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Alum Tor Friedman ('05) (left) talks to admitted students during an April 2018 reception. | |
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With the current school year well underway, our admissions office is already focused on bringing in top students for the next academic year. There are many ways in which alumni have helped us recruit students in the past and we hope many of you will assist us again this year. Alumni participation is critical to the success of the law school and our recruiting efforts. One of the areas of greatest need is for alumni to serve as interviewers as part of our Optional Interview Program. Through this relatively new initiative, alumni all over the nation volunteer to meet one-on-one with prospective students in their cities. Alumni interviewers gather information and talk to students about the benefits of attending law school at FSU. The feedback provided by an interviewer becomes a valuable part of the prospective student’s application and is weighed heavily in the review process. You can volunteer to interview students on our website. We also need alumni who are willing to be featured on our admissions blog and other social media platforms for recruitment purposes. If you would like to volunteer to be featured on social media to help us with our recruitment efforts, please email Assistant Dean for Admissions Jennifer Kessinger at jkessing@law.fsu.edu. You can also email Assistant Dean Kessinger if you are interested in attending a reception for admitted students that is scheduled for April 4 from 5-7:30 pm in Tallahassee. Thank you to everyone helping us recruit the best and brightest students! We would not be nearly as successful without your involvement.
- Dean Erin O'Connor
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Faculty Profile: Courtney Cahill
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Courtney Cahill, the FSU Law Donald Hinkle Professor, teaches Family Law, Constitutional Law II, and Property, among other courses. Cahill writes at the intersection of constitutional law and sexuality and the law. Her current work focuses on law and emotions, specifically on law and the emotion of disgust. She is particularly interested in bringing a new perspective to bear on the legal and social debates surrounding same-sex relationships and reproductive rights by combining the insights of constitutional theory and cognitive psychology. Cahill has published articles and essays in the North Carolina Law Review, University of California Davis Law Review, Northwestern University Law Review, Georgetown Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, Minnesota Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, and Washington & Lee Law Review, among others. Before joining the FSU Law faculty in 2012, Cahill taught at Roger Williams University School of Law, the University of Toledo College of Law, Washington & Lee University School of Law, the University of Michigan School of Law and Brown University. Cahill holds a bachelor’s degree in classics and literature from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Princeton University. At Princeton, she was a graduate fellow in the University Center for Human Values and a Fulbright fellow. Cahill earned her J.D. from Yale University, where she was the chief essays editor for the Yale Law Journal.
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“I’m honored to be a part of the rigorous and vibrant teaching and academic community that is the College of Law. My work, which sits at the intersection of family law and constitutional law, challenges and unsettles conventional theoretical accounts of the family and intimate life. I am especially interested in the law’s approach to non-traditional relationships and practices, and in uncovering the persistence of the past in contemporary reproductive and relational regulation. I count myself lucky to be able to pursue my work in these areas alongside wonderful colleagues and outstanding students.”
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Alum Profile: Bruce B. Blackwell (’75)
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Bruce B. Blackwell retired earlier this year after serving as CEO/executive director of The Florida Bar Foundation since 2014. Prior to leading the Foundation, he had served on the board of directors and as president of the statewide charitable organization, whose mission is to provide greater access to justice. Before joining the Foundation as CEO/president, Blackwell was a founding partner with King, Blackwell, Zehnder & Wermuth in Orlando, where he specialized in complex civil litigation. During his time in private practice, Blackwell regularly performed more than 500 hours per year of pro bono service. Blackwell won the Tobias Simon Pro Bono Award in 2016 and the ABA Pro Bono Publico Award in 2013. During Blackwell’s tenure with the Foundation, the organization strengthened its relationship with The Florida Bar and lawyers throughout the state, improved fundraising efforts, placed new emphasis on pro bono partnerships and resurrected the Legal Aid Summer Fellowship Program to encourage pro bono service in law students. Blackwell, who remains very engaged with FSU Law, is currently enjoying retirement with his wife Julie. The couple often visits their home in the North Carolina mountains.
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Student Profile: 3L Skye Musson
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Desired Practice Location: Georgia, particularly Savannah and southern Georgia
Expected Graduation: May 2019
Field of Law Sought: Criminal law or litigation
Third-year law student Skye Musson is from Pilot Mountain, N.C. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from North Carolina A&T. She also holds a degree in professional aeronautics with a minor in aviation safety and aircraft accident investigation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She is expected to graduate from FSU Law in May 2019. Musson spent five years on active duty in the United States Coast Guard after being recruited out of Embry-Riddle. During this time, she worked as a foreign-vessel inspector. She was the first female in the history of the U.S. Coast Guard chosen for the Wilkes Flight Initiative and operated as part of search and rescue flight crews. Musson was injured in a training accident in late 2013 that resulted in a prolonged rehabilitation period and medical retirement. This summer, Musson was a certified legal intern for the Juvenile Division of the Savannah, Georgia District Attorney’s Office. During her time there, Musson was able to navigate the criminal litigation process from charging, case management, pretrial hearings and plea offers through to trial, trying numerous cases at the lead. Musson has also volunteered with the Veterans Legal Collaborative, where she assisted with client intake, researched and assisted in military-specific administrative actions, and worked on family law, driver’s license reinstatement and other general legal issues. During the spring and summer of her 1L year, Musson clerked for Friedman & Abrahamsen, where she completed legal research for different criminal and civil litigation topics. Also during her 1L summer, Musson participated in the FSU Public Interest Law Center’s Family Law Clinic. Musson is a member of the VIS Moot Court Team. She is a student defender for FSU Student Government and serves as vice president of the Collegiate Veterans Association of FSU. If you are interested in hiring Musson after graduation, visit her LinkedIn profile.
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“I have a passion for veterans’ advocacy and being active in the veteran community so that I can help other veterans.”
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