F E ATURE
GETTING PROFESSIONAL
Law Firm Challenge – She Wants YOU
When it comes to money, Dean Alexandre does not shy
away from the fact that higher education is a business
and philanthropic endeavor that must find a way to
be self-sufficient to continue its mission. She recognizes Stetson
Law’s need to balance that with staying laser-focused on the end
goal of developing quality lawyers. She believes in asking people
to commit to an act of philanthropy when it’s in service to
education and, ultimately, to students in need.
As proof, at press time the law school was nearing the end of a
new fundraising program called the Stetson Law Firm Challenge.
The pilot program was designed to be a friendly competition
where law firms with multiple Stetson Law graduates vied for the
highest percentage of alumni giving back to Stetson Law. The
focus was on achieving 100 percent participation – getting all
alumni to give something, however much – rather than an
overall financial goal.
While it should be obvious, Dean Alexandre cannot overstate
this: More money for student scholarships means Stetson Law is
better able to compete with state and other prestigious schools
for the highest quality students who are recruited by other law
schools. She firmly believes Stetson Law is worth the investment,
and clearly you – as alumni – do, too. Dean Alexandre says it is
critical to stand behind that belief by showing your support.
Culverhouse Chair brings expertise in anti-discrimination
law and criminal procedure
Dean Alexandre is determined to reinvigorate Stetson Law
from the inside as well as the outside. She has focused
much of her legal scholarship and time in private practice
on civil rights, gender and race. As an attorney, she was part of the
legal team that worked on the black farmers’ lawsuit that
represented members of the National Black Farmers Association in
a discrimination case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The suit resulted in a $1.2 billion settlement. At the University of
Mississippi School of Law, she organized the Race and
Sustainability Conference, a national conference focused on
sustainability and social justice for the poor in the rural South.
Her latest book, “The New Frontiers of Civil Rights Litigation,”
examines foundational cases and doctrines from current and
evolving civil rights jurisprudence to help students master key
lessons from litigation, lawmaking and activism. And Dean
Alexandre cannot stay away from the classroom; she will be
teaching her civil rights course this spring.
Dean Alexandre understands that higher education has struggled
to achieve significant inclusion at all levels. Stetson Law students
are currently 6.6 percent black, 15 percent Hispanic, and 3.3
percent Asian, and one of her goals is to increase student diversity
by focusing on inclusion – meaning targeted efforts to reach and
recruit students, faculty and staff with varied backgrounds and
perspectives. Engaging quality off-campus speakers, such as Devon
Carbado, to foster conversations about the issue is just the
beginning of her efforts to accomplish that objective.
Her choice of Carbado, a Professor of Law at UCLA School of
Law, to serve as Stetson Law’s 2019-2020 Culverhouse Chair was
a clear effort to bring a unique voice to campus. Carbado has
devoted much of his career to the examination of race, writing in
the areas of employment discrimination, implicit bias, and
critical race theory. His latest book is Acting White? Rethinking
Race in “Post-Racial” America. In addition to holding lectures and
other sessions with faculty and students at Stetson Law this
school year, Carbado will teach a two-credit course called
“Critical Race Judgments: Critical Race Theory and Supreme
Court Decision making.”
UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL
Dean Alexandre graduated summa cum laude and was the first
black valedictorian of her class at Colgate University in 1996
with a degree in English and French and background
in Philosophy.
LAW SCHOOL
She graduated from Harvard Law School in 2000.
BOOKS
“The New Frontiers of Civil Rights Litigation”
(Carolina Academic Press, 2019)
“Sexploitation: Sexual Profiling and the Illusion of Gender”
(Routledge, 2014)
SAMPLING OF JOURNAL ARTICLES
When Freedom Is Not Free: Investigating the First Amendment’s
Potential for Providing Protection Against Sexual Profiling in
the Workplace (William and Mary Journal of Women and the
Law, 2009)
We Reap What We Sow: Reversing Detrimental Pre-Disaster
Policies Using Post-Disaster Development Strategies in Mississippi
and Haiti (University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Social
Change, 2011)
First Comes Legalization, Then Comes What? Tips for Washington
and Colorado to Help Break the Cycle of Selective Prosecution and
Disproportionate Sentencing (Oregon Law Review, 2013)
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