amendment: A Comprehensive Approach (Greenwood, 2002); and The Sixth Amendment in Modern American Jurisprudence: A Critical Perspective (Greenwood, 2002); as well as three entries in the Oxford Encyclopedia of American Law and extensive law review articles for journals including Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy and the University of Toledo Law Review. He has also served as Vice Chair of the Race and Racism in Criminal Justice Subcommittee of the ABA’s Criminal Justice Committee and on the Editorial Board of Human Rights Magazine, published by the ABA.
Prior to entering academia, Dean Garcia was an Assistant State Attorney in Miami, trying felony and narcotics-related cases including attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder, burglary, kidnapping, trafficking, and white collar crimes. He also served as a criminal defense attorney in private practice in Miami. In addition to his extensive trial and motion experience, Dean Garcia has extensive appellate experience preparing briefs and arguing cases at the United States 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the Third District Court of Appeals (Florida).
Born in Cuba, Dean Garcia earned his B.A. from Jacksonville University and earned both his M.A. and his J.D. from the University of Florida.
Lauren Gilbert
Associate Professor of Law
B.A., Harvard University, magna cum laude
J.D., University of Michigan, cum laude
Professor Lauren Gilbert was an associate with the law firm of Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. from 1988-1991, a Fulbright Lecturer in Law in Costa Rica in 1991, an attorney-investigator for the United Nations Truth Commission for El Salvador from 1992-1993, the Director of the Women and International Law Program at American University’s Washington College of Law from 1994-1998, and a legal services attorney from 1998 until 2002, before joining the faculty at St. Thomas in May 2002. Her articles while at St. Thomas include When Democracy Dies Behind Closed Doors: The First Amendment and ‘Special Interest Hearings, 55 Rutgers L. Rev. 741 (Spring 2003); Mocking George: Political Satire as True Threat in the Age of Global Terrorism, 58 U. Miami L. Rev. 843 (April 2004), Fields of Hope, Fields of Despair: Legisprudential and Historic Perspectives on the AgJobs Bill of 2003, 42 Harv. J. on Legis. (Summer 2005); Facing Justice: Ethnical Choices in Representing Immigrant Clients, 20 Geo. J. Legal Ethics 219 (Spring 2007); and National Identity and Immigration Policy in the U.S. and the European Union, 14 Colum. J. Eur. L. 99 (Winter 2007/2008). At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Gilbert teaches Constitutional Law I & II, Immigration Law, and an immigration seminar.
Daniel R. Gordon
Professor of Law
B.A., Harverford College
M.S., Boston University School of Public Communication
M.P.A., Northeastern University
J.D., Boston College Law School, magna cum laude
Daniel R. Gordon has worked as an associate in a Florida law firm, taught at the University of Miami School of Law, and worked as a budget and management analyst. Joining the St. Thomas University School of Law almost 20 years ago, he since has taught a variety of courses and served on many law school committees, including Academic Standing, Ad hoc Teaching Effectiveness, Admissions, Curriculum, Faculty Recruitment, Library, and Tenure; he also has served on many university committees including Faculty Forum Liaison, Mission Statement Revision, Planning, and SACS Re-Accreditation. He has been a Faculty Advisor to the St. Thomas Law Review, Opinio Juris, and the Jewish Law Students Association. Professor Gordon has published 35 law review articles, including articles in the Columbia Human Rights, Cumberland, New York Law School, Stetson, and Temple Law Reviews. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Gordon coordinated the Self Study process and report for the American Bar Association and American Association of Law Schools Inspection Visit in 2005. He teaches Civil Procedure, Florida Constitutional Law, and Professional Responsibility.
Karl T. Gruben
Law Library Director and Associate Professor of Law
B.A., University of Texas at Austin
M.L.S., University of Texas at Austin
J.D., South Texas College of Law
After completing his Bachelor’s and Master’s of Library Science degrees at the University of Texas at Austin, Professor Gruben began work as a professional law librarian at the State Law Library in Austin, Texas. In 1977 Professor Gruben began a long tenure as Librarian, then Director, then Firmwide Director of Libraries with the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, L.L.P., remaining with V&E for 25 years. Early on, Professor Gruben completed his J.D. degree at the South Texas College of Law in 1982. In 2001 he became the Practice Information Support Director for the law firm of Squire, Sanders, and Dempsey, L.L.P., before moving to St. Thomas University Law School’s Library in 2004. Active in library associations, Professor Gruben has served on the Executive Board of the Texas Library Association and the Executive Board of the American Association of Law Libraries. He has written and made presentations in the law and law library literature, including Parker’s Texas Business Statutes (ed. and comp.), Parker’s Texas Uniform Commercial Code (ed. and comp.), A Reference Guide to Texas Law & Legal History (co-ed.); a chapter in Law Librarianship: A Handbook for the Electronic Age; and others. At St. Thomas, Professor Gruben teaches Computer Assisted Legal Research.
John F. Hernández
Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Visiting Associate Professor of Law
B.S., University of Florida, with high honors
J.D., Georgetown University School of Law, cum laude
LL.M., University of Florida
John F. Hernández has been a Senior Attorney in the Chief Counsel’s Office in the Miami District Counsel’s Office, a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of Florida, an Attorney in the Public Defender’s Office in the Sixteenth Judicial District, and an attorney in private practice in South Florida. He was previously a Visiting Professor of Law at the Emory University School of Law and an Adjunct Professor at the Florida International University; he also has lectured at the Washburn University School of Law and presented at an American Association of Law Schools Annual Meeting. His publications include articles in the Arkansas, John Marshall, Memphis State, St. Thomas, and University of Florida law reviews. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Assistant Dean Hernández has served for many years in a number of different capacities, both as an educator and administrator; currently, he teaches Torts and the Sexual Identity and the Law Seminar and serves as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs.
Beverly Horsburgh
Professor of Law
B.A., Smith College
J.D., University of Miami, magna cum laude
Professor Horsburgh is a regular presenter in many national conferences all across the United States. Two of her many publications are “Jewish Law and Jewish Battered Women,” in Voice, National Coalition against Domestic Violence, Winter 1994, and “Schrodinger’s Cat, Eugenics and the Compulsory Sterilization of Welfare Mothers: Destructing an Old/New Rhetoric and Constructing the Reproductive Right to Natality for Low Income Women of Color” 17 Cardozo Law Review, 531 (1996). At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Horsburgh teaches Contracts, Family Law, and the Women and the Law Seminar.
John M. Kang
Assistant Professor of Law
Ph.D., University of Michigan
M.A, University of Michigan
J.D., U.C.L.A. School of Law
B.A., U.C. Berkeley
John M. Kang graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with High Distinction from U.C. Berkeley. Afterwards, he attended the UCLA School of Law where he served as editor-in-chief of a law journal. He then proceeded to the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor where he earned a Ph.D. in political science. His principal teaching area is constitutional law.
Some of the articles as well as a full CV can be downloaded at http://sitemaker.umich.edu/johnkang.
Gary Kravitz
Professor of Law: Legal Research and Writing
B.S., University of Florida, 1978, with high honors
J.D., University of Florida, 1981
Gary Kravitz has served as a law clerk for several United States Magistrate judges as well as a state appellate judge. Additionally, he has spent time in private practice, with a concentration on civil and criminal appeals. Professor Kravitz was an adjunct professor at St. Thomas University School of Law from 1996 through 2008, teaching several courses including Advanced Legal Research and Writing, Federal Courts and Criminal Procedure I. In 2008, he joined the full time faculty and currently teaches Legal Research and Writing, Advanced Legal Writing and Appellate Advocacy. He also serves as faculty advisor to the St. Thomas Law Review. Professor Kravitz is a member of the Executive Board and past president of the Federal Bar Association, South Florida Chapter and a former president of the Peter T. Fay American Inn of Court.
Tamara F. Lawson
Associate Professor of Law
B.A., Claremont McKenna College
J.D., University of San Francisco School of Law
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center, with distinction
S.J.D. (candidate), Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Lawson teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, and Evidence. Formerly, she was Deputy District Attorney at the Clark County District Attorney’s Office in Las Vegas, Nevada, from 1996-2002. As a criminal prosecutor, Professor Lawson served on the Special Victim’s Unit for Domestic Violence. She has successfully argued multiple cases before the Nevada Supreme Court, including death penalty appeals. In addition to general criminal cases, Professor Lawson, in her capacity as Deputy D.A. handled environmental crimes, involuntary mental commitments, and bail bond hearings. Moreover, Professor Lawson participated in public and televised presentations on various controversial topics in criminal law, including hate crimes, capital punishment and sentencing, and the mental health of criminal defendants. She has published a lead article in the American Journal of Criminal Law, entitled “Can Fingerprints Lie?”
Lenora P. Ledwon
Professor of Law
B.A., Oakland University, magna cum laude
M.A., Oakland University
J.D., University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, highest honors
After graduating from law school at the University of Michigan, Lenora Ledwon specialized in civil litigation and labor law at the firm of Clark, Klein and Beaumont in Detroit, Michigan. She then returned to academia and received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame. After teaching Legal Writing at Mercer Law School, she moved to St. Thomas, where she teaches courses including Law & Literature, Legal Storytelling and Persuasion, Contracts, and Evidence. Her book, Law and Literature: Text and Theory, surveys the theoretical perspectives that inform the relationship between law and literature and illustrates the importance of narrative in shaping our understanding of law. She also has written articles for such journals as: Harvard Women’s Law Journal; Yale Journal of Law and Feminism; Temple Law Review; Rutgers’ Women’s Rights Law Reporter; Literature/Film Quarterly; Studies in Law, Politics, and Society; and American Indian Quarterly. She currently is co-editing a law and popular culture casebook for Lexis Publishing.
Alfred R. Light
Professor of Law
B.A., Johns Hopkins University
Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
J.D., Harvard Law School, cum laude
Alfred R. (Fred) Light has been a member of the law faculty at St. Thomas University since 1989. As a teacher and scholar in both law and political science, he has published a number of books and articles in the areas of federalism and intergovernmental relations, constitutional law, and environmental law. He previously taught in the Center for Public Service at Texas Tech University and later practiced law with the international law firm of Hunton and Williams. Professor Light is active in various bar associations and currently serves on the Executive Boards of the Sections of Environmental and Natural Resources Administration (SENRA) and Public Law and Administration (SPLA) of the American Society for Public Administration. From 2003-06, he was principal investigator on a grant to St. Thomas University from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency entitled, "Risk Communication in Community Participation: Comparing Regional Programs in South Florida." Professor Light was Interim Dean at St. Thomas 1993-94. At the St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Light currently teaches Environmental Law courses and Civil Procedure.
Kathleen Mahoney
Associate Professor
B.A., Newton College of the Sacred Heart (Boston College)
M.S.Ed., Florida International University
J.D., University of Miami, magna cum laude
Kathleen Mahoney, Associate Professor, graduated first in her class and magna cum laude from the University of Miami School of Law, where she had served as an articles and comments editor for the law review. Following graduation, she clerked for the Hon. James Lawrence King of the United States District Court in Miami. She practiced law for over twelve years in many arenas, as a litigation associate, as a corporate attorney, and in her own private practice. Equipped with a Master of Science degree in Education, and having published an article in a local law review, she has been associated with the Legal Research and Writing Program at the St. Thomas University School of Law since 1992. She served as its Co-Director from 2000-2006 during which time the LRW Program was expanded to include small writing workshops taught by practitioner-instructors for which she prepared the syllabus and teaching materials and supervised, in conjunction with full-time writing faculty. As a member of the full-time faculty for over a decade, she also has taught Interviewing, Counseling, and Negotiation. Additionally, for twelve years, Prof. Mahoney served as a lecturer at the University of Miami School of Law in the Legal Writing Program.
John Makdisi
Professor of Law
B.A., Harvard College, magna cum laude
J.D., University of Pennsylvania
S.J.D., Harvard Law School
Professor Makdisi has written extensively on American and Islamic property law. His books include Estates in Land and Future Interests (5th ed. Aspen Publishers 2008 with D. Bogart); Florida Property Law: I. Possession, Estates, and Tenancy (Carolina Academic Press 2006); Florida Property Law: II. Conveyancing and Governmental Controls (Carolina Academic Press 2007); Islamic Property Law: Cases and Materials for Comparative Analysis with the Common Law (Carolina Academic Press 2005); and Introduction to the Study of Law (2d ed. Anderson Publishing Co. 2000). His article on The Islamic Origins of the Common Law, 77 N. Car. L. Rev. 1635 (1999), offers a startling new theory for connections between Islam and the West. From 1981-1991, Professor Makdisi was a faculty member at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where he also served as Associate Dean from 1988-91. He served as Dean of the University of Tulsa College of Law from 1991-1994, returned to faculty from 1994-96, and then became Dean at Loyola University New Orleans School of Law from 1996-1999. In the fall of 1995, Professor Makdisi also commuted to Washington, D.C., where he was a visiting scholar in the Department of Philosophy at Catholic University. From 1999-2003, Professor Makdisi served as Dean of St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Florida, as well as Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs in 2000-2001. In 2003, he returned to faculty where he is now a Professor of Law and teaches Property, Contracts, and Islamic Property Law. In addition to his teaching and scholarship duties, Professor Makdisi is now taking courses towards an M.A. degree in Theology at St. Vincent de Paul Regional Seminary in Boynton Beach, Florida.
June Mary Makdisi
Professor of Law
B.A., University of Pennsylvania
M.S., University of Pennsylvania
J.D., University of Tulsa College of Law, with honors
Before joining the faculty in 1999, Professor June Mary Zekan Makdisi clerked for Chief Justice Pascal Calogero (1996-97) and Justice Jeannette Theriot Knoll (1997-99) of the Louisiana State Supreme Court. Professor Makdisi began law school at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Cleveland State Law Review, and transferred to the University of Tulsa College of Law, where she graduated with honors.
Professor Makdisi’s research interests concerning the legal issues arising from the application of biotechnology dovetail with the courses that she teaches: Bioethics, Torts, Family Law, and Law and Genetics. She has published in a number of journals, including Creighton Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, Pepperdine Law Review, Rutgers Law Journal, St. John’s Law Review, and The National Catholic Bioethics Quarterly.
Richard H. W. Maloy
Professor Emeritus
A.B., Dartmouth College
J.D., Columbia University
LL.M., University of Miami
Prior to entering the academic field, Professor Richard H. W. Maloy engaged in an extensive practice of law in the South Florida where he owned and operated the first Law Center in the United States. He has taught debtor/creditor relations and bankruptcy law for 15 years at the University of Miami and St. Thomas University Schools of Law; he also has lectured at Barry University and the College of William and Mary. He is the author of many books on appellate practice and bankruptcy, and he has co-authored Benders Florida Forms for 25 years. An “AV” rated attorney, he is listed in Who’s Who in American Law. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Maloy teaches Conflicts of Laws and Remedies.
Anthony C. Musto
Legal Research and Writing and
Director, Community Outreach and Pro Bono Services
B.G.S., University of Miami, 1972
J.D., Catholic University of America, 1975
Anthony C. Musto is board certified by The Florida Bar in the field of appellate practice and is a two-term member of the Bar’s Appellate Practice Certification Committee. He has handled well over 1,000 appellate proceedings, including more than 50 on the merits in the Supreme Court of Florida. Over the years, his practice has focused primarily on appeals, civil and criminal litigation, and local government and administrative matters. During his career, he has served as a City Commissioner for the City of Hallandale Beach, the Chief Counsel of the Florida Attorney General’s Miami Office, the Chief Appellate Counsel of the Broward County Attorney’s Office, an Assistant State Attorney, an Assistant Public Defender, a special master for code enforcement matters, an arbitrator for Lemon Law disputes, and a hearing officer for both traffic infraction and school expulsion proceedings. Prof. Musto is a past-chair of the Appellate Practice, Criminal Law, and Government Lawyer Sections of The Florida Bar, the Bar’s Council of Sections, the Florida Criminal Procedure Rules Committee, and the Florida Rules of Judicial Administration Committee. He has been a member of the Supreme Court of Florida Commission on Professionalism and he is a recipient of The Florida Bar Claude Pepper Award, which is presented “for exemplifying the highest ideals of dedication, professionalism and ethics in serving the public as a government lawyer.” His has also received the Florida Association of County Attorneys President’s Award, the organization’s highest honor, and recognition by Law & Politics magazine as one of Florida’s top lawyers. His achievements include organizing the first national conference on professionalism for government lawyers, as well as authoring, submitting and successfully arguing in favor of the rule adopted by the Supreme Court of Florida requiring the use of recycled paper for documents filed in the state court system, a rule that has resulted in the saving of an estimated 850,000 trees annually. In addition, he developed and coordinated the Broward County Attorney’s Office’s pro bono program, a program that became a model for public agencies throughout the nation, as reflected by its receipt of the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award and the Supreme Court of Florida Chief Justice’s Law Firm Commendation. He has taught at St. Thomas University School of Law since 2000, initially as an adjunct Instructor and becoming a Professor in 2005.
Ira Nathenson
Assistant Professor of Law
B.A., University of Pittsburgh, cum laude
J.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Law, summa cum laude
Professor Ira Nathenson teaches in the areas of intellectual property and civil procedure. Before joining the faculty of St. Thomas University School of Law, he served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, where he taught courses in intellectual property, civil procedure, commercial law, and business law. Professor Nathenson also has served as a law clerk to the Hon. D. Michael Fisher and the Hon. Joseph F. Weis, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and practiced in the intellectual property and copyright/trademark practice areas at Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP (now Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham LLP). He is also a former Editor-in-Chief of the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. Professor Nathenson’s writings on intellectual property law have been published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Technology and the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. His writings have twice won the nationally recognized Ladas Memorial Award from the Brand Names Education Foundation. He currently operates “digital garbage,” a blog on the law and policy of intellectual property and digital information.
Professor Nathenson’s homepage can be found at http://nathenson.org, and his blog is at http://digitalgarbage.net.
Leonard D. Pertnoy
Professor of Law
A.B., University of Vienna, Austria
B.A., University of Louisville
J.D., University of Miami
Professor Pertnoy is a distinguished legal educator and attorney. He has served as a member, vice-chairperson, or chairperson of committees of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit and Florida Bar, and he was the President of the Florida Council of American Inns of Court. His publications include articles in the American Journal of Trial Advocacy, Defense, the Florida Bar Journal, and the Albany, Dickinson, Mercer, Montana, St. Thomas, and Syracuse Law Reviews. He is listed in Who’s Who in American Law and in Who’s Who Worldwide. He was an attorney in private practice for many years and has served as a Dade County Bar Association Pro Bono Attorney. He has been a presenter at many national conferences, institutes, and public media programs. He also is active in the community as a member of numerous organizations, including the World Hunger Organization, the National Wildlife Society, the Sierra Club, and the Smithsonian Society. At the St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Pertnoy has served as Clinical Director, Assistant Dean, and Associate Dean; currently, he teaches Florida Practice, Professional Responsibility, and Real Estate Transactions.
Lydie Nadia Cabrera Pierre-Louis
Assistant Professor of Law
A.B., Columbia University
M.P.A., New York University
J.D., Fordham University
Professor Pierre-Louis teaches in the areas of corporate law, securities law, commercial law, international monetary law, foreign economic policy, and alternate dispute resolution. Prior to joining the St. Thomas law faculty, Professor Pierre-Louis was the Director the Securities Arbitration Clinic at St. John’s University School of Law in New York. Prior to joining legal academia, Professor Pierre-Louis was an Assistant Attorney General in the Investment Protection Bureau of New York State Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, where she enforced state securities laws against the financial services industry. Professor Pierre-Louis interned for Federal District Judge Allyne Ross in the Eastern District of New York and Judge George Bundy Smith of the New York State Court of Appeals. Professor Pierre-Louis began her legal career as a corporate associate at Pillsbury Winthrop in New York City, where she represented multi-national corporations in cross-border financings and securities offerings. Professor Pierre-Louis has taught in the Executive M.B.A. programs at Columbia University and New York University. She has written articles in the securities regulation and alternate dispute areas entitled, “Controlling a Financial Jurassic Park: Obtaining Jurisdiction over Derivatives by Controlling Illegal Foreign Currency Boiler-Rooms” and “No Where to Run: The Impact of Sarbanes-Oxley on Securities Arbitration.”
Stephen A. Plass
Professor of Law
B.A., Fairleigh Dickinson University
J.D., Howard University School of Law
LL.M., Georgetown University Law Center
Professor Stephen Plass is a long term professor at the School of Law. He teaches Contracts, Labor Law, Employment Discrimination Law, and Collective Bargaining. His research interests are in the areas of labor and employment law, civil rights, and contracts, and he publishes regularly on these subjects. His publications can be found in the law journals of law schools such as Houston, Brigham Young, American, Hofstra, San Diego, Seton Hall, Brooklyn, Villanova, Wyoming, Loyola of Los Angeles, and Montana, among others. Prior to joining St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Plass worked in Washington D.C. as corporate counsel and vice president of a company that provides infrastructure services to foreign countries. And before that, he served as a corporate labor lawyer for a public utility. Professor Plass has also served as a Lemon Law arbitrator for the State of Florida, and on the Board of Directors of Legal Services Corporation of Greater Miami. While at St. Thomas, Professor Plass founded the Law Wednesday program which provides free legal services to the poor.
Paula Revene
Legal Research and Writing
B.A., Pennsylvania State University, 1974, cum laude
J.D., Nova Southeastern University, 1987
Paula Revene joined the St. Thomas University School of Law faculty in 2006 after nearly 20 years in private practice. Since becoming Board-Certified in Appellate Practice in 1996, she has maintained her own law firm with a practice concentrated almost exclusively on appeals. Following graduation from law school, Ms. Revene served as staff attorney for the Honorable Harry Lee Anstead at the Fourth District Court of Appeal in West Palm Beach. Thereafter, she joined the West Palm Beach law firm of Jones Foster Johnston & Stubbs. P.A. as a litigation associate. Immediately before opening her own practice, she handled litigation and appeals as an associate at Heinrich, Gordon, Hargrove, & James in Ft. Lauderdale. Professor Revene currently teaches Legal Research and Writing and Advanced Legal Research and Writing..
Harriet Rubin Roberts
Assistant Professor of Law
B.A., Sarah Lawrence College, 1971
J.D., New York University, 1986
Before entering the legal profession, Harriet Roberts had a successful career in television—first as a freelance television producer and later as Senior Anchor Researcher and Political Editor for CBS News. Just as she distinguished herself in her role with CBS news—serving as anchor researcher to Walter Cronkite on all political primaries, debates, specials, conventions, and elections—Professor Roberts quickly distinguished herself as an outstanding law student at New York University. She earned the American Jurisprudence Award in Corporations (1985) and a Dean’s Commendation in Professional Responsibility (1986). She joined Shearman & Sterling in 1985 as a summer associate, and, in 1987, became a full-time associate working in public offerings, mergers and acquisitions, and debt restructures. She later worked for Ruchelman & Felgoise, Beller & Keller, and Shaw Pittman Potts & Trowbridge in structured finance and asset securitization. From 2002-2004, Professor Roberts served as Adjunct Professor/Senior Fellow at the University of Miami School of Law’s Center for Ethics & Public Service. She continues to serve as an ethics consultant, an expert witness to The Florida Bar, and offers continuing legal ethics education for lawyers in private and public practice. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Roberts teaches Professional Responsibility, Agency and Partnerships, and Corporate Finance.
Amy D. Ronner
Professor of Law
B.A., Beloit College
M.A., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Ph.D., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
J.D., University of Miami, magna cum laude
Amy D. Ronner has taught at St. Thomas University School of Law since 1992. In 2002-03, she was a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law. With a background and several degrees in Creative Writing and English Language and Literature, she also has taught English as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Michigan and as a Lecturer at the University of Miami. A prolific author, she has published several books as well as articles in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review; the Harvard Women’s Law Journal; the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism; and the Arizona, Buffalo, California Western, and U.C. Davis Law Reviews, among others. After graduation from law school, Profesor Ronner clerked for The Hon. Eugene P. Spellman, U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, and later was an associate in commercial litigation and appellate work for a few years, including time with Holland and Knight. Since 1995, she has been a Board Certified Appellate Lawyer; in 1997, she was selected as a Leading Florida Attorney in Civil Appellate Law by the American Research Corporation; and in 1998 she was elected a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation in recognition of professional attainment, distinguished service, and commitment. A popular presenter, she has spoken at numerous conferences all across the United States, as well as in The Netherlands and Portugal. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Ronner has been active in many ways, including service as Faculty Advisor to the Moot Court Board and membership on the Academic Standing, Curriculum, Library, and Promotion and Tenure Committees; currently, she teaches Property.
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Sandra C. Ruffin
Visiting Professor of Law
B.A., 1976, University of Maryland
J.D., 1985, Harvard University
Prof. Ruffin is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University School of Law. Professor Ruffin holds a B.A. from University of Maryland and a J.D. from Harvard. Professor Ruffin practices in the areas of land use, real estate and entertainment law in Washington, D.C. She is a principal with Project Resources International, a real estate development consulting firm and is a principal in the Rosewood Heritage Group, a development group in Prince George’s County, Maryland. She represents the D.C. Drama Magazine, a video magazine airing in Washington, D.C. and New York City. She currently teaches Entertainment Law, Land Use Planning and Civil Procedure. Professor Ruffin has lectured extensively in the U.S. and Europe. In 2006 she was invited to the White House to discuss the development agenda in Prince George’s County and its intersection with White House initiatives.
Jay S. Silver
Professor of Law
B.A., Washington University
J.D., Vanderbilt University School of Law
LL.M., University of Pennsylvania School of Law
Jay Sterling Silver teaches Torts I and II, Criminal Law, and a seminar on “Moral Dilemmas in the Practice of Law.” Prior to teaching, Professor Silver worked as a legal services staff attorney in a coal-mining region at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and as an assistant public defender in Pittsburgh. His scholarship, which has been widely cited in court opinions, casebooks, and law reviews articles, has appeared in the principal law reviews at Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, William and Mary, and Ohio State. Professor Silver served as Associate Dean from the 1994-95 school year through 2001-02, as Vice Dean in the 2002-03 school year, and as Special Counsel to the President in 2003-04.
Barbara Singer
Assistant Dean of Academic Support and Visiting Associate Professor of Law
A.B., Indiana University
J.D., from Indiana University School of Law, cum laude
LL.B., Cambridge University, England, with First Class Honors
Barbara Singer joined St. Thomas University School of Law in August 2001 as Assistant Dean for Academic Support. From 1994 to 2001, Dean Singer served as an adjunct professor at St. Thomas Law School. During that time period, she also provided bar preparation assistance for St. Thomas graduates studying for the Florida bar examination. Dean Singer also served as a visiting and associate professor at the law school from 1986 to 1992. In addition, she has been a member of the faculty at the University of Miami School of Law and Indiana University School of Law. Currently at St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Singer teaches Torts, Contracts and Property and serves as the Assistant Dean of Academic Support.
Nadia Soree
Assistant Professor of Law
B.M., The Julliard School
M.M., Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
J.D., Yale Law School
Professor Nadia Soree began her law career at the United States House of Representatives, in the Office of the Legislative Counsel, where she worked advising on and drafting federal law in the substantive areas of controlled substances, veterans’ benefits, and appropriations. Before entering law school, she was a professional harpsichordist and pianist. Her research interests currently include the Fourth Amendment and False Confessions, and she has published a work on the admissibility of expert testimony regarding false confessions, which can be found at 32 Am J. Crim L. 193 (2005). Professor Soree teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Evidence.
Michael S. Vastine
Assistant Professor of Law and Director of Immigration Clinic
B.M., Oberlin Conservatory of Music
M.M., Temple University
J.D., Georgetown University Law Center
Michael S. Vastine joined the faculty of the St. Thomas University School of Law in 2004. Mr. Vastine comes to the School of Law from his private practice specializing in immigration law. Prior to opening his firm, he served as recipient of the Georgetown University Law Center Jesuit Refugee Fellowship, under the supervision of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc., in which capacity he provided legal representation to detained immigrants in removal proceedings before the United States Immigration Court. In 2000, Mr. Vastine was a judicial law clerk for the United States Department of Justice, Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Imperial/El Centro and Lancaster, California, Immigration Courts. Prior to the completion of his law studies, he worked for the firms of Kerres & Diwok of Vienna, Austria, and Buc & Beardsley in Washington, D.C., as well as for the Georgetown University Criminal Justice Clinic and the Federal Public Defender in Washington, D.C. At St. Thomas, Mr. Vastine is an instructor in the Immigration Clinic. He also teaches Interviewing, Counseling & Negotiation.
Siegfried Wiessner
Professor of Law and Director of the Graduate Program in Intercultural Human Rights
J.D. (Equivalent), University of Tübingen, Germany, 1977
LL.M., Yale University, 1983
Dr.iur., University of Tübingen, Germany, 1989
Siegfried Wiessner is a Professor of Law at St. Thomas University School of Law, the Academic Director of the St. Thomas University Human Rights Institute, and the Director of its LL.M./J.S.D. Program in Intercultural Human Rights. Since 1994, he has chaired the Steering Committee for the annual St. Thomas University Tribal Sovereignty Symposium in Miami, Florida. Professor Wiessner is the author of a number of books and articles in the fields of constitutional law, international law, human rights, the law of armed conflict, arbitration, space law, and refugee law. In 2004, he published a casebook on International Law in Contemporary Perspective with Professor W. Michael Reisman (Yale). His recent writings include articles on International Law in the 21st Century, Policy-Oriented Jurisprudence and Human Rights Abuses in Internal Conflict, Legitimacy and Accountability of NGOs, American Indian Treaties and Modern International Law, and an overall assessment of Rights and Status of Indigenous Peoples: A Global Comparative and International Legal Analysis. Professor Wiessner has undertaken research in Latin America and Europe, has served on numerous academic panels, and has given lectures across the world. Most recently, he has taught the international protection of human rights at the UN/UNITAR International Law Fellowship Programs at The Hague. At the St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Wiessner teaches Constitutional Law, International Law, and the International Law Seminar.
Mark J. Wolff
Professor of Law
B.A., Wadhams Hall Seminary-College
J.D., Nova Southeastern University School of Law, magna cum laude
LL.M. (in Taxation), New York University Graduate School of Law
Professor Wolff received his B.A. magna cum laude from Wadhams Hall Seminary-College, his J.D. magna cum laude from Nova Southeastern University School of Law, and his LL.M. (in Taxation) from New York University Graduate School of Law. Professor Wolff is admitted to the Florida Bar, Southern District Court of Florida, the Fifth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals, Supreme Court of Florida, United States Tax Court and Supreme Court of the United States.
After being engaged in the private practice of tax, corporate and securities law for almost a decade, he was appointed in 1984 as a founding faculty member and Assistant Dean at St. Thomas University School of Law in Miami, Florida. Professor Wolff now enjoys the rank of tenured full Professor of Law, and over the past twenty-one academic years has specialized in teaching courses in various areas of Federal Income Taxation, Comparative International Taxation, Tax Policy, Agency and Partnership, and Corporations, Corporate Taxation, Contracts as well as Advanced Jurisprudence Seminars. As a professor at Saint Thomas University School of Law he was the recipient of the University-wide John Cardinal Newman Award for Excellence in Teaching. In the domestic arena, Professor Wolff was elected to public office in 1987, serving as Vice Mayor and Commissioner for the City of Coral Gables. During his elected tenure he served as Chairman of the Municipal Finance and Taxation Committee for the Florida League of Cities, Member of the Finance Administration and Inter-Governmental Affairs Committee of the National League of Cities, and on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer of the Miami-Dade County League of Cities, and as Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Wadhams Hall Seminary-College. He is currently Executive Director of the Miami-Dade County Educational Facilities Authority, Area Chair, American Association of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, General Counsel and a member of the Board of Directors of Pax Romana-USA, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Human Rights Institute at St. Thomas University.
In the international arena, Professor Wolff currently serves as an International Vice President of Pax Romana/International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs and as Main Representative of Pax Romana to the United Nations. He also founded and is Director of the STULS/ Pax Romana United Nations Internship Program at the Main Offices of the United Nations in New York. The program involves twenty (20) credentialed by permanent missions, inter-governmental organizations and non-governmental organizations as representatives to the United Nations in New York and Geneva. He has also served as a member of and the head of delegations on behalf of the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta at United Nations World Conferences and International Consultative Conferences, and has addressed the plenary sessions of these Conferences and the General Assembly.
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Carol Zeiner
Assistant Professor of Law
B.S., Florida State University, magna cum laude
J.D., University of Miami School of Law, magna cum laude
Carol L. Zeiner has been a member of the law faculty at St. Thomas University since 2002. Prior to teaching at St. Thomas University, Professor Zeiner practiced law with large law firms, a publicly traded corporation, and in the public sector. Immediately prior to joining the faculty, Professor Zeiner was the first in-house general counsel for Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami-Dade College), where she created an in-house legal department and served as College Attorney for over a decade. She has made presentations on higher education law and has published in the areas of real property transactions and higher education law. At St. Thomas University School of Law, Professor Zeiner teaches courses in contracts and real estate development, finance, and property.