Legal Briefs (Tampa edition)

Legal Briefs (Tampa edition)

Stetson law courtroom

named after Tampa pioneer

Stetson University College of Law recently named the courtroom at its new Tampa campus after William Reece Smith Jr., a Stetson distinguished professorial lecturer and chair emeritus of Carlton Fields PA.

The courtroom will be used by law students, as well as the judges of the 2nd District Court of Appeal when they hear oral arguments. It is the first courtroom in Florida and the third in the nation where a law school and sitting court share space, according to the school.

"Reece Smith has served as an outstanding role model for our students and for attorneys across the country," Dean Darby Dickerson said in a press release. "The William Reece Smith Jr. Courtroom is a fitting honor for an attorney who has given so much to our legal system."

Smith, who has practiced law for more than 50 years, is the past president of the American, International and Florida bar associations. He has had a relationship with Stetson Law since the 1950s and has been the distinguished professorial lecturer since 1991. He has received awards for enhancing legal services to the poor.

Tampa Bay judges appointed

to justice commission

Sixth Judicial Circuit Judge Richard A. Luce and 2nd District Court of Appeal Judge Charles Canady were recently appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush to the Commission on the Administration of Justice in Capital Cases.

The judges are two of six members of the commission, established by the Florida Legislature in 1997 to provide guidance in the areas surrounding the appeals process for inmates on death row. The commission advises the governor, Legislature and Florida Supreme Court. The panel also provides a forum for all parties interested in issues surrounding the death penalty and the appeals process.

Luce first took the bench in 1981, when he was elected a Pinellas County judge. In 1987, he was appointed by then-Gov. Bob Martinez to fill a circuit judgeship vacancy, and he has been re-elected without opposition four times. He has served as director of both the Florida Conference of County Judges and the Florida Conference of Circuit Judges. He presides over the career criminal division.

Smith elected lead partner

at Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick

Darrell C. Smith was recently elected managing partner of the Tampa office of Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, and Ernest J. Marquart was elected to the firm's national management committee.

Smith, who is also a member of the national management committee, has been a member of the Florida Bar since 1982. He received his law degree from Capital University Law School. He has a national practice involving general corporate, securities offerings and mergers and acquisitions with an emphasis on public company representation.

Marquart, a graduate of the University of Florida law school, is a partner in the firm's litigation practice group. He was the head of the Tampa litigation practice group prior to his election to the firm's management committee. His principal area of practice is business and commercial litigation.

Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, founded more than 75 years ago, has offices in Florida, Ohio and North Carolina and over 200 legal professionals. The firm established its Tampa office in 1985 and provides a full range of services to businesses, individuals and estates with an emphasis on representation of publicly held companies and other growth enterprises and entrepreneurs.

New associate joins

Phelps Dunbar office

Michael B. German joined Phelps Dunbar LLP in Tampa as an associate in the commercial litigation group.

Germain obtained a degree from Stetson University College of Law, where he held positions a class representative for the Student Bar Association and as a treasurer for the Federal Bar Association.

Phelps Dunbar, based in New Orleans, also has offices in Baton Rouge, La.; Jackson, Tupelo and Gulfport, Miss.; Houston; and London.

Abbey, Adams, Byelick

hires new associate

Kimberly G. Jackson joined St. Petersburg-based Abbey, Adams, Byelick, Kiernan, Mueller & Lancaster LLP as an associate. The firm concentrates in the defense areas of liability, malpractice, workers' compensation, employment claims and appeals.

Attorney elected to board

of nonprofit organization

Carlton Fields Tampa shareholder Jeanette M. Flores was elected to the board of the Corporation to Develop Communities, a tax-exempt, community-based organization located in East Tampa that provides job training, affordable housing, youth development and small business training.

Flores practices in the area of real estate, including sales transactions, commercial leasing, title insurance and land use and development. She received her bachelor's degre, magna cum laude, in 1981 from Northern Michigan University, and her law degree, cum laude, in 1985 from Loyola's Chicago School of Law.

Carlton Fields attorney talks

on effective negotiation

Carlton Fields Tampa shareholder Nathaniel L. Doliner recently discussed "Effective Negotiating Strategies in Mergers and Acquisitions" at the American Bar Association Corporate Counsel Conference in Washington, D.C.

Doliner, a 1973 Vanderbilt graduate who received a LL.M. in taxation from the University of Florida College of Law in 1977, practices in the areas of corporate law, mergers and acquisitions and taxation.

GrayRobinson attorney spoke

at pension trustees' meeting

Lowell J. Walters, an attorney in the Tampa office of GrayRobinson, recently spoke to the Florida Public Pension Trustees Association in Ponte Vedra Beach regarding federal pension plan issues affecting governmental entities.

The firm claims the employee benefits law practice at GrayRobinson is one of the largest and most diverse in the state, and GrayRobinson is one of Florida's fasted growing law firms.

Courtesy photo

Stetson law school named the Tampa courtroom after William Reece Smith, third from left. Trial attorney Lawrence Fox, left, 2nd District Court of Appeal Chief Judge Chris W. Altenbernd, Dean Darby Dickerson, Carlton Fields Managing Partner Luis Prats and professor Roberta Flowers.