|
|
As your offices are planning for the new year and assessing personnel needs, please send us your job openings and consider interviewing our bright and talented students. Our spring 2019 on-campus interviews (OCI) are scheduled to begin February 4, and now is a great time to register for an interview spot as registration just opened. The OCI program allows you to interview law students for full-time and part-time law clerk, intern or associate positions. Many employers interview year after year because they are happy with the FSU law students they have hired through the program. Employers who can’t physically come to campus may opt to conduct video conference interviews. For employers who are unable to participate in OCI, we also offer a popular resume collect program, where we collect applications for you and provide you with one packet of all submissions. We can also advertise your job posts and you will receive applications as they are submitted. This last option is especially popular with employers who are seeking candidates who have law practice experience, since both students and alumni can access job posts. Please contact our Career Services and Professional Development Office if you have any questions about interviewing and the many options available. Thank you to everyone who interviews (and hires) our students!
- Dean Erin O'Connor
| |
Faculty Profile: Maria A. Santoro
| |
Maria A. Santoro is teaching Trial Strategy: Complaints, Answers & Motions this semester. Santoro practices at Dennis, Jackson, Martin & Fontela, P.A., where her practice areas are employment law, medical malpractice, commercial litigation, personal injury litigation, automobile litigation, construction and administrative law. Santoro is in the Bar Register of Preeminent Women Lawyers, is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates and is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. She is certified as a circuit court mediator by the Supreme Court of Florida. Santoro has been admitted to practice before all Florida state courts since 1987 and all three U.S. district courts. She was previously a member of the Florida Supreme Court Work Group on Statewide Jury Panel Sizes, the Florida Supreme Court Task Force on Management of Litigation Involving Complex Cases and The Florida Bar Committee on Professionalism. Santoro is fluent in Spanish. She holds a B.A. in business and English from Florida State University and a J.D. from Western Michigan University.
| |
“It is truly a pleasure to engage with the law students, whether coaching a mock trial team or teaching trial practice class. It is important to give back and teaching allows me to help future lawyers in a profession that continues to be my passion. In the process, the students continue to challenge me and keep me sharp as a trial lawyer. Although I did not graduate from FSU law school, I was honored when the FSU College of Law Alumni Association recognized me with the Class of '66 award, making me a part of this law school with its experienced professors and staff.”
| |
Alum Profile: Eugene E. “Gene” Stearns (’72)
| |
Gene Stearns is a shareholder at Stearns Weaver Miller in Miami, where he also serves as chairman of the firm’s board of directors and the litigation department. During his more than four decades of practice, Stearns has tried cases in federal and state courts throughout Florida and beyond. His experience also includes arbitration and administrative law proceedings. Stearns’ diverse areas of practice include complex disputes involving the purchase and sale of securities, the adequacy of disclosure by public companies, intellectual property rights, defamation and libel law, insurance coverage, bank and insurance regulation, lender liability, deceptive and unfair trade practices, directors’ and officers’ liability, construction, development rights, voting rights and constitutional issues. He also is an expert in using technology to present complex issues to juries and judges and has taught a course on the subject at FSU Law. In addition, Stearns established the Stearns Weaver Miller Professorship at the College of Law in 1995. Prior to entering private law practice and while he was in law school, Stearns worked for the Florida House of Representatives and was an advisor to Florida Governor Reubin Askew. Stearns, who also earned a bachelor’s degree from FSU in 1966, was honored on October 20, as a Grad Made Good by the FSU Alumni Association. The award, which has been bestowed upon fewer than 150 FSU graduates since 1974, recognizes alumni who have made a significant difference through outstanding success in their chosen fields.
| |
|
Student Profile: 3L Annalise Kapusta
| |
Desired Practice Location: Tallahassee
Expected Graduation: May 2019
Field of Law Sought: Environmental, water, and local government law
Annalise Kapusta is a third-year law student from Sarasota. As an undergraduate at Florida State University, she earned dual bachelor’s degrees in English literature and communication and media studies. When she graduates from the College of Law in May 2019, she will also earn the Environmental Law Certificate. Kapusta is currently a Florida Gubernatorial Fellow, placed with the Chief Inspector General’s Office in the Executive Office of the Governor. At her assigned agency, she is working with local governments in financial emergency. During her 1L summer and spring semester of her 2L year, Kapusta clerked for Judge Gary Early and Judge Bram Canter at the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, with an emphasis on environmental law cases. Kapusta clerked at Hopping Green & Sams in the fall of her 2L year and during her 2L summer. She researched and wrote legal memoranda on various areas of law, ranging from community development districts to environmental resource permitting. Before law school, Kapusta worked in the Florida Senate's Bill Drafting Office, where she edited drafts of bills for the 2015 and 2016 legislative sessions, and at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, where she worked in the Communications Office. Kapusta is a member of the FSU Law Trial Team and the Journal of Land Use & Environmental Law. She has also been a teaching assistant for Professor Tamara Blenkhorn's Legal Writing class, and is currently a teaching assistant for Professor Sandy D'Alemberte's Florida Constitutional Law class. If you are interested in hiring Kapusta after graduation, visit her LinkedIn profile.
| |
“I am particularly interested in water issues facing Florida, specifically water quality, coastal resiliency and how the state will prepare for rising sea levels.”
| |
|
|
|
|
