Richard W. Ervin Eminent Scholar Chair

The Solicitor General holds the Richard W. Ervin Eminent Scholar Chair, established in honor of former Attorney General and Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard Ervin. In that capacity, the Solicitor General teaches courses at the Florida State University College of Law. Courses are two credit hours and limited to 15 second and third year students during the fall and spring semesters. Past courses have included appellate advocacy and a white collar crime seminar. Courses for the 2007-08 academic year include a seminar entitled “Florida, the Constitution, and the United States Supreme Court” and “Topics in Appellate Law and Policy.” The former focuses on major constitutional law cases arising in Florida that made their way to the United States Supreme Court; the latter focuses on appellate topics not covered in the general appellate advocacy course, such as appellate court structure and funding, the meaning of judicial independence, appellate judicial opinion writing, merit retention versus election of appellate judges, judicial free speech, and so on. Students are required to prepare a paper of publishable quality on a selected topic. Each course will have prominent members of the legal community as guest speakers and will provide students with the opportunity to learn more about the work of the Solicitor General on cases involving legal issues of statewide and national interest.